March 24: Metacom’s Resistance: Re-telling King Philip’s War and Its Legacy
Tue March 24, 2026
6 pm
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
6:00pm – 7:30pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway and online
Free
The Past is Now: An Intertribal Panel on King Philip’s War, Past and Present
Is King Philip’s War really part of the past? Four Indigenous speakers tell us that it’s still deeply present.
People who are not Indigenous often think of Metacom’s Resistance – more commonly known as King Philip’s War – if they know of it – as part of a distant past. If we have read children’s stories of an idealized colonial life, or educated with traditional textbooks, we might think of the war as a single violent chapter in an otherwise quaint, albeit colorful, history, with colonial heroes bravely conquering their enemies.
Historical markers dotting the New England countryside, especially in Massachusetts, reinforce this idea: it was brutal, but the colonists emerged victorious, and in any event it was long ago – nothing to do with life today. For Indigenous communities, the past is not so easily left behind – and nor should it be for non-Indigenous people. We all live today with its aftermath. King Philip’s War continues to shape daily life, experience, and memory.
Panelists include:
- Hartman Deetz, Mashpee Wampanoag
- Brad Lopes, Aquinnah Wampanoag
- Brittney Walley, Hassanamisco Nipmuc
- Elizabeth Solomon, Massachusett at Ponkapoag, moderator
On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, this panel invites audiences to grapple with a foundational war of Indigenous resistance on its 350th anniversary – and to see that it is not past, but deeply present, for us all.
This talk is presented in collaboration with Partnerships of Historic Bostons and the Cambridge Public Library.
At the end of the event, the panelist recommended these books by Native authors:
Adult Books
- Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History by Linford D. Fisher
- Historical archaeology and indigenous collaboration: discovering histories that have futures by Rae D. Gould
- The patriot chiefs: a chronicle of American Indian resistance by Alvin M. Josephy
- Nothing more of this land: community, power, and the search for Indigenous identity by Joseph Lee
- Firsting and lasting : writing Indians out of existence in New England by Jean M. O’Brien
- After King Philip’s War : presence and persistence in Indian New England
Children’s Books
- Colonization and the Wampanoag story by Linda Coombs
- Grandmother Moon by Wunneanatsu Lamb-Cason
- Wôpanâak Seasons : Seeqan, Neepun, Keepun, Pup8n by Carrie Anne Vanderhoop
Want to brush up on the history of the conflict? Watch this video!