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The Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity
Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War
A compelling and original recovery of Native American resistance and adaptation to colonial America
With rigorous original scholarship and creative narration, Lisa Brooks recovers a complex picture of war, captivity, and Native resistance during the “First Indian War” (later named King Philip’s War) by relaying the stories of Weetamoo, a female Wampanoag leader, and James Printer, a Nipmuc scholar, whose stories converge in the captivity of Mary Rowlandson. Through both a narrow focus on Weetamoo, Printer, and their network of relations, and a far broader scope that includes vast indigenous geographies, Brooks leads us to a new understanding of the history of colonial New England and of American origins. Brooks’s pathbreaking scholarship is grounded not just in extensive archival research but also in the land and communities of Native New England, reading the actions of actors during the seventeenth century alongside an analysis of the landscape and interpretations informed by tribal history.
With rigorous original scholarship and creative narration, Lisa Brooks recovers a complex picture of war, captivity, and Native resistance during the “First Indian War” (later named King Philip’s War) by relaying the stories of Weetamoo, a female Wampanoag leader, and James Printer, a Nipmuc scholar, whose stories converge in the captivity of Mary Rowlandson. Through both a narrow focus on Weetamoo, Printer, and their network of relations, and a far broader scope that includes vast indigenous geographies, Brooks leads us to a new understanding of the history of colonial New England and of American origins. Brooks’s pathbreaking scholarship is grounded not just in extensive archival research but also in the land and communities of Native New England, reading the actions of actors during the seventeenth century alongside an analysis of the landscape and interpretations informed by tribal history.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published January 9, 2018
117 people are currently reading
1328 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Brooks
15 books31 followersLisa Brooks is an historian, writer, and professor of English and American studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts where she specializes in the history of Native American and European interactions from the American colonial period to the present.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
June 1, 2018
An amazing trip through time. It’s going to take me awhile to process the information. Benjamin Church is my ninth great uncle. His brother Joseph is a distant grandfather. My mother’s people were all over that part of MA and RI. Many buried in Little Compton. This whole episode is very personal. My eighth great grandfather on my father’s side, Joshua Carter, was a teamster killed in the attack at South Deerfield that is now known locally as the Bloody Brook massacre in 1675. The dead are buried in a common grave now under someone’s front yard.
What the Pilgrims and Boston Puritans did to the Indigenous people, while believing God was on their side, is very hard to reconcile. The deceit and lies are far from Christian.
I’ve lived in Hampshire County by the Connecticut River most of my life. We’ve found quartz and flint points out behind our house. I love learning the history of these parts.
Thank you, Lisa Brooks, so very much for the telling of a more complete tale.
What the Pilgrims and Boston Puritans did to the Indigenous people, while believing God was on their side, is very hard to reconcile. The deceit and lies are far from Christian.
I’ve lived in Hampshire County by the Connecticut River most of my life. We’ve found quartz and flint points out behind our house. I love learning the history of these parts.
Thank you, Lisa Brooks, so very much for the telling of a more complete tale.
January 14, 2024
This book. I'm so grateful that scholars like Lisa Brooks exist.
Brooks revisits a set of conflicts that are central to how we talk about early English colonization. Even growing up in Utah I heard some of these stories -- I was even assigned Mary Rowlandson's narrative about being "captured by Indians" in an American literature class. The old stories, even when they romanticize Native warriors, are part of a Manifest Destiny narrative. The replacement of indigenous people by the English is treated as inevitable. Indigenous cultures are only spoken of in the past tense.
But Brooks comes to this story with a much wider lens, considering indigenous cultures, looking through their perspective, reading between the lines, grounding it all in the land. She breaks everything wide open. Eventually, she reframes the war to show the value of resistance to colonization, from the 1600s through today.
This isn't a quick or easy book to read. It's dense history, closely following primary texts, catered to those who are already familiar with the standard narratives about the King Philip's War. People like me will have to do supplementary reading and remind ourselves who different characters are. But I really encourage others to stick with it. Reread the paragraphs until you get what they're saying, turn back to the maps, take it slow.
The only problem with the book is that the index isn't at all comprehensive, and although there are extensive notes at the back, there isn't a bibliography to help you find the works she's referencing.
Two things that struck me:
1) The compassion and understanding that Brooks brings to Native people who worked as scouts and helpers to the English. She uncovers the full complexity behind why some people made that decision -- often making a desperate bargain to protect their families.
2) Reading about the English settlers, I was interested in how there were more cruel and more humane individuals among them. They had strong differences of opinion about how the Wampanoag and other tribal members should be treated. Some even really stuck their neck out to protect individual people. But all of them were aligned in the colonialist project. They all wanted to replace the indigenous people, they just had different ideas about how it should be done. It made me think of how often we can be caught up in heated debate over the big political questions, without noticing that we're all implicitly agreeing to a horrific foundational premise.
Some of the most intense parts of the book for me were when we spend time with Weetamoo, a powerful Wampanoag chief who worked to protect her people throughout the conflict. Toward the end, Brooks writes about going to the Quequechand River, where Weetamoo died. The English, who mutilated her body after her death, wrote that she drowned while trying to get away, that it was an act of God. But Brooks explores the odd silence in the narratives. She writes:
"At Quequechand, the river, like the truth of Weetamoo's death, is but a trickle, buried under thick layers of pavement, concrete, highway, and degenerating mill works. Yet that stream has a sense of will and determination, breaking free from the cement that has restrained it for so long. The water, springing through cracks, actively seeks the old riverbed among the pebbles and plants below. Walking through Fall River today, Quequechand is nearly impossible to find. Yet that water has a memory of falling, an overpowering resonance. Today, you can find the river only by the sound of its name. This story, too, is just a trickle, lying beneath hundreds of years of print. Yet water has its own mind, its own course to take. Despite all efforts to dam and control it, it cannot be contained."
Thank you Lisa Brooks for listening and searching and following out these uncontainable stories -- and for sharing them with us.
Brooks revisits a set of conflicts that are central to how we talk about early English colonization. Even growing up in Utah I heard some of these stories -- I was even assigned Mary Rowlandson's narrative about being "captured by Indians" in an American literature class. The old stories, even when they romanticize Native warriors, are part of a Manifest Destiny narrative. The replacement of indigenous people by the English is treated as inevitable. Indigenous cultures are only spoken of in the past tense.
But Brooks comes to this story with a much wider lens, considering indigenous cultures, looking through their perspective, reading between the lines, grounding it all in the land. She breaks everything wide open. Eventually, she reframes the war to show the value of resistance to colonization, from the 1600s through today.
This isn't a quick or easy book to read. It's dense history, closely following primary texts, catered to those who are already familiar with the standard narratives about the King Philip's War. People like me will have to do supplementary reading and remind ourselves who different characters are. But I really encourage others to stick with it. Reread the paragraphs until you get what they're saying, turn back to the maps, take it slow.
The only problem with the book is that the index isn't at all comprehensive, and although there are extensive notes at the back, there isn't a bibliography to help you find the works she's referencing.
Two things that struck me:
1) The compassion and understanding that Brooks brings to Native people who worked as scouts and helpers to the English. She uncovers the full complexity behind why some people made that decision -- often making a desperate bargain to protect their families.
2) Reading about the English settlers, I was interested in how there were more cruel and more humane individuals among them. They had strong differences of opinion about how the Wampanoag and other tribal members should be treated. Some even really stuck their neck out to protect individual people. But all of them were aligned in the colonialist project. They all wanted to replace the indigenous people, they just had different ideas about how it should be done. It made me think of how often we can be caught up in heated debate over the big political questions, without noticing that we're all implicitly agreeing to a horrific foundational premise.
Some of the most intense parts of the book for me were when we spend time with Weetamoo, a powerful Wampanoag chief who worked to protect her people throughout the conflict. Toward the end, Brooks writes about going to the Quequechand River, where Weetamoo died. The English, who mutilated her body after her death, wrote that she drowned while trying to get away, that it was an act of God. But Brooks explores the odd silence in the narratives. She writes:
"At Quequechand, the river, like the truth of Weetamoo's death, is but a trickle, buried under thick layers of pavement, concrete, highway, and degenerating mill works. Yet that stream has a sense of will and determination, breaking free from the cement that has restrained it for so long. The water, springing through cracks, actively seeks the old riverbed among the pebbles and plants below. Walking through Fall River today, Quequechand is nearly impossible to find. Yet that water has a memory of falling, an overpowering resonance. Today, you can find the river only by the sound of its name. This story, too, is just a trickle, lying beneath hundreds of years of print. Yet water has its own mind, its own course to take. Despite all efforts to dam and control it, it cannot be contained."
