Preciousrain
11-26-2003, 11:32 AM
Historical links about Thanksgiving.
http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/HistoryPage.asp?ID=28
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/daymourn.htm
Also this article (sorry so long):
Special note: The following article was forwarded by Jose Concepcion
<lukiyo58@y...>
History of Thanksgiving .........from the Indian viewpoint
Most school kids are taught only the myths.
11/08/2003 - SAN DIEGO CA
ROY COOK, AmericanIndianSource.com
Most school children are taught that Native Americans helped the
Pilgrims and were invited to the first Thanksgiving feast. Young
children's conceptions of Native Americans often develop out of media
portrayals and classroom role playing of the events of the First
Thanksgiving. The conception of Native Americans gained from such
early exposure is both inaccurate and potentially damaging to others.
Therefore, most children do not know the following facts, which
explain why many American Indians today call Thanksgiving a "Day of
Mourning".
Traditional hospitality and generosity have and continue to be
constant Tribal virtues to be practiced at all times.
One of a series of feasts reaching back into the group memory has been
seized upon by the current modern society. The Wampanoag feast, called
Nikkomosachmiawene, or Grand Sachem's Council Feast. It was because of
this feast in 1621 that the Wampanoags had amassed the food to help
the Pilgrims thereby creating a new tradition European tradition known
today as "Thanksgiving Day." This Wampanog feast is marked by
traditional food and games, telling of stories and legends, sacred
ceremonies and councils on the affairs of the nation. Massasoit came
with 90 Wampanog men and brought five deer, fish, all the food and
Wampanog cooks.
Before the Pilgrims arrived Plymouth had been the site of a Pawtuxet
village which was wiped out by a plague (introduced by English
explorers looking to grab a piece of the New World land) five years
before the Pilgrims landed These Native peoples had met Europeans
before the Pilgrims arrived. One such European was Captain Thomas
Hunt, who started trading with the Native people in 1614. He captured
20 Pawtuxcts and seven Naugassets, selling them as slaves in Spain.
Many other European expeditions also lured Native people onto ships
and then imprisoned and enslaved them. These expeditions carried
smallpox, typhus, measles and other European diseases to this
continent. Native people had no immunity and some groups were totally
wiped out while others were severely decimated. An estimated 72,000 to
90,000 people lived in southern New England before contact with
Europeans. One hundred years later, their numbers were reduced by 80%.
It was the English Captain Thomas Hunt's expedition that brought the
plague, which destroyed the Pawtnxet. . The nearest other people were
the Wampanoag. In modern times they are often simply known as the
Indians who met the Pilgrim invasion, their lands stretched from
present day Narragansett Bay to Cape Cod. Like most other Tribal
peoples in the area, the Wampanoag were farmers and hunters.
Wampanoag is the collective name of the indigenous people of
southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. The name has been
variously translated as "Eastern People", "People of the Dawn", or
more currently "People of the First Light". (Note 1)
The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims) did not come
here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland. They
came here as part of a commercial venture. One of the very first
things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod -- before they even made
it to Plymouth -- was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal
as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry.
(Suppressed 1970 Speech of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, Wampanoag.) To
the native people who had observed these actions, it was a serious
desecration and insult to their dead. The angry Wampanoags attacked
with a small group, but were frightened off with gunfire. When the
Pilgrims had settled in and were working in the fields,
they saw a group of Native people approaching.
Running away to get their guns, the Pilgrims left their tools behind
and the Native people took them. Not long after, in February of 1621,
Samoset, a leader of the Wabnaki peoples, walked into the village
saying "Welcome," in English. Samoset was from Maine, where he had met
English fishing boats and according to some accounts was taken
prisoner to England, finally managing to return to the Plymouth area,
six months before the Pilgrims arrived. Samoset told the Pilgrims
about all the Native nations in the area and about the Wampanoag
people and their leader. Massasoit. He also told of the experience of
the Pawtuxet and Nauset people with Europeans. Samoset spoke about a
friend of his called Tisquantum (Squanto), who also spoke English.
