WHEN CULTURES COLLIDE: EFFECTS OF STATE AND FEDERAL INDIAN
POLICY UPON THE MODOC PEOPLE
By
Carrie Elizabeth Biggin Cook
A Project Presented to
The Faculty of Humboldt State University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Education
Committee Membership
Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer, Committee Chair
Dr. Delores McBroome, Committee Member
Dr. Eric Vanduzer, Committee Member
December 2015
Abstract
WHEN CULTURES COLLIDE: EFFECTS OF STATE AND FEDERAL INDIAN
POLICY UPON THE MODOC PEOPLE
Carrie Elizabeth Biggin Cook
This project provides eighth grade students an opportunity to see another perspective from the era of American Westward Expansion. Students learn about Modoc culture from anthropological records, Modoc stories, and investing their own time in a construction project. They then compare perspectives that Modoc may have felt to those of soldiers and pioneers who first interacted with Modoc people.
For generations, student textbooks as well as numerous Hollywood western movies depicting prosperous western pioneer towns fixed a mainstream perspective.
When thinking of America’s expansion across the North American continent, many people envision rugged individuals and think of the refrain, “sea to shining sea,” heard in
Bates’s America the Beautiful. Common Core aligned text books are only beginning to expose students to other perspectives from the time period.
As Americans established a dominant presence in lands not part of America’s expanse many indigenous populations had adverse experiences. This project offers evidence to allow students to evaluate various perspectives and establish their own.
ii
Acknowledgements
This long held, personal goal was initiated when an energetic grant writer from
Humboldt County presented an amazing opportunity to rural teachers in Trinity County.
I joined the 5th cohort of teachers embarking on a very interesting journey expanding our
expertise about our nation’s history. I am so thankful to have participated in the Teachers of American History Grant and become one of the many educators this program has helped to realize goals of higher education. Learning at this level is not an individual accomplishment.
An extraordinary band of individuals supporting me brought this project to fruition. I have been so blessed with a support network moving me forward, and there are many people who I would like to thank. These folks include underwriters of the grant itself, organizers and professors of Teachers of American History (TAH) project,
Mountain Valley Unified School District in Hayfork, CA, Humboldt State University in
Arcata, CA, Trinity County’s Indian Education Committee members, friends and my especially my family.
First, thank you to individuals funding and organizing the grant encouraging teachers to pursue higher education. I appreciate Jack Bareilles who wrote the numerous grants and enthusiastically visited rural districts encouraging teachers to learn more about
American history. Many teachers in my district took advantage of the history classes and texts the program provided to teachers. Jack’s passion for history and belief in higher
iii
education encouraged me to take the next step of continuing higher education coursework
through Humboldt State University.
Humboldt State University facilitated my dream of obtaining a master’s degree
when it partnered with the TAH program. Within Humboldt State, the School of
Education and Department of History worked together to create a program that accommodated my full time teaching and family obligations. Both online and in person, the professors at HSU were truly caring and cheerfully provided as much support as needed, at times beyond the scope of individual courses.
I have incredible gratitude for my advisors: Delores McBroome, Gayle Olson-
Raymer and Eric Van Duzer without whom I would have been unable to finish the final steps. In addition to hours and hours of rich instruction, these advisors inspired persistence throughout challenging years. Dr. McBroome helped me find a valuable area of study which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Dr. Olson-Raymer provided unconditional encouragement and guidance as my writing synthesized my research. She was always available for assistance, even sharing her home. Dr. Olson-Raymer patiently guided each member of my cohort throughout many revisions. When I wondered how I could take on yet another course I thought of my advisors’ steadfast support and of Dr. Van Duzer’s words of advice, “In my experience, those who keep showing up, win.” These wonderful instructors helped bring this project to completion even after other teachers in the TAH 5 cohort had finished. Dr. McBroome, Dr. Olson-Raymer and Dr. Van Duzer are outstanding advisors who have been supporting my endeavors above and beyond anything I could have anticipated. iv
Also going above and beyond, I humbly thank friends and family who helped me
day in and day out all through the entire process. Friends inquired about headway and
were genuinely interested in my research findings. Thank you members of the Trinity
County Indian Education Committee for help with research and revision. Dena
Magdaleno, thank you for sharing your wisdom and cultural perspective during the
research and writing of the literature review section. I truly appreciate the 12 years
Cheewa James invested in her research for book, The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die. Katrina
Sau-tau-nee thank you for the use of your personal library. Thank you JessieLynn, for
helping me actually get to places of history. Thank you Debbie, Kim, Sunday, Jen, Evie,
and Suzanne for always offering encouragement, appreciating creative lessons, and
commiserating over the struggles encountered when balancing advanced coursework,
hours of commuting, and family life on top of teaching full time.
Undoubtedly my principal gratitude goes to my family who held everything together and not only offered encouragement but picked up all of the jobs Mom typically
performed before the research, night classes, and writing made me a bit of a recluse.
Thank you for believing in me. Charlie you amaze me in your certainty that I can
accomplish so many goals. Thank you to Silas and Lori whose home became a lovely bed
and breakfast throughout many Humboldt State weekend classes. And, thank you to my
late Cousin, Catherine D. Scott, who valued higher education and aided my university
tuition.
This rich support network made it possible to immerse myself into the learning
process. Thank you! v
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Table of Contents
Abstract ...... ii
Acknowledgements ...... iii
Introduction ...... 1
Literature Review...... 4
Introduction ...... 4
Development of Federal Policy ...... 6
Modoc Enter the American Story ...... 18
Expansion to Oregon and California ...... 23
The Modoc War of 1852 ...... 30
Treaties and Compromise ...... 35
Broken Promises ...... 46
Modoc War of 1872 – 1873 ...... 53
After the War ...... 63
Method ...... 67
Introduction ...... 67
Research Question ...... 68
Curriculum ...... 69
Overview of Instructional Delivery ...... 71
Eighth Grade Lesson Plan ...... 73
Objectives ...... 73
Academic Language ...... 73 vii
Day 1 ...... 74
Second block Day 1 ...... 77
Day 3 ...... 80
Day 4 ...... 83
Day 5 ...... 85
Day 6 ...... 87
Day 7 ...... 88
Day 8 ...... 89
Day 9-10 ...... 90
Discussion ...... 92
References ...... 94
(2012) “Who We Are.” IndianAffairs.gov Last updated 21 November 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2012. http://www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/RegionalOffices/Pacific/WeAre/index.htm ...... 95
Appendix A ...... 102
Appendix B ...... 119
Appendix C ...... 120
Appendix D ...... 124
Appendix E ...... 125
Appendix F...... 129
Appendix G ...... 133
Appendix H ...... 136
Appendix I ...... 144
Appendix J ...... 148
viii
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 22, Number 3274, 25 September 1861 ...... 148
Abstract of Approved Laws Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume V, Number 103, 30 April 1862 ...... 148
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 24, Number 3704, 4 February 1863 ...... 149
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 24, Number 3717, 19 February 1863 ...... 150
Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume IX, Number 44, 23 February 1864 ...... 150
Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume VIII, Number 134, 6 December 1863 ...... 151
Appendix K ...... 152
Appendix L ...... 153
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List of Appendices
Appendix A Chronology ...... 100
Appendix B Blackline Map of United States 1840 ...... 117
Appendix C Vignette: “The Child’s Life” (James, 2008)...... 118
Appendix D Image, Model of Winter Home Wikiup ...... 122
Appendix E Vignette: “The Killer Snow” (James, 2008) ...... 123
Appendix F Vignette: “The Healer” (James, 2008) ...... 127
Appendix G Congressional Document, Applegate Correspondance 1872 ...... 131
Appendix H Correspondance from E. Steele 1873 ...... 1Error! Bookmark not defined.4
Appendix I Excerpts from official transcript of the Trial of the Modoc Indians ...... 142
Appendix J Example News Articles for DBQ ...... 146
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 22, Number 3274, 25 September 1861 ...... 148
Abstract of Approved Laws Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume V, Number 103, 30 April 1862 ...... 148
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 24, Number 3704, 4 February 1863 ...... 149
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 24, Number 3717, 19 February 1863 ...... 150
Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume IX, Number 44, 23 February 1864 ...... 150
Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume VIII, Number 134, 6 December 1863 ...... 151
Appendix K Blackline Map of United States 1870 ...... 150
Appendix L Student Education Standards……………………………………………..151
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1 Introduction
It may be true that the story of history is too vast to be completely recounted in
history text books. However, there are aspects of United States history that are blatantly
absent. One such shortcoming is the story of the indigenous people living across the
North American continent during the period that the United States expanded westward. It
is easy to locate images of prosperity and nobility in the dominant culture as the United
States grew in territory and prowess. Manifest Destiny is recognized as an ordained
superiority which justified conquering others. But, those others were here first and have
a very different story to tell that is not commonly explored in students’ history texts.
The purpose of this thesis project is to discover the conditions and attitudes that
existed at the time non-Indian people were moving westward, claiming new lands in the
name of the United States. To gain an accurate picture of what was really going on during
the era of Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), this project focuses on one tribe, Modoc,
whose first experiences with non-Indian settlers resulted in written and pictorial accounts.
The resulting documentation and the suddenness of the encounter between non-Indian
and Modoc provide opportunities for student researchers to analyze “contact history:” including causation and outcomes. After completing the lessons included herein, students will be able to articulate their own interpretation of the effects of westward movement on native communities with specific examples to support their views.
The Literature Review section discusses state and federal policies leading up to the relocation of the Modoc people. Readers will notice changing public opinions toward
2 native peoples over this period. It includes early federal Indian policy, with examples that
are representative of the attitudes during this time period and the stages of land
acquisitions that occurred. As Modoc enter the American story, state policies, local
practices and their interpretations by individuals set the scene. Students explore the differences in cultural norms that lay the groundwork for the Modoc War of 1872. The
policies that divide the tribe as they are conquered by Americans who successively take the indigenous lands are examined along with the motivations and actions exiling half of
the Modoc tribe to Indian Country as prisoners of war.
Cultural conflict arising from the lack of appreciation for cultural differences, is
the main focus of my thesis. Currently, student textbooks lack this cultural perspective
which reduces students’ ability to truly understand the way expansion evolved and how it
affected tribes such as the Modoc. California eighth grade students broadly study the role
of government across the entire United States; as such students have little opportunity for
in depth analysis of governmental policy. This thesis project allows students to evaluate
the implications of government policy and the era of expansion and reform as those
affected real people of the period: indigenous, pioneering, and governing. Students will
see that each group of people had its own world view which at times conflicted with the
needs and wants of others.
The Methods section outlines the early process for researching policy and culture.
As the research became more specific, it was exciting discovering details about the Lost
River region and Modoc culture. This section tells about the motivation behind creating
3 the two week unit and why it begins with acting out myths, establishing the environment and investing time in creating a model of Modoc winter homes.
The Lesson Plans section contains two weeks dedicated to building a sense of origin in an effort to get to know individuals from the time period. The learning-lab structure of these plans will be most easily implemented in a self-contained classroom, but is not limited to such. The two-week lesson plan is intended to coincide with lessons from the eighth grade curriculum involving federal Indian policy and westward movement. It is heavily dependent upon the students’ understanding time and place.
Therefore, mapping is used throughout. Initially students use digital archives to study
Modoc myths published in 1912. Students create skits to teach their chosen myth to others and thus come to appreciate the Modoc mysticism. Then, students research the natural resources available to Modoc and create a class mural from their findings. Finally, student teams work to build winter houses in order to understand the significant loss of investment that resulted when travelers destroyed the seemingly abandoned structures.
Next, students become researchers searching additional digital archives, reading actual news reports from the 1800s. By narrowing their search to limited time periods students are able to generalize cultural attitudes held by groups of people. Students will finalize this learning lab by writing an essay response to documents supporting their position,
“How did culture change when American and Modoc histories intertwined?”
