Metacomet: The Faceless Man (real history sort of)

[aneaglesangel]

On June 27th, Whaling City Ghosts will once again be guests for Spooky Southcoast's Bridgewater Triangle Special Edition Show. This year, they will be focusing on King Philip's War, which I have to say, I'm very excited about. I have such a kinship in my heart for the Wampanoags and hope that my team can again make contact with them. I hope you enjoy my made up story of how Philip got his REAL name! If you'd like to hear or see the show it airs on WBSM in the greater New Bedford area and can be heard online through live stream and Spooky TV on JustinTV. Links for all sites can be found at Spooky's main site at www.spookysouthcoast.com. Hope you enjoy!

The Puritans painted a picture of the infamous King Philip that was not one I can imagine. I see a different man when I picture the face of Metacomet, for I refuse to know him by the title given him by the English and meant to ridicule him. When I picture the faceless man, Metacomet, I see a grandfather, brother, ancestor, one who's eyes burned with hope and sorrow for his people. I see the Wolf Hunter in all his glory at the peak of his age, proud, tall. Warrior. Sachem. King? Yes, but not as the English saw it. In my heart I wonder if Metacom knew he could never lead his people into freedom, but even knowing this, he believed he had to try anyway.

History can not give you the true face of Metacomet. It has been lost in the prejudices of the past. The books I read on the history of King Philip's War describe him as a naked, dirty savage. I see him as something more. I imagine a small village. Smoke rises and fish dries on lines, people move about dressed in deer leather. Tall and proud. Women moving just as easily as the men, for they had power, too. The three sisters, corn, squash and beans grow in neat gardens. But when night falls, the village lives in fear. For in the darkness, flashing eyes and teeth stalk the shadows looking for scraps. Wolves have gotten desperate this year. If not for the stores of food, the Wampanoags would have known great hunger and despair themselves. The people live in fear that the wolves will grow more brave. A sullen silence settles in over their nights as they wait in fear.

A brave warrior hears of their plight. He travels and finds the village and is offered food and drink, lodging for the night. The warrior accepts the food but tells the villagers that he will be moving on before the night has fallen. The elders, who recognize the man, try to speak against his plans, they tell him of the wolves who stalk the darkness, who visit the village in the night. Smiling, the warrior strokes his bow and tells them he'll be careful. After he has eaten his fill, made his manners to the elders of this tribe, he moves down the path, taking note of the signs of movements that go on throughtout the forest. Wolf tracks are easy to spy along the soft soil of the path. Everything is soft after the spring melt. He follows and disappears in the trees.

Following the wolves' tracks he devises a plan and settles in. Taking his arrows, he lays them down neatly, running his fingers gently over the feathers and sending a prayer to Great Spirit that their flights be true. Four times tonight in the darkness, his aim must be his best, or he'd pay with his life he knew. The almost full Worm Moon rose above him, turning the woods to silver as he spied movement not far off. He waited. Tonight if he was patient maybe he would survive.

(Will be cont...as soon as approved...it was a bit too long...sorry )

[aneaglesangel]

Quietly, he nocked an arrow and took aim. The wolves were in a position finally that would lend his speed with his bow a grouping to shoot for. Taking a breath, he remembered that a warrior must aim with his heart to make a kill, for what else does a man kill with, if not his heart? He loosed the arrow, in a smooth motion, too quick almost to see, he had another arrow nocked and loosed. He followed suit twice more. In the moonlight, the bodies of three gray wolves lay still. The fourth whined and tried to drag itself away. The warrior stood, unsheathing his knife.

Hearing the cries of the wounded wolf, people ran from their weetu and stood watching as the warrior bent to grasp the wolf's head and slice its throat and so end its suffering. Gathering around, they gazed with awe at the pile of bodies at the warrior's feet. Smiling, the men gathered around, slapping him heartily on the back, "Yoaw ontoquas neemat!" (Four wolves my brother! or as close as I can come.) Others called out, naming him, "Metacomet," the "Wolf Hunter."

He could only smile and feel pride for the moment, for in his eyes there was sadness. There was a storm coming, he could feel it in his heart. Wolves would not be the last lives he was to take, he knew this. He had not even known what had driven him here to this village where rumors of wolf attacks had filtered. One night he had walked in the dream world and seen himself standing over the bodies of wolves, but then they had turned into the bodies of his people, women and children. He knew it was an important vision and that the wolves had been let loose upon his people. Where was he to turn? Was killing the wolves really the answer? At the expense of his people? As Metacomet set his feet upon the path toward his home, his step was light. There had to be hope. There had to be a way to make peace. There was always a way. And so Metacomet set his feet upon the path that led him into history......


I made this story up. It is a side of Metacomet that no one has ever seen. A picture I'd like to paint. All of the stories I've read never paint him in a positve light. He's always a savage. I could never see him that way. I believe it took a lot to make this man decide to lead his people into war against the settlers. I like to think he was forced into it. No one will ever know the face of Metacomet, there are no existing pictures of him. If there are, they were drawn by the settlers and depict a half naked savage. Not a proud and determined man who probably would have rather taken peace over the slaughter of his people. I see a man who tried to stand up for what his people believed in, while maintaining that peace and way of life they'd known for so long, before the English set foot upon his lands. When I see the face of Metacomet, I see a tall and handsome man, a brave man. A warrior. A brother. An Elder. Sachem. King.