Samoset left, promising the Pilgrims he would arrange for a return of
their
tools.
Samoset returned with 60 Native people including Massasoit and
Tisquantum. Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim, went to present them with gifts
and to make a speech saying that King James wished to make an alliance
with Massasoit. (This was not true.) Massasoit signed a treaty, which
was heavily slanted in favor of the Pilgrims. The treaty said that no
Native person would harm a European settler or, should they do so,
they would be surrendered to them for punishment. Wampanoags visiting
the settlements were to go unarmed; the Wampanoags and the non-Indians
agreed to help one another in case of attack; and Massasoit agreed to
notify all the neighboring nations about the treaty.
The key figure in the treaty talks and in later encounters was
Tisquantum. He was Pawtuxet who had been kidnapped and taken to
England in 1605. He managed to return to New England, only to be
captured by Captain Hunt and sold into slavery in Spain. He escaped
and returning to this continent, on board ship he met Samoset.
Tisquantum found that all of his people died of the plague, so he
stayed with the Wampanoags, some of whom had survived the disease.
Tiquantum remained with the Pilgrims for the rest of his life and was
in large part responsible for their survival. The Pilgrims were not
farmers nor woodsmen. They were city people and mainly artisans.
Tisquantum taught them when and how to plant and fertilize corn and
other crops. He taught them where the best fish were and how to catch
them in traps, and many other survival skills.
Governor Bradford called Tisquantum "a special instrument sent of God"
The Native nations along the eastern seaboard practiced tribal
spirituality, hospitality, and generosity.
Ironically, the first official "Day of Thanksgiving" was proclaimed in
1637 by Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop. He did so to celebrate
the safe return of English colony men from Mystic, Connecticut. They
massacred 600 Pequots that had laid down their weapons and accepted
Christianity. They were rewarded with a vicious and cowardly slaughter
by their new "brothers in Christ (Note 2)
Massasoit, who had done so much to help the Pilgrims, had a son named
Metacomet. As time went on and more Europeans arrived and took more
land, Metacomet or Prince Phillip as he came to known and other tribal
people began to take notice of self-serving ethics of the Pilgrims.
After Metacoms father, Massasoit, died in 1662, Metacom was crowned
King Phillip of the Pokanoket by the Europeans. King Phillip formed an
alliance to remove the European settlers from their homeland. In 1675,
after a series of arrogant actions by the colonists, King Phillip led
his Indian confederacy into a war meant to save the tribes from
extinction. Metacom adopted a policy of increasing but subtle
resistance towards the English. Rumors began to fly among the English
that "Philip" agreed to help the English enemies the French in 1667. A
band of armed Native men were discovered by colonial rangers in 1671,
which led to a demand that the guns be surrendered. After further
angry confrontations, Metacom was forced to sign a new treaty which
unacceptably demanded he fully subject his people to the English
government. The old decayed dream of the peaceful coexistence between
two equal and sovereign peoples had ended with the rejection of the
Treaty of 1621. Although nothing happened for four more
years, war broke out in June, 1675. The winter of 1675-76 proved a
harsh one for the People, who resorted to raiding English farming
communities for food and supplies. Many of the Christian Native
People, especially those of Natick, Ponkapoag, and Mattakeeset were
forced into internment camps on Deer Island in Boston Harbor and
Clark's Island in Plymouth Harbor, supposedly to prevent them from
aiding and abetting the enemy. (Note 3)
The eventual use of Native soldiers proved to be the turning point for
the English. Their Native allies showed them effective methods for
locating enemies, traveling lightly through the country, and fighting
in guerrilla fashion. Small parties of Native and English rangers,
supporting the larger English armies, wore down Metacom's allies'
resistance and also caused many bands to turn to the English side. One
of the most famous of the mixed Native and English ranger companies
was led by Captain Benjamin Church of Plymouth Colony. Benjamin
Church, who was an effective soldier, knew that area well. He had been
successful in convincing the Saconett Indians and others to leave the
ranks of Philip's supporters and ally themselves to him. Aided by
these Indian colleagues, Church began to hunt Philip down.