4 Literature Review
Introduction
Before written history, people lived on the North American Continent. For
thousands of years, unique groups occupied territories of land that were specifically their
own. Each group had habits and customs binding the people into what we recognize as
tribes and nations. As early as the Vikings in 1001, Europeans made contact with native
people of the North American continent often with negative consequences for the indigenous peoples. Spanish explorers introduced disease with their contacts between
1492 and 1514. Many native people died off as a result of those early contacts. When
Europeans began arriving in North America to claim land, the indigenous populations of
the east coast were only a portion of their original numbers. Waves of foreign
immigrants brought disease and destruction which stripped native resources and
ultimately consumed indigenous lands. Eventually the newcomers declared themselves
the United States of America. The young nation, caught up in its own greatness, grew,
stretching its boundaries and generously sharing its ideals.
This literature review investigates the culturally destructive effects of both federal
and state policies upon indigenous culture as viewed through contact with and ultimate
removal of the Modoc Nation from its ancestral lands. Whenever possible, the names of tribes are referred to as members of a given tribe would identify themselves. When referring generally to people who have ancestral connection to the land, the term Indian is used though other terms such as Indigenous or First People, Native American, or
5 American Indian also appear in literature, though less frequently. Also, the term emigrant predominantly appeared in the literature reviewed. For consistency the term emigrant is used here. An emigrant is a person that leaves their homeland never to return again (such as those leaving the settled areas of the U.S. to settle in new lands) whereas an immigrant is a person entering a new country to take up permanent residence. For the purpose of this literature review, it is appropriate to identify those early non-Indians entering the Modoc area as emigrants.
The first section, “Development of Federal Policy,” establishes precedents in the development of the United States’ federal policy when Americans began their rapid westward expansion and westward movement. Federal policy changed as Americans increased their mobility. Indian policy had to adapt as the United States expanded its boundary west to the Pacific Ocean. This leads to the second section, “Modoc Enter the
American Story,” which describes the entrance of the Modoc into Euro-American history. Before westward expansion the Modoc had no contact with non-Indian people.
The third section, “Expansion to Oregon and California,” describes federal and state policy addressing conflict as those territories were added to the United States. The forth section, “The Modoc War of 1852,” examines a policy of extermination in what historians have named “The So-Called Modoc War.” “Treaties and Compromises,” reviews the treaties and compromises made by Modoc and American parties in attempts to balance cultural differences, and describes efforts made by the Modoc to live by the rules of the treaties. The sixth section, “Broken Promises,” analyzes the consequences of broken treaties. The final section, “After the War,” describes the milieu of 1872 and 1873
6 when the Modoc ceased submitting to dominion and stood up for what they had always known as their way of life. This literature review ends with the Modoc tribe separated by hundreds of miles. During this period half of the tribe had their identity taken from them for 35 years until the remaining survivors were allowed to reunite.
The Modoc Nation with its geographic and political isolation gives a focal point to the negative effects American federal and state policy had upon traditional culture.
Their ancestral homelands spanned 5,000 square miles of territory in both California and
Oregon from their summer hunting area around Mount Shasta east and north to Goose
Lake.
Development of Federal Policy
The experience of American Indians in relation to the development of the United
States is not the story of progress and the pursuit of happiness (Calloway, 2008).
Available Indian history is often considered contact history because their story began to be recorded by people of European influence only at the point the latter established contact (Washburn, 1987). Prior to colonists declaring themselves a republic, American
Indians experienced a succession of European powers arriving to extract resources from the American continent (Heiser, 1978). These early years were filled with political struggles for land control during which Indian tribes sometimes allied their efforts with various European interests (Calloway, 2008; Tyler, 1973). European powers used tribal nations as political and military pawns as they struggled for superiority (Faulk, 1988). As a result, when nation building began, federal rationale persuaded Indian tribes to remain neutral to foreign influence while the United States established its autonomy from Britain
7 (Sturtevant, 1988). Initially, the 1775 Continental Congress handled policy by creating an
Indian department which divided American Indian tribes into three geographic regions:
Northern, Middle, and Southern (Sturtevant, 1988). Early Indian policy reacted to adjusting situations (Ellison, 1913). Federal policy affecting Indians continuously changed as the United States developed (Hurtado, 1988; Nelson, 1979).
In Article IX of the Articles of Confederation, the United States federal government gave itself sole and exclusive rights to deal with Indian tribes (Sturtevant,
1988). However, these articles also acknowledged an exception to federal rights pertaining to Indian affairs within state jurisdictions (Articles of Confederation, 1777).
Beyond state interests, many foreign and domestic entities wanted control over Indian resources (Sturtevant, 1988). Additionally, British Canada to the north and Spanish
Florida to the south encouraged Indian resistance toward the confederated United States
(Calloway, 2008). Individuals living within the United States’ borders also tried to gain control over Indian people, their land, and its resources (Calloway, 2008; Marks, 1988)
In 1787, the Confederation began to change the assumptions upon which they had based their Indian policy (Sturtevant, 1988). Secretary of War, Henry Knox, argued that because Indians were the prior occupants of the land, alienation of Indians from their land would be a gross violation of the fundamental laws of nature (Sturtevant, 1988). During this period of United States history, Congress outlined westward expansion plans in
Article III of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance stating that the “utmost good faith” would be observed that lands and property would never be taken without consent of the Indians
(Sturtevant, 1988). During this early period the United States government denounced
8 conquest and authorized purchase of Indian lands through treaty (Quinn, 1997). However,
rules governing the new American nation were still evolving (Hurtado, 1988).
Ratification of the United States Constitution again altered Indian Policy (Ellison,
1913). Section 8, Article I, commonly referred to as the Commerce Clause asserted that
only federally appointed representatives could deal directly with Indian nations to
negotiate treaties which would then need to be ratified by Congress (US Constitution,
1789). This clause implied that Indians had sovereignty over their land and that land
could only be taken from Indians with their free consent or through conquest of a just war
(Dillon, 1973). Eventually, like Europeans before them, Americans would set out to take
Indian land by creating their own legal avenue for the confiscation of Indian title
(Calloway, 2008).
After 1790 the United States government faced four options in shaping its overall
policy toward Indians: (1) exterminate them: (2) protect them in enclaves while towns
rose around them; (3) assimilate Indians by encouraging them to become crop-raising,
church-going, school-attending model citizens; (4) transplant them to that inhospitable, unwanted wilderness west of the Mississippi, known as Indian Territory. (Nabokov,
1978, p. 147)
Recognizing the need to protect native people from the predatory tendencies of individual Americans and individual states, Henry Knox and others in the Washington administration worked to confirm the federal government’s exclusive control regarding commerce with Indian tribes (Sturtevant, 1988). The Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790
further strengthened Indian Policy set forth in the United States Constitution (Olson-
9 Raymer, 1997-2001). From 1790 to 1834, a series of such acts detailed Indian affairs in
an effort to protect Indians from unscrupulous individuals (Calloway, 2008).
Modifications to the Trade and Intercourse Acts adjusted federal conduct in Indian
Affairs and created a subsidized system of purchasing Indian products referred to as the
factory system (Sturtevant, 1988). Private Industry forced an end to the economic
competition created as a result of the federal government trading with Indians (Cahill,
2011). Congress abolished the federally controlled factory system of trade in 1822 (3 US
Stat. 678). Federal authority was maintained by the Supreme Court in Johnson v
McIntosh (1823) where absolute authority of the federal government to treat with Indian
tribes was upheld (Falmouth Institute, 1992).
Some Americans, such as George Washington and his Secretary of War, Henry
Knox, saw their version of the American way of life as the highest form of living
attainable and as such sought to share their blessings with others (Sturtevant, 1988).
Knox and Washington perceived that to teach Indians to live as White Americans was a
generous act (Sturtevant, 1988). However well-intentioned federal policy may have appeared to the White society that created it, the application of policy often had detrimental results (Calloway, 2008).
Beginning in 1800, a succession of presidents embraced the belief that Indians needed to be relocated away from White settlements (Foner, 2009). President Jefferson first believed in absorption and so-called civilization of Indian people but changed his view to promote the removal of Indian people to assigned Indian colonies (Ellison, 1913).
He believed that the Louisiana Purchase would provide enough land for Indians and
10 Whites to each have ample living areas (Faulk, 1988). Some tribes willingly agreed to give up their lands for other lands in the west (Hurtado, 1988). The United States’ population expansion encouraged citizens to pressure Congress to obtain and make
Indian land available to Whites (Marks, 1988). This predicament repeated itself each time the United States expanded its boundaries (Hurtado, 1988). The good intentions toward
Indians expressed in early federal policy required an inconvenient financial investment on the part of Americans to pay for trade with Indians, the purchase of Indian land for
American settlement, and military defense when conflicts developed (Sturtevant, 1988).
In 1803, Jefferson wrote to William Henry Harrison explaining how relocation and dependence upon the factory system would eventually dispossess Indians of their lands
(Calloway, 2008).
…they will perceive how useless to them are their extensive forests, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in exchange for necessaries for their farms and families … we shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals run into debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. (Thomas Jefferson as cited in Calloway, 2008, p. 230).
In 1824, in his annual message, President Monroe declared to Congress that the only solution to the Indian problem was to induce Indians to move west (Sturtevant,
1988). Congress followed Monroe’s suggestion, and in 1830 President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law (Appleby, 2006). Remaining tribes of the east were then forced west under military guard (Hurtado, 1988). Numerous Indian tribes were lumped together in what was referred to as Indian Territory west of the Mississippi (Calloway,
11 2008). Section 3 of the Indian Removal Act forever guaranteed Indians the land (Indian
Removal Act of 1830).
And be it further enacted, That in making any such exchange or exchanges, it shall and may be lawful for the President solemnly to assure the tribe or nation with which the exchange is made, that the United States will forever secure and guaranty to them, and their heirs or successors, the country so exchanged with them…(Indian Removal Act of 1830, United States Statutes at Large, 21st Cong., Sess. I, Chp. 148, p. 411-412)
Seven years after Congress passed the Indian Removal Act to solve the United
States’ so-called Indian problem, a financial panic overwhelmed the nation (Foner, 2009).
Years of depression followed, and westward migration steadily increased into the lands
that had previously been reserved for Indians (Foner, 2009). Settlers found new economic
and social beginnings by moving west (Appleby, 2003). Other settlers went west for
religious reasons (Clark, 1981). Period art illustrated imagery of Lady Liberty leading
settlers in their great migrations westward which reflected the American attitude that a
divine power intended for Americans to move west (Appleby, 2003). As Americans
moved west, it was the Army’s responsibility to ensure citizens’ safety along travel routes
(Foner, 2009). They used force to control Indians throughout the country.
In 1834, the War Department after the establishment of its own Indian Office,
created the Bureau of Indian Affairs (4 US Stat. 735). The BIA then became part of the
newly created Department of the Interior in 1849 (Calloway, 2008). Because the
Department of the Interior had jurisdiction over areas of government not neatly classified
into other existing departments it was sometimes referred to as the department of
everything else (Cahill, 2011). No longer housed within the War Department, the Bureau
12 of Indian Affairs was staffed by persons who generally had an appreciation for Indian habits and customs which resulted in a better working relationship between cultures
(James, 2008). However, even with individuals who appreciated Indians and federal policies that professed to provide for Indians’ best interests, the reality of Indian life was dire (Powers, 1976).
Reviewing the development of federal Indian policy reveals multiple approaches.
European nations came to North America with an attitude of supreme authority which was replicated as the United States established nation status. The Continental Congress first established an Indian Department which had its authority explained in the Articles of
Confederation. Later the United States Constitution clarified absolute federal authority for all agreements and/or trade with Indian people. The federal government sought to protect Indian people from predatory practices of non-Indians. However, this practice conveyed that non-Indian people knew what was best for Indian people. Soon federal military relocated entire tribes away from their homelands to make way for expanding
American populations. Initially, the Indian Department was securely operated within the
War Department. The question of how to deal with the original inhabitants of the land became an increasing problem. The United States created the Bureau of Indian Affairs which was transferred into a newly created Department of the Interior.
