several thousand English and perhaps twice as many Indians lay dead.”^76 King
Philip’s War cost more American lives in combat, Anglo and Native, in
absolute terms than the French and Indian War, the Revolution, the War of
1812, the Mexican War, or the Spanish-American War. In proportion to
population, casualties were greater than in any other American war.^77
War with American Indians started in New Mexico, in 1598, when residents
of Acoma pueblo killed thirteen Spanish conquistadors who were trying to take
over their town.^78 It spread to the Southeast where, “because of fierce and
implacable Indian resistance, the Spanish were unable to colonize Florida for
over a hundred years.”^79 Except for a few minor skirmishes, it ceased in 1890
with the massacre at Wounded Knee. Our histories can hardly describe each
war, because there were so many. But precisely because there were so many,
to minimize Indian wars misrepresents our history.
Most textbook maps, like that above, show “French Territory,” “British
Territory,” “Spanish Territory,” and sometimes “Disputed Territory,” with no
mention of Indians at all. In maps that include Indian nations, such as the map
opposite from D. W. Meinig, The Shaping of America (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1986), 1: 209, the function of Indians as buffers between the
colonial powers is graphically evident.