King Philip's War killed up to 5,000 Indigenous people, outpacing American Revolution deaths per capita
As New England marks 250 years of independence, the 350th anniversary of the colonial conflict that decimated Native populations receives comparatively little official attention.
By Thiago Kovalenko ·
King Philip’s War killed an estimated 3 to 5,000 Indigenous people and 800 colonists, a death rate per capita that exceeds that of any other conflict in colonial or United States history. The war, which began in 1675, is being marked this year with its 350th anniversary. This milestone arrives simultaneously with the 250th anniversary of American independence, a period currently dominated by Revolutionary War celebrations in Massachusetts.
Metacom, a Pokanoket leader also known as King Philip, organized an alliance of New England tribes to resist English colonization. He led the Pokanoket, Nipmuc, and Narragansett peoples in a struggle for regional control. Metacom died in August 1676, and his head was displayed on a stake outside Plymouth. His wife and son were sold into slavery. Many other Indigenous people were sold or executed on Boston Common after the war ended.
Historians note that the conflict marked a turning point in colonial Indigenous relations. Christine De Lucia, an assistant professor of history at Williams College, states that recognizing both anniversaries simultaneously offers a chance to examine why some history receives more attention than others. She argues that the issues present during King Philip’s War, such as the theft of Native lands, intensified rather than disappeared by the time of the American Revolution.
Mack Scott III, an assistant professor of critical Native American and Indigenous studies at Brown University and a Narragansett member, describes how the war is often remembered through national lore that frames the transfer of land as a benevolent or natural process. He notes that many Americans view the removal of Indigenous people as preordained, making the violence of the conflict seem inevitable or even divine in origin.
The war was a conflict of attrition that left Indigenous forces unable to sustain warriors or plant crops. Donald Brown Jr., the official historian of the Pokanoket and a descendant of Metacom, explains that many tribes surrendered due to starvation or exposure. Colonial leader Benjamin Church adopted Indigenous tactics, and an Indigenous man named John Alderman guided an expedition that killed Metacom at Mount Hope in present-day Rhode Island.
While the Wabanaki in Maine continued fighting until 1678 and retained their land, other tribes suffered heavy losses. The Narragansett lost many warriors in the engagement known to colonists as the Great Swamp Fight and to Indigenous people as the Great Swamp Massacre. Praying Indians, who were Christians, were relocated to Deer Island in Boston Harbor, where hundreds died from lack of supplies during the winter.
State governors in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island did not respond to inquiries about planned commemorative events for the 350th anniversary. Despite the lack of large scale state events, local and inter tribal commemorations have occurred. In 2024, Brown University returned 255 acres of ancestral land at Mount Hope in Bristol to the Pokanoket tribe. This land back grant is one of the largest given to a non federally recognized tribal community.
The Rhode Island General Assembly passed Senate Resolution S1034 last year, officially acknowledging the Pokanoket tribe as the stewards of their ancestral land. Brown states that this recognition helps secure their territory in perpetuity and affirms that the past does not erase their ongoing presence.
