If interested in King Philip’s War, then it would be wise to carve out a couple of hours for next Saturday’s “Conflict, Resistance and Legacies: Revisiting King Philip’s War,” at co-sponsor Deerfield Academy’s Garonzik Auditorium.
Also sponsored by Historic Deerfield Inc., the free discussion is scheduled to run from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. and will be led by a panel of three experts: one a venerable member of the old guard, Neal Salisbury; and the other two, Lisa Brooks and Christine DeLucia, relatively new lights on the stage. The event will begin with individual presentations by each of the three scholars, followed by a moderated panel discussion inviting questions from the audience. The final act will be a book-signing.
Salisbury, who is Smith College’s Barbara Richmond 1940 Professor Emeritus in Social Science (History), jumped onto the scene in 1982 with his still-relevant “Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans and the Making of New England (1520-1643).” Ever since, he’s been an authority on the topic of early interaction between Native Americans and colonials, with too many publishing credits to list.
His latest project is Macmillan Learning’s updated second edition of “The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: with Related Documents.” According to Macmillan’s online description, Salisbury’s “revised introduction reflects the changes in scholars’ understandings of issues relating to (Lancaster minister’s wife Mary) Rowlandson’s captivity and her narrative that has occurred in the 20 years since the publication of the first edition. Five new related documents include a little-known narrative of Muslim captivity by a Puritan contemporary of Rowlandson’s, a treaty that exhibits the motives of both English and Native American signers, an account of the forced removal of Christian Indians to Deer Island during Metacom’s War, and two visual documents.”
That’s one esteemed presence at next Saturday’s scholarly table, a man who brings with him a depth of knowledge about the historic contact period and beyond that’s shared by few others.
Comparative newcomers Brooks and DeLucia have been ubiquitous on the New England lecture/book-signing circuit in recent months, ever since their Yale University Press books hit the market in January. Both rising New England historical/anthropological stars and assistant professors at prestigious Pioneer Valley colleges — Brooks at Amherst, DeLucia at Mount Holyoke — these two young women bring to the discussion what is a refreshing new spin from the often ignored Native perspective.
Brooks came upon the scene in 2008 with her excellent book “The Common Pot: Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast.” Now, she’s back 10 years later with “Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War.”
Brooks’ new title hit the street simultaneously with DeLucia’s “Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast.” DeLucia, the newest bulb on the village street, likely developed her keen interest in New England’s Native American history while growing up within the roar of Amoskeag Falls in Manchester, N.H., where the Sagamore Passaconaway’s Penacook tribe and Merrimack Valley neighbors convened each spring to gather and process anadromous fish for feasts and storage. It is no secret that Penacooks and our local Pocumtucks were of the same bolt of cloth, so to speak, with remarkably similar fishing falls at Amoskeag and Peskeomskut.
The upcoming discussion promises to be a home run on many levels, especially in light of recent ongoing research into the decisive May 19, 1676 Falls Fight under the microscope of a National Parks Service Battlefield Grant study led by respected Connecticut archaeologist Kevin McBride. Montague recently applied for $80,000 in additional funding to kick off phase three of the fascinating study focused on a colonial King Philip’s War victory. It happened right here in our neighborhood, this predawn ambush of a native King Philip’s War fishing village in Gill. Not only that, but many current valley residents carry DNA reaching back to the local militiamen who participated in the bloody attack.
Let’s hope this educational forum doesn’t devolve into an inappropriate argument between acrimonious local historians, who can be quite unreasonable and locked in their beliefs and ways. I’ve seen uncomfortable behavior disrupt similar forums in the past, and hope attendees at next weekend’s discussion can leave their sensitive egos on the cloakroom counter. Why focus on contentious, unresolvable issues when so much can be accomplished in diplomatic discussion concentrating on points of agreement, aimed at harmonious discourse and friendly debate?
Local historians with and without fancy academic credentials can turn cantankerous in such debate, although I must say trained debaters tend to keep it civil, employing diplomacy with the subtlety of occasional spot-on sarcasm, which can give them an advantage and raise ire among narrow-minded foes. When used as weapons during calm intellectual/philosophical argument, such debate devices are effective. Not so with street fights and warfare. There, timely, humorous sarcasm can ignite explosive response.
Bringing together a disparate, opinionated crowd of local historians for such well-intentioned forums can be a challenge. I’ll be there to observe and maybe even participate in the discussion, hoping it doesn’t unravel into an us versus them verbal rumble. It should be a fascinating forum, one with great promise and even greater potential for blossoming into sweet fruit of discovery about an old Native American war that wreaked havoc in what has come to be known as our Happy Valley.
There is still much to be learned about this colonial catastrophe that set New England ablaze, especially from perspectives sympathetic to the Native narrative that has been largely ignored from the very start. It seems those doctrinaire days are waning amid shrill accusations of the old standby “revisionist history.” That is not a pejorative to all lovers of history, just the conservative wing that fights to promote and preserve the likes of George Sheldon’s Eurocentric, Christian myths borne of white supremacy and American exceptionalism.
That worn, tired narrative is stitched in fable and fantasy, flotsam to which many “patriots” still cling with a red, white and blue death grip.