Beginning in the 1800s, the United States experienced rapid change: technology grew by leaps and bounds, emigration increased, and the nation claimed large expanses of Indian land (Howe, 2007). The rapidly increasing American population needed places to live. United States citizens pioneered westward across North America in search of
13 better lives for themselves (Appleby, 2006; Hakim, 2003). This pioneer presence used
military power to establish the United States’ dominance through battles with indigenous
people and competing European nations (Calloway, 2008; Foner, 2009; Hakim, 2003).
Federal relations with tribes changed by creating treaties, assigning lands, ignoring
promises, dealing with internal corruption, and trying to balance obligations of Indian
policy with the demands of establishing an economically prosperous nation.
Pioneering during the United States’ move west followed a predictable path: white entrance, army presence, Indian resistance, and then the newcomer’s solidified and permanent presence marked by road development across the continent (Clark, 1981).
American sense of prosperity and freedom was directly linked to accessibility of land
ownership (De Soto, 2009; Foner, 2009). The Army was responsible for ensuring the safe
passage of American settlers moving west (Meacham, 1875). Thus, federal funds were
used to protect settlers traveling along emigrant roads as the United States expanded
control across the North American continent (Sturtevant, 1988). During this time,
Americans believed a doctrine of Manifest Destiny justified a God-given right to
populate all lands between the Atlantic the Pacific oceans (Foner, 2009). In addition, a
national attitude suggested a duty of good Americans was to extend the blessings of
American democracy to all people they encountered (Calloway, 2008; Clark, 1981). Not
everyone agreed with the broad interpretation that guided the settlers actions.
The head of the army, William Tecumseh Sherman, complained that settlers
unnecessarily provoked the Indians by not containing westward movement to negotiated
travel routes (Quinn, 1997). Military confrontations with many tribes resulted as the army
14 tried to keep emigrant stagecoach routes open (Sturtevant, 1988). Across the west,
Americans disregarded government stipulations of conduct with Indian people (Bancroft,
1888).
Even the United States ignored its own stipulations (Hurtado, 1988). The 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo required that Indian men over the age of 18 were to be
given the right to vote and that Indians were to receive the rancho lands they had worked
to build (Hurtado, 1988). Leaders of the United States, like the citizenry, selectively
complied with treaty stipulations (Foner; 2009). In truth, rancho lands primarily went to
non-Indians (Appleby, 2006; Hurtado, 1988). Political precedent had been established in
California which governed itself with very little Spanish or Mexican oversight; the
practice continued as California became an American state (Hurtado, 1988). In the same
way, citizens of the United States were so removed from federal oversight they failed to expand the nation with honor – frontier settlers focused on profitable expansion
(Calloway, 2008).
Anglo-Americans often possessed a hatred of Indians and openly argued for
complete extermination of all native peoples (Alta California newspapers 1850s; Bancroft
1888; Forbes, 1969). California’s state constitution created state militias that received
state funds to exterminate Indians (Johnston-Dodd, 2002). Enlisted volunteers received a
daily wage to fight, capture, and kill Indians (Hurtado, 1988). Individual Californians
received substantial funds to kill Indian people (Johnston-Dodd, 2002). The California
Assembly enacted laws punishing Indians for livestock raiding and for setting fire to
prairie lands (Hurtado, 1988) which was culturally important for the propagation of
15 traditional grasses, but burning of range land was detrimental to ranchers (Hurtado,
1988). State and federal acts, which led to increased American populations in Indian country, put Indian tribes at odds with whites and brought an end to an era of Indian nomadic existence (Quinn, 1997). By 1850, only two years after the United States acquired Californian lands from Mexico through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, it was clear that the federal government needed to intervene on behalf of native people (Nelson,
1978).
In the 1850s, Congressional allocations for treaty negotiations and ensuing tribal allotments were repeatedly reduced and sometimes completely revoked (Bancroft, 1888).
Indian agents traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest negotiating for Indian lands and making treaty agreements which would never be funded (Nelson, 1978). Negotiators sought to locate reservations between mining areas and agricultural lands so that citizens could monitor and report on the activities of Indian populations (Hurtado, 1988).
Eighteen California treaties and nineteen Oregon treaties were not ratified by Congress
(Hurtado, 1988). At the time, Washington bureaucrats, businessmen, army officers,
Indian agents and even so-called tribal chiefs created rings of fraud (Marks, 1998).
Humanitarian protests did little to slow the corruption (Marks, 1998; Sturtevant, 1988).
Provisioning contractors charged the government exorbitant rates and often times arrived with only a fraction of the amount described in the treaty (Eargle, 1992). Indian agents did not have necessary supplies to care for the people in their charge (Meacham, 1875;
Sturtevant, 1988). Agents were reduced to appeasing Indians with food and goods as they tried to mitigate the ravages of war upon the Indian people (Sturtevant, 1988). Steps
16 were taken to move Indians onto reservations where they could inexpensively be kept out of the way of White commerce as much as for the protection of Indian people (Nelson,
1978). While the federal government fell short in fulfilling its side of treaty negotiations, it is well documented that Indian tribes who had negotiated a formal settlement with federal agents, confined themselves to their treaty stipulations as they awaited congressional approval and presidential declaration (Murray; 1959; Nelson, 1978;
Norton, 1979; Stern, 1966).
During the reservation period, the need to reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs was exposed (Calloway, 2008; Sturtevant, 1988). Influential people, both in and out of
Congress, publicized the extent of the agency’s deficiencies and corruption (Sturtevant,
1988). Congress established a Board of Indian Commissioners in 1869 to investigate conditions on reservations and curb mismanagement (Callaway, 2008). In addition,
Congress recognized that ex-soldiers did not consistently have Indians’ best interests in mind; consequently, they passed legislation that prohibited military officers from serving in civilian capacities (Sturtevant, 1988). This created a problem for President Ulysses
Grant who had begun assigning surplus army officers as political appointees in the Indian service (Sturtevant, 1988). Grant’s actions summarized intentions of his first two Indian affairs policies: first, that the agent was more important than the Indian, and second, that it was cheaper to feed the Indian than to fight him (Murray, 1959). The work of managing
Indians still needed to be done, and Ulysses Grant turned to faith-based groups to meet the need (Meacham, 1875). The Peace Policy, as it became known, utilized churchmen as
17 agents who, for a time, brought an element of humanitarianism to Indian Affairs
(Calloway, 2008).
Indian Territory faced increasing encroachments as Congress enacted other policies pertaining to non-Indian citizenry and commerce (Marks, 1998). As the United
States’ borders expanded west, the federal government gave United States citizens land for settling (Land Grant May 20, 1862). The 1862 Homestead Act granted title of 160 acres to every homesteader who paid $10 and completed 5 years of land occupation
(Appleby, 2006). Additionally, Congress chartered with railroad companies in the 1860s to build the first transcontinental railroad (Appleby, 2006). Legislation continued shifting away from recognition of Indian political sovereignty (Marks, 1998). By 1871, Indian negotiation power crumbled further when Congress determined that tribes would no longer be recognized as individual nations (Dillon, 1973). Even more limiting, an 1873 order by the Secretary of the Interior required all Indians to obtain a special written permit from their governing agent before being able to leave their assigned reservation
(Marks, 1998; Meacham 1875).
Policy affecting American Indians became more confused as the United States expanded west. Before and during the advancements in communication and transportation, the distant, central government could only provide limited federal oversight and enforcement. Additionally, some policies contradicted other policies, and the interpretation was left to the individuals present. Clearly, the application of law was often not consistent with the intent of federal leadership in Washington, DC. The next section introduces one of many western Indian nations, the Modoc Nation, into the
18 American story. Theirs is an example of “contact history” because it is recorded from the perspective of non-Indian individuals recording the information rather than the members of the tribes. The section will focus on the contact and conflict experienced by people in the Modoc Nation and American settlers during a time when Anglo-Americans entered
Indian territories of the west.
Modoc Enter the American Story
Historians uncover case studies of the negative effects American federal and state policies have had upon traditional cultures in historical events (Hurtado, 1988). As a case in point, using rules and force, the American determination to expand their newly developing nation confronted the corresponding Modoc determination to defend their ancestral homelands (Dillon, 1973). This provides an opportunity to study what happens when one culture seeks to dominate another. The European nations of Spain, France, and
Russia had made contact with the tribes of the Pacific Northwest but had not established a large lasting presence (Bancroft, 1888; Clark, 1981). Britain established the most permanent authority which evolved from a monopoly granted in 1670 (Sturtevant, 1988).
A feudal practice, the royal decree proclaimed all trading rights geographically joined to
Hudson Bay belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company (Sturtevant, 1988). Hudson’s Bay
Company traders gradually extended their geographic reach across the continent to the
Pacific Ocean (Bancroft, 1888; Sturtevant, 1988).
Inland from the Pacific, Modoc ancestral homelands spanned 5,000 square miles of high desert territory (Stern, 1965). Their nomadic range consisted of summer hunting
19 areas around Mount Shasta then east and north to Goose Lake and west to Lower
Klamath Lake (Cook, 1970; Faulk, 1988). However, Modoc bands most consistently occupied the Lost River country now identified as the central Oregon-California border
(Cook, 1970). Much of their land was arid (Dillon, 1970). Forty square miles of southern range was extremely volcanic making it undesirable to incoming settlers (Dillon, 1973).
Yet, Modoc saw their world as a friendly place that bountifully supplied their needs
(Boyer, 2001; Faulk, 1988). The land was dry and barren except for the waterways where animals congregated (Dillon, 1973). Resilient generations of Modoc coped with the land and learned to use the earth to their advantage (James, 2008). These areas were plentiful enough to support several small bands (Faulk, 1988). Fifty or so self-governing bands identified themselves collectively as the Modoc (James, 2008). At its height, the bands comprising the Modoc tribe numbered roughly 1,000 individuals (Faulk, 1988).
By the 1790s, the Modoc people were too far inland to have direct contact when the British and other European explorers began sailing along North America’s Pacific
Coast (Faulk, 1988). The Modoc Nation enjoyed geographic and political isolation
(Cook, 1970). Originally, the Modoc and Klamath had been known as the Maklaks and shared a language base and region separate from the other Indians of Oregon (Dillon,
1973). The Maklaks disbanded creating two tribes; the Klamath stayed in the north, and the Modoc went south (Dillon, 1973; Stern, 1965). A cataclysmic explosion of a sacred mountain coincided with the time the Modoc branched off to become their own nation
(Boyer, 2001). Literally earth changing, the event solidified the Modoc’s separation from the Klamath, their isolated identity as well as their mythological and religious beliefs
20 (Boyer, 2001). The Modoc put great importance upon the role of spirits in all aspects of
Modoc life (Boyer, 2001). Therefore when the first non-Indians appeared to the Modoc,
they hid, assuming that evil spirits had been sent to punish their tribe (Riddle, 1914).
First contact was made with traders who introduced them to the trading system
(Bancroft, 1888). Modoc ventured out of their territory to participate in Indian trading where they came into contact with Europeans and European customs (Stern, 1965). By the 1830s, explorers had penetrated inland tribal territories for purposes of trade but brought with them diseases spread along developing trade routes and depleted large percentages of many tribes (Forbes, 1969; Nelson, 1978). It is important to note that western tribes were generally smaller in number than tribes of the plains, so they were not as able to stave off physical attack (Sturtevant, 1988). The 1840s also brought smallpox epidemics to Oregon tribes as migrant settlers came into contact with Indians along emigrant routes (Bancroft, 1888). Many tribes, including the Modoc, lost twenty-five to fifty percent of their populations (James, 2008). Some tribes of the Columbia River
Valley of present day Oregon died out entirely (James, 2008).
