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The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics Among the New England Indians

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In The Skulking Way Of War: Technology And Tactics Among The New England Indians, Patrick Malone (Senior Lecturer in the American Civilization department of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island) surveys the weaponry and tactics among the Native Americans of New England and how they changed after the arrival of the European settlers and the introduction of gunpowder. Borrowing and modifying the flintlock musket for their own use, Native American fighters developed superior tactics and became a deadly force in forest warfare. During King Philip's War (1675-1677), Native American groups wrought intense destruction upon European (largely British) settler's colonies, forcing the whites to adopt the same mode of forest combat. These new tactics would re-emerge during the Revolutionary War against Britain and in subsequent American wars down to this very day, altering combat throughout the world. The Skulking Way Of War is very highly recommended reading for students of American history, military history, and Native American studies.

A very disappointing book The author stated certain underlying (and unsupported) assumptions in the introduction which included that Indians he studied (and by implication all North East Indian tribes) did not kill non-combatants until the Europeans showed them how to engage in total war-a war against civilians (pg 1). This introduction of "total war" is blamed on the Christian Puritans and their concept of Holy War - pg 103. He suggests that early 1600's inter-tribal Indian wars rarely killed anyone and these wars seemed more like sport than brutal warfare (pg. 9, 29-31, 126). Not until fighting with Europeans did the Indians abandon "most of the self-imposed restraints that had limited the death and destruction in their traditional patterns of warfare" (pg 128). In his chapter entitled "Proficiency with Firearms:, he suggests that Indians were better marksman than the average European and offers reasons why we should take his seemingly bias opinion but he is being completely speculative and his opinion is unsupported by factual data.

I never wish to say this about any book but I found nothing useful or insightful in this edition. The author has an anti-European axe to grind and this bias infects this entire book. His primary thesis appears to be-Indians are superior to Europeans ethically, intellectually, and culturally and he then attempts to use a military theme to prove that thesis.

Patrick M. Malone has shattered the myth of the American Indian as being an ignorant savage who was incapable of learning or of having the ability to learn European ways. "The Skulking Way of War" presented the argument that the American Indians of New England learned many skills from the English and adapted those newly learned skills into their culture and used those skills to improve their way of life. Malone brings to the forefront the concept of Indigination,or the Anglosizing of the New England Indians which led to drastic misunderstanding between the New England Indians and the English - especially in warfare.

Malone puts forward the concepts that the English immigrants to New England were more farmers and shop keepers than hunters of game, thusly had little practical skills needed for the using of Flintlock of Matchlock muskets. In contrast the New England Indians had the hunting skills from using the bow and arrow combined with the skills of the stalking style of hunting. When the New England Indians acquired English technology of the Flintlock, the Indians became extremely good marksmen. By apprenticeship to the English the New England Indians also learned to become gunsmiths and even competent gun builders, enough so that the Dutch of the Hudson River Valley was smuggling gun parts to the New England Indians for repairing or the building of guns.

There are many instances of indigination/assimilation between cultures and this book presents this cultural exchange in a very well research manner. This book is a must read for any student of early American history or for any teachers or professors of history to either use for class lectures or to have students read as part of the ongoing studies of early American Colonial history. This book should be a shining example that shatters the myth of European superiority over American Indian ignorance and puts the reflection of arrogance not on the Indians, but upon the Europeans where it must reside.

This book will help cure your ignorance and enlighten your knowledge of the New England frontier of the seventeenth century. Enjoy.

The Skulking Way of War came to my attention shortly after the paperback was published in 2000. I paged through it quickly, so I set it down again. I was reading on the French and Indian War, but 17th century New England held no interest for me. I should have kept reading! Although focused on King Phillip's War, the text can also aid in the study of woodland Indian military actions of the 18th century: FIW, Pontiac's Rebellion, and AWI. As the author puts it: "In studying the tribes of southern New England, a scholar must sometimes draw inferences from known practices of other tribes."

For a general history of King Phillips War, one must look elsewhere. Much like the content of one of Osprey Publishing's Men at Arms* titles, Malone's book is concerned with details of the Indians' and Puritan's respective military systems, logisitcs, tactics and weapons technology. Attention is paid to the fusion of these two traditions: The Indians were very quick to employ European latest weapons and the European's will to completely destroy one's enemy. The English, on the other hand, were very reluctant to apply Indian fighting methods and long suffered for it. In the end, the American colonists acquired a great appreciation for the Indian's "skulking way" of forest warfare. Their use of high mobility, stealth, surprise, and individual marksmanship would serve them well in their future wars against other Indians, the French, and the English.

Chapters:
I. The Aboriginal Military system
II. The Arrival of the White Man
III. The Arming of the Indians
IV. Proficiency with Firearms: A Cultural Comparison
V. Technology, Tactics, and Total Warfare

*I should note that the text does not include full-color illustrations like an Osprey Book. My comparison applies only to the detailed subject and the concise, well-organized writing. The book does feature many charming contemporary engravings.

This book really is a must for any one who reads military tactics or combat. The Skulking Way of War is the assigned term to the Native American's form of warefare. Adopting it for themselves, the colonists of the early new world were able to win both the French and Indian war and eventually their war for Independence. For anyone intrested in the recent trend of movies, such as The Patriot, or even Last of Mohicans, this book outlines the emergence of the gun in both the colonists and the Native American's way of life and how both groups changed their tactics over time

If you're a film buff of Last of The Mohican's or most recently The Patriot, this is a book to read. Not for the thrilling fast paced adventure story that it is not... but it gives you reasons why the colonists won the war against the Indians. Building on this new war technique that the colonists established, the skulking way, they were able to defeat the British in this same manner. It's a must read for any military historians as well, mainly because it outlines the history of the colonists war stradegy.

This is another "postmodernist" history -- one that assumes that the Indians were a spiritual, peace loving, disease free people who communed with nature. Then came the big bad honkies with their diseases, guns and "total warfare."

Malone takes bits of information and constructs them in is to history. He finds an obscure record of a White who got in trouble with White authorities for selling a defective gun to an Indian. Obviously the Indian knew the gun was defective, claims Malone, he was just buying for parts and we can assume he was a technological genius.

Worse is that the book gives of very little information on the skulking tactics and technology of the Indians. For example, the Indian of was a master of deceit and subterfuge but Malone avoids that topic like a plague.

The Puritans won the war because of more men and virtually unlimited supplies, according only to Malone. Other authors such as Schultz (King Philip's War) and Leach (Flintlock and Tomahawk) tell us that the colonists were short of nearly everything, couldn't get their crops in, and faced starvation. Certainly the colonists had a larger population but fielded smaller army. The books by Leach and Schulz remain the only two good recent histories.

Researchers can use Malone's book for its references. And it's worth reading for those taking more than a casual interest in the 1775-1776 King Phillip's War.

In light of the present situation faced by our military - conducting special operations across the globe, Malone's book ties nicely into what we have now coined "modern combat". In Afghanistan, we have seen our special operations forces "going native" and "skulking" through the bush - adopting native cover and customs to fight an elusive enemy. Malone's seminal work on Native American tactics purports perhaps a vision of what we will see our military conduct in future combat in Iraq. "Red Mike" Edson was obviously a genius of military tactics during WWII and Malone's work should be a must for all present and future military leaders heading into harm's way. The lessons that Malone outlines along with the lessons we learned in Vietnam, must surely be applied in the near future in order for us to successfully locate, close with, and destroy those who use terror as a weapon. A great read!