today seeking his relatives.

Mr. Paul Weeden, who lives in Rhode Island, is the President and spokesperson for the Council of Seven, Royal House of Pokanoet, Wampanoag Nation.

King Philip ruled over this nation in the 17th Century.

After his assassination in 1676 following a four-year battle with the British colonists, his wife, son, and 50 other native Americans were sold into slavery in Bermuda.

They joined two other groups of Pequot and Mohican Indians that had been sent to Bermuda as slaves between 1630-1670.

Many of them married into the Island's African population.

"All I want to do is to try to connect with the people over here,'' he said.

"We feel that any of our ancestors who were sold and brought over here through no fault of their own are our blood and our family.

Fellow New Englander Ms Charlotte Johnson is conducting the research in the Bermuda Archives.

So far she has managed to find a reference to an old slave named Susanna who claimed to be a descendant of King Philip.

The reference is contained in a 1902 letter to Anna Marie Outerbridge from a friend who remembered that her father, "Dr. Outerbridge'' mentioned meeting, as a child, an old woman slave who said she was the King's descendant.

She has also discovered that an elderly St. David's Islander Mrs. Augusta Minors is related to Indian nobility.

When she met a researcher in 1981 (she was then aged 85) she was able to show him letters she kept that link her to Wamponoag chief Sachem or King Philip.

Other St. David's and St. George's familes with Indian roots include the Burchalls, Pitchers, Lambes, and Foxes.

Any Bermudians who can assist Mr. Weedan are asked to do so through Ms Johnson in Somerset during the evening at 234-3318.

SEARCH -- Mr. Paul Weeden, a native American of the Wampanoag Nation of Rhode Island, is in Bermuda looking for descendants of 17th Century King Philip (Metacomet), whose family came to Bermuda as slaves in the late 1600s. Here, Mr. Weeden shows the flag of the Nation.