Trade also introduced new wealth into the subsistence economy which then changed power structures (Sturtevant, 1988). It was the younger men who tended to make the long journey required for trading; the experiences gained by this enterprise transferred traditional generational roles within the tribe (Stern, 1965). The young traders returned with new diction and styles of dress giving them prestige (Stern, 1965). For tribes, changes in trade habits increased desire for material wealth; new clothing, language, and tools changed tribal value systems by allocating prestige to the bearer of
21 new ways of living (Murray, 1959). Younger men began to command greater authority
within their tribe (Stern, 1965.) Prestige created a power transfer as the people shifted their support from elder leaders to the younger men (Murray, 1959). Unlike some other tribes, Modoc did not have abundant fur bearing animals to generate excesses for trade purposes (Faulk, 1988). Their land’s volcanic past did not sustain the large populations of fur-bearing animals sought by European traders (Stern, 1965). Greed for wealth and power encouraged Modoc raiding upon their neighbors (Powers, 1976). The resulting bounty from raids upon neighboring tribes soon fueled the Modoc trade-based economy
(Dillon, 1973).
They were an entirely practical people who made decisions founded on survival
(Faulk, 1988). Their economy, including trade, was fueled by other sustaining activities: hunting, gathering, fishing, and raiding other tribes for food and supplies (Stern, 1965).
Trade and raiding were among the few reasons for Modoc to interact beyond their own territorial limits (Stern, 1965). The Modoc’s geographic isolation did not hinder participation in the prolific slave trafficking commerce between the Sacramento Valley of
California and The Dalles of Washington (Forbes, 1969). Though the Modoc conducted very few raids annually, they commanded a fearsome reputation (Stern, 1965). The slaves, mostly women, were traded for horses and guns (Dillon, 1973). Generally, they sold their captives to their Klamath neighbors to the north (James, 2008). Known almost exclusively for their participation in intertribal slave trading, the Modoc were stigmatized with a reputation as warring savages (James, 2008; Powers, 1976). Neighboring tribes
22 seldom ventured into Modoc lands because they feared these skilled fighters (Quinn,
1997). However, the Modoc people were shy about newcomers (Riddle, 1914).
The first outsiders actually passed through Modoc homeland peacefully, as was the case for explorer John Fremont in 1843 (Dillon, 1973). However, in 1846, Fremont was ambushed as he traversed the Lost River area (Faulk, 1988). Fremont attributed the attack to the Klamaths to the north, but an Oregon pioneer, Lindsey Applegate, in the area at the same time, blamed the attack on the Modoc (Dillon, 1973). Lindsey was in
Modoc country seeking a wagon route to offset the Hudson’s Bay Company trade route dominance throughout Indian lands (Murray, 1959). In the late 1840s there were many reported murders along overland trails that were attributed to the Modoc along with the neighboring southern tribe of Pit River Indians (Dillon, 1973). At this time the Modoc had joined the Umpqua, Rogue Rivers, Pit Rivers, Klamath tribes to fight off White invasion into Oregon (Dillon, 1973). Disease and defeat had quelled efforts to drive the
Whites out of Oregon (Dillon, 1973; James, 2008). The south fork of the Oregon Trail went through Modoc country and so placed increased pressure on the Modoc which led to conflict and war (Dillon, 1973). But by 1857, relations became peaceful as exemplified by a trader from Yreka, California who repeatedly visited Modoc to successfully trade his beads, fabric, metal, and tobacco (Boyer, 2001; Dillon, 1973). The Modoc continued to maintain traditional tribal organization although they began to wear their hair cut short, dressed in White fashion, and ventured into neighboring towns to participate in work and trade (Dillon, 1973; James, 2008).
23 Individual tribal bands functioned with autonomy except when situations called for unification such as in times of ceremony, war, or raids (Murray, 1959). Whether in individual bands or together as an entire tribe, consensus of the all members of any particular group governed the decision making of the selected leader (James, 2008).
Leaders were chosen for their oratory skills, good judgment, diplomacy, friendliness, and ability in moments of crisis (Faulk, 1988). A band could have several leaders at once because different individuals were in charge of spiritual matters, daily governance, and war (Riddle, 1914). However, many of the experienced, older members of the bands, who would have held these positions of leadership, were gone after the years of warring with
Whites (James, 2008; Stern, 1965) leaving tribes with less experienced leadership.
The Modoc tribe had an isolated history. They did not interact extensively with neighboring tribes and were reserved when the first explorers came west. Their beliefs were held collectively within their own tribe. Similar to bringing bands together to create a stronger force, the Modoc did attempt to unite with other tribes of Oregon and
California to fight off White invasions, but when that failed, the Modoc adapted to work with the newcomers. The next section describes the manner in which Americans advanced their boundaries and the role of policy used for dealing with Indian tribes.
Expansion to Oregon and California
Across North America, Indian lands were claimed by advancing Europeans and
Americans (Calloway, 2008; Foner, 2009). It was a confusing time for many reasons.
Declared political boundaries ebbed and flowed regardless of Indian nations’ who already owned the land by right of occupancy (Calloway, 2008; Hakim, 2003). A relatively rapid
24 series of acquisitions increased the United States’ recognized dominance: Great Britain’s land cession in 1783, the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, and the Louisiana Purchase1803
(Hakim, 2003; Howe, 2007). The United States immediately sent official explorers to investigate expanded federal interests (Napp, 2001). President Jefferson commissioned the famous Lewis and Clark expedition to inventory the newly acquired lands (Calloway,
2008). Under President Monroe, an 1819 expedition determined that the Great Plains were suitable only for Indian inhabitants and would serve as a deterrent to westward expansion (Hakim, 2003). Early explorers, in recognition of tribal sovereignty, made assurances to Indians that peaceful relationships between governments would follow
(Calloway, 2008). They informed those they met that tribal lands belonged to the United
States and told Indians that cooperating with the Great Father in Washington would bring prosperity to Indian people (Calloway 2008). In the early 1800s, it seemed impossible that the United States would ever expand its population west of the Mississippi or that one president could effectively govern the entire continent (Hakim, 2003). However, in just a few years those assumptions changed.
Rapid technological advancements in communication, transportation, and industry fueled national prosperity (Howe, 2007). In the 1820s, President Monroe offered a blueprint for government-supported economic development, called the American System, which outlined internal improvements (Hakim, 2003). Monroe’s interest in infrastructure coincided with rising American nationalism (Hakim, 2003).
In the 1840s, intensified interest in Manifest Destiny encouraged thousands of
Americans to utilize these improvements as they moved westward (Clark, 1981; Foner,
25 2009). To maintain regional influence, settlers sent letters back to the states calling for reinforcements to populate American land interests (Bancroft, 1888; Clark, 1981).
Presenting a similar message, President Polk campaigned with a call for the nation to take control of Oregon even if that meant a fight with Britain; less publicly he also advocated for military action to take California from Mexico (Foner, 2009). Further exciting
American interests in populating western regions, Russia announced that its empire extended from Alaska south to Oregon Territory (Appleby, 2009). Americans with interests in the Pacific Northwest pled for national support (Clark, 1981; Foner, 2009).
Congress responded and the United States funded transportation projects, increased support for industry, and encouraged continual westward settlement (Foner, 2009; Howe,
2007). The boundaries claimed as possessions of the United States quickly stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans (Hakim, 2003, Howe, 2007).
Additions to the United States’ land holdings came at the detriment of Indian people (Calloway, 2008; Foner, 2009). For example, the United States bought Florida in
1819 but followed it with forced relocation of tribes from their homelands (Hakim,
2003). As the United States increased its borders throughout the era of Manifest Destiny, the rights of indigenous tribes to continue living on their land became threatened (Foner,
2009). Indian people noticed that Whites were as powerful as they were plentiful (Dillon,
1973). It was devastating for Indian people to be forced to leave ancestral homelands because a policy declared that the land ownership was held by Americans (Powers,
1976).
26 As Anglo populations built up, disagreements over authority increased (Stern,
1966). Non-Indians in the jointly held Oregon Country noticed that the balance of
authority was shifting towards British superiority which alarmed American missionaries,
entrepreneurs, and settlers of the region (Clark, 1981).
Oregon had actually entered into the United States’ expansion story as part of an
1818 agreement declaring joint occupation between Britain and the United States
(Appleby, 2006). Early settlers established economic trading relationships with Indian
tribes throughout the region (Stern, 1965). Britain’s increasingly influential Hudson’s
Bay Company maintained just and friendly trade relations when they conducted business
(Stern, 1965). Hudson’s Bay Company’s success, and therefore strength, was underpinned by the furnishing of weaponry and alcohol to Indian tribes (Bancroft, 1888).
The United States’ Trade and Intercourse Acts strictly limited such trade options for
American citizens (Sturtevant, 1988). However, policies of the United States did not apply in regions not wholly controlled by the United States resulting in an unfair advantage to British traders (Sturtevant, 1988). Americans did not want to be excluded from profitable opportunities (Dillon, 1973). The United States negotiated with Britain for control of Oregon Country through the Treaty of 1846 (Napp, 2001). Then, having become an official territory of the United States, provisions contained in the Trade and
Intercourse Acts took effect (Sturtevant, 1988). No longer could Hudson’s Bay Company
furnish ammunition or alcohol to Indians (Bancroft, 1988). Federal limitations greatly
decreased Britain’s, particularly the Hudson’s Bay Company’s, influence over Indian
conduct (Bancroft, 1888).
27 Settlers traveling west to expand America were viewed as brave, enterprising men
and women utilizing a land promised to them by providence (Applegate, 1895). Period
art reflected the attitude that Americans were sharing a great gift by spreading Christian
civility across the continent (Foner, 2009). Even with providence on their side, the reality
was that traversing the early transcontinental route across the Blue Mountains and along
the Columbia Gorge was excessively dangerous (Clark, 1981). Additionally, previously
established routes were still controlled by British subjects who levied tolls for passage
(Dillon, 1973). In an effort to establish national infrastructure, new emigrant roads were sought for easier access into Oregon (Bancroft, 1888; Hakim, 2003). One such route was found in 1846 by the Applegate-Scott exploration party (Bancroft, 1888, Dillon, 1973).
The Applegates, who came to southern Oregon with the Great 1843 Migration, suffered the loss of family members along the Columbia Gorge (Bancroft, 1888, Dillon, 1973).
Acting upon their sense of American patriotism, the Applegates blazed an alternant, southern route for fellow Americans navigating west (Bancroft, 1888). Popular travel routes developed in southern Oregon traversed areas of the densest Indian populations
(Dillon, 1973). The resulting trail, known as the Applegate Trail or South Emigrant
Road, passed right through Modoc homelands and quickly filled with covered wagons
(Bancroft 1888; Dillon, 1973). People poured into Oregon in search of fertile farm lands which promised plentiful prosperity (Clark, 1981). Then, in 1849, gold was discovered in
California. Migration swelled as speculators headed to the gold fields in California
(Foner, 2009).
28 Confrontations between Indians and Whites escalated as settlers’ use of travel and
trade routes increased (Sturtevant, 1988). Coinciding with the influx of immigrants after
the discovery of gold, 1850 was a particularly bloody year for attacks on wagon trains
(Bancroft, 1888). All of this migrant pressure did not benefit the tribes living along emigrant routes. The Modocs’ food sources of wild-game were driven away, and vegetation was trampled in the presence of so many travelers (Faulk, 1988). Losing their food supplies stimulated persistent raiding upon Whites (Stern, 1965). In the summer
1847, the Modoc allegedly attacked wagon trains and killed travelers (Faulk, 1988). This contact with settlers had other consequences as well. The Modoc contracted an epidemic which killed four or five hundred members of their tribe (Faulk, 1988). Having depleted their numbers by more than half, the year following was relatively quiet for the settlers moving west while the Modoc recovered from the epidemic (Stern, 1965). Recognizing the connection between the non-Indians’ presence and the disease, the recovered Modoc then increased their attacks upon wagon trains bound for Oregon (Faulk, 1988). The
Modoc commanded a fearsome reputation and so received much blame for any regional violence (Stern, 1965).
