Friends and enemies: bounding peoples

In issuing this directive to Mohawk leaders in 1677, colonial magistrates used a special language for thinking about the position of Praying Indians in the aftermath of King Philip's War. Having recruited Mohawks to bring an end to the Native resistance that continued in northern New England, English officials unwittingly exposed Praying Indians to Mohawk raids. The most devastating loss resulted in the capture of twenty-two Indians from a cornfield at Magunkaquog near Natick in 1678. Mohawk leaders attempted to disassociate themselves from the incident, but also argued: “ye Indians of Magoncog are not ye lesse to blame, they not dwelling as frind Indians in ye Woods, haveing a Castell so well fortifyed wth stockadoes, which frind Indians need not have, Therefore did Imagine them to be Enemyes.” The Mohawk explanation was almost certainly disingenuous, given that their raids against Praying Indians had begun at least as early as the 1660s. But the English and Mohawk agreed in principle that a distinction should be made between “frind Indians” and “Enemyes.” Their negotiations centered on the problem of how to tell the difference between the two.