Bravely changing tactics, Philip returned to Mount Hope, where he
would meet his fate. In July 1676 Church captured Philip's wife and
son. Soon after, the despondent Philip shot one of his warriors. The
man's brother would lead Church to the sachem, and on 12 August 1676
Church and his forces attacked Philip's encampment. Philip was shot
and killed by an Indian named Alderman, and the corpse was drawn,
quartered, and beheaded. Philip's head was placed upon a pole at
Plymouth, where it served as a grisly reminder of the war. (Note 4)
The current Wampanoag have not forgotten. Their population consists of
several groups, sometimes called "tribes", who base their membership
upon closely maintained kinship ties to the aboriginal communities.
Supposedly there are approximately 4,000 Wampanoag, some living in the
traditional homeland, some living where their jobs and lifestyles have
taken them. The two best known groups are those of Mashpee on Cape Cod
and those of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard, which is the
only Wampanoag group recognized by the federal government. Other
Wampanoag trace their ancestries from Herring Pond (Bourne), Fresh
Pond (Plymouth), Watuppa or Troy (Fall River), Pokanoket (Bristol and
Warren, R.I.), Chappaquiddick Island, Christiantown or Takemmy (West
Tisbury) and other places.
Text of Plaque on Cole's Hill
"Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in
Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US
Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the
arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them,
Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their
people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their
culture. Participants in a National Day of Mourning honor Native
ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is
a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of
the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to
experience."
Notes and Bibliography:
Note 1.
In this same time frame of English exploration, but much better known,
is Capt. John Smith. He is the one who participated in the Powahatten
area's bounty. Although he would have much preferred to find gold.
Capt. John Smith, has been immortalized for his part in founding
Virginia. In 1614 Smith explored part of the North American coast-to
which he gave the name New England. Disappointed in his search for
gold, he set his men to fishing for cod while he went exploring in the
ship's pinnacle, mapping the coastline from Maine to the cape that was
named for the fish.
Smith's map and description of New England and his profits from cod
fishing encouraged the Pilgrims to seek a charter from the Crown (The
English Crown had no authority to grant legally.) to settle there.
Indeed it was the cod that saved the first New Englanders. In 1640,
only eleven years after Massachusetts Bay Company had been by the
Puritans, it exported three hundred thousand cod to Europe. Cod was
soon also being traded to the West Indies, in exchange for rum and
molasses. In addition, plowing in the cod waste greatly increased the
agricultural productivity of the stony New England soil. The cod
proved a basis of prosperity for New England so considerable that Adam
Smith singled it out for praise in his Wealth of Nations. To this day,
a wooden sculpture of a cod adorns the Massachusetts Statehouse to
remind the legislators of the source of their state's greatness.
Note 2.
William Bradford, in his History of the Plymouth Plantation, described
the carnage: "Those that scaped the fire were slaine with the sword;
some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they
were quickly dispatche, and very few escaped. It was conceived they
thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see
them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the
same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory
seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God,
who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise
in their hands, and gave them so speedy a victory over so proud and
insulting an enimie." This is what Cotton Mather said, "It was
supposed that no less than 600 souls were brought down to Hell that
day". At the same time he gives us an insight into the society and
character of the Puritans. ".yet all this could not suppress the
breaking out of sundry notorious sins.. Especially drunkenness and
uncleanness. Not only incontinency between persons unmarried, for
which many both men and women have been punished sharply enough, but
some married persons also. But that which is worse, even sodomy and
buggery (things fearful to name) have broke forth in this land oftener
than once. I say it may justly be marveled at and cause us to fear and
tremble at the considration of our corrupt natures, which are so
hardly bridled, subdued and mortified.....But one reason may be that
the Devil may carry a greater spite against the churches of Christ
and the
gospel here."
