Modoc

“ Jack was ready with all his people for the journey. It took eight big government wagons with mule teams to haul the Modoc women and their clothing, etc., up on the reservation. The point is known as Modoc Point today, named on account of the Modocs being settled there in November, 1869.
Jack in a few days had all his people well settled. About the month of December he called on the Indian agent, Knapp, at the agency. He told the agent that he wanted chopping axes, cross-cut saws, wedges and maul rings. He said he wanted to put his men to work making rails, etc. ”

“ Now you see these fellows walking all through the grounds at Fort Klamath, Oregon, free men. They were the first men that gave up their arms on Fairchild's Ranch, California, and were employed as government scouts at $100 per month. There is, kind reader, human devils in all nations. These men done more to close up the Modoc War than the army of a thousand men. They are now real live heroes, and they feel it, too. If anything is yet wanting to make this scene complete, it is fully made up by the soldiers who enjoy a safe look into the eyes of the Modoc chief, Capt. Jack. ”

“ The Modoc people believe that Kumush created the world—the world in Modoc myth means the country inhabited by the Modocs and the tribes they come in contact with.—He made the mountains, lakes and rivers and gave them names. We are not told about the creation of the “first people,” those wonderful beings who inhabited the world before man was created and were “so numerous that if a count could be made of all the stars in the sky, all the feathers on birds, all the hairs and fur on animals, and all the hairs on our heads, they would not be as numerous.” ”

“ I could distinguish Madeline wandering lightly about among the rocks, scraping off mussels with her hoe; and the Modoc, the champion clam-digger of all, spreading her tentacles here and there, and never failing to come up with a bivalve. It was a picturesque scene, viewed from the great rock; and when the tide began to sweep in again, George Olver sent a piercing whistle along shore, to call the stragglers together; clams, children, and all were loaded into the cart, and jostled gayly homeward erased by the fresh sea breezes. ”

“ The Indians being at home in the Lava Beds, knew the natural fortifications. They had the advantage over their enemy. The volunteers and soldiers fired volley after volley into the rocks and fog, but never an Indian could they see. They fired at the sound of the Modoc shots. The fog lifted up high in the afternoon just for a minute or two. The troops and volunteers greeted it with loud cheers. The bugle called charge. Every man went forward with his gun grasped tight, eager to sight a Modoc. ”

“ The Indians kept up a heavy fire on RECONNAISSANCE of the LAVA BEDS sketch showing JACK'S CAVE. the charging forces. Men were falling all the time, while they charged. They were exposed all this time to the deadly fire of the Modocs. The fog now banked over the opposing parties more dense than ever. No man's eye could penetrate more than twenty yards. The Modoc chief with Ellen's man, a Modoc brave, decided to get the warriors together and charge the enemy, which they did with good results, as the enemy retreated with bad order, leaving their dead and wounded behind. ”

“ He gave them all to his comrades, but one. He kept it for himself, and after Pat's company was called in from the front, Pat and his comrades took great pride in showing the scalps to the other boys in blue who had not been so successful in killing Modocs. Pat would say when he would be showing the piece he had, "Every piece or scalp we have represents one Modoc warrior that we killed. Begorra, boys, every time I fired at me Injun, I got him sure. The Modoc
hounds will not last long when I get after them. ”

“ From the day the white man first set foot upon his soil the Modoc has been a merciless foe with whom there could be no peace. The travelers through his country were forced to battle for their lives from the day his country was entered until the boundary was passed. Trains of immigrants, consisting of men, women and children, worn and weary with the trials and hardships of the plains, were trapped and butchered. The number of these victims mount up into the hundreds and constitute one of the saddest chapters in the annals of American pioneers.
Chapter VIII. History of the Modoc Indians. ”

