Muttawmp

Who is Muttawmp?

Muttawmp was a sachem of the Nipmuc Indians in the middle of 17th century, originally based in Quaboag. He participated in King Philip's War. Muttawmp took part in most of the major engagements of the war and was one of the most important chiefs who fought for Metacomet.

Muttawmp had actually converted to Christianity and had become a Praying Indian. However, when Metacomet began organizing the local tribes so that they could rise against the English, Muttawmp, together with another Nipmuc sachem, Matoonas, foreswore Christianity and decided to join him. As a consequence he led the successful attack on Brookfield in which, among others, Edward Hutchinson, son of the dissident preacher Anne Hutchinson, was mortally wounded.

He was also the Nipmuc leader in the Battle of Bloody Brook on September 12, 1675, near South Deerfield, Massachusetts, in which fifty one English soldiers and seventeen colonial teamsters were killed, including Captain Thomas Lathrop; it was the battle itself which caused the name of the place to change from "Moody Brook" to "Bloody Brook", supposedly, because the stream near the battlefield turned red with blood.