Four hundred years to the day after a momentous meeting in what would later become Warren, members of the Pokanoket Tribe met at the Massasoit Spring on Baker Street Saturday to renew the vows of friendship and cooperation they had sown with settlers four centuries earlier.

In July 1621, Warren wasn't yet Warren. It was known as Sowams and its leader, Massasoit Ousamequin, was the head of the Pokanoket Confederacy, which included more than 60 small bands of native Americans in the southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island region. In March of that year, Ousamequin and 60 of his braves had traveled to Plymouth to negotiate and ultimately sign a peace treaty with the colonial government. Then, in early July, ambassadors Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins returned the favor, walking from Plymouth to Sowams in hopes of strengthening diplomacy, reaching out in friendship and offering trade and gifts.

They met somewhere in Sowams on Saturday, July 3, likely within a few hundred yards of where Water and Baker streets now sit. Over the next 40 years, the treaty and friendship between the English and Ousamequin endured, having major repercussions for both settlers and natives. It only ended with the Massasoit's death in 1661.

On Saturday, a large group turned out to recognize the anniversary of that first Sowams meeting, trying to ignore the torrential rain that fell around them.

As David Weed of the Sowams Heritage Area said, "Had that friendship not taken place, I doubt any of us would be here now, and there's a good chance that the Narragansetts would have moved into the area, sent the English packing, and we wouldn't be where we are today."

Saturday's ceremony included speeches by representatives of the Pokanoket nation, descendants of Winslow and Hopkins, and a prominent Native American scholar and artist from Martha's Vineyard.

"Imagine what it would be like if the terms of the treaty were still being honored today," Pokanoket Sachem Dancing Star, an 11th generation descendant of Ousamequin, told the crowd. "It would have been wonderful."

"We can't rewind the clock, we can't go back in history. But we can honor the spirit of the treaty," she said. "We can make sure that the parties of that treaty are accorded the same privileges, the same opportunities. We can make sure that those parties are equally respected as a people, that they are acknowledged and that they are listened to."

"We need to know our history and we need to tell others about that history," she said. "You have a shared history with the Pokanoket people and it is a rich and wonderful history."

There are several accounts of the 1621 meeting at Sowams, and it is clear that the ambassadors received a warm welcome by Ousamequin. Hungry and tired when they arrived, they were given fresh striped bass and clams and had a productive meeting that was successful in forming tight bonds.

Among several gifts brought by the Winslow and Hopkins was a copper necklace, which was later found in Ousamequin's grave during excavations at Burr's Hill. On Saturday, artist and historian Ruth Major, who was recently commissioned by the Warren Preservation Society to paint a scene of what Sowams might have looked like then, gave the Pokanokets' Sagamore, William Winds of Thunder Guy, a similar copper necklace, in thanks.

He graciously accepted the necklace, smiled and placed it around his neck.