In this episode of his 350th Anniversary series on King Philip’s War, Stan Svec focuses on the differences between the First Nations and English Colonies in New England. From their views on the role of the sexes through religion, economics and law, no cultures could be more different than the Native people and the assorted English colonies. That War came should be no surprise but that peace lasted nearly three generations surely is! Click here for a 14-minute video posted on June 12, 2025 by Fishing Historic Places.

Svec begins by describing how the colonists built their permanent houses by felling and splitting wood and later by making bricks where clay could be found. Native people by contrast built non-permanent structures called “wetus” that could be moved easily and took few resources and little labor.

Svec goes on to to talk about the differences in how the two cultures experience time, with the English thinking of time as a linear, non-repeating continuum whereas the Native cultures, like the Aztec, thought of time as circular events that repeated every 52 years, or every three generations. They also understood laws and treaties differently, even though Native leaders signed deeds and other documents.

Each side thinks the other is crazy and see the world in fundamentally different ways, so it was only a matter of time before it all came to a head in the War that broke out in 1675.