Thank you Lisa Brooks for listening and searching and following out these uncontainable stories -- and for sharing them with us.
October 24, 2021
Lisa Brooks initially planned her award-winning narrative of King Phillip’s War as a biography of Weetamoo, the female Nipmuc sachem who played a critical role in the conflict’s inception. As her biography evolved she developed a concurrent interest in the Nipmuc publisher James Printer and his Algonquian classmates at Harvard College, and eventually chose to weave their stories into one about the lived experience of the war. Brooks argues that in describing a war we should not try to achieve absolute clarity in our account of motives, events, and outcomes, as this diminishes the confusion that governed the actions of contemporaries. She concurs with other scholars that the war grew from Puritans’ fears that all Native New Englanders were conspiring against them, and observes that the Nipmucs, Wampanoags, and Narragansetts were indeed forming a (defensive) alliance to protect their land and sovereignty. As with the Yamasee War two generations later, fighting broke out once each side’s fear of the other’s bad intentions overcame their willingness to accept the status quo.
The armed conflict itself Brooks presents as a confused welter of vivid, horrifying scenes, of blood and severed heads and burning houses. Some Algonquians tried to stay out of the fighting or even join forces with the Puritan colonists. The plurality of Native New Englanders who took to the field seem to have wanted a limited war leading to a diplomatic settlement, a kind of large-scale “coup” (to borrow Matthew Jennings’ term). Generally they failed, as the Puritans wanted all Native people dead or imprisoned - they sought the peace not of the treaty ground but the grave. The Wabenakis, however, thanks to their numbers and local military advantages, were able to end their war with a negotiated peace. (The Wabenakis, Madoasquarbit told the Puritans in 1677, “are owners of the country…and we can drive you out” [341].)
Brooks uses non-written sources, like New England Algonquians’ Native lexicon and place names, in developing her narrative of the war and its causes. Arguably some of her most brilliant observations come from her analyses of Native peoples’ use of literacy. Weetamoo, for example, used written deeds to protect Nipmuc lands from Puritan speculators, while the Harvard scholar Caleb Chesshateaumuck converted a translation of Ovid into an evocation of Wampanoag spirituality, describing a chthonic underworld and attributing human characteristics to trees and stones. The author intended her book to serve as an account of physical and perceptual experiences, but Brooks in writing it did not neglect Indigenous New Englanders’ lives of the mind.
The armed conflict itself Brooks presents as a confused welter of vivid, horrifying scenes, of blood and severed heads and burning houses. Some Algonquians tried to stay out of the fighting or even join forces with the Puritan colonists. The plurality of Native New Englanders who took to the field seem to have wanted a limited war leading to a diplomatic settlement, a kind of large-scale “coup” (to borrow Matthew Jennings’ term). Generally they failed, as the Puritans wanted all Native people dead or imprisoned - they sought the peace not of the treaty ground but the grave. The Wabenakis, however, thanks to their numbers and local military advantages, were able to end their war with a negotiated peace. (The Wabenakis, Madoasquarbit told the Puritans in 1677, “are owners of the country…and we can drive you out” [341].)
Brooks uses non-written sources, like New England Algonquians’ Native lexicon and place names, in developing her narrative of the war and its causes. Arguably some of her most brilliant observations come from her analyses of Native peoples’ use of literacy. Weetamoo, for example, used written deeds to protect Nipmuc lands from Puritan speculators, while the Harvard scholar Caleb Chesshateaumuck converted a translation of Ovid into an evocation of Wampanoag spirituality, describing a chthonic underworld and attributing human characteristics to trees and stones. The author intended her book to serve as an account of physical and perceptual experiences, but Brooks in writing it did not neglect Indigenous New Englanders’ lives of the mind.
July 15, 2021
MIND. BLOWN.
This is a complex and in-depth read. The author does a brilliant job integrating a HUGE array of colonial era documents, parallel research, and direct investigation into one of the most comprehensive presentations of a period in North American history that most North American citizens have shameful sparse and skewed knowledge of.
I will start from the non-indigenous perspective to say that you can see the roots of ideologies that would blossom into United States mindsets, good and bad, in the narratives she illustrates. This book helps you connect to the REAL heritage of this continent, bridging the gap between the 360+ years of a nation with the 7000+ year history of a land, all by telling the story that started the shift in the paradigm. Enriching, not just enlightening.
But as far as enlightening, well, it is SO intricate as to be a challenge. Indeed, this is perhaps the only flaw; there is just so much information – such as names of people, places, and events that are too often presumed as already reader knowledge – that it can feel tangled and (momentarily) slightly confusing. Anchoring the narrative on a few persons of the era (Weetamo, James Printer, Mary Rowlandson, etc) was wise, as it helped create some foundation. However, there was just SO much detail that it was also easy to forget who was who and which motivation was at play.
Yet to be frank, I would not have wanted it any less intense and rich with information, so this is a minor nuisance not a “deficit” of the book. Indeed, whenever you might get tangled in names and places, a moment later you can reorient your familiarity. It was just a "there's a gitch here and there, so be ready” critique.
The feminist deconstruction in this book was EVERYTHING. I know – the “f” word is now problematic unto itself, as it has been co-opted into so many pop cultural ideas as to almost make it a relic. So take the usage here of the word “feminism” in its most academic sense. The reworking of the narrative to shift the perspective away from the typical Eurocentric vantage deepened the understanding of motives on ALL sides of each conflict. Indeed, it was easier to understand the varied motives of the colonial settlers in this new framework better than in other, more traditional presentations.
On that note, I have NEVER had such a clear understanding of the emotional fears and principle flaws of colonial settlers as I have in this book. Because of the reframing, I was able to absorb FAR more nuance than other histories I’ve read. The effect was remarkable. Obviously this same depth of understanding extends to the indigenous persons in the history. I only highlight that understanding of the settlers because it comes about surprisingly. And don;t get it wrong – you get MORE pissed at the colonialists because you have deeper insight. It does not create some artificial sympathy mythology, but just helps you understand the vast array of motivations and characters in the mix.
This is the biggest takeaway: the COMPLEXITY oft his story. No wonder it is always reduced and mythologized; the real expanse is startlingly broad and mind-bogglingly complex. The issues at play, the motivations, and then the strange coincidences of history – my god, the historical, unpredicted and unprecedented COINCIDENCES! — are far more labyrinthine than I had ever before known. The devil is in the details, and here the mass of details really help the reader understand the complex situation unfolding around this era.
It reward slow because of the density, but honestly I was never bored. It is for sure a “project level book,” and I was frequently running off to internet searches and digging in to notes because of just how much rich information surrounds this complex period.
This is one of those books that could literally be the backbone of full-semester college level course unto itself. I feel deeply enriched and grateful for the knowledge it leaves me with.
A book that makes you completely satisfied yet somehow also hungry for more on the topic is a book that succeeds. Brooks has created something profound, and I wish many, many more people would read it.
This is a complex and in-depth read. The author does a brilliant job integrating a HUGE array of colonial era documents, parallel research, and direct investigation into one of the most comprehensive presentations of a period in North American history that most North American citizens have shameful sparse and skewed knowledge of.
I will start from the non-indigenous perspective to say that you can see the roots of ideologies that would blossom into United States mindsets, good and bad, in the narratives she illustrates. This book helps you connect to the REAL heritage of this continent, bridging the gap between the 360+ years of a nation with the 7000+ year history of a land, all by telling the story that started the shift in the paradigm. Enriching, not just enlightening.
But as far as enlightening, well, it is SO intricate as to be a challenge. Indeed, this is perhaps the only flaw; there is just so much information – such as names of people, places, and events that are too often presumed as already reader knowledge – that it can feel tangled and (momentarily) slightly confusing. Anchoring the narrative on a few persons of the era (Weetamo, James Printer, Mary Rowlandson, etc) was wise, as it helped create some foundation. However, there was just SO much detail that it was also easy to forget who was who and which motivation was at play.
Yet to be frank, I would not have wanted it any less intense and rich with information, so this is a minor nuisance not a “deficit” of the book. Indeed, whenever you might get tangled in names and places, a moment later you can reorient your familiarity. It was just a "there's a gitch here and there, so be ready” critique.
