1675 - The First Indian War Begins in Saco

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The principal Sachem (Chief) of the Saco Indians in the summer of 1675 was called Squando.  He was also the tribe's priest, and practiced, often with, and for the settlers, various rites and rituals to help the settlers with ailments, crops, weather, and whatnot.

He resided within the neighborhood of the settlements, and was considered a friend by many white inhabitants  in the Saco Falls region.  This was pretty much the same for the rest of the tribe as well.  There were about 700 white settlers in the area of the Saco Indians at the time, and they enjoyed a cooperative existence with the original inhabitants.  Farmers and fishermen themselves, they helped the whites learn various methods of working the local lands, and gained additional crops and products from the whites in return.

Local law at the time provided for harsh treatment of an Indian who wronged a white settler, but it also ensured that a wronged Indian would also get just recourse in the court as well.  It was a peaceful time.

The French, however, were in the area, attempting to stir up troubles between their English rivals and the locals, with limited success.

On the 11th of June, in 1675, a British patrol was crossing the Saco, and happened upon an Indian woman, with a child, paddling across the river in a canoe.  They overturned the canoe, apparently to see if the baby, like an animal, would be a natural swimmer.  The woman, how happened to be the wife of the Sachem Squando, recovered her baby, and made it to shore, but the child fell sick and quickly died.  Squando was deeply irked by this insulting act, and turned instantly from friend of the white, to an effective promoter of war. 

Squando assembled a war party, and prepared for an assault on the town of Saco, where he believed the British patrol had come from (It actually had continued on its way to Boston).  On the 24th, he moved against the town.  Were it not for a warning sent to the town by a friendly native, the town would have been caught completely defensless. 

The townsfolk, which numbered about 50, assembled themselves on the property of Major Phillips, a local Lord, and commander of forces in the area.  Those forces, however, were assigned out to another unit, and not available to Maj. Phillips.  His property was about a quarter of a mile from the falls, on the Saco Side of the river (About where the water treatment plant is now, apparently).

The first shot fired by the Natives hit Major Phillips in the shoulder.  The Indians, supposing he had been killed, charged the blockhouse, which was the garrison for the troops that would normally have been there.  Several Indians were killed in that first assault, which lasted about an hour.

The Indians then quit the assault, and burned the surrounding buildings, including Maj. Phillips' saw and corn mills, and called to those in the garrison, "Come out, you cowardly English dogs, and stop the fire!"

Finding this ineffective as well, they spent the day ransacking the various houses around the garrison, and assembed a wagon load of hay, and proceeded to make torches to burn down the garrison itself.

Phillips apparently dispatched a runner to sneak through the Indians to Winter Harbor, to ask for assistance.  Help never came.

Under the cover of darkness, the Indians approached the garrison, behind the cover of a cart drawn by oxen, which had a protective shield assembled to the front of it to protect the driver and others in the cart.  It was filled with straw, bark, powder, and other combustibles.  The men in the garrison were instructed to hold their fire until the cart and its crew came within pistol shot.  As the war engine, as it was called in a report to the governor in Boston, closed on the garrison, it hit a gutter, and got stuck in the mud, and leaned in a way to expose the attackers, and the defenders opened up with a volley that left 6 dead, and 15 wounded.

The natives held off assaulting the blockhouse again but taunted and chanted at the inhabitants throughout the night, and at sunup, they left in the direction of Blue Point.

The natives harassed the town with raids for about a week, during one of which a Mrs. Hitchcock was carried away.

The Indian wars had begun, and during these wars, Saco and Winter Harbor took a tremendous beating.  The relationship between the Saco Indians and the White inhabitants never recovered from the wars, and only distrust and hatred remained thereafter.  The Saco, first known for their friendly demeanor, quickly became known for being particularly ruthless and cruel.

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