Note 3.
In January, 1675 the body of a Christian Native named John Sassamon
was
found in the frozen pond at Assawompset (Middleboro). An alleged
witness identified three Wampanoag men as the murderers of Sassamon.
The three were arrested and tried by the General Court at Plymouth
because the crime took place under English jurisdiction and the
victim, being Christian, was considered an English subject. Rumor
circulated that Metacom had commissioned the execution of Sassamon for
revealing his plans.
In June, a colonist shot and mortally wounded a Pokanoket who had been
seen running out of his house. A revenge raid followed in which
several
English were killed began the war. Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay and the
Connecticut Colonies mustered their allied forces, and moved against
Metacom. However, inept leadership allowed the Pokanoket to get away
and raid many colonial towns. The Pokanoket, joined somewhat
reluctantly by their Pocasset and Sakonnet relatives, retreated into
the interior of Massachusetts where they were joined by some of the
Nipmuck and others.
The war spread to the Connecticut valley and the Pokanoket went as far
as the Hudson River to recruit allies amongst the Mahican, Abenaki,
and others. The colonies, insisting that the Narragansett were acting
in bad faith by harboring fugitives, prepared an army of 1,000 men to
attack that neutral nation. In December 1675 the colonials attacked
the unsuspecting Narragansett, burned their fort, and killed many of
the inhabitants, thus driving the Narragansetts into the war on the
side of Metacom.
Note 4.
King Philip's War slowly came to an end after the sachem's death. Some
Indians were executed for their part in the fighting. Others,
including
Philip's son, were sold into slavery abroad, even to Africa. The
Wampanoag tribe was destroyed. Even Christian Indians who had backed
the colonists suffered. Many colonists, angered by the heavy death
toll of King Philip's War, grew to hate all Indians, irrespective of
their religion.
Much confusion has arisen over what name to use for Philip and the
war.
The sachem's earlier name, Metacom, is preferred by some authors, but
the sachem himself abandoned it. Indians commonly renamed themselves,
and in 1674 he was calling himself Wewasowannett. Furthermore, the
colonists were not ridiculing Philip when they referred to him by a
European royal title.
John Josselyn, who was sympathetic to the Indians, called the sachem
"Prince Phillip" in his An Account of Two Voyages to New-England
(1674). In addition, the term "King Philip's War" acknowledges
Philip's great importance in the history of colonial New England.
Therefore both King Philip and King Philip's War are acceptable
usages.
Metacom Education Project, Inc. P.O. Box 890082 East Weymouth, MA
02189, metedpro@n...
Philip was illiterate, so there are only a few letters. See
Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 1st ser., 2 (1793): 40,
and 6 (1799): 94. Another letter is in Great Britain, Public Record
Office, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and the
West Indies (1880), vol. for 1661-1668, p. 380.
The Records of the Colony of New Plymouth are essential. All
contemporary accounts must be used cautiously, but see Benjamin
Church, Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War (1716);
Increase Mather, A Brief History of the Warr with the Indians in
New-England (1676); and William Hubbard, A Narrative of the Troubles
with the Identity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Indians in
New-England (1677). John Easton's narrative is in Charles H. Lincoln,
ed., Narratives of the Indian Wars, 1675-1699 (1913). The only modern
scholarly biography is in Philip Ranlet, Enemies of the Bay Colony
(1995).
His ancestry is given in Betty Groff Schroeder, "The True Lineage of
King Philip (Sachem Metacom)," New England Historical and Genealogical
Register, 144 (1990): 211-14. Alden T. Vaughan, New England Frontier,
3rd ed. (1995), is the best work for the years before the war. Douglas
E. Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk (1958), is the most thorough military
history of the war itself. Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America
(1975), criticized Vaughan and Leach for being too favorable to the
colonists.
Jennings, in turn, has been criticized by Philip Ranlet, "Another Look
at the Causes of and others for being too favorable to the Indians.
