Metamora! Last of Wampanoags!

Prior to the time preceding production of the 1829 play, "Metamora, Last of The Wampanoags," Native Americans were viewed as heathen, dangerous savages. Metamora's hero was an unlikely one: King Philip, otherwise known as Metacomet, the great Wampanoag Chief who waged a war on New England so barbaric, that to this day it is still considered to be the bloodiest war ever to be fought on American soil.

At the turn of the 19th century, American theatre was in its prime. There was one major problem though -- American actors were performing the plays of English playwrights. The need for American playwrights was at a premium, spurning American Shakespearean actor Edwin Forrest to organize a playwriting contest. The author of the best play would win $500, a handsome sum for 1829.

The guidelines of the contest stipulated only three rules: the play must be a tragedy, it must be told in five acts and the central character must be an Indian. The winner was John Augustus Stone of Concord, Massachusetts. His tragedy, "Metamora, Last of The Wampanoags" would be an unprecedented, astounding, mind-blowing success, running in both American and English theaters for over 60 years, despite its unusual hero.

In January, 1830 Stone wrote the following in The American Commentator: "A few years ago a play of any sort would have been looked at as "strange, unusual prodigy." Anglo American (Native Americans) were considered barren of interest and the dark history of the despised and heathen aborigines, the their own fastness,--absolutely unapproachable. The magnificent offer of our tragedian, an ardent love for my country, and a deep interest in its literary reputation have induced me to exert my humble talents in endeavoring to draw from the long neglected scenes of early American warfare --to extricate from the rubbish of tradition of prejudice, some of the ore of truth and to arrange the products of my research in dramatic form...I flew from the Canadian frontiers to Mount Hope and archives of old, having finally been put on the track by Washington Irving and the authors of Yamoyden of which service I make grateful acknowledgement."

But the story behind the tragedy of Metamora is far more tragic. It is a tale of greed, pride, suicide and guilt all told in the shadow of a major turning point in American history: When American opinion toward Native American culture shifted from fear to fascination. The view of The American Indian finally broke out of its old evil mold and moved right into its current American stereotype. It was during this era in American history that the "Tonto" version of an Indian was birthed.