I hope by making up my story of how Metacomet got his name makes you see that face, too!

[aneaglesangel]

Note: there will be some more pieces to this that I will add as this is approved and as I have time. I hope you enjoy. I hold the Wampanoags close to my heart. I was honored to hear the recording where they called my team "keetompoag" which is a Wampanoag word that means, "friend, kinsman." I hope to also be able to share the audio clips with you if allowed! I was so happy that they allowed me to share this with all of my new friends here! This is the stuff that makes me tick!

[aneaglesangel]

Before I share the audio that my team recorded at Anawan Rock in Rehoboth, Ma, I wanted to give you some facts about the Wampanoags and the settlers.

When the Pilgrims came to America in 1620, they were a sorry lot. That first winter, they probably would have starved to death. The trip overseas had been hard and they had little food. The Wampanoags, and King Philip's (Metacomet's) father, Massasoit was the Sachem at the time, shared their food stores with the Pilgrims. In this way, they saved the very same people who would later murder them and sell them into slavery. The first Thanksgiving is this very story, how the Wampanoags saved the Pilgrims from starvation, showing them the turkeys which were quite prolific and sharing the stores of corn, beans and squash that they had stored for the winter. When the Pilgrims came here, they sought religious freedom. Isn't it a shame that they couldn't give the same to the Wampanoags? You see if you weren't a "praying Indian" then you were not allowed rights.

Also, per capita, the King Philip's war was the bloodiest war fought on American soil. Now yes, Antietam had a much great loss of life, but we're talking a small land mass, a small population and a war that only lasted about a year, yet for such a small area and even with such a small population, the loss of life was devastating. The number of Wampanoags during this time went from around 5,000 to about 500 between the war and the influenza that the white man brought with him.

Even so, the Wampanoags have forgiven much as you'll see with the audio I recorded.

[aneaglesangel]

Now a note must be made here for first time EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) listeners. This is sort of a learned skill. Spirits do not speak in a normal human range. I'm not going to get all technical on you here, but it's a different range and it takes getting used to. I suggest using headphones, a good sound system and listen a few times to each one. I will tell you what they say to help you, which normally, for another investigator, I will not. For laypeople I do this to help them along. In the paranormal field I am known for getting great audio, for you guys, it will take some time getting used to listening to this stuff, and I encourage you, practice makes perfect. Feel free to listen as much as you need to. The words will get easier to pick out. Also, I'm letting you hear the ones that a group called ECHOES here in Mass has cleaned for use in a documentary about the King Philip's War that will be coming out soon. These were done outside so there was a little bit of noise, which they removed for me, for use in this documentary. One more note, it was February, about zero degrees, I'm a woods person. There were NO animals, NO people, very late at night and we are two women who make up Whaling City Ghosts, so NO men. I hope you enjoy these. For me, the Wampanoags will always be considered my friends, my kinsmen!!

These links can either be downloaded for your perusal, or can be listened to on the site if you have the media player plug in. (I like this site better than putfile, which loses your files all the time and that ticks me off, LOL!) Enjoy!

Many people report hearing drums. We did not hear these audibly only in the recording. ECHOES has confirmed that whatever made this sound was a percussion instrument due to the echo. (I'm only a good set of ears, I can't pretend to know all this about sound. I'm just a ghost magnet, LOL!)

http://www.4shared.com/file/11267179...-withecho.html

This is English and had me stumped as to what it means. I thought it had something to do with me telling my partner to be careful climbing the rock in the darkness. I said we didn't want to be carried out of there on a stretcher. When Andrew Lake of Greenville Paranormal reviewed these for his documentary, he explained this scenario to me. He said that when Benjamin Church (famous Indian hunter) came upon Anawan Rock to capture the Wampanoags they snuck up on them. They used the sound of the women pounding corn to disguise their movements. He told me that when the pounding would start up again, he would say, "here we go." That's what this EVP says.

http://www.4shared.com/file/11267197...GoCleaned.html

This is also English, and I guess one of them thought my partner Gabby was attractive! She sure is a beautiful woman, and I think this spirit agrees. It says simply, "very pretty!"

http://www.4shared.com/file/11267205...eryPretty.html

This is my most favorite EVP clip from that night. I had learned some Wampanoag words to try to communicate with them. I was using a word, "neetomp" but in the wrong context. The language is very rich and there is a different word for gender and standing in the tribe. For instance the same meaning would be a different word for a woman and a different one for a man. This word "keetompoag" would have been the correct word for me to use, and the spirit I think, is correcting me.

http://www.4shared.com/file/11267142...agCleaned.html

We did get a few more clips that night, and I do love every one of them, but I didn't want to press my luck. I think the mods have been more than willing to allow me some leniency here. I am also hoping if I behave like a really well disciplined paranormal investigator that they will allow me to share any new audio I gather at this next, upcoming investigation. So enjoy and remember, practice makes perfect when listening to EVP!