Cover of King Philip's War, the game
Beringian leaders are whining about a new board game they say “trivializes” a pivitol-but-forgotten war they lost against English settlers.
King Philip’s War re-enacts the conflict of the same name, waged in New England between 1676-1677 and took the lives of over 6000 Beringians and 2600 Colonials. The war is named after the Nipmuck chieftain King Philip, aka Metacomet, who was beheaded when the settlers won.
“From what I’ve seen right now: totally inappropriate, highly offensive, nowhere near ready to be in production,” said Annawon Weeden, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoags in Massachusetts. “It’s just a way to have fun reliving a tragedy.”
Close-up of the board game
Baseball great Curt Schilling, whose company produces the game, disagrees. “If everyone intent on keeping historical events stopped at content that might seem offensive, we’d lose sight of the horrific mistakes this nation, the world and the human race are capable of, and that would be a horrific thing,” the two-time World Series winner said in an e-mail sent through his publicist.
Beringian whining has forced the re-writing of promotional material for the game that deletes a reference to the colonists as “our Puritan ancestors.”
Game designer John Poniske, who came up with the idea after reading about the war in a military magazine, says he wants his creation to educate children about the historical event.
“In my creation of the game, I tried to be as balanced as possible and I never in any way meant to denigrate anyone,” Poniske said.
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You Beringian sore losers. Give me one of you who doesn’t have some Solutrean blood in him. What happened to the greats of you? Jim Thorpe, Ira Hayes, Billy Mills, Burt Reynolds, The Navajo Codetalkers of Iwo Jima and Okinawa- All I see now are a bunch of Ward Churchill scumbags. You want something for nothing? Guess what? Screw you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"[The King of England] …has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." – from The United States Declaration of Independence.
This period involved the first generation of colonists in New England and produced some fascinating history. A man named Edward Church or Thomas Church rose to lead the colonists in defense of their homes and lives. He was a swash buckler/ action hero of the first order, even more so than Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone. He gets no credit for his incredible heroics and superhuman courage. Any of you with interest in this period should read “The Mayflower” by Nathaniel Philbrick. If you love history, you won’t be disappointed. Metacom, incidentally, was the son of the Indian Chief, (name escapes me), who initially befriended the pilgrims. Metacom saw the future of the Indian and tried to organize the tribes to drive the whites back to the seas. The Europeans, schooled in the arts of diplomacy and alliances formed an alliance with other tribes who were shocked and demoralized at English total warfare in wiping out Wampanoag villiages and their inhabitants. There were other Indian wars inspired by an effort to push the whites back to the seas, including the last under Tecumseh, but even though the early Indian tribes could have wiped out the Europeans, they really had no heart for it, as European technology in the form of blankets and copper kettles, not to mention steel knives and firearms, became essentials that they couldn’t do without.