Defense of their territory and periodic raiding upon neighbors had long established Modoc as skilled fighters (Ray, 1963). Utilization of their harsh physical environment and strong, strategic defense tactics reinforced their fearsome reputation
(Stern, 1965). Settlers’ inaccurate reports and White hatred attributed many Indian attacks upon whites to the Modoc (James, 2008). Anglo-Americans coming to the gold fields did not know how to distinguish between different tribes (Hurtado, 1988; Nelson,
29 1978). Despite their bravery, settlers frequently carried with them a fear of Indians
(Hurtado, 1988). When it came to forming a cultural rapport, Americans were
overwhelmed with intense dislike based on past experiences, ignorance, and the racist
notions of the period (Hurtado, 1988). The Modocs, unlike their Klamath cousins, had
refused to completely submit to White domination (Dillon, 1973). They reacted with
violence when Whites displayed hostility towards Indians (Dillon, 1973). The presence of
the South Emigrant Road through their homeland forced interaction between the cultures which was not the case for tribes situated away from emigrant routes (Dillon, 1973).
Several emigrants coexisted on peaceful terms with the Modoc Indians (James, 2008).
In fact, most emigrants who crossed the plains to Oregon and California had positive experiences with Indians, using them as pilots, guides, and aids for emigrant river crossings, and trading horses and food for guns and cloth (Calloway, 2008). In fact, emigrants made the journey without harm despite the open war raging between the miners and the Shastas, the Modocs’ neighbors to the south (Clark, 1981). Contact with
California tribes resulted in far fewer Indian retaliations than had been experienced crossing the Great Plains (Forbes, 1969). California tribes had been known for their meekness and cooperation (Powers, 1877). The Modoc were well received as they frequented the mining towns seeking work and trade (Meacham, 1875). As discussed in the preceding section, Modoc land was harsh and generally only desirable as a passageway to the rich farm lands of Southern Oregon and the gold fields of California
(Faulk, 1988). Many Modoc created profitable relationships with ranchers and miners
(James, 2008). However, tension and hostilities continued to be inevitable simply because
30 added human presence exhausted the land’s resources: hunting, fishing, and gathering grounds (Stern, 1965).
In just 50 years, the United States transformed from a new country limited to the
Atlantic seaboard to a world power holding title across the continent from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Settlers filled the newly acquired territories in the name of
Christian and national duty. They built roads and funded forces to defend American interests. The Indian tribes living on the land before Americans claimed ownership were pushed aside. The Modoc were one of the tribes forced into the American story. The next section shows the manifestation of the hatred Whites brought west as interests intensify and American citizens solidify authority over the land and its occupants.
The Modoc War of 1852
The discovery of gold intensified the number of White pioneer settlers who passed through Modoc lands (Sturtevant, 1988). The huge numbers of newcomers simply outnumbered the small tribes and bands who already existed in a weakened state
(Sturtevant, 1988). An estimated 12,000 emigrants reached the territory by 1852; most of those had traveled along the South Emigrant Road, passing directly through Modoc country (Clark, 1981). Indians increasingly resisted the American invasion of their lands
(Bancroft, 1888). Wagon trains filled with emigrants used up available natural resources that native people relied upon for subsistence (Stern, 1865). Indian assaults on non-
Indians were often retaliatory (Calloway, 2008; Marks, 1988; Sturtevant, 1988).
Newspapers ran entertainment stories describing revenge attacks Indians were planning to execute upon miners for which miners would obliterate all villages within range (1851,
31 July 16). Tribes understood that their hunting grounds were being depleted and attacked
wagon trains for supplemental resources, capturing provisions as well as prisoners to be sold into the slave market (Murray, 1959). As noted earlier, the Modoc raided passing wagon trains as part of their subsistence economy (Faulk, 1988). Conflicts between
Indian and non-Indian people became more common and several Indian attacks upon emigrants were reported (1855, October 26; 1857, April 9).
Many conflicts were actually White on Indian though news reports of the time did
not identify aggressors with consistent accuracy (James, 2008; Marks, 1988). Military
officers were vital to maintain peaceful relations between Indian and non-Indian cultures, but settlers far exceeded manageable amounts (Shirley, 1957). Some Whites openly expressed desire that Indians should be phased out through extermination of their race
(1851, August 15). In the 1840s, these early settlers did not hesitate to use their guns upon Indians they met (Nelson, 1979). The men coming into the mining regions of
Northern California were some of the most ruthless killers (Johnston-Dodds, 2002). “The greater the ruffian the better the soldier,” and the soldiers were ruffians (Miller, 1873, p.
392). Paid militias were formed to rid the land of Indian inhabitants (Johnston-Dodds,
2002). Military officials killed several groups of Klamath during the pursuit of Modoc rebels (Stern, 1965). Appointed federal personnel campaigned to exterminate Indians
(Dillon, 1973). Chiloquin, a Klamath leader at the time, explained that even if the
Klamath felt like avenging the death of the people, they knew they could not contend against the White for long (Stern, 1965). They had learned that Whites were as numerous as the trees on the mountains (Stern, 1965). Natives of both California and in the Oregon
32 territory were hunted for sport and killed without any punishment for the murderers
(Marks, 1998).
The newcomers intended to gain power and prestige by taking the land and its resources (Hakim, 2003; James, 2008). However, to the Modoc, giving up their land, their home, and their way of life was incomprehensible (James, 2008). The Modoc did not amiably step aside when the White people flooded into their territory (Dillon, 1973).
In late summer of 1850, a massacre of eighty or more settlers moving through
Modoc country along the South Emigrant route sparked Whites into action (Secrest,
2003). Settlers were known to systematically exaggerate the danger from Indians making it difficult for the Army to accurately protect its citizenry (Quinn, 1997) and other accounts recorded fewer dead (James,2008; Stern, 1965). The attack occurred in a geographical area providing attackers rock cover above a shore line where weary settlers often camped as they traveled the South Emigrant Road (Stern, 1965). Settlers in Modoc country raised a volunteer militia to revenge the deaths and petitioned the federal government for assistance to protect emigrants coming into Southern Oregon and
Northern California (Bancroft, 1888; Secrest, 2003). Volunteers came from all around to assist in killing Indian people. In 1851 a company arrived from Crescent City, California carrying flags with brightly stitched lettering: EXTERMINATION (Most, 2006). Soon many such flags could be seen paraded through White settlements of Siskiyou County
(Most, 2006). The volunteers found villages and killed Indian inhabitants (James, 2008;
Most, 2006; Secrest, 2003). A Yreka, California, vigilante party continued hunting rebellious Indians for several months (Secrest, 2003). Winter was upon the group when
33 they arranged to share a peace-seeking council feast with the Modoc but under a white flag of truce actually tried to poison the band (Secrest, 2003; Stern, 1965). When the poison did not cause immediate death, the vigilante volunteers massacred all Modoc they found (Secrest, 2003). Over thirty men, women, and children were killed that day; fewer than five survived the carnage (James, 2008).
On March 31, 1853, Gen. E.A. Hitchcock, Commanding officer of the Pacific
Division, reported to the Adjutant General, “A party of citizens under the conduct of
Captain Ben Wright last fall massacred over 30 Indians who had come into Captain
Wright’s camp by invitation to make a peace” (Heizer, 1974, p. 74).
It was the actions of a vigilante party, especially those of one Capt. Ben Wright, which would be remembered for generations as the cause of Modoc fighting (Murray,
1959). Another account of the 1852 massacre described the event somewhat differently.
Wright’s treacherous act lay in the guise of a council feast of poisoned beef, but the
Modoc were forewarned by a Warm Springs Indian (Stern, 1965). In the latter account, the Modoc might have escaped except that Wright and his followers made a surprise attack on the Modoc village, killing all but 5 of the 46 Modoc staying there (Stern, 1965).
It is commonly believed that the 1852 massacre of a Modoc village was in vengeance for the slaying of thirty-six emigrants, at a location that began to be known as Bloody Point, alleged to have been a Modoc attack (Quinn, 1997). Military records do not substantiate such an event (Murray, 1959). Ben Wright’s own reports calculate a total of twenty-two persons found slain that year (Dillon, 1973).
34 Policy rewarded the killing and granted Wright the position of Indian Agent over
all Oregon tribes south of Coos Bay to Wright (Faulk, 1988). Upon return to Yreka,
citizens hosted a party to celebrate the massacre (Bancroft, 1888; James, 2008; Secrest,
2003). Afterward, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon rewarded Wright further
by appointing Wright as Indian agent (James, 2008). Wright was feared by the Indians
who were assigned to him (Bancroft, 1888).The acts stand as examples of the brutality of
Whites upon Indians (Dillon, 1973; Stern, 1965; James, 2008). The pain and violence
inflicted upon the occupants of the land were shrouded over as terms of Manifest Destiny
(Wyatt, 1997). Indian war came to existence through a desire to retaliate for White
treachery (Heizer, 1974).
As noted in this section, Whites moved west in massive waves. Their desire was
to obtain land. To settlers, land meant power and prestige. Americans saw their presence
and intended uses for Indian land as superior to that of the original inhabitants so sought
to remove the latter. Whites justified their intensions through laws, rallied to encourage
assassinations, and openly rewarded individuals who killed and massacred Indian people.
Methods used to kill tribes included guns, poison and deception. Overseeing westward expansion, state and federal policies condoned and even paid money for the carnage.
Some tribes recognized the onslaught of newcomers as unstoppable while other
tribes fought back. The Modoc suffered greatly at the hands of Whites. Military practices
encouraged violence though their duty was to maintain peace. The most violent of all
were the citizenry who celebrated open slaughters of entire Indian populations.
35 The next section will examine ways in which the federal government worked at getting land title away from the Modoc people. It will also show the extent to which the
Modoc repeatedly compromised with American demands in an effort to preserve Modoc identity.
Treaties and Compromise
Policy in the last half of the nineteenth century used treaties to place Indian tribes onto reservations (Marks, 1998; Sturtevant, 1988). The purpose of such an arrangement was to transform Indian societies into a replica of the dominant White society (Stern,
1965; Sturtevant, 1988). The federal government negotiated with Indian tribes and created treaties intent on extinguishing Indian title to land by regularly moving tribes off of lands valued by Whites (Marks, 1998). As discussed previously, the Commerce Clause of the United States’ Constitution specified procedures for obtaining Indian land. The federal government preferred to negotiate rather than wage war, but physical distance from the capital in Washington, D.C., made treaty negotiation and implementation difficult (Calloway, 2008). After Mexico’s cessation of California in 1848, the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo required that Indians have the same protections provided under
Mexican law (Sturtevant, 1988). However, the Mexican system that included Indian participation in governance was soon replaced with the Anglo-American policy of Indian
Removal and practice of outright extermination (Forbes, 1975).
American government at both state and federal levels sought to remove Indians from their native Indian lands (Calloway, 2008; Marks,1988; Norton, 1979). The president appointed a superintendent of Indian Affairs and agents with the objective to
36 negotiate treaties to dispossess Indians of their lands (Bancroft, 1888). Not all White men agreed with the dominant approach. For example, one appointed agent noticed that
Americans were purposefully destroying Indian cultures in the midst of their huge land grab and even attemped to mediate the injustice (Raphael, 1993). However, it was
Congress who authorized agents and commissioners for Oregon Territory and the newly created state of California (Sturtevant, 1988). They had ultimate control over these assigned federal representatives and any subsequent agreements those folks drafted.