“ So they all agreed that would be the best thing to do. Davis also learned that only a few Modocs had not been captured, namely, Modoc George's son Billie, his wife and four sisters, two grown, and their mother, last seen near Vanbrimer Mountain, California; Long Jim and father, last seen on Bryant Mountain ; two other old men and women ; one boy, last seen on Sheep Mountain, going west.
There were five other crippled Modoc Indians that were held at Fairchild's Ranch, during all the Lava Bed fighting. They were crippled in the first engagement on November 29th,
1872, at Lost River, I think ”

“ I have been so long on the frontier and have seen the natives in their native disgusting state that I have no special regard for them further than making out justice, and I have none of the poetry enter- tained by many that do not know them. The Modocs are generally a whiter tribe of Indians than any other that I have met with ”

“ The Modocs were a fierce tribe of Indians who lived at the head-waters of Pit River, and the name is thought by some persons to mean “head of the river,” or “people, community,” but [251] ethnologists are of the opinion that it means “south people,” probably used by tribes living north of the Modocs. Bancroft, quoting from Steele, in Indian Affairs Report of 1864, page 121, says: “The word Modoc is a Shasta Indian word, and means all distant, stranger, or hostile Indians, and became applied to this tribe by white men in early days from hearing the Shastas refer to them by this term.” ”

“ The captain called a halt about one mile from the village, told the boys it was too dark to good shooting yet. "We will go on when it gets lighter," he says. If one could have penetrated the darkness, he could have seen fifteen or twenty men, less than a mile from Curley Headed Doctor's lodge, and four or five other lodges on the north bank of Lost River, straight across from Jack's lodge. This body of men are the settlers. These men were very anxious to secure a few Modoc scalps at the risk of their own lives. ”

“ Curtin spent the first two weeks of July at the Quapaw agency, Indian Territory, in making a collection of Modoc myths, which he had begun in the preceding winter, being part of a general collection of Indian myths begun in 1883. The number of Modoc myths obtained was nearly one hundred.
After finishing work at the Quapaw Agency, he returned to Washington, and shortly afterward was directed to proceed to northern California and obtain vocabularies of the Nosa and Kombo languages, and thence to Oregon to obtain vocabularies of the Wasco, Tyigh, and Tenina languages. ”

“ Jack's sister, Bogus Charley and two other Modoc women came to the Vanbrimer ranch, and asked for their ponies. Canby told them to go home. "When peace is made you shall get your horses," he said. Princess Mary begged the general to let her take at least her brother's horse. General Canby told her his word was law. Bogus Charley and women went back to the stronghold without the stolen ponies. The chief told them it was all right. Maybe we will get them back some time.
On the 21st the soldiers were well settled at the foot of the hill, one mile and a half from the Modoc stronghold. ”

“ Beyond this stream lies the country, which is the stronghold of the Modoc and Pit-River tribes.
It is certainly a fitting section to have such an appellation applied to it.
Throughout, it is covered with natural fortifications. Huge rocks rise from the earth, varying from two hundred to three hundred and fifty feet in height. A single precipitous and narrow path, sometimes natural, not unfrequently fashioned by the Modocs or their tributaries, the Pit-River Indians, who are by no means as warlike, leads to the top of these. Here, in many cases, the summit is defended by a breastwork. ”

“ Two or three miles farther on is the main stronghold of the Modocs, held by them so long and defiantly against all the soldiers that could be brought to the attack. Indians usually choose to hide in tall grass and bush and behind trees, where they can crouch and glide like panthers, without casting up defenses that would betray their positions ”

“ According to what he says, he captured and killed more Modoc warriors than Capt. Jack really had when he commenced fighting. Jack only had fifty-two warriors in all. I knew every one of them. It is such men as Mr. Drannan who mislead the public in regard to Indian wars. Mr. Drannan certainly was not anywhere near the Lava Beds at the time of the Modoc war of 1872 and '73, as I do not remember meeting him at that time.
In my work I aim to give both sides of the troubles of the Modoc Indians and the whites. The Indian side has never been given to the public yet. ”

