Myth and Indigenous Wars Against Incursions - King Philip's War, 1600's - Native American-Puritan-Pilgrim New England

King Philip's War. Myth surrounding the reality of indigenous people against new arrivals. Predictable wars.

What may delay the explosion between the established, or the simply "there," against invasion. Sometimes a mutuality emerges as a stabilizer at the outset. Both need each other in some way, mutual benefit, soon giving way to each side finding that its interests are being unacceptably compromised by the other. Is that true? What is the role of the later myth-makers in altering perception of past events, so that the later learning has little to do with facts at the time.

King Philip. His War was short - 1675-1676, New England, Northeast Corner, the present United States. He and other Native Americans, Indians of many tribes, united against Pilgrims and other colonists, who then had the resources of England to come to assist - and the Indians were defeated, vast massacres on both sides.

King Philip is also known as Metacomet, his Indian name as the son of Massasoit. He is now recalled mostly and locally (this is Connecticut speaking) for these mild references:

• Metacomet Trail through Connecticut, see ://www.amcberkshire.org/mm-trail; and://www.a1trails.com/hiking/ct/metacomet.html.
  
• King Philip Middle School in West Hartford.
• King Philip's Cave up the ridge at Talcott Mountain toward the Heublein Tower, on Avon Ridge, see ://www.dougsimpson.com/river/archives/000054.html.

The cave carries with it the only suggestion of war. Many such caves carry the lore that King Philip watched settlers from those locations, and planned attacks. Few were ever occupied by King Philip. See the view of the cave area at this site - ://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=406766. Hang gliders go off there now.

Hartford CT from Metacomet Trail area

Here is a view of Hartford, CT just on the other side of Talcott Mountain there, on the Metacomet Trail - the Indian name of King Philip - it shows who won.

Names. King Philip is the anglicized name, as became a common custom among the Indians (now "Native Americans" but "Indians" at the time). He was a son of Massasoit 1580-1661. Massasoit had been the chief of the Wampanoag tribe who signed a pact with the Pilgrims in 1621 at Plymouth, and is commemorated at the ritual (if fake) Thanksgiving holiday.

A son of Massasoit, Metacomet or King Philip, became chief of the Wampanoag tribe upon the death of his father, and in his lifetime, saw his people subjected to increasingly forced land sales resulting from their increasing dependence on English goods and a complex of circumstances, see ://www.bartleby.com/65/ki/KingPhil.html. There followed a series of retaliations and retributions, each side escalating.

Resources:

• For children, get a view of this real situation, not the myth of Plymouth Rock and the kindly Puritans, all pablum, with a book like this: "Thunder from the Clear Sky," by Marcia Sewall, Atheneum Books 1995 (see Simon and Shuster); or, "Making Thirteen Colonies," by Joy Hakim, Oxford University Press NY 1993.
  
• For adults, get
  
• "King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict," by Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias, The Countryman Press 1999; and
  
• "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War," by Nathaniel Philbrick, Penguin Group 2006; and
  
• "The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity," by Jill Lepore, Alfred A. Knopf 1998.

From "Mayflower," learn that this war was supposed to remove the threat of Indian attack, from the New Englanders' perspective. It did not. It did the opposite by throwing the region out of balance, removing friendly buffer Indians from the frontiers, exposing them to attack by the hostiles; forced the Puritans to tie more closely than they had wanted, to an alliance with England. And the costs of the war, with its taxes needed to recoup, left the per capita settler income far lower, and for the next century, than the income had been before. P.347.

Learn that losses in terms of percentage of population exceeded World War II -- Casualties were 1% of the adult male population. Compare to the Civil War - casualties there were some 4-5%. Then note that in the 14 months of King Philip's War, casualties were close to 8% of the adult males. As to Indians, out of some 20,000, at least 2000 were killed in the fighting or of wounds from the fighting, 3000 died of illness, hunger, another 1000 were enslaved and sent to the Caribbean often, and 2000 fled to other tribes. Whoever could outlast the other, won. Page 332.

The Pilgrims had very short memories - they relied on the Indians when times were harsh, but forgot when their fortunes improved - and promptly denigrated the Indians. They chose their own economic prosperity at Indians' expense, putting everything at risk - and the gamble lost. The Indians finally had to push back, and did. Page 215.

Read the accounts of the Puritans in a killing mood - they had some vets from the 30 Years' War in Europe among their ranks, and shooting and hacking and burning alive. William Bradford rejoiced: "It was a fearful sight to see them (the Indians) thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gae the praise thereof to God." Quoted at page 178. Divine slaughter.

Read about Standish's "terrifying whirlwind of violence" at page 153.

Marriage was a civil ceremony - Bradford notes that the Gospels nowhere require a minister. Page 102. Marriages continued to be secular in the decades following, as the Pilgrims followed a tradition from their time in Holland before setting sail. Page 104.

And with the Indian populations decimated by disease by the time the Puritans landed, they were in no position to protest.

Online, see ://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h578.html; ://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/horsemusket/kingphilip/default.aspx; and ://www.historyplace.com/specials/kingphilip.htm.