ABSTRACT
In the winter of 1675–76, a frantic father, Job Kattenanit, became separated from his three children during the wrenching conflict known as King Philip’s War, which pitted most of southern New England’s native peoples against English colonists. King Philip’s War had a clear religious meaning for the English: God had allowed the “savage” Indians to assail the godly and test their faith so that they would have a chance to reform themselves and be confirmed as a special people of God. When violence broke out at Plymouth, colonial leaders in Massachusetts and Connecticut feared that it would spread and sent out teams of negotiators to ensure the loyalty of neighboring native peoples. Indians, who were acutely aware of the political rifts between the various English colonies, and between those colonies and the Crown, had not thought in terms of “sides” being defined by “race” or ethnicity.
