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Description
Weetamoo
   Weetamoo was a Native American chief. She tragically sided with Metacome in the king Phillip's war. She was as important as Metacome, but she has been stuck in the footnotes of history for years and years. Weetamoo was a brave woman as you'll see in this paper but it was her bravery that perhaps led to her downfall.
     Weetamoo was believed to have been born around 1635. She later became the wife of Wamsutta, the oldest son of Chef Massasoit whose people were called the Wampanoag Pocasset. The Wampanoag Pocasset were the tribe that appeared at the first thanksgiving. They supposedly brought 90 people and some deer. The Wampanoag pocassets are an eastern woodland tribe in New England.
      Massasoit died in 1661, making Wamsutta the chief.  The English called Wamsutta Alexander and Metacome Phillip. Wamsutta died later of an English illness (many believe he had been poisoned. In one record a pilgrim ordered rat poison "to get rid of a pest")  sparking the King Phillip war (Wamsutta was Metacome/Phillip's brother making Weetamoo his sister-in-law).
     Weetamoo got involved with the war in 1675, siding with Metacome and attacking 52 of the 90 English settlements and destroying 12 of them. This was the first big organized attack on the Europeans.
   The English banded together and in 1676 attacked the tribes; leaving Weetamoo with only 26 living warriors. Weetamoo later drowned while trying to escape. She was somewhere around 41 at her death. The English found the corpse, cut off her head, and put it on a post. Her warriors were said to weep with sorrow at this sight. Metacome suffered the same fate while others members of the tribe, including her nephews and her sister, Wootonekanuske were sold in slavery.
     After Wamsutta's death, Weetamoo married 5 more times. She divorced one of her husband's for siding with the English. She had one child that we know of and is to have said to had another with the husband she divorced but we're not sure if that's true. It is unknown if she had any neices but she did have some nephews, the sons of Metacome, who married her sister.
    Weetamoo was a proud woman, said to have danced at ceremonies wearing a mixture of English and Pocasset clothing with her hair powered and checks painted red.
    Mary Rowlandson wroteabout her in her book,  The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson .  She considered herself as Weetamoo's slave. Mary painted this picture of her, " A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampum and beads."
     Today, there is a forest called the Weetamoo Wood in Rhode Island where her tribe lived during the war. You can visit it, and hike the place Weetamoo walked.
      So you see Weetamoo was a brave woman who let her bravery and her pride be her downfall. She is a female shadow on a history dominated by men. She was strong and smart but apparently that wasn't enough to save her from being passed upon by history for others in the war. She is unjustly left in the footnotes of a budding nation. Weetamoo made an important contribution to the king Philips war and thus American history itself would not be the same if there was no Weetamoo.

Description
Weetamoo
   Weetamoo was a Native American chief. She tragically sided with Metacome in the king Phillip's war. She was as important as Metacome, but she has been stuck in the footnotes of history for years and years. Weetamoo was a brave woman as you'll see in this paper but it was her bravery that perhaps led to her downfall.
     Weetamoo was believed to have been born around 1635. She later became the wife of Wamsutta, the oldest son of Chef Massasoit whose people were called the Wampanoag Pocasset. The Wampanoag Pocasset were the tribe that appeared at the first thanksgiving. They supposedly brought 90 people and some deer. The Wampanoag pocassets are an eastern woodland tribe in New England.
      Massasoit died in 1661, making Wamsutta the chief.  The English called Wamsutta Alexander and Metacome Phillip. Wamsutta died later of an English illness (many believe he had been poisoned. In one record a pilgrim ordered rat poison "to get rid of a pest")  sparking the King Phillip war (Wamsutta was Metacome/Phillip's brother making Weetamoo his sister-in-law).
     Weetamoo got involved with the war in 1675, siding with Metacome and attacking 52 of the 90 English settlements and destroying 12 of them. This was the first big organized attack on the Europeans.
   The English banded together and in 1676 attacked the tribes; leaving Weetamoo with only 26 living warriors. Weetamoo later drowned while trying to escape. She was somewhere around 41 at her death. The English found the corpse, cut off her head, and put it on a post. Her warriors were said to weep with sorrow at this sight. Metacome suffered the same fate while others members of the tribe, including her nephews and her sister, Wootonekanuske were sold in slavery.
     After Wamsutta's death, Weetamoo married 5 more times. She divorced one of her husband's for siding with the English. She had one child that we know of and is to have said to had another with the husband she divorced but we're not sure if that's true. It is unknown if she had any neices but she did have some nephews, the sons of Metacome, who married her sister.
    Weetamoo was a proud woman, said to have danced at ceremonies wearing a mixture of English and Pocasset clothing with her hair powered and checks painted red.
    Mary Rowlandson wroteabout her in her book,  The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson .  She considered herself as Weetamoo's slave. Mary painted this picture of her, " A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampum and beads."
     Today, there is a forest called the Weetamoo Wood in Rhode Island where her tribe lived during the war. You can visit it, and hike the place Weetamoo walked.
      So you see Weetamoo was a brave woman who let her bravery and her pride be her downfall. She is a female shadow on a history dominated by men. She was strong and smart but apparently that wasn't enough to save her from being passed upon by history for others in the war. She is unjustly left in the footnotes of a budding nation. Weetamoo made an important contribution to the king Philips war and thus American history itself would not be the same if there was no Weetamoo.