The earliest reservations in the English colonies in North America did not form a well-organized system, like that envisioned in Ulster or later on by the US federal government. These first North American reservations comprised survivors from among the conquered Pequot of Southern New England, a Christianized people known as “Praying Indians.” They were allocated a ring of lands outside of Boston and settled there by the mid-1670s. The first reservation was the town of Natick. Over time, these reservations became like magnetic islands attracting freedmen seeking refuge. The freedmen
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