Dr. Ella Wilcox-Thomas Sekatau

Dr. Ella Wilcox-Thomas Sekatau passed Monday, April 7. She was 85.
Mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend, Dr. Ella was also the Ethno-Historian and Medicine Woman of the Narragansett Tribe. A legend of her time, Dr. Ella was instrumental in her tribe's quest for federal recognition, she consulted and sat on many committees too numerous to name them all. She was instrumental in forming many committees and boards, such as the cultural heritage committee of United South and Eastern tribes, also known as USET. She will be remembered as a teacher of culture, language, traditional arts and crafts, among other things. The thousands of school children, teachers, professors and colleagues will remember her university, college and school presentations and lectures. A teacher of the Narragansett language, her excellent orations given in the language will be missed during the annual August Meeting, ceremonies, traditional gatherings, presentations, cultural representations, etc. As we mourn her death, we celebrate her good, long, full life. Today she is survived by her children Wenonah, Rosilyn, Hiawatha, John and Muriel, 24 grandchildren, 22 great grandchildren, 1 brother and many nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by three of her sons, John, Lloyd and Byron and one daughter, Ella.
Calling hours 11-2 p.m., at the Narragansett Indian Church, off Old Mill Road, Charlestown, R.I., Friday, April 11, 2014, followed by a graveside service at the Narragansett Indian Cemetery, located on the Narragansett Reservation, Charlestown, R.I.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Buckler-Johnston Funeral Home, Westerly.