Peace Medal and the Petition of the Indian Officers
The petition of the Indian Officers was not wholly successful. Despite the petition, and the testimonies of both James Quananpohit and Job Kattenait, Captain Tom was judged guilty. Massachusetts Bay’s response to the petitioners first re-asserted the conviction of Captain Tom, referring to him as an “instigator” and “actor in the devastation.” The Massachusetts Bay governor and council did grant the petitioners’ request for the lives of the women and children. They also were willing to consider showing “favour” to their kin and others still abroad, “on their comeing in and submitting themselves to the English government.” The petition granted those abroad 14 days to submit themselves and take this “priviledge.”[2]To the Honourable the Governor and Council of the Massachusetts Colony, Assembled at Boston this of June 1676
The humble petition of Andrew Pittimee, Quanahpohkit, alias James Rumney Marsh, John Mague, and James Speen, officers unto the Indian souldiers, now in your service, with the consent of the rest of the Indian souldiers being about eighty men;
Humbly imploreth your favour and mercies to be extended to some of the prisoners taken by us, (most of them) near Lancaster, Marlborough, &c: In whose behalf we are bold to supplicate your Honoures. And wee have three reasons for this humble supplication; first, because the persons we beg pardon for, as we are informed, are innocent; and were against their wills, taken and kept among the enemy. Secondly, because it pleased your Honours to say to some of us, to encourage us to fidelity and activity in your service, that you would be ready to do any thing for us, that was fitt for us to ask and you to grant. Thirdly, that others that are out, and love the English, may be encouraged to come in. More that we humbly intercede for, is the lives and libertyes of those few of our poor friends and kindred, that, in this time of temptation and affliction, have been in the enemy’s quarters; we hope it will be no griefe of heart to you to shew mercy, and especially to such who have (as we conceive) done no wrong to the English. If wee did think, or had any ground to conceive that they were naught, and were enemies to the English, we would not intercede for them, but rather bear our testimony against them, as we have done. We have (especially some of us) been sundry times in your service to the hazzard of our lives, both as spyes, messengers, scouts, and souldiers, and have through God’s favour acquitted ourselves faithfully, and shall do as long as we live endeavour with all fideltie to fight in the English cause, which we judge is our cause, and also God’s cause, to oppose the wicked Indians, enemies to God and all goodness. In granting this our humble request, you will much oblige us who desire to remain
Your Honoures Humble and Faithful Servants
Andrew Pittimee,
James Quanapokhit,
Job,
John Magus,
James Speen
The persons we supplicate for, are Capt. Tom, his son Nehemiah, his wife and two children, John Uktuck, his wife and children, Maanum and her child.
And if the Council please not to answer our desires in granting the lives and liberties of all these, yett if you shall please to grant the women and children, it will be a favour unto us.[1]
Peace Medal
Just a few days following the Massachusetts Bay governor and council’s response to the petition of the Indian officers, the colony of Massachusetts honored a company of eighty Christian Indian scouts for their service at a council held in Charlestown, Massachusetts. These scouts included the signers of the petition, Pittimee, Quanapohit, Magus, Kattenait, and Speen, along with many men who had only been recently released from Deer Island in return for their service.[3] The families of these scouts were “not permitted at first to return to their towns, but had to remain in Boston, under the watch of white guardians.”[4]At the council, the officers were recognized with a peace medal. The front side of the medal featured an image based on the original Massachusetts seal used by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. The original seal depicted a stereotyped Indian figure with the phrase "come over and help us." The peace medal presented to the scouts acknowledged this help, but flips the narrative of the falsified stereotype, instead recognizing the critical “help” that the Indian officers provided to the English.
The back side of the medal reads "At a council, Held at Charlestown, June the 20th, 1676. In the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this Land, they giving us peace and mercy at there hands" signed “Edward Rawson,” the secretary for the Massachusetts Council. The governor and council recognized the scouts’ crucial role as Christian allies, and servants, in this moment. This recognition, however, also fostered a divide between the scouts and those they fought against, some being their own families, and those whom the English deemed as "heathen[s].”[5]
This medal may have meant little to the petitioners and scouts. They had hoped for the release of their leader, Tom, and the safety of their relations still abroad. A short few days after the council, Captain Tom was hanged.
The original Massachusetts seal featured on the peace medal bears resemblance to the present day seal, featured on the Massachusetts State flag. This seal and its presence on official state documents remain contentious topics of debate. In 2015, amidst ongoing conversations surrounding the removal of the Confederate Flag from government buildings in the south, the Boston Globe published an opinion piece describing the symbolism of the Massachusetts flag and the racism inherent in it. New England Public Radio published a similar piece, highlighting contemporary Native voices.
The peace medal is currently on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.
While the petition of the Indian Officers did not achieve its full intent, it did, however, allow James Printer and Nehimiah, Captain Tom’s son, to come in under the “priviledge” of the two week window granted by the governor and council in response to the petition.[6]
[1] Mary White Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: With Related Documents, ed. Neal Salisbury (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), 78-80. Henry Nourse, ed., The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Cambridge: J. Wilson, 1903), 137.
[2] Mary White Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: With Related Documents, ed. Neal Salisbury (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), 78-80. Henry Nourse, ed., The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Cambridge: J. Wilson, 1903), 138.
[3] Lisa Brooks, Peace Medal, Infinity of Nations, (National Museum of the American Indian 2010), 189
[4] Mandell, Daniel R. Behind the frontier: Indians in eighteenth-century eastern Massachusetts. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 2000), 25
[5] Lisa Brooks, Peace Medal, Infinity of Nations, (National Museum of the American Indian 2010), 189
[6] Mary White Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: With Related Documents, ed. Neal Salisbury (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), 78-80. Henry Nourse, ed., The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Cambridge: J. Wilson, 1903), 140.
