This video tells a brief history of the Massachusetts Indians’ struggle against the colonizers in the late 17th century. Click here for a 5-minute video produced by Jaguar Amaru Maur-reis and posted on October 3, 2025.

On September the 18th in the year 1675, the Black Sachem of the Pokanoket Indians named Metacom, who was also known as King Philip, initiated a vicious attack against the English colonists. The attack, known as the Battle of Bloody Brook, occurred in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, which caused the death of approximately 65 settlers out of a band of 85 English militia men who were escorting a supply wagon.

Chief Metaccom and his Indigenous allies had grown tired and weary of the colonizers’ evils and said enough was enough. They began many skirmishes and battles in a fight to redeem their homeland as well as their people. This is the reason we honor the date of September 18th and remember the Chief, Metacom and the other valiant Indians who fought and died defending their homeland from European interlopers.

Above are some artists’ ideas of what some of the original American Indians really looked like as well as an early photo of tribal members.