A dozen people gathered at the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society on July 31, 2022 for a Book Club discussion of Our Beloved Kin, by Lisa Brooks. Led by Sowams Heritage Area Project Coordinator Dr. David Weed (on the far right in the photo), the group shared their reactions to the book and the many points the author makes about the King Philip War and its interpretation from an Indigenous perspective.

From the publisher: “With rigorous original scholarship and creative narration, Our Beloved Kin recovers a complex picture of war, captivity, and 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. King Philip’s War (1675-1678) is often viewed as the quintessential moment of colonial conquest and Native resistance, but these stories reveal a historical landscape much more complex than its original. . . Supplemented by thirteen maps and an interactive website, Our Beloved Kin takes readers into Indigenous geographies, braiding together research in historical archives, including little-known revelatory documents, interpretive frameworks drawn from Indigenous languages, and place-based history which arises from reading ‘the archive of the land” to offer a compelling new interpretation of “King Philip’s War.’”