This is the first book-length history of the remnants of the Massachusett and Wampanoag tribes
documenting their struggle to survive devastating epidemics and Puritan colonization. Morrison
incorporates insights from anthropology and organization studies to show how the adoption of
Puritan beliefs and practices by bands of praying Indians constituted a viable if defensive
strategy of acculturation. The emergent institution of Praying Town became both the
organization and the process through which these groups of Native Americans hoped to achieve
cultural revitalization. Tragically as the remnant peoples looked to Puritan ways for guidance
in redefining their identiy profound changes within colonial society were leading a new
generation of colonists to subsume their own spiritual mission under more commercial concerns.
In linking their destiny to weakening elements in Puritan culture the Praying Indians were
left unprotected when King Philip's War recast the framework of relations between colonists and
Native Americans.
