The area that is now Providence was first
settled in June 1636 by Roger Williams, and was one of the original Thirteen
Colonies of the United States. Although the west bank of the Providence River
was later claimed by both the English and the Dutch, the actual inhabitants of
the region were the Pokanoket Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation led by Massasoit
Ousamequin. Williams secured permission to settle from the Pokanoket and gave
the city its present name. Williams' Providence soon became a refuge for
persecuted religious dissenters, as he himself had been exiled from
Massachusetts. Providence's
