Paulla Dove Jennings is a Narragansett storyteller, educator, and children's book author.

Background

Paulla Dove Jennings was born in 1940 in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. Her parents are Eleanor and Ferris Dove, and her family is Narragansett with Niantic ancestry. Jennings is an enrolled member of the

Narragansett Indian Tribe The Narragansett people are an Algonquian American Indian tribe from Rhode Island. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe. They gained federal recognition in 1983. The tribe was nearly lan ...

and belongs to the Turtle Clan. Jennings' father was a Narragansett war chief and graduated from Bacone College. He and his wife ran a popular restaurant and trading post for many years called Dovecrest. The site later became a school teaching a curriculum of Native American history and values. Jennings was one of four children, she learned her tribal and family history from her grandmother.

Career

Jennings also obtained a degree from the Community College of Rhode Island and has worked as a curator for both the

Boston Children's Museum Boston Children's Museum is a children's museum in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the education of children. Located on Children's Wharf along the Fort Point Channel, Boston Children's Museum is the second oldest children's museum in the Unit ...

and the

Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum The Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum is an Indigenous museum in Exeter, Rhode Island. The museum was founded by anthropologist Eva Butler and a Narragansett and Wampanoag woman named Princess Red Wing in the 1950s. It is one of the oldest tribal ...

in Exeter, Rhode Island. She has performed as a storyteller at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. In 2010, Jennings served as the Tribal Historian in Residence for the certificate program in Native American Studies at the UMASS Amherst. In addition to her work as an educator and storyteller, Jennings has been politically active in her tribe. She has served on her tribal council, and in 2007 ran an unsuccessful campaign for the position of chief sachem. She and her son Adam were among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Rhode Island State Police, which in July 2003 raided a tribal smoke shop. The raid resulted in eight arrests and eight injured, including Jennings's son. Jennings herself has spoken publicly about the case as an infringement on Narragansett tribal sovereignty.

''Strawberry Thanksgiving''

''Strawberry Thanksgiving'' was written for the Multicultural Celebrations at the Boston Children's Museum, part of a series of books designed to educate children about different cultures. Written by Jennings and illustrated by Ramona Peters, the book tells how a young boy, Adam, learns to forgive his sister by hearing his grandmother tell the story of Strawberry Thanksgiving.

References

External links

Official website of the Narragansett tribe

Boston Children's Museum

Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum
* 201
video
of Jennings speaking at the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

* 201
video
of Jennings speaking at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Paulla Dove Living people 1940 births 21st-century American women writers American storytellers American women children's writers Community College of Rhode Island alumni Narragansett people Native American women writers Native American curators People from Providence, Rhode Island Women storytellers Writers from Rhode Island 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans