This week, PBS premiered the first of its five-part series on American Indian history, "We Shall Remain [1]." Part One was full of interesting historical detail and rich characterizations of a people normally reduced to caricature.
Our journey began Monday with the airing of "After the Mayflower [2]," which covers history from just before the pilgrims came ashore in 1621 until the end of King Philip's War in 1676.
The next four parts will cover subsequent Native history. The 90-minute episodes will air each Monday through May 11.
But this miniseries is not a reiteration of your 11th grade history book.
Native Director Weaves Analysis and Drama
The first three episodes are directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho) of "Smoke Signals" and "Skins" fame, who went to great lengths to present the Native leaders involved in the historic events neither as wanton savages nor noble martyrs but simply as people facing some difficult situations.
Eyre skillfully weaves the analysis of American Indian scholars with the dramatic depiction of the events by Native actors so the overall effect was neither too Hollywood or too snoozeville.
The character of Massasoit, the Wampanoag chief who negotiated the first treaty with the pilgrims and then celebrated with them the first Thanksgiving, was particularly moving. Played by Marcos Akiaten (Chokonen Chiricahua Apache) with painful self-realization, the historians take you step by step through the events that led to the end of Indian independence.
When the pilgrims first landed on Plymouth Rock, the Wampanoag have been weakened by an epidemic left by European explorers. The pilgrims come across an abandoned village and attribute its vacancy to God clearing the path for them to settle the land.
Despite their dwindled numbers, Massasoit and his remaining men are still more than strong enough to easily wipe out the pilgrims.
Leader Massasoit had to Make an Impossible Decision
But according to historians, once Massasoit sees they brought women and children, he takes that as assurance they mean no harm.
It is at this point, when his people are pressuring him to eradicate these foreigners and he is unwilling to yet make up his mind, you know he must be thinking of the 90 percent of the tribe who died during the epidemic. Because of this, Massasoit eventually decides to ally with pilgrims, to compensate for the men he has lost to disease.
One of the most interesting things on Part I was that a member of Massasoit's tribe spoke some English. He had been kidnapped by explorers as a boy but returned to his tribe as an adult. So, when Massasoit decided to approach the pilgrims and negotiate a treaty, he was able to bring a translator.
Everyone knows what happens next — the nice Indians teach the pilgrims how to plant corn so they don't starve, and in the end they sit down and have a Thanksgiving meal together.
And so, for a while, it seems Massasoit's decision to ally with the pilgrims paid off. They are trading beaver furs for wampum shells and European goods like kettles and knives and everyone is happy.
New Immigrants Ballooned from 300 to 20,000
But in the spring of 1630, one thousand new immigrants came to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the next five years thousands more came — the European population of North America went from 300 to 20,000 in less than a generation.
Smallpox killed so many tribes the pilgrims had room to expand. The beaver population has dried up and Massasoit is once again a leader with an impossible decision to make. He was forced to sell some land to ensure the tribe's survival, albeit at what he could get — at one point when he tried to negotiate the price he was told it was a done deal and had no say in the matter.
By the time his son Metacom, or King Philip, as he is more commonly known, became chief in the 1660s, the situation for the Wampanoag is irreparably bleak. The English had already obliterated the Pequot — including the slaughter of an undefended village of 700 — who had been at that point the strongest tribe.
King Philip declares a moratorium on land sales in his tribe to at least hold on to what they had — the settlers would find ways of getting around it, however, simply by taking it or indebting Natives when they were sick and seizing the land as a method of payment for health care.
Personalities are Part of the Story, Too
Annawon Weeden (Mashpee Wampanoag), who played King Philip, gave a stellar performance, capturing the reckless urgency of the young leader who knew no other world than one where foreigners were rapidly pushing his people towards annihilation. So, in 1675, the Wampanoag allied with their former enemy the Narragansett and fought against the settlers.
King Philip's War dragged on for over a year — and at one point the colonists seemed poised for defeat, with many families giving up and returning to Europe. But then the Mohawk, longtime allies with the Europeans, aided in a surprise attack against the Native warriors and turned the tide of the war.
Captured Indians were sold into slavery in the West Indies. John Alderman, a Native who had converted to Christianity, shot and killed King Philip and kept his right hand as a souvenir.
King Philip's head was displayed on a stake for two decades, and the rest of his body was scattered throughout the colonies. King Philip's 9-year-old son was initially imprisoned, and then sent to the West Indies to be enslaved as well.
As a Native person, I had to keep myself from screaming at the screen sometimes during this episode because I knew the effects the choices would have. But at the same time, there was something utterly cathartic at tossing away the whitewashed view of history I had been taught, and embracing the raw heroism of these men who existed before John Wayne's teeth ever marred the screen with his first crooked grin.
This review was written in Columbia, Mo.