Jill Lepore. The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of
American
http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/HistoryPage.asp?ID=28
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/daymourn.htm
Also this article (sorry so long):
Special note: The following article was forwarded by Jose Concepcion
<lukiyo58@y...>
History of Thanksgiving .........from the Indian viewpoint
Most school kids are taught only the myths.
11/08/2003 - SAN DIEGO CA
ROY COOK, AmericanIndianSource.com
Most school children are taught that Native Americans helped the
Pilgrims and were invited to the first Thanksgiving feast. Young
children's conceptions of Native Americans often develop out of media
portrayals and classroom role playing of the events of the First
Thanksgiving. The conception of Native Americans gained from such
early exposure is both inaccurate and potentially damaging to others.
Therefore, most children do not know the following facts, which
explain why many American Indians today call Thanksgiving a "Day of
Mourning".
Traditional hospitality and generosity have and continue to be
constant Tribal virtues to be practiced at all times.
One of a series of feasts reaching back into the group memory has been
seized upon by the current modern society. The Wampanoag feast, called
Nikkomosachmiawene, or Grand Sachem's Council Feast. It was because of
this feast in 1621 that the Wampanoags had amassed the food to help
the Pilgrims thereby creating a new tradition European tradition known
today as "Thanksgiving Day." This Wampanog feast is marked by
traditional food and games, telling of stories and legends, sacred
ceremonies and councils on the affairs of the nation. Massasoit came
with 90 Wampanog men and brought five deer, fish, all the food and
Wampanog cooks.
Before the Pilgrims arrived Plymouth had been the site of a Pawtuxet
village which was wiped out by a plague (introduced by English
explorers looking to grab a piece of the New World land) five years
before the Pilgrims landed These Native peoples had met Europeans
before the Pilgrims arrived. One such European was Captain Thomas
Hunt, who started trading with the Native people in 1614. He captured
20 Pawtuxcts and seven Naugassets, selling them as slaves in Spain.
Many other European expeditions also lured Native people onto ships
and then imprisoned and enslaved them. These expeditions carried
smallpox, typhus, measles and other European diseases to this
continent. Native people had no immunity and some groups were totally
wiped out while others were severely decimated. An estimated 72,000 to
90,000 people lived in southern New England before contact with
Europeans. One hundred years later, their numbers were reduced by 80%.
It was the English Captain Thomas Hunt's expedition that brought the
plague, which destroyed the Pawtnxet. . The nearest other people were
the Wampanoag. In modern times they are often simply known as the
Indians who met the Pilgrim invasion, their lands stretched from
present day Narragansett Bay to Cape Cod. Like most other Tribal
peoples in the area, the Wampanoag were farmers and hunters.
Wampanoag is the collective name of the indigenous people of
southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. The name has been
variously translated as "Eastern People", "People of the Dawn", or
more currently "People of the First Light". (Note 1)
The pilgrims (who did not even call themselves pilgrims) did not come
here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in Holland. They
came here as part of a commercial venture. One of the very first
things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod -- before they even made
it to Plymouth -- was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal
as much of the Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry.
(Suppressed 1970 Speech of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, Wampanoag.) To
the native people who had observed these actions, it was a serious
desecration and insult to their dead. The angry Wampanoags attacked
with a small group, but were frightened off with gunfire. When the
Pilgrims had settled in and were working in the fields,
they saw a group of Native people approaching.
Running away to get their guns, the Pilgrims left their tools behind
and the Native people took them. Not long after, in February of 1621,
Samoset, a leader of the Wabnaki peoples, walked into the village
saying "Welcome," in English. Samoset was from Maine, where he had met
English fishing boats and according to some accounts was taken
prisoner to England, finally managing to return to the Plymouth area,
six months before the Pilgrims arrived. Samoset told the Pilgrims
about all the Native nations in the area and about the Wampanoag
people and their leader. Massasoit. He also told of the experience of
the Pawtuxet and Nauset people with Europeans. Samoset spoke about a
friend of his called Tisquantum (Squanto), who also spoke English.