In 1850, California’s constitution detailed how the governor would organize and fund militias to conduct expeditions against Indians (Johnston-Dobbs, 2002). The first governor to the state adamantly insisted that Indians needed to be eradicated (Nelson,
1976; “Who We Are,” 2012). News articles of the time period reflected this position.
State reimbursements were allocated for many of the expenditures incurred in fighting
Indians (Johnston-Dobbs, 2002; Sturtevant, 1988). For the bulk of Americans, rapid acquisition of land with the complete removal of Indian presence became more important than utopian civilization of Indian people (Sturtevant, 1988
As a result of the rapid incursion of White settlers, the federal government created a series of reservations in the early 1850s, as much to protect Indians from White violence as to lay claim to Indian lands (Calloway, 2008). In 1851, President Fillmore further decreased the amount of useful land obligated to reservations by requiring that tribes be lumped together (Nabokov, 1979). Finding locations away from White settlement became a challenge once the influx of immigrants began (Norton, 1979).
When eighteen treaties negotiated in California between 1851-1853 went to Congress for
37 ratification, California citizens cried foul, claiming the reservations would be too costly to operate and the land too valuable to be given away (Nelson, 1978). Political differences directed federal decisions in favor of the reigning political principles
(Raphael, 1993). A California delegation ensured that the eighteen treaties were hidden away from public knowledge (“Who We Are,” 2012). Public disclosure of the rejection of the treaties negotiated in California during the 1860s was not revealed to the public until 1905 (“Who We Are,” 2012).
Throughout bureaucratic processing delays, citizens dealt with matters in their own way (Dillon, 1973). The west coast’s population was exploding (Appleby, 2006;
Foner, 2009). Also exploding were the number of violent acts upon Indian people (James,
2008; Murray, 1959; Norton, 1979; Raphael, 1993). The aggressive acts were similar to attacks upon the Modoc which were discussed previously. However, not everyone was out to destroy Indian people.
Some Americans desired appeasement for Indians. Missionaries moved west with well intentioned aims (Bancroft, 1888; Clark, 1981; Meacham 1875). Viewing Indians as savages and heathens, missionaries sought to convert Indians to Christianity (Magdaleno, personal communication, November 29, 2012; Most, 2006). Across the United States, similar to today’s political arena, watchdog groups spoke out when the government appeared to wrong specific groups (Foner, 2009). Humanitarian groups lobbied the federal government on behalf of the Indian (Foner, 2009). Within the Department of
Indian Affairs, positions were sometimes filled with conscientious individuals (James,
2008; Meacham, 1875; Raphael, 1993). One such individual was Redick McKee, one of
38 three commissioners appointed in 1850 by President Fillmore (Raphael, 1993). McKee
made it his personal goal to preserve choice tracts for the original owners and occupants
of land between present day San Francisco and the Oregon border (Raphael, 1993).
Commissioner McKee stood up to the greed and self-interest of the United States’ expansionist society (Raphael, 1993). He drafted the eighteen unratified treaties previously discussed in this section.
Another well-intentioned individual who attempted to prevent tragedy for Indians of Northwest California was Elisha Steele. President Lincoln appointed attorney Elisha
Steele in 1863 as Indian agent over the tribes around Yreka (Murray, 1959). In the mid
1860s, the United States was in the midst of civil war, and as a result, few paid peace keepers existed in the west. Many military personnel had left the west to return to support their respective states during the Civil War (Quinn, 1997; Thompson, 1971). In the absence of adequate military support, Steele settled escalating fighting between Shasta,
Klamath, and Modoc tribes in February 1864 through what became called the Valentine
Day Treaty (Dillon, 1973). As arbitrator, he successfully suppressed hostile relations between several tribes of the area (Meacham, 1875). In the case of the Modoc, the early,
though not entirely official, negotiation by Californian Indian agent Elijah Steele alarmed
settlers because the Modoc were allowed to reside in the proximity of White settlement
(Murray, 1959). Unlike most negotiated treaties, Steele’s agreement did not commit the
federal government to ongoing expenditures (Murray, 1959). However, Steele was an
agent for Californian tribes; the Modoc fell into Oregon officials’ jurisdiction (Bancroft,
1888; Stern, 1965). That Steele lacked Congressional authority to outline any treaty
39 allowing the Modoc to keep their California homelands was a bureaucratic detail not commonly known (Thompson, 1971). Nevertheless, Steele acted in good faith to prevent open warfare (Bancroft, 1888). Intervention was possible because Steele had built a relationship of trust with the Modoc after having peacefully lived in the vicinity for over ten years (James, 2008). Yet outside forces were at work, and political jealousy from within the Office of Indian Affairs caused Steele’s efforts and the resulting treaty to be ignored (Murray, 1959). Oregonian settlers did not like Steele’s Valentine’s Day Treaty mostly because it did not eradicate Modocs from the fertile Tule Lake Basin (Murray,
1959).
American citizens of Oregon Territory and California had the right to have their complaints heard, but Indian people were not allowed to report or testify on their own behalf (Calloway, 2008). The Modoc were not aware of the bureaucratic workings of the federal government (Stern, 1965). They certainly did not know that the agreement they had negotiated in good faith was worthless.
Four months after the negotiation of the Valentine’s Day Treaty, Modoc integrity was effectively demonstrated (Dillon, 1973). A Modoc warrior returned three mules to a colonel of the military department on June 12, 1864, after pack train mules had been run off during a raid conducted by Indians of a different tribe (Dillon, 1973). However, such acts of civility and treaty-required obedience repeatedly went unnoticed (Nelson, 1978).
The Valentine’s Day Treaty was not accepted by Indian Affairs and so it never went to
Congress for ratification. In its place, an official treaty negotiation was arranged by
40 Oregon officials (James, 2008). The federal government had other plans for Modoc land and its people.
A federal policy, known as the reservation system, intentionally removed Indians from their homelands to out of the way locations (Marks, 1998). In 1864, the United
States Commissioner of Indian Affairs authorized Oregon Superintendent J.W. Perit
Huntington to negotiate a treaty with the Modoc that would remove them from their Lost
River homeland area (Murray, 1959). Huntington arranged treaty proceedings at Council
Bluffs in Southern Oregon (James, 2008). Huntington followed policy expectations to extinguish Modoc title to their ancestral land (Murray, 1959). Of the tribes assembled and represented in the October 1864 treaty at Council Bluffs, only the Modoc were not allowed any of their ancient homelands (Stern, 1966). Old Chief Schonchin signed the treaty on behalf of the Modoc people Stern 1966). Reluctantly, his younger brother John
Schonchin and Kientpoos, known to Whites as Captain Jack, also signed (Dillon, 1973).
Captain Jack purposely provided his Indian name in the October treaty negotiation but fully knew what his mark upon the agreement meant (Meacham, 1875). The resulting treaty committed the Modoc to surrender all of their homelands and coexist on the
Klamath Agency reservation with members of the Snake tribe and unfriendly Klamath relatives (James, 2008). In October 1864, Modoc bands moved to the assigned Klamath
Agency (Faulk, 1988). The authorized treaty officially placed three tribes together into one reservation because the thinking of the time was that the tribes’ theoretical similarities encouraged peaceful coexistence (Faulk, 1988). That idea was not correct.
41 Nevertheless, the Modoc were obligated to stay in Oregon in a state of enforced
togetherness (Quinn, 1997).
As previously discussed, the influence of European trade and the large scale
massacres of the Modoc had changed the leadership dynamics. The elderly Old
Schonchin, recognized by the Whites to be the Modoc leader, had accepted Huntington’s terms in the Council Bluffs Treaty (Thompson, 1971). Yet, the Modoc were a tribe made from many bands, each having their own leader (Stern, 1966). Schonchin was not fully recognized as the supreme leader of all bands (James, 2008; Meacham, 1875; Murray,
1959). Up and coming younger Modoc men garnered support within their respective
bands (Murray, 1959). Captain Jack had not wanted to be part of the Council Bluffs
negotiations and certainly had not wanted to leave the Modoc homeland (Stern, 1965).
He had agreed to the Valentine’s Day Treaty, but tribal values compelled him to put his
mark on the Council Bluffs treaty (Boyer, 2001). As previously discussed, leaders were
obligated to act in accordance to their followers’ consensus.
The Council Bluffs Treaty united Modoc bands within Klamath territory, north of
their homeland. Having been forced together, bands of Modoc could reconcile
differences (Quinn, 1997). Subsequently, harassment from Klamath tribal members
forced the Modoc to repeatedly move their dwellings in an attempt to effectively live as
the Council Bluffs Treaty had directed (Quinn, 1997). Twice the Modoc were assigned
new locations on the Klamath ancestral lands where they were instructed to build their
new lives (James, 2008). However, in each attempt the Modoc were treated as interlopers
and were helpless to defend themselves (Powers, 1976). In 1865, Captain Jack and his
42 followers left the Klamath agency to live in accordance with the unofficial Valentine’s
Day Treaty (James, 2008). In Yreka, Jack’s friends, Judge Elijah Steele and Steele’s partner, Judge A. M. Rosborough, shared information that since Congress had not ratified the Council Bluffs treaty, the terms were unbinding (Dillon, 1973). It was not ratified for nearly five years after it was written. The Modoc discovered that in their absence from their homelands, settlers had begun homesteading (Dillon, 1973). Federal law banned any settlement upon Indian land until officially ceded through treaty (Calloway, 2008).
Old Schonchin convinced the Modoc to return to Klamath (Dillon, 1973).
In the absence of forces to keep them out, settlers began establishing permanent residences. A non-Indian federal policy encouraged their settlement. The federal Land
Grant Act of 1862 allotted land to Americans who homesteaded for five years. For several years, settlers lived upon Modoc land without Congressional ratification of any treaty ceding Modoc land (Dillon, 1973). The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the land speculating schemes to take control of Modoc land (James, 2008). Jesse Applegate was ranching land claimed by Jesse Carr when Captain Jack along with most all of the
Modoc tribe returned a second time from the Klamath reservation (Bancroft, 1888). The two Jesses were involved in questionable land acquisitions (James, 2008). Jack asked for lease monies from the ranchers running cattle over Modoc lands (Dillon, 1975). Jesse
Applegate refused, but another rancher, John Fairchild, did pay rents for use of Modoc land (Murray, 1959). After much complaint from citizenry, a renewed effort was made to return the renegade Modoc to the Klamath agency (Dillon, 1973). Westerners utilized
43 policy when it was in their favor and disregarded policy not profitable to their desired ends (Nelson, 1979).
White concerns were foremost, and Indian perspective was not regarded. An example of disregard for Indians is found in the replacement of leadership. Lindsey
Applegate was appointed agent of Klamath Agency in 1865 (Stern, 1965). Lindsey caused discomfort for the Department of Indian Affairs leadership and their contracting suppliers when he sent letters to the Oregon Superintendent Huntington reporting the outrages committed against the Modoc (Stern, 1965). Lindsey lacked the resources to stop the fighting inside the reservation (Dillon, 1973). The Klamath were becoming increasingly greedy and were taking Modoc products and the catches of Modoc fishermen, as well as bothering Modoc women (Dillon, 1973). Old Schonchin was peaceful and patient, but the younger men refused to tolerate the injustice (Dillon, 1973).
In 1869, Captain Jack told Superintendent of Indian Affairs Meacham that he didn’t trust United States’ people and referred to them liars and swindlers (Meacham,
1875). In an effort to entice the Modoc’s return to Klamath agency, Superintendent
Meacham exclusively designated a portion of the Klamath land to the Modoc, referring to this piece as Yainax (Murray, 1959). Visits to the Modoc dwelling upon Yainax were common from the bands that remained in Lost River country (Dillon, 1973). Over four years had passed by the time Congress finally ratified the 1865 Council Bluff’s Treaty. In the years it took for Congress to ratify, the Modocs learned alterations made unilaterally to the October 1865 treaty (Brady, 1907).
