Praying Indians of Natick

These served as refuges to Christian Native Americans, whose communities had been ravaged by infectious disease, warfare, and encroachment by white settlers.

It helped facilitate the goals of Christianization and acculturation as it allowed for easier distribution of the Massachusett-language translations of Eliot's Bible and other works.

The inhabitants were forced to observe the eight tenements of the "Leaf of Rules" distributed in the Bibles which forbid Indian cultural norms such as consenting pre-marital sex, cracking lice between teeth, avoidance of agriculture by men, and reinforced adoption of European clothing and hairstyles.

Many of the Praying towns were established by Native missionaries drawn from Natick's old powerful families, affording them much respect in their adopted communities.

The Massachusett leaders were also closer to the colonial authorities and thus often chosen to spread official messages, restoring the old power dynamic vis-à-vis other tribes.

Natick had an independent congregation with a Christian church, but the services were conducted in Massachusett with Indian preachers and the parishioners were called by Native drumming.

The Praying Indians of Natick were brought to court several times by groups of colonists from Dedham, Massachusetts that claimed some of the land, but with Eliot's assistance, most of these attempts failed.

Most of the time, however, the Indians failed, as some of the Indian interpreters and chiefs ceded lands to curry favor from the colonists to maintain special privileges, such as the Nipmuc John Wampas, who betrayed the Nipmuc and Massachusett people by selling land to the settlers to which he had no claim, but these sales were upheld in later court challenges.

All Indians, Christian and traditional religionists, were forced to observe the Christian Sabbath and were restricted from a wide range of activities, such as hunting, fishing and farming or entering any colonial settlements, and heavy fines were imposed on those caught practicing the shamanic rights or consulting traditional spiritual leaders or healers.

[7] The outbreak of King Philip's War from 1675 until 1676 was disastrous for both the Indians and the English colonists, with enormous bloodshed and destruction on both sides.

The Praying Indians were attacked in their fields and harassed by neighboring colonists who had become overwhelmed with panic, hysteria, and anti-Indian sentiment.

By 1681, the Indians were allowed to return to their respective homes but continued to face harassment, retaliatory attacks, local killings, and abuse to their lands and property by neighboring colonists.

[10] Instead of being absorbed into the general affairs of a town which was now dominated by white colonists, the colonial government appointed a commissioner to oversee the Natick in 1743.

Many fought with distinction as guides, interpreters and scouts in units such as Gorham's Rangers, such as Abraham Speen, John Babysuck and Jonathan Womsquam, all of whom had ties to Natick's old families.

[15] Native American veterans of the Revolution include Joseph Paugenitt, Jonas Obscow, Alexander Quapish of Natick.

As wards of the colonial and later state government, the Indians were restricted from voting in local elections or seeking redress through the courts on their own.

The guardians, however, no longer had to maintain the rigorous lists of people associated with the land, which long had been used to segregate the Indians from the non-Indians especially as rates of intermarriage had increased.

[citation needed] The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ordered reports on the condition of the Indians, mainly for the purposes of keeping track of the expenses and check up on the guardians, who more or less operated autonomously with little oversight from the General Court.

The most detailed, and last, of the reports conducted by John Milton Earle was started in 1859 and published in 1861, includes even more information, such as surnames, location, and profession.

"[26] Several organizations, who are not recognized as Native American tribes by the US federal or Massachusetts state governments claim descent from the Praying Indians of Natick.