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how to change history
A question that comes up repeatedly in our series Metacom’s Resistance is: how can we create change? How do we retell history so that it’s more accurate?
In the Partnership of Historic Bostons, we believe that the more you learn about history, the more it changes. But it’s not just learners who change by knowing more: people make change happen.
There’s no better example of hard-fought change than a groundbreaking project at Turners Falls, or Peskeompskut, in central Massachusetts. More than a dozen years ago, David Brule of the Nolumbeka Project, together with other Indigenous leaders, applied to the National Park Service for funds to investigate what had always been thought to be the site of a battle between colonial and Indigenous combatants. What they found, in addition to the military conflict, was a massacre - perhaps 300 Indigenous elders, women and children slaughtered.
The findings are devastating, not least for descendants of the five Native tribes whose ancestors perished. But the process of investigation - involving local historical commissions, descendants of colonists, archeologists, and tribal historic preservation officers - was revelatory.
On May 6 we heard from three people at the heart of this investigation - David Brule of Nolumbeka, archaeologist David Naumec, and Liz Cold Wind Santana-Kiser of the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians - how and why they countered the myth of colonial courage, what they found, and why it matters. Watch their powerful presentation, What Really Happened at Turners Falls?
On Saturday, May 16, we attended the Nolumbeka Project’s day of remembrance marking the 350th anniversary of the massacre. There were drummers, musicians, artists, food from award-winning Wampanoag chef Sherry Pocknett, speakers and more. But most moving were the moments of the unveiling of new signs testifying to the long project bringing the truth to light, and written by Nipmuc Liz Cold Wind Santana-Kiser, Elnu Abenaki Rich Holschuh and archaeologist David Naumec, and the handing over a deed to land by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association to Nolumbeka and the Nipmuc and Elenu Abenaki tribes. As Liz Santana-Kiser said, this was a small pebble in the pond with ever widening, lasting circles.
If you’ve missed our “Wow!” series, catch up now
We’re halfway through our series, Metacom’s Resistance: Retelling King Philip’s War and Its Legacy, and the reviews are in:
“Truly contrary to the conventional historical narrative. WOW!”
“You’re absolutely doing the right thing. As a Native person, it’s been centuries of misinformation. We need to admit it with these talks.”
“Listening to the Indigenous speakers made me realise how little I know about this war and I want to change that. I am a settler on their homeland and that fact is never lost on me.”
“Keep bringing us these special events, please!”
We’re delighted that so many of you have joined us - please keep coming for our final events! But some of you might have missed the start. If so, do not despair.
Get the popcorn out, settle into your sofa, and watch the recordings:
Historian Kevin March offers the essential KPW 101 we all need in The Unknown War.
In a superb panel discussion, The Past is Now, Hartman Deetz, Mashpee Wampanoag; Brad Lopes, Aquinnah Wampanoag; Elizabeth Solomon, Massachusetts at Ponkpoag; and Brittney Walley, Hassanamisco Nipmuc, tell us why, for Indigenous people, King Philip’s War is not over.
Brown University historian LInford Fisher reveals the untold story of Indigenous enslavement as a systematic part of colonial strategy in Surviving Slavery.
The Congregational Library’s Tricia Peone tells us why most of us don’t know the Indigenous experience of this war: because New England’s religious and political leaders wrote it. Watch Erasure: History and Memory in the Archives.
What we’ve learned from organising this series is that there’s so much more to know. This is just the beginning of our investigation into what really happened in our shared history. Stay tuned!
It’s not too late to order a copy of Lin Fisher’s masterful Stealing America, for only $20 ($26.25 if we mail it to you), a 50% discount. Send us a check at PHB, 66 Marlborough St, Boston MA 02116, or pay here. In both cases, please indicate that you’re ordering the book.
their marks, their lives
“What do you see in these marks?” asks Kimberly Toney, coordinating curator for Native and Indigenous materials at the John Carter Brown Library and John Hay Library at Brown University. “What do they make visible? And what responsibilities come with knowing all this?”
Those of us who read traditional accounts of early New England history are accustomed to erasure - the invisibility of Indigenous people of the Eastern Woodlands in traditional accounts, except perhaps as greeters of colonists on the shore or aggressors at war. Kim Toney’s important project on Instagram and Tumblr, Their Marks, shows that, on the contrary, Indigenous people were present in all aspects of life, as their signatures, or marks, testify. Their marks are a sign of agency and survivance.
Read Kim Toney’s important blog post, here, and see the marks of twelve Indigenous people of the Eastern Woodlands, whose lives we explore in our series on King Philip’s War, Metacom’s Resistance.
Kim Toney will appear as part of an inter-tribal panel exploring the costs and consequences of King Philip’s War in the final event of the series, at the main Boston Public Library and livestreamed, on Thursday, May 28, 5:30-7:30pm ET. Sign up for The Long Legacy here.
This is one of few known written records, in his own hand, of Metacom, or Philip, Wampanoag sachem who led Indigenous resistance. Philip, sachem of the Wampanoag. Quitclaim by Philip, Rehoboth, MA. From the collections of the John Carter Brown Library.
Events
The long legacy
Cheryll Toney Holley, Paula Peters, Mack Scott and Kim Toney
IN PERSON AND LIVESTREAMED, BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2026, 5:30-7:30PM
Forced displacement, enslavement, land dispossession, suppression of languages - the war that bore the name of Metacom, or Philip, left a long and devastating trail of destruction. Join us to find out how the Tribes who fought in the war and were affected coped, and still cope, with the war and its legacy. We will also ask: how do we reckon with this bloody history and its legacy today? Hear what four eloquent, deeply knowledgeable Indigenous speakers have to say at the main Boston Public Library and online for our final event in Metacom’s Resistance.
“We need a full and honest
reckoning with our history.”
— attendee, Tyranny vs Liberty series
rebellion or resistance?
Once histories of King Philip’s War spoke of “skulking Indians” and “perfidious heathens.” Now, inspired and inspiring new scholarship is turning that narrative upside down. Maryann Zujewski offers an essential list of primary, secondary, digital and other materials, including tribal websites of presenters in our Metacom’s Resistance series, to help you continue the journey in finding out what really happened.
are you a reader?
If your answer is yes, well - we are readers, too. That’s why we’ve created our READ page, to tempt you to read more! Find out supporter David Achenbach’s view of Edmund Morgan’s The Puritan Family - still in print after 60 years - and author Lori Rogers-Stokes on Lin Fisher’s new book on enslavement. And don’t forget to join our virtual book club!
surprising revolutionaries
New England Puritans insisted on self-government, bearing with them their charter. They drafted the first American bill of rights, enshrining liberties which far surpassed any in the English-speaking world. Who would have thought that Puritans could be so revolutionary? Francis J. Bremer explores the 1641 Body of Liberties and its guarantee of due process, the right to protest, and equality under the law.
“This talk opened a new world for me.”
— attendee, ‘I Pledge Allegiance’: Sovereignty and Sanctuary in the Dawnland