Anthropology

also not involved. The big colonial vs. Indians war that wiped out some English villages and nearly put the English out of New England did involve the Wampanoag and several allied tribes, but that was earlier, in 1675.

The Deerfield raid was in 1704 and was instigated by the French on the orders of the French king when England and France were at war in Europe. The French harassed English frontier villages, hoping to stop the spread of the English in North America on land that that France wanted to claim.

Deerfield is in western MA and was the farthest northwest village on the English frontier at the time, so it was vulnerable. The French recruited allies from the Mohawk, Wobenaki (aka Abenaki), Huron, and Pocumtuk tribes. The Mohawk were from a large Native village outside of Montreal. They had been converted to Catholicism by French missionary priests so they had relocated to be nearer to the French.

The land that Deerfield was built on had been gained by the English through shady deals with the Pocumtuk. Not surprisingly then, the Pocumtuk were eager to join the raid when the French recruited them.