This compact and readable book represents an amalgam of two brief summaries written by George M. Bodge on King Philip's War. This bitter conflict, pitting the New England colonies against the Narraganset and Wampanoag tribes, was fought from 1675-1677. The colonial militias suffered severe reverses before finally conquering Philip with the help of the Mohegans and other Indian allies.
     The main text of the work was privately published in pamphlet form in 1891. This edition includes supplemental data from Bodge's larger work, Soldiers in King Philip's War (1906), which helps close out the account of the war in sufficient detail.

Massinahigan Series, 1
2004 ~ 60 pp. ~ Clothbound ~ ISBN: 1-889758-58-2 ~ out of print
2024 ~ 60 pp. ~ Paperback ~ ISBN: 978-1-953225-68-8 ~ $18.95

    First published in 1825, this work represents one of the earliest attempts to reconstruct pre-contact Iroquois history. Compiled by David Cusick, a Tuscarora historian, the book attempts to relate events as far back as 1000 BC based on the oral tradition of the Iroquois.
     While Cusick himself admits that much of the work is fabulous, mixing accounts of wars and leaders with stories of giants, floating heads, and poisonous blue otters, it is inaccurate to classify the work as wholly mythological. For example, the estimated dates he offers for the southern migration of the Tuscarora (AD 1) and the Iroquois proper becoming independent nations (AD 500) compare well with dates suggested by modern archaeology. Thus, while it would be unreasonable to assume that the traditions recorded in this work are precise, it is clear that they likely contain a kernel of ancestral memory of actual prehistoric events. As it is, the work remains partly fact, partly fable, and wholly invaluable to a study of Iroquois history and folklore.

Massinahigan Series, 2
2004 ~ 76 pp. ~ Clothbound ~ ISBN: 1-889758-59-0 ~ out of print
2024 ~ 76 pp. ~ Paperback ~ ISBN: 978-1-935225-31-8 ~ $18.95

    This history, written in 1895, gives a brief account of the country of the Neutral tribe, who occupied numerous villages between the Grand and Niagara Rivers in southern Ontario. Contact population for the entire Neutral nation was estimated to be 30-40,000, making them perhaps more numerous than all of the five nations of the Iroquois nations combined. They were termed "Neutrals" because they historically did not take sides in the ongoing wars between their neighbors the Iroquois and the Hurons. The Neutrals themselves were attacked and scattered by the Iroquois in the early 1650s, leaving hardly a trace of their language, history, and culture save what was recorded by the few missionaries that visited them beforehand. After their reduction by the Iroquois, the remnants of the Neutral tribes seem to have been absorbed by the Iroquois or coalesced with refugees of the Petún and Hurons to form the Wyandot tribe.
     This book consolidates accounts of the Neutrals recorded by early explorers and missionaries such as Champlain, De Laroche-Daillon, Sagard, Brebéuf, Chaumonot, and others. Together, these accounts provide an absorbing if fragmentary view of this once great tribe. This book also covers the subsequent inhabitants of the Neutral country: the Iroquois, French, Delawares, Mohawks, and English up through the beginning of the 19th century.

Massinahigan Series, 3
2005 ~ 80 pp. ~ 2 maps ~ Clothbound ~ ISBN: 1-889758-60-4 ~ out of print
2024 ~ 80 pp. ~ 2 maps ~ Paperback ~ Forthcoming

     Chauchetiere was a French Jesuit who penned this fascinating year-by-year chronicle of the famous Native American mission which drew converts from over 20 tribes. The Sault was the home of Kateri Tekakwitha, the beloved Mohawk-Algonquin woman who is recognized as a saint of the Catholic Church. Drawing from the writings of his fellow missionaries as well as his own personal knowledge, Chauchetiere begins with the mission's founding at La Prairie in 1667 by Catherine Gandeaktena, an Erie convert to Christianity known as the Mother of the Poor.
     As Christian Iroquois fled persecution in their homeland, the mission swelled to become "the asylum of those who wished sincerely to pray to God". Yet even with "the forces of hell unchained against the mission" —unscrupulous liquor dealers, hostile French governors and their countrymen who did not convert—the Sault's Christian faith survived to become the nucleus of an authentically Native Church throughout Canada and the northern United States.

     Representing the first general treatment of the "Indian Mass" of the North American Catholic missions, this volume draws on historical descriptions as well as rare missionary manuscripts and publications to trace the development of the distinctive American Indian liturgies from the early hymn singing of the mid-1600s to the adaptation of vernacular plainchant and polyphony. Weaving together extensive primary source quotations, Salvucci overturns popular misconceptions of missionaries as cultural imperialists, showing instead how native congregations and scholarly priests worked together in adapting the rich traditions of Counter-Reformation Roman Catholicism to the linguistic and cultural needs of the New World.
     This volume further compares and contrasts the Indian Masses of different missions with each other and with the official Roman Missal. It also contains chapters on the calendar and hagiography of the missions; formulas for Baptism, Matrimony, and other sacraments; the Divine Office; characteristic sacramentals and devotions; and religious life. Extensive appendices are included, such as the entire text of a Mohawk Indian Mass; propers and ordinaries for other missions including those of the Algonquins, Abenaki, and Micmac; a complete liturgical calendar; and short descriptions of the most important missions.