The feminist deconstruction in this book was EVERYTHING. I know – the “f” word is now problematic unto itself, as it has been co-opted into so many pop cultural ideas as to almost make it a relic. So take the usage here of the word “feminism” in its most academic sense. The reworking of the narrative to shift the perspective away from the typical Eurocentric vantage deepened the understanding of motives on ALL sides of each conflict. Indeed, it was easier to understand the varied motives of the colonial settlers in this new framework better than in other, more traditional presentations.
On that note, I have NEVER had such a clear understanding of the emotional fears and principle flaws of colonial settlers as I have in this book. Because of the reframing, I was able to absorb FAR more nuance than other histories I’ve read. The effect was remarkable. Obviously this same depth of understanding extends to the indigenous persons in the history. I only highlight that understanding of the settlers because it comes about surprisingly. And don;t get it wrong – you get MORE pissed at the colonialists because you have deeper insight. It does not create some artificial sympathy mythology, but just helps you understand the vast array of motivations and characters in the mix.
This is the biggest takeaway: the COMPLEXITY oft his story. No wonder it is always reduced and mythologized; the real expanse is startlingly broad and mind-bogglingly complex. The issues at play, the motivations, and then the strange coincidences of history – my god, the historical, unpredicted and unprecedented COINCIDENCES! — are far more labyrinthine than I had ever before known. The devil is in the details, and here the mass of details really help the reader understand the complex situation unfolding around this era.
It reward slow because of the density, but honestly I was never bored. It is for sure a “project level book,” and I was frequently running off to internet searches and digging in to notes because of just how much rich information surrounds this complex period.
This is one of those books that could literally be the backbone of full-semester college level course unto itself. I feel deeply enriched and grateful for the knowledge it leaves me with.
A book that makes you completely satisfied yet somehow also hungry for more on the topic is a book that succeeds. Brooks has created something profound, and I wish many, many more people would read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
October 20, 2018From overall perspective of recovering lost history, ie women leaders of Wapanoag who appear in documents of the era left out completely in later "history" books. Discusses nuance and ideas lost by inadequate translation. Even the name of the "war" (and was it even a war??) is up for debate. This is very serious reading! ...may take me awhile to get through it. Extensive endnotes are extremely interesting. ... had to return it to library...probably should buy this book.
[listed among recommended reading in Wampanoag article in "American Ancestors" , Spring 2018]
[listed among recommended reading in Wampanoag article in "American Ancestors" , Spring 2018]
October 31, 2021
An excellent interrogation of the settler colonial project through an analysis of networks of native kinship and diplomacy. Brooks’ fantastic sourcework offers a shining example for other historians looking to reevaluate events. The writing is clear and lucid. Brooks portrays several characters in great detail, allowing for a breath of engagement with the work.
December 27, 2019
Other reviewers have given good reviews and I had to skim the last two sections due to time constraints, but I do want to say a couple things.
Today more than ever it is important that we search out history that isn’t whitewashed. I found this book by searching for alternative Thanksgiving histories, and though that’s not what this book is, it shed light on the true narrative of King Philips War. It is very clear that Brooks thoroughly researched for this book and the primary documents quoted add to her narrative, thus proving that older white washed histories picked and chose their sources to prove their points, rather than searching for the actual history.
The beginning of the book that discusses the Harvard Indian College was fascinating, as were the sections about Weetamoo- a name I recognized but didn’t know much about. She was a true leader among leaders and I enjoyed reading about her. James the Printer’s life was fascinating as well.
I became a bit muddled down in the middle but here Brooks divides the war up into neat sections citing specific dates... more proof of her thorough research.
The chapter about Mary Rowlandson was impactful. How often do we learn about her through the lens of “Indian captive” because of her own published narrative? But the way Brooks uses Rowlandson’s own words to show biases and find the truth is worth a read.
Overall this was a great book, written for a specific purpose, and decidedly proves its point. That this book has not been widely read is a bummer, though I imagine the audience for the book is rather narrow - this isn’t a generalized history, it’s very specifically for people who are looking for a non-white-washed history of Native Americans. Only by being critical
of our own past, can we find the road to a more honest and inclusive future.
Today more than ever it is important that we search out history that isn’t whitewashed. I found this book by searching for alternative Thanksgiving histories, and though that’s not what this book is, it shed light on the true narrative of King Philips War. It is very clear that Brooks thoroughly researched for this book and the primary documents quoted add to her narrative, thus proving that older white washed histories picked and chose their sources to prove their points, rather than searching for the actual history.
The beginning of the book that discusses the Harvard Indian College was fascinating, as were the sections about Weetamoo- a name I recognized but didn’t know much about. She was a true leader among leaders and I enjoyed reading about her. James the Printer’s life was fascinating as well.
I became a bit muddled down in the middle but here Brooks divides the war up into neat sections citing specific dates... more proof of her thorough research.
The chapter about Mary Rowlandson was impactful. How often do we learn about her through the lens of “Indian captive” because of her own published narrative? But the way Brooks uses Rowlandson’s own words to show biases and find the truth is worth a read.
Overall this was a great book, written for a specific purpose, and decidedly proves its point. That this book has not been widely read is a bummer, though I imagine the audience for the book is rather narrow - this isn’t a generalized history, it’s very specifically for people who are looking for a non-white-washed history of Native Americans. Only by being critical
of our own past, can we find the road to a more honest and inclusive future.
February 20, 2022
At its broadest level, Lisa Brooks’ Our Beloved Kin remembers a history of King Philip’s War that is widely contrary to popular and predominant colonial narratives that permeate academia today. In her book, Brooks tells a history founded in elaborate research, acute storytelling, and diplomatic writing in order to recover the ways in which the Indigenous peoples adapted, resisted, and survived colonization. Brooks argues that the historical role of Indigenous peoples around King Philip’s War extends beyond traditional post-war Puritan narratives. She shows the influential role of Native women, the complex networks of kinship and exchange among Native peoples and settlers, and, most significantly, how consideration of alternative narratives transforms the history of the war.
Our Beloved Kin navigates the history Native peoples in colonial “New England” before, during, and after King Philip’s War. Brooks emphasizes the critical figures of Weetamoo and James Printer and uses them as a framework to unveil the leadership roles of Indigenous women amid the war, as well as the convergence of Christianity and Native belief systems. Brooks shares new historical sources as well as alternative histories embedded within notorious colonial documents, including Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, in which both Weetamoo and Printer appear. Brooks uncovers a dynamic relationship of diplomacy between Native peoples and European colonists that existed during the war and after. Furthermore, she offers an examination of their ultimate clash as a result of diverging, gendered relationships to land. By the end Our Beloved Kin, the scope of Brooks’ research and writing portrays a complex network of relationships around King Philip’s War that previously did not exist.
Our Beloved Kin navigates the history Native peoples in colonial “New England” before, during, and after King Philip’s War. Brooks emphasizes the critical figures of Weetamoo and James Printer and uses them as a framework to unveil the leadership roles of Indigenous women amid the war, as well as the convergence of Christianity and Native belief systems. Brooks shares new historical sources as well as alternative histories embedded within notorious colonial documents, including Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, in which both Weetamoo and Printer appear. Brooks uncovers a dynamic relationship of diplomacy between Native peoples and European colonists that existed during the war and after. Furthermore, she offers an examination of their ultimate clash as a result of diverging, gendered relationships to land. By the end Our Beloved Kin, the scope of Brooks’ research and writing portrays a complex network of relationships around King Philip’s War that previously did not exist.
December 29, 2020
'Our Beloved Kin' is a grind.
This book doesn't read like a popular history. Rather, it reads like a doctoral dissertation that someone figured was good enough for a small run at a collegiate press. Every chapter begins with an "In this chapter, I will show ..." Rather than immerse the reader in the history of the war, it makes said reader want to bust out a red pen and start marking. Further, the author spends a fair amount of time on the kind of synthesis, digression, and academic cross-talk that's great for a scholar bulking up her submission to a committee, but is agony for the recreational historian who just wants to know what happened, where, and why.
Nevertheless, 'Our Beloved Kin' has some real value in reshaping the narrative of King Philip's War. While most histories of the war rely primarily on English sources, this history strongly draws on the oral and written traditions of the Native American tribes involved in the conflict. By rethinking the war in terms less bounded by the perspectives of the invaders and more by the invaded, the author challenges our assumptions about the inevitable march of progress that most
American readers are taught represents U.S. history.
So, while I didn't particularly enjoy listening to 'Our Beloved Kin,' I think it was a productive use of my time. I recommend it to those with a particular interest in the history of New England, provided that individual has a stomach for contemporary academic writing.