“ Jack said : "My brave woman friend, no one shall hurt you in my presence. They step over my dead body first. You are a true Modoc. You have proved it today. Some one told you a mistake. We are not going to kill any one if everything goes right. You tell them peace-makers that we will be at the tent early tomorrow, six of us, unarmed. Nothing will happen if they talk sense to me. Now, Tobey, it is getting late. Get on your horse, and go back to your husband and boy. I detail these eight men, your friends, to escort you within talking dis- tance of the soldiers' camp. ”

“ The Modocs soon broke and retreated in the direction of the Lava Beds. They contested the ground with the troops hotly for some three miles. The object of this hasty movement of the troops was to overhaul the Modocs, if out of the Lava Beds as reported, and prevent them from murdering the settlers in their probable retreat to another locality. This object was obtained and more. The troops have had, all things considered, a very square fight and whipped the Modocs for the first time, but the whole band was again in the rocky stronghold.JEFF C. DAVIS,
Colonel 23rd Infantry, Commanding Dep't. ”

“ That they were different from other Indians was declared by the Modoc War. Of the several characters developed by that war, none stands out with more claim to an honorable place in history than Wi-ne-ma (the woman-chief) , who is the subject of this sketch. She was born on Link River, and very near the sacred lands of the La-la-cas (the tribe from whence sprang the Modocs) . Her father was a brother of the hero, martyr-chief, Captain Jack. Her mother is said to have belonged to a family of Indians remarkable for one peculiarity, that of having very
fine brown or red hair. ”

“ Her tribal relations to the Modoc chief was a poor recommendation in the eyes of Canby; but, upon the earnest solicitation of Cohoon, the Warm Spring scout, seconded by McKay, she was installed in the dangerous office of spy, and at once became of great value to the troops.
She persisted in calling herself a Warm Spring Indian, when all knew, from her features, that she was a full-blooded Modoc. ”

“ Combutwaush attend also.—Legugyakes ready to move against the white people.—Modoc Chief lays cause on the Pitt River Indians.—Captain Jack, a small boy at that time, says good words for the white emigrants. This Council took place about five or six months after the Modoc Indians had been killed by Crosby's men. Captain Jack's father in his opening speech said, in part: "My people, we was born in this country; this is our land. God put our fathers and mothers here. We have lived here in peace. Our fathers had some troubles with the Pitt River Indians and some other tribes. We always beat them. ”

“ My people are just as good as these Indians here. I am not afraid of them, but I shall not fight them. I am going back to my own country. If I stay here I will be killed. I know it, for I cannot stand for what the Klamath Indians do and say. I just as well die in my own country." Next day in the forenoon, Capt. Jack and his entire band of Indians was back on the banks of Lost River on their old camping grounds. Some of the Modocs visited their friends, the settlers, and told the settlers that they could not get along with the agent and Klamaths. ”

“ Among the Modocs it is thought to be a disgrace for a woman to live with a man who does not think enough of her to give presents to other people. Frank assented, and in the presence of her cousin and her husband the compact was made, and they were married, after the forms of the Modoc Indians. Wi-ne-ma collected her personal effects, and went home with Frank Riddle, his wife. ”

“ He had been working with his two horses three or four days for the Govern- ment officers. He would pack one horse and ride the other, and go to the front twice a day. I do not know what he was packing, as I never learnt. 1 think it was cartridges and other stuff.
The reason I say it was a cowardly thing to kill him, he was not fighting the Modocs. He did not carry even a pistol. He was a good boy; everybody liked him. He never had much to say; he never mixed up in anyone's affairs, he always attended to his own business. The poor, faithful boy died an un- timely death. ”

“ Bogus Charley was chosen boss of the other three scouts. These four men had their liberty. They could go where they pleased, and could almost do as they pleased. My father and mother, Frank Riddle and Tobey Riddle as they are known, was sent for by the government to act as interpreters. We were then living near Yreka, California. The leading Modoc prisoners had to stand trial for murder. The trial commenced some time in July, 1873, [14] and lasted nearly the whole month of July. Every Modoc Indian was put on the stand. The most
bloodthirsty Moclocs escaped punishment. ”