King Philip’s War

The Wampanoag Indians were a tribe that settled in the area of current day Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It is estimated that the number of tribe members was somewhere over ten thousand before the English arrived and brought along sickness and disease that the Natives were not accustomed to. By around 1675 it is imagined that the Wampanoag population plummeted to around only one thousand members. At first, the Wampanoag were accepting of the English

Over six hundred English settlers perished during the war, with many others wounded. Nearly 15 colonies were demolished and many settlers were held captive. The tribes that had settled in the New England region were wiped out. The Settlers felt that their victory was a favor from God, and a symbolic sign for their spiritualistic community. The Indians who remained faced being sold into slavery in the West Indies, while others faced disease, cultural disruption, and the loss of their lands.

because there appeared to be no immediate threat of endangerment of the Natives. The Natives actually became appreciative and dependent on the English in a sense, because they had been introduced to the various types of food, clothing, and most importantly, weapons. Massasoit, the Chief of the Wampanoag Indians at the time, signed a treaty of peace with the English that promised not to give up their land to anybody without the knowledge and consent of the Plymouth government first.

After Massasoit had passed on, Alexander would be the next Satchem (Chief) of the Wampanoag tribe. Alexander was Metacomet’s brother, as was Massasoit his father. Alexander died shortly after his reign from what is believed to have been an ill fever of some type. At this time, Metacomet, King Philip, would become the Grand Sachem of the Wampanoags. Philip was the predecessor of Tecumseh and was an excellent leader of the tribe. He knew that the English would try and rid them of their land and expand more until they wiped out his tribe totally. King Philip would need to get other tribes to understand what the English were doing, and to join him in the defense of their being. It wasn’t long until the English learned of this attempt at a possible revolt against them, and therefore in 1671, King Philip was forced to a southern area in Massachusetts known as Taunton. He was ordered to give up most of the firearms that the tribe possessed, but still kept a number of firearms within the Indians. Further, he signed an agreement with the Colony of Plymouth on September 29, 1671 that said his tribe would abide by colonial laws and guidelines with war affairs and Indian land. This was just another one of the Englishmen’s ways of stripping the Wampanoag’s of their power, but was probably only indeed signed by King Philip because he was und

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