350年前席卷新英格兰的这场冲突，是殖民地时期或美国历史上人均死亡率最高的战争。马萨诸塞州以与美国独立战争的渊源为傲。从保罗·里维尔的骑马警报到波士顿围城战，过去一年多来，该州一直致力于庆祝美国独立250周年。然而在此期间，该州以及新英格兰总体上，对一项更早、更复杂的纪念活动关注远少：菲利普国王战争350周年。
The conflict that tore through New England 350 years ago was the bloodiest per capita in colonial or US history Massachusetts is proud of its ties to the American Revolution. From Paul Revere’s Ride to the siege of Boston, the past year-plus has been devoted to celebrating 250 years of US independence. Yet during this time, the state, and New England in general, has given far less attention to an older, more complex remembrance: The 350th anniversary of King Philip’s war.
菲利普国王，即梅塔科姆，是波卡诺凯特人的原住民领袖。面对英国殖民者对原住民权利的侵犯——从夺取土地到传教劝化——梅塔科姆率领新英格兰部落联盟——包括波卡诺凯特、尼普马克和纳拉甘西特——展开了一场关乎地区控制权的生存斗争。战争以他的名字命名，但他付出了生命的代价——许多其他人，无论士兵还是平民，也同样丧生。据估计，殖民者方面约800人死亡，3000至5000名原住民被杀，这场战争造成的人均死亡人数超过了殖民地时期或美国历史上任何其他战争。
King Philip, or Metacom, was an Indigenous leader from the Pokanoket people. Alarmed by English colonists’ infringement of Indigenous rights, from seizing land to proselytizing, Metacom led an alliance of New England tribes – including the Pokanoket, Nipmuc and Narragansett – in an existential struggle for control of the region. He gave his name to the conflict, but paid with his life – as did many others, soldiers and civilians alike. With an estimated 800 dead on the colonial side, and three to five thousand Indigenous slain, the war claimed more deaths per capita than any other in colonial American or US history.