We Shall Remain

Although I had low expectations from anything that PBS might have to say about American Indians, I was pleasantly surprised by the premiere episode of “We Shall Remain” that dealt with the encounter of British colonials and native peoples in New England culminating in the exterminationist King Philip’s War.

This episode, titled “After the Mayflower”, obviously relied on the scholarship of Jill Lepore who was among the academics interviewed. Lepore is the author of “The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity”, a book that is sitting on my shelves at home but that I have not had a chance to read yet. The wiki on King Philip’s War states:

King Philip’s War, sometimes called Metacom’s War or Metacom’s Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies from 1675-1676. It continued in northern New England (primarily on the Maine frontier) even after King Philip was killed, until a treaty was signed at Casco Bay in April 1678. According to a combined estimate of loss of life in Schultz and Tougias’ “King Philip’s War, The History and Legacy of America’s Forgotten Conflict” (based on sources from the Department of Defense, the Bureau of Census, and the work of Colonial historian Francis Jennings), 800 out of 52,000 English colonists (1 out of every 65) and 3,000 out of 20,000 natives (3 out of every 20) lost their lives due to the war, which makes it proportionately one of the bloodiest and costliest in the history of America. More than half of New England’s ninety towns were assaulted by Native American warriors.

Most of the episode is devoted to the background that led up to the war, which as is so often the case in colonial encounters with Indians has to do with conflicts over land. The pilgrims, who were initially highly dependent on Wampanoag Indians for their very survival, eventually became economically and militarily powerful. Forgetting the kindness shown to them by native peoples, they kept encroaching on Indian land to the point when King Philip, an Indian leader who had absorbed British cultural influences including his name, felt that there was no other recourse but to declare war. After the Indians were wiped out, King Philip’s head was put on a pike and displayed for two years in Plymouth, the town that was the birthplace of the Thanksgiving ceremony.

The episode was directed by Chris Eyre, the Cheyenne/Arapaho director of “Smoke Signals“, a fine movie based on Sherman Alexie’s short story collection “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”. Cassius Spears, a Narragansett Indian long involved with cultural preservation, served as a consultant as did David White, a Nipmuc, who helped the actors with the native language they spoke in character.

Marcos Akiaten, a Chiricahua Apache, played Massasoit, the Indian leader who welcomed the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. His son King Philip was played by Annawon Weeden, a Mashpee Wampanoag and descendant of the peoples who lived in New England before the European conquest.

The PBS website has background information on the show that began last Monday night and even better it allows you to watch each episode online. I recommend this powerful series without qualification.