This book doesn't read like a popular history. Rather, it reads like a doctoral dissertation that someone figured was good enough for a small run at a collegiate press. Every chapter begins with an "In this chapter, I will show ..." Rather than immerse the reader in the history of the war, it makes said reader want to bust out a red pen and start marking. Further, the author spends a fair amount of time on the kind of synthesis, digression, and academic cross-talk that's great for a scholar bulking up her submission to a committee, but is agony for the recreational historian who just wants to know what happened, where, and why.
Nevertheless, 'Our Beloved Kin' has some real value in reshaping the narrative of King Philip's War. While most histories of the war rely primarily on English sources, this history strongly draws on the oral and written traditions of the Native American tribes involved in the conflict. By rethinking the war in terms less bounded by the perspectives of the invaders and more by the invaded, the author challenges our assumptions about the inevitable march of progress that most
American readers are taught represents U.S. history.
So, while I didn't particularly enjoy listening to 'Our Beloved Kin,' I think it was a productive use of my time. I recommend it to those with a particular interest in the history of New England, provided that individual has a stomach for contemporary academic writing.
October 2, 2018
An exhilarating journey through New England wilderness when Indigenous peoples fought to retain the customs and homeland of their elders. Peeling back fragile layers of decades of misconceptions, Lisa Brooks reveals through her impeccable research, a focused snapshot of how deceptive colonialists chose to enslave and torture their hosts in the New World, eradicating entire family trees for their own selfish, heartless purposes without reverence for another culture.
This is not the history we were offered in high school! Fascinating that only through Lisa Brooks research are we able to read about the strength and family ties of FEMALE sachems and the reasons for coupling with bands other than the one in which they were born! We discover queens, sachems and tribal leaders and "hear" how they determined best to lead their extended families to safety. I read very little about how the Indigenous people were savagely attacking "innocent" colonialists......who arrived to take over the land and waterways in brutal and violent ways without provocation.
This is not the history we were offered in high school! Fascinating that only through Lisa Brooks research are we able to read about the strength and family ties of FEMALE sachems and the reasons for coupling with bands other than the one in which they were born! We discover queens, sachems and tribal leaders and "hear" how they determined best to lead their extended families to safety. I read very little about how the Indigenous people were savagely attacking "innocent" colonialists......who arrived to take over the land and waterways in brutal and violent ways without provocation.
March 13, 2021
In Our Beloved Kin, Brooks starts the reader on a journey of betrayal by the English to take the land of the Algonquin tribes. Her work has been lauded as: “To elicit the Indigenous point of view from unforgiving sources has represented a key goal of ethnohistorical scholarship for more than sixty years.”[1] Brooks has more than elicited the indigenous point of view, she has freed Weetamoo from the dustbin of patriarchal colonial narratives. Brooks focuses on two people in her narrative, Weetamoo and James Printer. The English took the indigenous lands through the manipulation of written contracts. These two people are woven into her history of female leaders, Christian conversion, violence, and successful resistance. Readers are challenged to create their own research by reviewing the colonial narratives as Brooks has done in Our Beloved Kin.
In Our Beloved Kin, women are not powerless wives to great warriors. For Brooks, Weetamoo was a leader that paralleled King Philip, Metacom. In her book, the main themes are female agency and the power of kinship. As one reviewer noted, Brooks focuses on kinship to the exclusion of division. Sassamon (Metacom interpreter) was a case in point, Brooks considered him bereft of kin and underhanded in land deeds.[2] Land deeds are being used by the English as a shell game for land grab from the indigenous. Brooks has been accused of being too lenient on her native ancestors to adequately interpret the sources. “She does not grapple with scholarship that argues Wampanoags and Narragansetts sometimes sold land to acquire munitions and goods for diplomatic gifting as part of their organizing of a resistance movement to seize back that very land.”[3]
Another weakness within her narrative is her disregard for population differences. She touches on the role of epidemics but does not explore environmental history's impact on the indigenous population. Only land deeds and English betrayal are her main argument for indigenous upheaval. The Massachusetts colony was the worst at manipulating the courts to obtain land from the different tribes who continued to live and subsist on land that the English wanted. Brooks introduces us to Metacom in relation to Weetamoo in these first chapters. Metacom signs documents that put his interpreter in question and seemingly betray Weetamo, his wife’s sister.[4] Land deeds are individually evaluated by Brooks until a final important deed by Weetamo, the Piowant deed[5]. Weetamoo powerfully protects her land, Assonet, by using the Massachusett's land deed games against them.
Brooks rhizomatically connects her narratives by place and kinship. Brooks’s method is to give an overview of the places and people leading up to King Phillip’s war with narratives of Weetamoo but also James Printer. James Printer’s life had crossed both worlds, English educated and Christian. He is the first to print a bible in his Native language. . He tried to avoid any embroilment in the burgeoning war. [6] Each segment of her narrative is a snapshot of the origin and the actual conflict with the English. James was captured, imprisoned in Cambridge prison, underwent a trial where his Christianity conversion was not helpful. He was saved by one advocate and Mohegans’ intercession that James was not part of Metacom’s tribes. [7]We learn from Brooks that being a converted Christian from one of the “Praying towns” did not prevent enslavement. Brooks gives the geographical locations of these towns where Christian tribes are located. “Brooks demonstrates convincingly (and with copious evidence) is that when we view English law, land use, military strategy, and religious practices as a system of "colonial containment" that was directly opposed to the fluid dynamism of Indigenous "networks of kinship" throughout the Northeast, the archive (broadly defined) reshapes itself before our eyes.”[8]
Brooks continues her chronology from these origins of “the warres with the Generall Nations of Indians.” [9]Throughout her narrative, she asks many rhetorical questions of her reader. As a literary device, she wants us to challenge our bias about colonial sources. For example, one of her reasons for King Philip’s war origin includes the assassination of three Wampanoag counselors that could be interpreted as an act of war. [10] You must review her choice of words to follow her method of analysis. An assassination instead of execution. Protector instead of a warrior. Brooks's use of specific words to explain the war must be noted. Indian warriors are rarely termed as such, they are referred to as “protectors.” The narrator uses “protectors” throughout her book which alters the colonial mental narrative from violent native warrior to a protector.
Brooks relies predominately on one source in her search for the origins of King Philip’s war. John Easton’s account of Metacom is her predominant colonial source in this section. There are very limited oral sources in her bibliography. Brooks revisits previous historians’ evaluation that the war was due to encroachment of land. In her evaluation, land deeds signed illegally with getting sachems drunk, the encroachment of land by English cattle, and general betrayal by the English are the predominant causes of the war. Brooks shows that Metacom adapted with his ability to recruit more kin for reclamation of land. The Wampanoag protectors divert attention using violence to help Weetamoo’s tribe escape safely during the conflict. Again, Brooks paints Weetamoo as a prominent diplomat and leader of her people instead of an unimportant relation of Metacom.
During King Philip’s war, Brooks reviews that the “protectors” were initially successful in protecting their families and driving out the English. During this segment, she analyzes the captive narrative by Mary Rowlandson. Brooks's evaluation surpassed all other previous interpretations. Even when enslaved by Weetamoo, Mary Rowlandson was unable to imagine a woman leader. The strength of the European colonial patriarchal system achieved the containment of Mary Rowlandson. She, like the indigenous, was unable to break free from patriarchal narratives of their place in the colonial world. James is also in this very important chapter as the scribe of Monoco, Brooks analyzes the Nipmuc letter, as James was revealing his transformation from English Christian back to his native people. James recognized that the English shed their Christian values when the opportunity for land grab became their sole objective. The fight for land was for base greed and human volition. [11]
In her last two chapters, the death of Weetamoo and Metacom did not end the conflict. Tribal survival continued despite English violence and the capture of indigenous sold into slavery. Research is called for in these years after Weetamoo’s death. Northern New England, New York, and New France are all briefly discussed but not fully developed. The kinship between the English and tribes that successfully fought against Metacom and Weetamoo was not fully explored. As one critic noted, “Equally disappointing is that the historical context of intertribal violence is almost entirely missing from the end of the war.” [12]
Her book is most successful at challenging gender roles within the oppressive European colonial space. By dissecting the land deeds, colonial narratives, and indigenous sources, Brooks successfully proves her argument of English betrayal to the indigenous tribes. She welcomes her readers to interpret the same sources, geography, and her book by publishing these sources as digital history websites. This reviewer welcomed the indigenous viewpoint of colonization and Brooks’s uncovering of Weetamoo’s role as important as Metacom. The groundbreaking research by Brooks's exploration of women’s leadership within the Algonquin people challenges the traditional patriarchal histories given to us by previous historians.