Samoset left, promising the Pilgrims he would arrange for a return of
their
tools.
Samoset returned with 60 Native people including Massasoit and
Tisquantum. Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim, went to present them with gifts
and to make a speech saying that King James wished to make an alliance
with Massasoit. (This was not true.) Massasoit signed a treaty, which
was heavily slanted in favor of the Pilgrims. The treaty said that no
Native person would harm a European settler or, should they do so,
they would be surrendered to them for punishment. Wampanoags visiting
the settlements were to go unarmed; the Wampanoags and the non-Indians
agreed to help one another in case of attack; and Massasoit agreed to
notify all the neighboring nations about the treaty.
The key figure in the treaty talks and in later encounters was
Tisquantum. He was Pawtuxet who had been kidnapped and taken to
England in 1605. He managed to return to New England, only to be
captured by Captain Hunt and sold into slavery in Spain. He escaped
and returning to this continent, on board ship he met Samoset.
Tisquantum found that all of his people died of the plague, so he
stayed with the Wampanoags, some of whom had survived the disease.
Tiquantum remained with the Pilgrims for the rest of his life and was
in large part responsible for their survival. The Pilgrims were not
farmers nor woodsmen. They were city people and mainly artisans.
Tisquantum taught them when and how to plant and fertilize corn and
other crops. He taught them where the best fish were and how to catch
them in traps, and many other survival skills.
Governor Bradford called Tisquantum "a special instrument sent of God"
The Native nations along the eastern seaboard practiced tribal
spirituality, hospitality, and generosity.
Ironically, the first official "Day of Thanksgiving" was proclaimed in
1637 by Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop. He did so to celebrate
the safe return of English colony men from Mystic, Connecticut. They
massacred 600 Pequots that had laid down their weapons and accepted
Christianity. They were rewarded with a vicious and cowardly slaughter
by their new "brothers in Christ (Note 2)
Massasoit, who had done so much to help the Pilgrims, had a son named
Metacomet. As time went on and more Europeans arrived and took more
land, Metacomet or Prince Phillip as he came to known and other tribal
people began to take notice of self-serving ethics of the Pilgrims.
After Metacoms father, Massasoit, died in 1662, Metacom was crowned
King Phillip of the Pokanoket by the Europeans. King Phillip formed an
alliance to remove the European settlers from their homeland. In 1675,
after a series of arrogant actions by the colonists, King Phillip led
his Indian confederacy into a war meant to save the tribes from
extinction. Metacom adopted a policy of increasing but subtle
resistance towards the English. Rumors began to fly among the English
that "Philip" agreed to help the English enemies the French in 1667. A
band of armed Native men were discovered by colonial rangers in 1671,
which led to a demand that the guns be surrendered. After further
angry confrontations, Metacom was forced to sign a new treaty which
unacceptably demanded he fully subject his people to the English
government. The old decayed dream of the peaceful coexistence between
two equal and sovereign peoples had ended with the rejection of the
Treaty of 1621. Although nothing happened for four more
years, war broke out in June, 1675. The winter of 1675-76 proved a
harsh one for the People, who resorted to raiding English farming
communities for food and supplies. Many of the Christian Native
People, especially those of Natick, Ponkapoag, and Mattakeeset were
forced into internment camps on Deer Island in Boston Harbor and
Clark's Island in Plymouth Harbor, supposedly to prevent them from
aiding and abetting the enemy. (Note 3)
The eventual use of Native soldiers proved to be the turning point for
the English. Their Native allies showed them effective methods for
locating enemies, traveling lightly through the country, and fighting
in guerrilla fashion. Small parties of Native and English rangers,
supporting the larger English armies, wore down Metacom's allies'
resistance and also caused many bands to turn to the English side. One
of the most famous of the mixed Native and English ranger companies
was led by Captain Benjamin Church of Plymouth Colony. Benjamin
Church, who was an effective soldier, knew that area well. He had been
successful in convincing the Saconett Indians and others to leave the
ranks of Philip's supporters and ally themselves to him. Aided by
these Indian colleagues, Church began to hunt Philip down.
