Metacom

Metacom

 or Metacomet or King Philip

(born 1638, Massachusetts—died Aug. 12, 1676, Rhode Island) Wampanoag Indian sachem (head of a confederation of Algonquian tribes). His father, Massasoit, had negotiated peace with the Pilgrims in 1621. Embittered by the subsequent humiliations to which he and his people were continually subjected by whites, Metacom in June 1675 led a confederation of Wampanoag, Narragansett, Abenaki, Nipmuck, and Mohawk warriors into battle. Known as King Philip's War, the ensuing conflict was the most brutal Indian war in New England history. After considerable loss of life and property on both sides, the confederation began to disintegrate, and food became scarce. Metacom returned to his ancestral home, where he was betrayed and killed in 1676 by an Indian informant allied with the colonists. He was beheaded and quartered, and his head was displayed on a pole for 25 years at Plymouth.