44 Among the changes, a new agent, Captain Oliver C. Knapp, was appointed to
Klamath and replaced Lindsey Applegate, whom had earned Modoc trust (Meacham,
1975). The powers in Washington had switched agency control to the Army which subsequently stationed retired officers throughout the frontier (Dillon, 1973). Knapp,
Army retired, knew nothing of how to handle troublemakers, thwart schemes, or keep general peace as the previous agent Lindsey Applegate had been able to do (Dillon,
1973). Knapp’s soldiers were dishonest, inept, and immoral in their dealings with Indians
(Meacham, 1875). In April of 1870, Captain Jack left Klamath yet again after Agent
Knapp did not stop Klamath meddling (Dillon, 1973). The decisive event occurred when
Knapp yelled about his annoyance at Captain Jack in response to a mediation assistance request (James, 2008). Knapp did not have his heart in his job since he had not sought the assignment (Meacham, 1875). The agent knew nothing of Indian character nor did he care to know, but he did perform his duty honestly in the financial management despite the fact that he had contempt for the Indians in his charge (Meacham, 1875). The Modoc departure from Klamath agency included all bands of the Modoc tribe, 400 Modoc in all
(Quinn, 1997). Old Schonchin was left with a choice: follow or be a chief with no tribe
(Quinn, 1997). In the end, the Modoc left because the government had again not kept its promises (Faulk, 1988).
The Modoc had tried to cooperate with the October treaty stipulations. They had tried to demonstrate their integrity with the early treaty negotiated with Elisha Steele.
However, the government agency involved the traditional Klamath homeland which was acceptable to the Klamath but less than ideal for the Modoc (Thompson, 1971). The
45 Modoc had been kin to the Klamath before 1800 but were now cautious neighbors and occasional trade partners. The federal government did not recognize the incompatibility of the tribes as it forced tribes to cohabitate with the official treaty at Council Bluff. To make matters worse, the federal government reassigned oversight of Indian Affairs and put the Army in charge of Indians. Thus, a federal agent who had friendly relations was replaced by an indifferent agent. Further, four different Indian nations were thrown together in one reservation where they found it difficult to maintain peace. Undoubtedly,
Washington leaders prized the consolidation of tribes to increase land available to westward moving Americans (Dillon, 1973).
Throughout United States’ history, about 900 treaties were negotiated, 371 of which were approved by Congress (Olson-Raymer, 2011). Repeatedly, the United States was entirely selective about which treaties to honor; even with those they did honor they were selective as to which parts the United States would follow. In negotiating treaties with Indian tribes, the individual conducting the negotiation had to be congressionally approved, and then the resulting document had to be ratified by Congress before it could be fulfilled. The Modoc did not necessarily know which individual had the power to negotiate treaties on behalf of the federal government, but they did expect that when rules were agreed upon, those rules were to be followed. The Modoc agreed to one treaty in
February 1865 and then federal officials told them later that year that they must agree to an official treaty. Then the official agreement took over four years to be ratified by
Congress. In the meantime, policies put in place to maintain order throughout the treaty- ratification process were ignored, and settlers moved into Modoc country before the
46 ratification officially ceding those lands originally belonging to the Modoc. Upon the reservation, the Modoc attempted to rebuild their lives as directed by the official treaty.
However, they soon found that the federal government was not holding up its end of the negotiated agreement. After repeated attempts to resolve the conflicts and outright abuse, the Modoc left the Klamath reservation and returned to their homeland to live under the terms of the first treaty negotiated with an American Indian Agent.
The next section examines consequences of the federal government’s disregard for negotiated guarantees. It will show how American democracy responded to individual self-interests while ignoring perspectives of compromise.
Broken Promises
By the second half of the nineteenth century, the state of Indian affairs across the country was in shambles from years of mismanagement (Dillon, 1973). Indians were not receiving care that had been promised when they ceded their lands to the Whites nor were they protected (Meacham, 1888). Reservation boundaries were not defended from Whites moving in nor were the Indians guarded from malicious White attacks (Marks, 1998).
Whites drove Indians from their hunting and fishing grounds (Secrest, 2003). Soldiers spoke openly about washing the color out of Indians, referring to copulation with Indian women (Meacham, 1875). White men stole and abused Indian women, sometimes in clear view of their husbands (Meacham, 1875; Secrest, 2003). Shooting Indians was a means of entertainment and income for the miners of Northern California (Nelson, 1979;
Norton, 1979; Secrest, 2003). In California, civil courts would not convict settlers who
47 killed Indians, military officials could do little to prevent attacks, and Indians could not
testify against any Whites (Marks, 1988, Raphael, 1993).
In the west the problem was compounded by power struggles of governing
agencies which interfered in the handling of tribes (Bancroft, 1888). Prevailing
philosophies swung like a pendulum as the government moved Indian Affairs in and out
of different parent agencies (Dillon, 1974). People working within the Department of
Indian Affairs generally understood Indian customs and habits and thus dealt with Indians in a friendly manner whereas the military officers seemed to regard Indians with disgust
(James, 2008). The Department of Indian Affairs’ had more flexibility to alter methods of dealing with Indians within their charge than did the military which operated as an elite authority duty-bound to specific regulations (Sturtevant, 1988). The military existed to
execute multifaceted policies of the legislature (Appleby, 2006).
Military officials and Indian Agents had serious disagreements when it came to
how federal representatives were to handle Indians (Stern, 1965). An Army bill in 1866
allowed the hiring of Indian Scouts after which Oregon’s governor pushed the military to
increase the Scouts’ role to become Indian fighting companies (Bancroft, 1888). This
idea did not make it very far. Men, both Indian and White, resented that Indian fighters
would be sent to massacre other tribes’ women and children upon orders from military
headquarters (Bancroft, 1888). In 1868, the federal government shifted oversight of
Indian Affairs into Army control but then reversed itself in 1870 when Congress passed a
law prohibiting Army officers from holding civilian positions such as Indian agent
(Dillon, 1973). President Grant reformed policy by appointing church leaders to posts
48 within Indian Affairs (Dillon, 1973). Superintendent Meacham, a devout Methodist, had been assigned to Oregon in 1869 (Dillon, 1973). He maintained his position when changing policy forced many soldiers out of their placements within the Department of
Indian Affairs (Dillon, 1973). Superintendent Meacham was appalled by many policies and set out to force moral changes in the treatment of Indian people (Meacham, 1875).
By the time Meacham had been appointed to Klamath Agency, most of the Modoc had returned to living upon their Lost River homelands (Dillon, 1973).
Upon returning to their ancestral lands, Modoc discovered the game depleted,
Camas root gathering fields were converted into pastures and crop lands, and the
preemptive laws of America allowed settlers to survey and settle native lands (Dillon,
1973). By federal law, land was to remain vacant until ratification, but settlers jockeyed
for control of Modoc lands heedless of federal law (Calloway, 2008).
When the Modoc resumed living in their Lost River area (Thompson, 1971). They
dedicated years of efforts attempting to secure federal permission to remain in their
homeland (Thompson, 1971). White dissenters, such as Ivan Applegate, Jesse’s nephew and no friend to the Modoc, pointed out that nearly all of the land fit for cultivation had already been put to use by settlers and expected the Modoc to fail at supporting themselves (Quinn, 1997). Yet local work did exist as respectable sources of income for the Modoc; ranchers John Fairchild and Pressley Dorris eagerly hired Modoc ranch hands
(James, 2008). Additionally, various settlers who ranged cattle upon Modoc lands, Dorris and Fairchild among them, paid use fees to Modoc leaders (James, 2008). However, other
settlers declined collaboration with the Modoc. For example, Jesse Applegate refused to
49 pay for occupation of Modoc land which motivated raiding upon settlers (Bancroft,
1888). White immigrants demanded legislative intercession because they viewed Indian existence as a hindrance to taking control of the Indian land (Marks, 1998). Overall, it is believed that the settlers on the California side benefited from the Modoc presence
(Dillon, 1973; James, 2008).
Yreka merchants prospered with the influx of Modoc trade (Meacham, 1875).
Yrekans, as much as they sympathized with the Modoc, recognized legal obligations to comply with American law applied to a tribe when any treaty with the federal government was signed by their tribal leader (Quinn, 1997). In a creative attempt to get around this legal dilemma, Elisha Steele, the Yreka lawyer, judge and former Indian
Agent of California who had drafted the Valentine’s Day Treaty, suggested that Captain
Jack denounce his Modoc affiliation and swear allegiance to the United States, pay taxes, and improve the land in accordance with land grant requirements (Bancroft, 1888). The
Senate, following policy that only White citizens could own land, rejected the idea of allowing Indians to own land as individuals (Dillon, 1973). However, others saw the logic in allowing the Modoc to retain a portion of their ancestral lands (Bancroft, 1888;
Dillon, 1973). Meacham took the next step and recommended that the Congress grant the
Modoc a six mile area of their ancestral homeland (Meacham, 1875). Many prominent individuals lent their support to Meacham’s suggestion including Judge Steele, Ranchers
Dorris and Fairchild, and Brigadier General Canby (Bancroft, 1888; Meacham, 1875).
The support of such prominent men bolstered Captain Jack’s determination to stay in Lost River country (Murray, 1959). Meacham identified the corrupt nature of
50 American dealings with Indians and recognized the land grab (James, 2008). Settlers
gaining land ownership through the Homestead Act did not question the legitimacy of the land title awarded to them (Matthiessen, 1979). However, some questioned the legitimacy of the homesteaders; the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed individuals hired by prominent land developers to homestead (Bogart, 1873). This same disputed land was turned over to their employer upon gaining title through procedures created through the
1862 Homestead Act (Bogart, 1873). Even military personnel noticed the land grabs of elite individuals (James, 2008). Brigadier General Canby saw what was happening on the frontier and supported assigning lands for Modoc to remain at Lost River (Meacham,
1875). Brigadier General Canby wrote in a report to his superiors:
I do not think that the immediate application of force as asked for [to move the Modocs back to the reservation] would be either expedient or just… I am not surprised at the unwillingness of the Modocs to return to any point of the reservations where they would be exposed to hostilities… (and without adequate protection) from the Klamaths. (as quoted in James, 2008, p. 48) In 1870, seeing no alternative, Meacham recommended that the federal government honor Modoc demands to be allowed to live within a six-mile square of Lost
River country, a portion of their original homelands (James, 2008). Meacham understood the Modoc perspective and was ready to defend them from war (James, 2008). However,
Meacham’s recommendations to mediate the conflict were at odds with settlers who had already laid claim to Modoc land (Quinn, 1997). Congress set policy on the assumption there were dangers if Modoc would be allowed to exist in the vicinity of White settlers
(Bancroft, 1888). The loss of Meacham’s diplomatic resolution made relocation all the
51 more painful when Congress denied the six-mile square reservation proposal (James,
2008; Murray, 1959).