Bravely changing tactics, Philip returned to Mount Hope, where he
would meet his fate. In July 1676 Church captured Philip's wife and
son. Soon after, the despondent Philip shot one of his warriors. The
man's brother would lead Church to the sachem, and on 12 August 1676
Church and his forces attacked Philip's encampment. Philip was shot
and killed by an Indian named Alderman, and the corpse was drawn,
quartered, and beheaded. Philip's head was placed upon a pole at
Plymouth, where it served as a grisly reminder of the war. (Note 4)
The current Wampanoag have not forgotten. Their population consists of
several groups, sometimes called "tribes", who base their membership
upon closely maintained kinship ties to the aboriginal communities.
Supposedly there are approximately 4,000 Wampanoag, some living in the
traditional homeland, some living where their jobs and lifestyles have
taken them. The two best known groups are those of Mashpee on Cape Cod
and those of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard, which is the
only Wampanoag group recognized by the federal government. Other
Wampanoag trace their ancestries from Herring Pond (Bourne), Fresh
Pond (Plymouth), Watuppa or Troy (Fall River), Pokanoket (Bristol and
Warren, R.I.), Chappaquiddick Island, Christiantown or Takemmy (West
Tisbury) and other places.
Text of Plaque on Cole's Hill
"Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in
Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US
Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the
arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them,
Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their
people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their
culture. Participants in a National Day of Mourning honor Native
ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is
a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of
the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to
experience."
Notes and Bibliography:
Note 1.
In this same time frame of English exploration, but much better known,
is Capt. John Smith. He is the one who participated in the Powahatten
area's bounty. Although he would have much preferred to find gold.
Capt. John Smith, has been immortalized for his part in founding
Virginia. In 1614 Smith explored part of the North American coast-to
which he gave the name New England. Disappointed in his search for
gold, he set his men to fishing for cod while he went exploring in the
ship's pinnacle, mapping the coastline from Maine to the cape that was
named for the fish.
Smith's map and description of New England and his profits from cod
fishing encouraged the Pilgrims to seek a charter from the Crown (The
English Crown had no authority to grant legally.) to settle there.
Indeed it was the cod that saved the first New Englanders. In 1640,
only eleven years after Massachusetts Bay Company had been by the
Puritans, it exported three hundred thousand cod to Europe. Cod was
soon also being traded to the West Indies, in exchange for rum and
molasses. In addition, plowing in the cod waste greatly increased the
agricultural productivity of the stony New England soil. The cod
proved a basis of prosperity for New England so considerable that Adam
Smith singled it out for praise in his Wealth of Nations. To this day,
a wooden sculpture of a cod adorns the Massachusetts Statehouse to
remind the legislators of the source of their state's greatness.
Note 2.
William Bradford, in his History of the Plymouth Plantation, described
the carnage: "Those that scaped the fire were slaine with the sword;
some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they
were quickly dispatche, and very few escaped. It was conceived they
thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see
them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the
same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory
seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God,
who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise
in their hands, and gave them so speedy a victory over so proud and
insulting an enimie." This is what Cotton Mather said, "It was
supposed that no less than 600 souls were brought down to Hell that
day". At the same time he gives us an insight into the society and
character of the Puritans. ".yet all this could not suppress the
breaking out of sundry notorious sins.. Especially drunkenness and
uncleanness. Not only incontinency between persons unmarried, for
which many both men and women have been punished sharply enough, but
some married persons also. But that which is worse, even sodomy and
buggery (things fearful to name) have broke forth in this land oftener
than once. I say it may justly be marveled at and cause us to fear and
tremble at the considration of our corrupt natures, which are so
hardly bridled, subdued and mortified.....But one reason may be that
the Devil may carry a greater spite against the churches of Christ
and the
gospel here."
