OREGON LAWS 2019 SCR 12 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 12 Whereas hostilities resumed and the Modocs were decisively defeated in the Battle of Dry Lake on May 10, 1873, scattering the surviving Modocs Whereas Kintpuash (“Strikes the Water into small groups; and Brashly”) was born in about 1837 along the Lost Whereas Kintpuash was captured with his family River in the ancestral territory of the Modoc tribe on June 4, 1873, effectively ending Modoc resistance; in southern Oregon; and and Whereas Kintpuash, also known as Captain Jack Whereas Kintpuash and five other Modoc warri- and Kientpoos, became a principal headman of the ors were tried by a federal military court, convicted Modocs by the early 1860s; and and sentenced to death; and Whereas Kintpuash was among the Modoc Whereas two of the Modocs had their sentences signatories to the 1864 treaty between the United reduced to life imprisonment, but Kintpuash, States and the Modoc, Klamath and Yahooskin Schonchin John, Black Jim and Boston Charley tribes; and were hanged at Fort Klamath on October 3, 1873, Whereas the 1864 treaty terms required the the first Indians to be tried and executed by the Modocs to relocate from their ancestral lands to the federal government for war crimes; and Whereas the remaining members of the Modoc Klamath Reservation; and tribe, numbering approximately 150, were herded Whereas Kintpuash and the Modocs initially into rail cars and sent as prisoners of war to the complied with the 1864 treaty but became disillu- Indian Territory (Oklahoma); and sioned with conditions on the reservation and the Whereas in 1909, after Oklahoma became a state, unwillingness of the federal government to address members of the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma were of- their grievances, and by 1870 many Modocs had re- fered the opportunity to return to the Klamath Res- turned to their villages along the Lost River; and ervation; and Whereas longstanding tensions existed between Whereas 29 Modocs returned to Oregon, and the Modocs and the white settlers who neighbored they and their descendants became part of the their ancestral lands, but many individuals, includ- Klamath Tribes; and ing Kintpuash, strove to achieve a peaceful resolu- Whereas the Modoc War was at the time the tion; and most expensive hostile engagement by the United Whereas on November 29, 1872, the United States during the Indian Wars, both in terms of States Army attempted to force the Modocs to re- moneys spent and casualties suffered; and turn to the Klamath Reservation, resulting in the Whereas Lava Beds National Monument pre- Battle of Lost River, with casualties on both sides; serves many of the battle sites of the Modoc War in and addition to portions of the Modoc ancestral lands Whereas the ensuing conflict became known as that are relatively unchanged, including natural fea- the Modoc War and, although it is little known to- tures of the landscape, plants and animals; and day, at the time it garnered national attention and Whereas a memorial plaque in Gillems Cemetery thrust the border area between Oregon and in Lava Beds National Monument lists the names of California into the spotlight; and all those who died in the Modoc War: United States Whereas Kintpuash led the Modocs on a retreat Army personnel, Modocs and civilians; now, there- to a traditional stronghold in the lava beds south of fore, Tule Lake, in northern California; and Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of Whereas a sizeable United States Army force the State of Oregon: attempted to dislodge the much-smaller Modoc That we, the members of the Eightieth Legisla- group, but their failure led the federal government tive Assembly, commemorate the Modoc War of to attempt peace negotiations with the Modocs; and 1872-1873, and we recognize and honor all those who Whereas during a truce period, on April 11, 1873, lost their lives in that costly conflict; and be it fur- ther a group of Modocs led by Kintpuash killed peace Resolved, That we express our regret for the ex- commissioner Reverend Eleazer Thomas and General pulsion of the Modoc tribe from their ancestral lands Edward Canby, the highest-ranking United States in Oregon. Army officer to be killed during the Indian Wars; Filed in the office of Secretary of State June 5, 2019 and 1.