Mary Rowlandson

Who were the “Praying Indians”?

In 1646, the General Court of Massachusetts passed an Act for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians. Reverend John Eliot, a Puritan minister, changed the lives of the Hassanamisco forever. He believed that converting Indians to Christianity would benefit them. Eliot studied the Algonquian language, worked with interpreters and translators, and had translated the Bible into Algonquian.

 By 1650, Indian converted to Christianity had begun moving to Natick to organize what would become the first of several villages known as "Praying Towns", with the Indians in them known as "Praying Indians".

He encouraged the Indians to live in English-style buildings and maintain English work rhythms. He believed that the Hassanamisco would not find salvation until they rejected pagan ways and followed the examples set forth in the Christian doctrine (http://hassanamesit.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=78).  Indians would renounce their native language, ceremonies, beliefs, traditional dress and customs becoming 'Red' Puritans. Rowlandson writes of one Indian who had been converted to Christianity and sold his father to the English “thereby to purchase his own life”. The reaction of the Englishmen was satisfaction because they would attempt to cleanse this “heathen”. Rowlandson writes that this “praying” Indian “betrayed his own Father…” (http://www.hocuspocustours.com/toppage22.htm). Again Rowlandson makes references about the praying Indians by saying “There was another Praying Indian, so wicked and cruel, as to wear a string about his neck, strung with Christians' fingers.” In Rowlandson writings it seems that she dislikes the Praying Indians (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5793).  Christian Indians were caught between two warring factions: the English and the hostile Indian tribes. They pledged their loyalty to the English who refused to trust them and, at the same time, faced the hate of their own people. The Praying Indians could have served as an intelligence force for the English. Because the Native Americans knew the territory so well, they made good scouts and guides; they were much better equipped to fight in the forests and could teach the English such fighting techniques as where to set ambushes and how to avoid them. The Praying Indians were never listened to because of the color of their skin. By August 30, 1675, the Governor and Council of the Massachusetts Colony confined these Christian Indians to the Old Praying Indian towns, and restricted their travel to within one mile of the center of those towns and only then when in the company of an Englishman. If a Native American broke these rules, he could be arrested or shot on sight. They were eventually released, but the world to which they returned was totally changed. The English had defeated the warring tribes, leaving the Praying Native Americans strangers in their own homeland (http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/praying.html).