Praying Indians are interned on Deer Island.

(OS-10/30) With the outbreak of King Phillips War, residents from the settlement in today’s Natick are ferried from a dock at Watertown confined on Deer Island. Subsequently joined by residents of the other praying towns, some 500 are held captive, over half die over the course of the winter, and the remainder are moved to Long Island. Upon their released in May 1676, some are allowed to return to their settlements, but others are sold into slavery. John Eliot subsequently writes, “This usage of them is worse than death.” After the war, the number of praying towns is reduced from 14 to 3 (Natick, Wamesit, and Punkapoag). A memorial to the internment on Deer Island is dedicated in 2010.*