offered their service as scouts to the colonists in Massachusetts but were rejected by the Puritans in Boston. Instead, Praying Indian residents were first confined to their villages and were thus restricted from their farms and unable to feed themselves. Many were confined on Deer Island in Boston Harbor. John Eliot and many others in the Plymouth Colony tried to prevent it, but it is reported that it became dangerous in Massachusetts to talk positively any Native Americans, which likely contributed to the initial successes of the Indian rebellion. The order for removal was passed in October 1675, and by December, well over 1,000 Christian Indians had been brought to the island, where many died during the winter due to the harsh conditions. The survivors were released in 1676. After the war, in part because of the loss of life, the General Court of Massachusetts disbanded 10 of the original 14 towns in 1677 and placed the rest under the supervision of colonists, but some communities survived and retained their religious and education systems. Praying Indians of Dedham In the mid-17th century Reverend John Eliot and a group of praying Indians from Dedham, Massachusetts won a lengthy court battle and were awarded the title to the of land in the town that is now known as Natick. The dispute, which lasted from 1651 to 1665 and flared up again sporadically in the years afterward, centered on the Indians' use of a tract of land along the Charles River. They claimed to have an agreement to use the land for farming with the Town Fathers, but Dedham officials objected to them. Eliot had converted many of the native people in the area to Christianity and taught them how to live a stable agrarian life. He converted so many that the group needed a large portion of land on which to grow their own crops. The law was on the side of the town, Elliot made a moral argument that the group had a need for land of their own. The case eventually went before the General Court, which granted the land in question to the Indians and, in compensation for the land lost, gave another piece of land in what is today Deerfield, Massachusetts, to the Dedham settlers. The town's actions in the case were characterized by "deceptions, retaliations, and lasting bitterness" and harassed its native neighbors with petty accusations even