[1] Jon Parmenter, Book Review in Ethnohistory 66:4 (October 2019) doi 10.1215/00141801-7683402
[2] Joseph Hall. “Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War.” William & Mary Quarterly. Williamsburg: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2019.
[3] David J. Silverman, Historians and Native American and Indigenous Studies: A Reply, The American Historical Review, Volume 125, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 546–551, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa197
[4] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 63. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[5] Piowant deed. Website. piowant-deed-DOC-QR1.jpg (ourbelovedkin.com)
[6] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 175. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[7] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 199. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[8] Carlson, David J. "Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War." Early American Literature 55, no. 1 (2020): 235+. Gale Literature Resource Center (accessed February 13, 2021). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A61761....
[9] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 8. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[10] Brooks. Our Beloved Kin. 127.
[11] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 260. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[12] David J. Silverman, Historians and Native American and Indigenous Studies: A Reply, The American Historical Review, Volume 125, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 546–551, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa197
In Our Beloved Kin, women are not powerless wives to great warriors. For Brooks, Weetamoo was a leader that paralleled King Philip, Metacom. In her book, the main themes are female agency and the power of kinship. As one reviewer noted, Brooks focuses on kinship to the exclusion of division. Sassamon (Metacom interpreter) was a case in point, Brooks considered him bereft of kin and underhanded in land deeds.[2] Land deeds are being used by the English as a shell game for land grab from the indigenous. Brooks has been accused of being too lenient on her native ancestors to adequately interpret the sources. “She does not grapple with scholarship that argues Wampanoags and Narragansetts sometimes sold land to acquire munitions and goods for diplomatic gifting as part of their organizing of a resistance movement to seize back that very land.”[3]
Another weakness within her narrative is her disregard for population differences. She touches on the role of epidemics but does not explore environmental history's impact on the indigenous population. Only land deeds and English betrayal are her main argument for indigenous upheaval. The Massachusetts colony was the worst at manipulating the courts to obtain land from the different tribes who continued to live and subsist on land that the English wanted. Brooks introduces us to Metacom in relation to Weetamoo in these first chapters. Metacom signs documents that put his interpreter in question and seemingly betray Weetamo, his wife’s sister.[4] Land deeds are individually evaluated by Brooks until a final important deed by Weetamo, the Piowant deed[5]. Weetamoo powerfully protects her land, Assonet, by using the Massachusett's land deed games against them.
Brooks rhizomatically connects her narratives by place and kinship. Brooks’s method is to give an overview of the places and people leading up to King Phillip’s war with narratives of Weetamoo but also James Printer. James Printer’s life had crossed both worlds, English educated and Christian. He is the first to print a bible in his Native language. . He tried to avoid any embroilment in the burgeoning war. [6] Each segment of her narrative is a snapshot of the origin and the actual conflict with the English. James was captured, imprisoned in Cambridge prison, underwent a trial where his Christianity conversion was not helpful. He was saved by one advocate and Mohegans’ intercession that James was not part of Metacom’s tribes. [7]We learn from Brooks that being a converted Christian from one of the “Praying towns” did not prevent enslavement. Brooks gives the geographical locations of these towns where Christian tribes are located. “Brooks demonstrates convincingly (and with copious evidence) is that when we view English law, land use, military strategy, and religious practices as a system of "colonial containment" that was directly opposed to the fluid dynamism of Indigenous "networks of kinship" throughout the Northeast, the archive (broadly defined) reshapes itself before our eyes.”[8]
Brooks continues her chronology from these origins of “the warres with the Generall Nations of Indians.” [9]Throughout her narrative, she asks many rhetorical questions of her reader. As a literary device, she wants us to challenge our bias about colonial sources. For example, one of her reasons for King Philip’s war origin includes the assassination of three Wampanoag counselors that could be interpreted as an act of war. [10] You must review her choice of words to follow her method of analysis. An assassination instead of execution. Protector instead of a warrior. Brooks's use of specific words to explain the war must be noted. Indian warriors are rarely termed as such, they are referred to as “protectors.” The narrator uses “protectors” throughout her book which alters the colonial mental narrative from violent native warrior to a protector.
Brooks relies predominately on one source in her search for the origins of King Philip’s war. John Easton’s account of Metacom is her predominant colonial source in this section. There are very limited oral sources in her bibliography. Brooks revisits previous historians’ evaluation that the war was due to encroachment of land. In her evaluation, land deeds signed illegally with getting sachems drunk, the encroachment of land by English cattle, and general betrayal by the English are the predominant causes of the war. Brooks shows that Metacom adapted with his ability to recruit more kin for reclamation of land. The Wampanoag protectors divert attention using violence to help Weetamoo’s tribe escape safely during the conflict. Again, Brooks paints Weetamoo as a prominent diplomat and leader of her people instead of an unimportant relation of Metacom.
During King Philip’s war, Brooks reviews that the “protectors” were initially successful in protecting their families and driving out the English. During this segment, she analyzes the captive narrative by Mary Rowlandson. Brooks's evaluation surpassed all other previous interpretations. Even when enslaved by Weetamoo, Mary Rowlandson was unable to imagine a woman leader. The strength of the European colonial patriarchal system achieved the containment of Mary Rowlandson. She, like the indigenous, was unable to break free from patriarchal narratives of their place in the colonial world. James is also in this very important chapter as the scribe of Monoco, Brooks analyzes the Nipmuc letter, as James was revealing his transformation from English Christian back to his native people. James recognized that the English shed their Christian values when the opportunity for land grab became their sole objective. The fight for land was for base greed and human volition. [11]
In her last two chapters, the death of Weetamoo and Metacom did not end the conflict. Tribal survival continued despite English violence and the capture of indigenous sold into slavery. Research is called for in these years after Weetamoo’s death. Northern New England, New York, and New France are all briefly discussed but not fully developed. The kinship between the English and tribes that successfully fought against Metacom and Weetamoo was not fully explored. As one critic noted, “Equally disappointing is that the historical context of intertribal violence is almost entirely missing from the end of the war.” [12]
Her book is most successful at challenging gender roles within the oppressive European colonial space. By dissecting the land deeds, colonial narratives, and indigenous sources, Brooks successfully proves her argument of English betrayal to the indigenous tribes. She welcomes her readers to interpret the same sources, geography, and her book by publishing these sources as digital history websites. This reviewer welcomed the indigenous viewpoint of colonization and Brooks’s uncovering of Weetamoo’s role as important as Metacom. The groundbreaking research by Brooks's exploration of women’s leadership within the Algonquin people challenges the traditional patriarchal histories given to us by previous historians.
[1] Jon Parmenter, Book Review in Ethnohistory 66:4 (October 2019) doi 10.1215/00141801-7683402
[2] Joseph Hall. “Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War.” William & Mary Quarterly. Williamsburg: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2019.
[3] David J. Silverman, Historians and Native American and Indigenous Studies: A Reply, The American Historical Review, Volume 125, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 546–551, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa197
[4] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 63. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[5] Piowant deed. Website. piowant-deed-DOC-QR1.jpg (ourbelovedkin.com)
[6] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 175. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[7] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 199. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[8] Carlson, David J. "Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War." Early American Literature 55, no. 1 (2020): 235+. Gale Literature Resource Center (accessed February 13, 2021). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A61761....
[9] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 8. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[10] Brooks. Our Beloved Kin. 127.
[11] Lisa Brooks. Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War. 260. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 2018.
[12] David J. Silverman, Historians and Native American and Indigenous Studies: A Reply, The American Historical Review, Volume 125, Issue 2, April 2020, Pages 546–551, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa197
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2020
Brooks has put together an excellent monograph documenting some of the most important scenes and leaders of “King Phillip’s War,” this time from the perspective of key Native American actors and kinship groups.
It’s a hard read, for a few reasons. 1) It is sad. I would not underestimate the effect that reading about death, murdered children, deception, and loss of land will do to you. 2) It is dense (and long). Brooks does not hold your hand through this. You might have to memorize names/places/sachems, reference maps, use google, take notes, and take breaks. Maybe read this over an extended period. 3) It is complicated. As Brooks explains, the story of King Phillip’s War extends beyond the simple 3 year window often referenced. There are intricate relationships between tribes, nations, villages, and leaders. The context of the English “deed game” and prior developments along with the Native adaption, for example, might require a little more background than what she provides. That is to say, Brooks deliberately does not summarize; she deals in specifics.