Note 3.
In January, 1675 the body of a Christian Native named John Sassamon
was
found in the frozen pond at Assawompset (Middleboro). An alleged
witness identified three Wampanoag men as the murderers of Sassamon.
The three were arrested and tried by the General Court at Plymouth
because the crime took place under English jurisdiction and the
victim, being Christian, was considered an English subject. Rumor
circulated that Metacom had commissioned the execution of Sassamon for
revealing his plans.
In June, a colonist shot and mortally wounded a Pokanoket who had been
seen running out of his house. A revenge raid followed in which
several
English were killed began the war. Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay and the
Connecticut Colonies mustered their allied forces, and moved against
Metacom. However, inept leadership allowed the Pokanoket to get away
and raid many colonial towns. The Pokanoket, joined somewhat
reluctantly by their Pocasset and Sakonnet relatives, retreated into
the interior of Massachusetts where they were joined by some of the
Nipmuck and others.
The war spread to the Connecticut valley and the Pokanoket went as far
as the Hudson River to recruit allies amongst the Mahican, Abenaki,
and others. The colonies, insisting that the Narragansett were acting
in bad faith by harboring fugitives, prepared an army of 1,000 men to
attack that neutral nation. In December 1675 the colonials attacked
the unsuspecting Narragansett, burned their fort, and killed many of
the inhabitants, thus driving the Narragansetts into the war on the
side of Metacom.
Note 4.
King Philip's War slowly came to an end after the sachem's death. Some
Indians were executed for their part in the fighting. Others,
including
Philip's son, were sold into slavery abroad, even to Africa. The
Wampanoag tribe was destroyed. Even Christian Indians who had backed
the colonists suffered. Many colonists, angered by the heavy death
toll of King Philip's War, grew to hate all Indians, irrespective of
their religion.
Much confusion has arisen over what name to use for Philip and the
war.
The sachem's earlier name, Metacom, is preferred by some authors, but
the sachem himself abandoned it. Indians commonly renamed themselves,
and in 1674 he was calling himself Wewasowannett. Furthermore, the
colonists were not ridiculing Philip when they referred to him by a
European royal title.
John Josselyn, who was sympathetic to the Indians, called the sachem
"Prince Phillip" in his An Account of Two Voyages to New-England
(1674). In addition, the term "King Philip's War" acknowledges
Philip's great importance in the history of colonial New England.
Therefore both King Philip and King Philip's War are acceptable
usages.
Metacom Education Project, Inc. P.O. Box 890082 East Weymouth, MA
02189, metedpro@n...
Philip was illiterate, so there are only a few letters. See
Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 1st ser., 2 (1793): 40,
and 6 (1799): 94. Another letter is in Great Britain, Public Record
Office, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and the
West Indies (1880), vol. for 1661-1668, p. 380.
The Records of the Colony of New Plymouth are essential. All
contemporary accounts must be used cautiously, but see Benjamin
Church, Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War (1716);
Increase Mather, A Brief History of the Warr with the Indians in
New-England (1676); and William Hubbard, A Narrative of the Troubles
with the Identity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Indians in
New-England (1677). John Easton's narrative is in Charles H. Lincoln,
ed., Narratives of the Indian Wars, 1675-1699 (1913). The only modern
scholarly biography is in Philip Ranlet, Enemies of the Bay Colony
(1995).
His ancestry is given in Betty Groff Schroeder, "The True Lineage of
King Philip (Sachem Metacom)," New England Historical and Genealogical
Register, 144 (1990): 211-14. Alden T. Vaughan, New England Frontier,
3rd ed. (1995), is the best work for the years before the war. Douglas
E. Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk (1958), is the most thorough military
history of the war itself. Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America
(1975), criticized Vaughan and Leach for being too favorable to the
colonists.
Jennings, in turn, has been criticized by Philip Ranlet, "Another Look
at the Causes of and others for being too favorable to the Indians.
Jill Lepore. The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of
American