In that same vein, the book can feel a tad inaccessible. It’s an academic work to be sure and the culmination of thousands of hours of research and hard work, but the style is sure to remind you. I knock off a star for this, just because I would have liked to see some more end-of-chapter summaries or sign-posts to keep the reader grounded. I also thought in some places her interpretations of Christian doctrine as believed by Christian Indians/some settlers was a little dismissive/reductive, but on the whole she did an excellent job explaining New Jerusalem and the settler ideals of election.
I recommend for anyone who has time and wants a more balanced perspective of a war often told by descendants of the “winning” side.
It’s a hard read, for a few reasons. 1) It is sad. I would not underestimate the effect that reading about death, murdered children, deception, and loss of land will do to you. 2) It is dense (and long). Brooks does not hold your hand through this. You might have to memorize names/places/sachems, reference maps, use google, take notes, and take breaks. Maybe read this over an extended period. 3) It is complicated. As Brooks explains, the story of King Phillip’s War extends beyond the simple 3 year window often referenced. There are intricate relationships between tribes, nations, villages, and leaders. The context of the English “deed game” and prior developments along with the Native adaption, for example, might require a little more background than what she provides. That is to say, Brooks deliberately does not summarize; she deals in specifics.
In that same vein, the book can feel a tad inaccessible. It’s an academic work to be sure and the culmination of thousands of hours of research and hard work, but the style is sure to remind you. I knock off a star for this, just because I would have liked to see some more end-of-chapter summaries or sign-posts to keep the reader grounded. I also thought in some places her interpretations of Christian doctrine as believed by Christian Indians/some settlers was a little dismissive/reductive, but on the whole she did an excellent job explaining New Jerusalem and the settler ideals of election.
I recommend for anyone who has time and wants a more balanced perspective of a war often told by descendants of the “winning” side.
December 13, 2021
Valuable information, some original research, needed perspective, but unjustifiable addition of conjectural fiction, attributing thoughts and motives and 21st-century feminist attributes to people like Weetamoo and James Printer, annoying 'woke' virtue signaling (e.g. repeatedly referring to indigenous combatants and raiders as 'protectors', and absurd spins, like making Mary Rowlandson out as if she should have been grateful for being taken hostage and losing her child. Those additions and distortions ruined the book for me.
July 25, 2021
I started this book, but didn't finish it. There might be some good stuff in here, but Brook's methodology and historical ideology is just to so opposed to my own that I decided it wasn't worth the slog to make it through. If you wonder where she is coming from, I think the best description is from her own bio, where she says that her classes "foster discussion of the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality and nationhood."
February 9, 2022
Lisa Brooks’ "Our Beloved Kin" reframes a familiar story of the Algonquian peoples during the seventeenth-century in what is now known as southeastern New England. By doing this, Brooks demonstrates that Native American sovereignty in New England did not end with the death of Metacom, the leader of King Philip’s War. Self-described as a new history of King Philip’s War, Brooks uses Native American-centric primary documents that reveal “foundational narratives [that] are either supported or entirely contradicted by primary records from the precise time and place about which they were written” (10).
There are two central figures that Brooks pays particular attention to: Weetamoo and Wawaus. Weetamoo (also known as Namumpum) was a Pocasset saunkskwa who had political influence and maintained jurisdictional control across the region throughout the war. Wawaus (also known as James Printer) was a Nipmuc scholar from Harvard's Indian College who not only translated the Bible in the Wôpanâak language, but also contributed his knowledge and skills of the English language on behalf of his family and community. By weaving their stories together, Brooks reverses “the narrative of absence” created intentionally by colonization “and reveal[s] the persistence of Indigenous adaptation and survival” (6).
Gender is one of the most recognizable theme throughout this book. Brooks juxtaposes the relationship between Weetamoo and Mary Rowlandson. Rowlandson was captured in a raid at Lancaster by the Nashaway sachem Monoco and gifted to Weetamoo. In her book published years after her experience, Rowlandson spoke lowly of the saunkskwa. She believed her to be rude and a “vain woman obsessed with physcial beauty” (264). However, this negative view of Weetamoo comes from Rowlandson’s Puritan-gendered views. Weetamoo was not a fan of Rowlandson either, of whom would “particularly display weak or selfish behavior” (265). The women in Weetamoo’s community were expected to pull their own weight and to do their share. She believed Rowlandson to be self-absorbed and lazy.
While masterfully written, a book this size is expected to have a few shortcomings. For one, Brooks assumes that the reader is vastly knowledgeable of not only Native American history in New England, but also of the key English/white players involved in King Philip’s War. Besides a few recognizable names, she immediately jumps right in and assumes their importance is known. Her intensity of details is another point to make mention of. While her richness of detail highlights the Indigenous experience, at times it feels a bit jumbled up. Some individuals that she only mentions in Part One will suddenly make a reappearance in Part Three, and this makes it difficult to recall their importance/relevance. Finally her use of historical fiction was unnecessary. Although intended to “animate the historical landscape through Indigenous frameworks” (140) it tends to add on a layer of confusion for the reader. It would have been best if she kept it strictly to her assessing her research materials.
Despite these hiccups, Brooks accomplishes her overall purpose which is to give agency to Native Americans and their encroachment by European settlers. She highlights the unique interactions between early settlers and Native Americans through an ambivalent lens. She addresses the perceptions colonists and Native American tribes had on one another using new documents that pushes the reader to “join with tribal scholars and community engaged historians in recovering the stories of Indigenous persistence and adaptation in the wake of the impacts of colonization” (346).
There are two central figures that Brooks pays particular attention to: Weetamoo and Wawaus. Weetamoo (also known as Namumpum) was a Pocasset saunkskwa who had political influence and maintained jurisdictional control across the region throughout the war. Wawaus (also known as James Printer) was a Nipmuc scholar from Harvard's Indian College who not only translated the Bible in the Wôpanâak language, but also contributed his knowledge and skills of the English language on behalf of his family and community. By weaving their stories together, Brooks reverses “the narrative of absence” created intentionally by colonization “and reveal[s] the persistence of Indigenous adaptation and survival” (6).
Gender is one of the most recognizable theme throughout this book. Brooks juxtaposes the relationship between Weetamoo and Mary Rowlandson. Rowlandson was captured in a raid at Lancaster by the Nashaway sachem Monoco and gifted to Weetamoo. In her book published years after her experience, Rowlandson spoke lowly of the saunkskwa. She believed her to be rude and a “vain woman obsessed with physcial beauty” (264). However, this negative view of Weetamoo comes from Rowlandson’s Puritan-gendered views. Weetamoo was not a fan of Rowlandson either, of whom would “particularly display weak or selfish behavior” (265). The women in Weetamoo’s community were expected to pull their own weight and to do their share. She believed Rowlandson to be self-absorbed and lazy.
While masterfully written, a book this size is expected to have a few shortcomings. For one, Brooks assumes that the reader is vastly knowledgeable of not only Native American history in New England, but also of the key English/white players involved in King Philip’s War. Besides a few recognizable names, she immediately jumps right in and assumes their importance is known. Her intensity of details is another point to make mention of. While her richness of detail highlights the Indigenous experience, at times it feels a bit jumbled up. Some individuals that she only mentions in Part One will suddenly make a reappearance in Part Three, and this makes it difficult to recall their importance/relevance. Finally her use of historical fiction was unnecessary. Although intended to “animate the historical landscape through Indigenous frameworks” (140) it tends to add on a layer of confusion for the reader. It would have been best if she kept it strictly to her assessing her research materials.
Despite these hiccups, Brooks accomplishes her overall purpose which is to give agency to Native Americans and their encroachment by European settlers. She highlights the unique interactions between early settlers and Native Americans through an ambivalent lens. She addresses the perceptions colonists and Native American tribes had on one another using new documents that pushes the reader to “join with tribal scholars and community engaged historians in recovering the stories of Indigenous persistence and adaptation in the wake of the impacts of colonization” (346).
August 27, 2019
Professor Lisa Brooks has provided an excellent re-consideration of what has been dubbed King Phillip's War, an important event in Native American history and in the history of the English colonization of Massachusetts and other New England colonies in the mid to late 1670s.
Brooks reconsiders contemporary reports from English settlers, as well as Native historical memory to tell a very different story of what she concludes was a pan-Indigenous resistance movement fundamentally caused by the unwillingness of the English colonists of Massachusetts to honor their commitments to their Native neighbors.
Massachusetts used false criminal charges, debts, and trickery to try to obtain Native sign-off on ever greater amounts of Native land. She also examines how English agricultural practices, including free-ranging cattle and pigs, invaded Native lands even before settlers sought to take Indian land, in a manner that made Native subsistence patterns unworkable.
Whereas Native nations had tended to see each other as allies or possible enemies, rather than identifying themselves as Native people along cultural or racial lines, the ongoing actions of the English colonists eventually created a pan-Indigenous identity that built on traditional alliances. Then, in a war actually instigated by English settler violence, cruelty, and trickery, many Native groups banded together across New England in an attempt to throw back English incursions and to re-establish a lost power balance between Natives and English colonists.
Ultimately, by the forced use of Natives who had converted to Christianity, the English settlers were able to track Natives in what was perceived as a wilderness, and destroy many man, women, and children. Many Natives who were captured or held captive among Christian Indians, were either put to death or sold into slavery in the West Indies. Using Native resistance as a pretext, New England was seized for English colonization and many Native peoples were killed or enslaved.
This is not a pretty history, but it is a part of the story that deserves to be told.
Brooks reconsiders contemporary reports from English settlers, as well as Native historical memory to tell a very different story of what she concludes was a pan-Indigenous resistance movement fundamentally caused by the unwillingness of the English colonists of Massachusetts to honor their commitments to their Native neighbors.
Massachusetts used false criminal charges, debts, and trickery to try to obtain Native sign-off on ever greater amounts of Native land. She also examines how English agricultural practices, including free-ranging cattle and pigs, invaded Native lands even before settlers sought to take Indian land, in a manner that made Native subsistence patterns unworkable.
Whereas Native nations had tended to see each other as allies or possible enemies, rather than identifying themselves as Native people along cultural or racial lines, the ongoing actions of the English colonists eventually created a pan-Indigenous identity that built on traditional alliances. Then, in a war actually instigated by English settler violence, cruelty, and trickery, many Native groups banded together across New England in an attempt to throw back English incursions and to re-establish a lost power balance between Natives and English colonists.
Ultimately, by the forced use of Natives who had converted to Christianity, the English settlers were able to track Natives in what was perceived as a wilderness, and destroy many man, women, and children. Many Natives who were captured or held captive among Christian Indians, were either put to death or sold into slavery in the West Indies. Using Native resistance as a pretext, New England was seized for English colonization and many Native peoples were killed or enslaved.
This is not a pretty history, but it is a part of the story that deserves to be told.
September 22, 2024
Unfortunately a LOT of this had to be skimmed (which is why I won't give it 5 star) because I needed to read this for class and I wasn't smart with my time so I started it too late :( I will definitely try to reread it when I have more time because I think that there is a lot of substance to this book, though I do think it's best read while taking notes and actively engaging with the text (which obviously takes more time than just reading through it ).
She incorporates many many narratives and discusses people involved in the conflict who most likely would not have been mentioned in colonial narratives of the book— she emphasises the leadership prowess of Weetamoo, who was always regarded as irrelevant in colonial writings, and James Printer, a student at the Harvard Indian College and navigated interactions with both the English and the Native tribes. I appreciated these narratives and wish only that I had more time to sit with the quotes.
Much of the book is woven together by quoted primary source documents and land deeds, though she ensures to contextualise each one — especially because the English definitely loved to interpret things in their own selfish greedy way 🤡 speaking of which it made me sooo angry how terrible and atrociously greedy these English people were. Like the irony is as subtle as a cement block to the face when they force the Bible down the throats of the Indigenous but can't be bothered to even be practising the core tenet of it which is literally do unto your neighbour as they do unto you or whatever it is.
Also it was really interesting to read about various lands and how the name has (or has not) been changed coming into the present day... I saw Wachusett, Natick, Boston (duh), Sudbury, Taunton, a small mention of Newton... very interesting
She incorporates many many narratives and discusses people involved in the conflict who most likely would not have been mentioned in colonial narratives of the book— she emphasises the leadership prowess of Weetamoo, who was always regarded as irrelevant in colonial writings, and James Printer, a student at the Harvard Indian College and navigated interactions with both the English and the Native tribes. I appreciated these narratives and wish only that I had more time to sit with the quotes.
Much of the book is woven together by quoted primary source documents and land deeds, though she ensures to contextualise each one — especially because the English definitely loved to interpret things in their own selfish greedy way 🤡 speaking of which it made me sooo angry how terrible and atrociously greedy these English people were. Like the irony is as subtle as a cement block to the face when they force the Bible down the throats of the Indigenous but can't be bothered to even be practising the core tenet of it which is literally do unto your neighbour as they do unto you or whatever it is.
Also it was really interesting to read about various lands and how the name has (or has not) been changed coming into the present day... I saw Wachusett, Natick, Boston (duh), Sudbury, Taunton, a small mention of Newton... very interesting
August 24, 2022
Lisa Brooks has written a definitive history of King Philip's War in New England that will topple many old myths about its historical significance. First, the name for the war is a misnomer since it encompassed many tribes along a vast region mainly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Second, Philip was his English name but he is known to historians by Metacom. Third, we meet many interesting personalities along the way including Weetamoo, James the Printer, Mary Rowlandson, Governor Leverett, and many others. What Brooks does is to resurrect the images of women in the annals of Native American history and her incisive portrayal of Weetamoo is a revelation to read. The war was caused by many factors including the settlers' use of hogs and other farm animals which trod on Indian land destroying their crops and their way of life. Also, settlers were constantly bargaining with the numerous Indian tribes cheating them out of their land. To European settlers, land under contract was totally in control by the owners. To Native Americans, land under contract was a community based operation which could be used by many groups without any type of rigid ownership. Therefore, Brook sets out to be the voice for these Indigenous peoples as she relates their stories and their lifestyles. By doing so, she opens up history to all who were involved in this major event and we can thank her for allowing us to view the whole picture. She uses personal accounts to correct some errors in the tale of Mary Rowlandson's captivity and in doing so we get a clearer account of Native American life behind the front lines. All in all, a spectacular read and a noble effort by an accomplished historian.
December 15, 2018
Fascinating and horrifying. Expertly highlights the fallibility of mainstream historical research, ie that mainstream historical research isn't actually "research," it's just repeating the same stories over and over again without really analyzing them or looking for other viewpoints. Some Puritan writes a book about what he said happened in "King Phillip's War" and historians take it at face value, despite the fact that there's no reason to believe that person had reliable knowledge on the subject. We rely on published accounts of events without thinking about the fact that those accounts were propaganda. And propaganda writers don't just skew the truth; sometimes their work contain actual lies.
Brooks dives into the kinds of resources that are often overlooked. Land deeds, personal letters, military reports, records of sales, more. She also employs critical thinking that is obvious in hindsight but has seemingly never been discussed before. If a noted liar signs a document, does that make the document unreliable? If an event is only ever written about years after it happened, and the people doing the writing weren't even present at the event, then why do we assume those writings are trustworthy?
It bogs down a little in the parts that discuss troop movements; everything kind of strung together in those sections for me... troops moved from a place to the place... most people will probably be more interested in what they did when they got there, but that doesn't mean it's not worth studying the movements. But I found the book to be otherwise easy to read, not dry, and most importantly, engages with the curiosity, critical thinking, and ethics of the reader.
Brooks dives into the kinds of resources that are often overlooked. Land deeds, personal letters, military reports, records of sales, more. She also employs critical thinking that is obvious in hindsight but has seemingly never been discussed before. If a noted liar signs a document, does that make the document unreliable? If an event is only ever written about years after it happened, and the people doing the writing weren't even present at the event, then why do we assume those writings are trustworthy?
It bogs down a little in the parts that discuss troop movements; everything kind of strung together in those sections for me... troops moved from a place to the place... most people will probably be more interested in what they did when they got there, but that doesn't mean it's not worth studying the movements. But I found the book to be otherwise easy to read, not dry, and most importantly, engages with the curiosity, critical thinking, and ethics of the reader.
February 5, 2023
White Americans, especially you who have grown up in New England, can learn so much from this book! This is history they do not teach you in school (but hopefully they will soon). As I travel now I am aware of hallowed ground in places that before I read this, were just places on a map: Mount Wachusetts, all along the Connecticut River, at the Mount Hope Bridge in Bristol Rhode Island, and sadly at Castle Island in Boston Harbor, among other places. I learned about specific remarkable indigenous leaders, and the complexity of events of the 1670s. In history class we are told that Indians left no evidence, so we know very little about them. That's false. Lisa Brooks puts together remarkable written documents from colonial archives as well as oral history. I especially valued learning about the many attempts at diplomacy by the Native people at the time. This book neatly follows The Mayflower by Nate Philbrick, although Our Beloved Kin is academic and requires some determination to get through. It was very tough to keep track of the key people! One thing is clear to me: the children and grandchildren of the first English colonists (a few of my direct ancestors) were awful, greedy, dishonest, violent, fanatics.
March 13, 2022
If you think you know about New England during this time period and haven't read this book, read it now. The amount of information erased, overlooked and revised is so much greater than I would have thought. I selected this book to learn more and understand the history of this time of this land that I live on from a non-colonial perspective. It provides so much more than just the same information presented by colonist/settler history from a different perspective.
Lisa Brooks uncovered swaths of overlooked primary sources, acknowledges oral and cultural history, and the absence of documentation all as components contributing to an understanding of the time. She sheds light on known events placed into the context of the people and cultures at play rather than through a strictly European lens, which changes the reading of many events and actions. She provides excellent history along with maps which are much more accurate for understanding this area. I can't wait to take a drive around New England with these new maps and new understanding of history.
Lisa Brooks uncovered swaths of overlooked primary sources, acknowledges oral and cultural history, and the absence of documentation all as components contributing to an understanding of the time. She sheds light on known events placed into the context of the people and cultures at play rather than through a strictly European lens, which changes the reading of many events and actions. She provides excellent history along with maps which are much more accurate for understanding this area. I can't wait to take a drive around New England with these new maps and new understanding of history.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 29, 2024
Excellent historical research. Well documented indigenous perspectives. Lovely intermittent mise-en-scene and philosophical retrospection.
This is certainly dense and rich. I'll probably reread and glean different details. Weetamoo, a female Wampanoag leader, and James Printer, a "praying Indian" educated at Harvard, have really compelling stories in the roles they play in King Phillip's War.
I loved the analysis of Mary Rolandson's account. If Mary recognized the power Weetamoo held, she would have to uproot her entire English colonial belief system. I'm so glad we can read about Weetamoo's life freed from the colonial settler's interpretations. I'm so glad she's not lost to history.
James Printer's life is such a tightrope walk between worlds. It really underscores there was no "right" way for the Natives to respond to oppression. I loved reading about the Native Americans that attended Harvard.
Overall, while there's inspiring people, it's overwhelmingly a rage-enducing, horrifying, and an embarrassing failure of the proud Euro-centric heritage of the United States. It's far too late to undo these wrongs but we can own up to them, at least.
This is certainly dense and rich. I'll probably reread and glean different details. Weetamoo, a female Wampanoag leader, and James Printer, a "praying Indian" educated at Harvard, have really compelling stories in the roles they play in King Phillip's War.
I loved the analysis of Mary Rolandson's account. If Mary recognized the power Weetamoo held, she would have to uproot her entire English colonial belief system. I'm so glad we can read about Weetamoo's life freed from the colonial settler's interpretations. I'm so glad she's not lost to history.
James Printer's life is such a tightrope walk between worlds. It really underscores there was no "right" way for the Natives to respond to oppression. I loved reading about the Native Americans that attended Harvard.
Overall, while there's inspiring people, it's overwhelmingly a rage-enducing, horrifying, and an embarrassing failure of the proud Euro-centric heritage of the United States. It's far too late to undo these wrongs but we can own up to them, at least.
May 26, 2020
Very well researched with a plethora of details. There were too many details. I had a hard time wading through all of them.
It was a clash of two cultures, with neither understanding the other. This book provides good insights about how this played out at the very local level. The book is full of Europeans going back on their word. And Native Americans not seeming to learn that lesson nor to work together in concert. There are many examples of Native Americans betraying their own.
The book does not give enough importance to the devastation of European-transported diseases and the import of that on the Native Americans and what strains that must have put on their society and well-being. It also seems to gloss over the cruelty of enslavement and sale of captured Native Americans.
When one culture views land as something that is owned and controlled, and the other views it as a common good to be used communally, one or the other culture must change or the result is inevitable.
It was a clash of two cultures, with neither understanding the other. This book provides good insights about how this played out at the very local level. The book is full of Europeans going back on their word. And Native Americans not seeming to learn that lesson nor to work together in concert. There are many examples of Native Americans betraying their own.
The book does not give enough importance to the devastation of European-transported diseases and the import of that on the Native Americans and what strains that must have put on their society and well-being. It also seems to gloss over the cruelty of enslavement and sale of captured Native Americans.
When one culture views land as something that is owned and controlled, and the other views it as a common good to be used communally, one or the other culture must change or the result is inevitable.
March 28, 2019
I haven't actually finished this wonderful book, but the library needs it back. I'll check it out again - or maybe buy a copy. Our Beloved Kin should be on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to understand colonial North America. Professor Brooks has discovered a huge treasure trove of information on Native peoples, available in the primary sources all along but ignored and overwritten by a convenient (and inaccurate) narrative of Europeans replacing the Wampanoag, the Nipmuc, the Abenaki, and other indigenous tribes. Equipped with a fresh perspective that puts Native American people and action in the foreground, and with new evidence to expand archival records, Brooks maps a familiar landscape with unfamiliar names of places and people, named in their own languages. She's given us an exciting retelling of 16th Century history.
August 4, 2022
Offers a new history of a largely overlooked period in American history (mid-to-late 17th century). The war turned out to be an inflection point in colonial-indigenous relations, with the dark forces of capital and religious conservatism violently absorbing New England's native peoples into their new regime centered ideologically around fanatic protection of private property. Most notably, Brooks offers a critical reading of a fascinating primary document: "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson", in which a Massachusetts Bay Colony housewife recounts the story of her kidnapping by a war party of the Wampanoag coalition. Brooks reads between the lines of Mary Rowlandson's terror and uses the work to highlight the results of the conflict of understandings of the world.
November 14, 2021
Exceptionally well researched and presented, this history draws from original historical documents to provide multifaceted perspectives on the interactions among North American Indigenous people and mostly English colonists (and within their own groups) in what is now the Northeast of the USA. THe book is quite compelling and informative.
Given the distress in the USA of present, this is essential reading. The book provides a thoughtful consideration of the situaions, persons, and documents. This consideration has broad applicability as we continue to grapple with diversity, equity, and inclusion around the globe. -- how do vastly different cultures and their people come to live together?
A must read for those who find themselves in North America. HIghly recommended.
Given the distress in the USA of present, this is essential reading. The book provides a thoughtful consideration of the situaions, persons, and documents. This consideration has broad applicability as we continue to grapple with diversity, equity, and inclusion around the globe. -- how do vastly different cultures and their people come to live together?
A must read for those who find themselves in North America. HIghly recommended.
December 2, 2021
Lisa Brooks is an outstanding historian. I am so glad that I read this book for a much more thorough understanding of early colonial settlement history, as well as the origins of Harvard College and insight into the literacy of certain Indians. So much of the information presented is heartbreaking, as is the hypocrisy of the supposedly historical narrative which existed prior to accurate historical research. I felt the only weakness was in the italicized fictional sections, and in most cases I skipped them and went straight to the continuation of the actual historical events. When suppositions were made, I did find them to be very credible. The story of James Printer was positively amazing, so much so that it would make an excellent movie.
February 7, 2021
A beautiful quotation from Milan Kundera at the outset-- speaks volumes for all times and is resonant with today:
The first step in liquidating a people...is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around will forget even faster.
--Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978)
The first step in liquidating a people...is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around will forget even faster.
--Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978)
June 21, 2022
This book provides an important history of King Phillip's War, taking into account the native American perspective, and really makes you wish there were more histories that did so. I skimmed some other reviews and saw some that said it was maybe too "academic." I didn't find this to be the case, but I did find that the story could have been told a tiny bit more cohesively. Not that it isn't amazingly researched, it just wasn't always told in quite the same fashion. Anyway, I just ordered and can't wait to read The Common Pot.
May 28, 2025
Big recommend , important work. Something to be revisited and explored as a point of reference for further education. Just the intro had me slack jawwed and ready to sit at attention for hours. This book is one of many that leaves me with a feeling dispair having been denied this education as a youth, a sadness to recognize the jarring completeness with which this land changed, and missing of all the knowledge and history I will never know. Those things certainly selfish, I applaud and appreciate the historians who work to keep this knowledge alive.
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