In this same time period, with tensions in an aggravated status, Congress replaced
Superintendent Meacham with civilian T.B. Odeneal who knew little about working with
Indians (Quinn, 1998). Ivan Applegate was sent by Superintendent Odeneal to talk with
Captain Jack. Ivan recounted what Captain Jack expressed:
We are good people, and will not kill or frighten anybody. We want peace and friendship. I am well known and understood by the people of Yreka, California, and am governed by their advice. I do not want to live upon the reservation for the Indians there are poorly clothed, suffer from hunger, and even have to leave the reservation sometimes to make a living. We are willing to have Whites live in our country, but do not want them to locate on the west side and near the mouth of Lost River, where we have our winter camps. The settlers are continually lying about my people and trying to make trouble. (as cited in Quinn, 1998, p. 50) Superintendent Odeneal sent further messages to Jack, finally getting what he
sought: an open refusal to return to Yainax, the Modoc’s assigned location within
Klamath Agency reservation (Quinn, 1998). Thus far, Odeneal had not met Captain Jack
in person (Quinn, 1998). The Modoc were offended that the superintendent did not value
them enough to personally meet with them (James, 2008). Odeneal orchestrated a plan to
converge three military companies in upon the Modoc to pressure them into compliance
(James, 2008). In an effort to rid himself of the Modoc problem, Odeneal sent word to
Captain Green at Fort Klamath to ready troops for the Modoc’s removal (Thompson,
1971). It is unclear why the military captain took orders from the civilian superintendent
(James, 2008; Thompson, 1971). Before Odeneal set the military chain of events into
action, Brigadier General Canby of the Army’s Pacific Division clarified protocol
through direct orders to notify commanders before any actions occurred (Thompson,
52 1971). Canby planned to use only the proper amount of force necessary to secure the
Modoc return to their area within the Klamath agency (Thompson, 1971). Odeneal did not notify Canby or Lieutenant Colonel Frank Wheaton, who served under Canby, about the planned attack (Quinn, 1998; Thompson, 1971). Major Green took his troops to round up the Captain Jack’s band (Thompson, 1971). An additional two groups came from other directions to aid in the capture (James, 2008). At the same time, a citizen volunteer militia organized by Ivan Applegate, his brother Oliver, and some settlers made a surprise attack upon another Modoc band camped across the river (James, 2008; Thompson,
1971). The enraged Modoc fought back, fled, and eventually joined Captain Jack’s band
(James, 2008). On their way, this latter band of Modoc went on a retaliatory raid, killing male settlers but intentionally leaving the women unharmed after the surprise attack by the Applegate party (James, 2008). Captain Jack disliked their attacks on Whites (James,
2008).
Policies regarding Indian affairs were overrun by other interests. Selfish or just ignorant individuals ignored their responsibilities to Indians. Personnel assigned to work with Indian tribes came and went, amplifying administrative inconsistencies. Some took advantage of Indians for personal profit or satisfaction. In 1870, after years of harassment by Klamath tribal members and a want for provisions Captain Jack led the Modoc escape off the Klamath reservation (Murray, 1959). When individuals brought attention to compromising with Modoc requests, such advocates were dismissed and replaced with individuals who followed the mainstream thinking of the time period. Primary documents clearly showed that Americans wanted Indians exterminated; they wanted Indian land.
53 The federal government failed at fulfilling promises made in treaties. State governments
encouraged extermination policies and practices. The Modoc asked to be granted a
peaceful existence, a reservation on their traditional Modoc homeland (Riddle, 1914).
Americans with experience to recognize the logic of the Modoc’s ideas reported their
opinions through proper official channels, but Americans were interested in land
acquisition, not in satisfying pledges earlier guaranteed. Communications fell apart or
perhaps were deliberately not followed. The extent of this derailment of policy and
procedure leading to the tragedy of war is discussed in the next section.
Modoc War of 1872 – 1873
Joaquin Miller, who lived with the Shasta and Modoc tribes, wrote in his firsthand account, Unwritten History: Life Among the Modoc, that “upon my death I will take this book and hold it up in the Day of Judgment, as a sworn indictment against the rulers of my country for the destruction of these people” (Miller, 1873, p. 397).
Modoc understood Whites better than Whites understood Modoc (Powers, 1907).
In fact, Modoc had adopted many White ways: dressing as Whites, speaking English, working alongside Whites, and using White weaponry (Thompson, 1971). Many became part of the new market economy and agricultural labor force (Calloway, 2008; James,
2008). In recognition of Modoc importance, ranchers advocated for reservation land to be set aside in the Lost River country in view of the fact that protecting the Modocs preserved a necessary labor force to their industry (Dillon, 1973). Becoming like Whites demonstrated conformity to Anglicized cultural norms which generally fulfilled the goals of federal policy (Marks, 1988). The Modoc represented a chance to demonstrate
54 civilization of the Indian (Meacham, 1875). Modoc were integrating into White society
(Faulk, 1988).
However, other settlers of the area pressured the Army to drive the Modoc north
to the Klamath Reservation (Lavabeds, 1992). Those in Oregon territory complained the
loudest (Bancroft, 1888). Grover, governor of Oregon, pressured Washington to send the
military to eradicate Modoc Indians from Lost River country (Dillon, 1973). The end to
the Modoc Nation was predetermined because White settlers wanted it, voters wanted it,
and no American aspiring for any advancement of public office dared say a word to
prevent it (Miller, 1873). Army officers assumed that renegade Modoc bands would be
easily overpowered and returned to the Klamath Agency (James, 2008). It was a war that
should have been prevented (Dillon, 1973; James, 2008). Major Trimble reminiscing
about battle, its grueling terrain and unbearable weather, questioned, “For what? To drive
a couple of hundred from a desolate natural shelter in the wilderness, that a few thriving
cattle-men might ranch their wild steers in a scope of isolated country, the dimensions of
some several reasonable-sized counties?” (as cited in Brady, 1907, p. 285).
Two branches of the federal government - Bureau of Indian Affairs and the
Military - had the same goal of returning the Modoc to the Klamath reservation but failed to work together to that end (James, 2008). It was the lack of cooperation and communication between federal entities which escalated the state of affairs to combat
(Dillon, 1973). Physical distances between levels and branches of government amplified problems (Sturtevant, 1988). As examined in the section previously, Indian tribes were
55 overseen by two federal agencies: the civilian Indian Affairs and the non-civilian
Military.
In each department, the chain of command was a tangled mess. Order of authority in the military was assigned as follows: Brigadier General Canby headquartered in
Portland, Oregon, answered to Major General John Schofield’s Military Division of the
Pacific headquartered at the Presidio, San Francisco (Thompson, 1971). Overseeing all military operations was in turn under the authority of General Sherman in Washington,
D.C. (Thompson, 1971). Two subordinate forts kept Canby informed of the Modoc situation: Fort Klamath just west of the Klamath reservation overseen by Major John
Green and another fort, District of the Lakes, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel
Wheaton (Thompson, 1971). Canby had placed Lieutenant Colonel Wheaton in command in the event that military action became necessary (Thompson, 1971). Both forts were approximately 60 miles from the Modocs’ Lost River country (Thompson, 1971).
The Department of the Interior had a separate chain of command: Oregon
Superintendent Odeneal answered to Walker back in Washington (Faulk, 1988). Odeneal oversaw Klamath agency Indian agent Dyer and sub-agent Ivan Applegate who maintained Yainax (Faulk, 1988). Walker granted Superintendent Odeneal permission to use military force for arrests that would ensure all Modoc at large would be returned to
Klamath Reservation and live under Chief Schonchin’s leadership (Faulk, 1988).
Walker’s orders were to bring the Modoc back peaceably if possible but forcibly if peace was not an option (James, 2008; Thompson, 1971). Brigadier General Canby had specifically directed Odeneal to inform him before any force was put into operation – an
56 order issued to his subordinates as well (Stern, 1965). Additionally, the orders and intentions of Canby were reiterated by Wheaton that no direct action was to be taken against the Modoc until a sufficiently large force was assembled to ensure Modoc compliance (Thompson, 1971). However, upon receiving Indian Agency Odeneal’s directive to drive the Modoc back to Klamath Agency, Major Green of the Army failed to notify either of his supervisors, Wheaton or Canby (Thompson, 1971). Major Green chose to command his own forces rather than follow orders to assemble the full force
(Thompson, 1971). Green wished to show how easy it would be to dispose of the Modoc question (Bancroft, 1888).
An accidental gunfire volley began the Modoc War (Thompson, 1971). Major
Boutelle was the officer involved in that first exchange (James, 2008; Thompson, 1971).
He lived but later recalled how treacherous it was that Odeneal sent troops with guns in place of an agent of the Indian Department to speak peace (Brady, 1907). Superintendent
Odeneal, representing the Department of the Interior, rid himself of responsibility for the situation when he deferred the relocation of the Modoc renegades to the War Department
(Quinn, 1997).
Miscommunications brought the Modoc and soldiers to combat, and leaders in
Washington were busy exchanging messages from the seat of war, to Washington headquarters, and back to an assembly of Peace Commissioners headed to intervene in the crisis (Brady, 1907). In Washington, D.C., peace factions were as eager as the soldiers and the land-hungry settlers to remove Indians from the path of Anglo settlement
57 and development, but they wished to control outcomes through negotiations (Marks,
1998).
For the Modocs’ part, the bands spent time together making great speeches, boasting of personal accomplishments, and speaking of signs they had seen which promised success in battle; but the fact remained that the truly great war leaders of the
Modoc had perished in the massacre of 1852 (Miller, 1873). The Modoc bands had not fought together under one leader for many generations (Miller 1873). Due largely to the isolated independence of the tribe, spiritual leaders remained of high importance among the Modoc people (Quinn, 1997). The Modoc relied on faith and perseverance
(Meacham, 1875; Riddle, 1914). They had returned to their ancestral ways and relied heavily upon religious leaders to prepare the people for battle (James, 2008). Prophecy told that their dead would be restored to life and come to their assistance (Meacham,
1875). Included in the prophecy was the belief that the Americans would be swallowed up into the earth (Meacham, 1875). Nothing would change the fact that at the time of this battle the assembled bands were far outnumbered by soldiers sent to implement the will of a nation that was determined to conquer (Faulk, 1988).
Over a period of five months, the Modoc held off an army twenty times their own strength (Juillerat, 1992).The Modoc War of 1872-73, though small, would be remembered as the most costly war the United States ever waged upon Indians (Brady,
1907). The Modoc fought a brutal war rather than succumb to the reservation system
(Calloway, 2008). General John Schofield described the Modoc War as a conflict more remarkable in some respects than any other before known in American history (Dillon,
58 1973). As much as it was an Indian campaign, aspects of the war also resembled a
Tennessee mountain feud intermingled with a Greek tragedy (Dillon, 1973). Striking
similarity to the treachery twenty years prior was obvious (Quinn, 1997).
It was talk that the government wanted though Modoc remembered the time when
talk was a pretense (Landrum, 1988). President Grant in Washington ordered a Peace
Commission created that could find the true causes of the war and find a suitable
reservation for the Modoc (Faulk, 1988). Peace makers made honest efforts to
compromise between Modoc and Americans (Dillon, 1973). Unwilling to cooperate,
settler Jesse Applegate demanded that the Peace Commission secure the unconditional
surrender of the renegades, so the renegades might be turned over for trial and the rest of
the bands be removed to an undetermined, distant place (Quinn, 1997).
At the same time, Captain Jack had talks of his own happening in the stronghold
(James, 2008). He continued to compel his people to have patience and explained his
strategy of passive resistance (Riddle, 1914). Yet other men in the group badgered him,
insisting that Jack kill the peace commissioners or be killed himself (Riddle, 1914). As
was the cultural custom, Jack had to obey the will of his followers (Dillon, 1973; James,
2008). On April 4, 1873, a portion of the Peace Commission met with Jack who freely discussed peace (James, 2008). Jack recounted the causes of the war, the bullying of the
Klamath and disregard of Agent Knapp and of the November murders of innocent male settlers (Dillon, 1973). Jack said nothing would have happened had the soldiers first not attacked the Modoc village (Dillon, 1973). Jack assured Meacham that the war would stop when soldiers went away, and their home on Lost River was granted (Meacham,
59 1873). Meacham explained that since blood had been spilled at Lost River, the Modoc could not live there in peace (Meacham, 1873). Jack understood Meacham’s argument and countered with the request to give him the Lava Beds since no one would ever want those rocks (Meacham, 1873). Again, Meacham explained land could not be given without surrender of indicted murderers (Dillon, 1973; Meacham, 1873).
On April 11, 1873, during another arranged meeting of the Peace Commission, the Modoc attacked the members of the commission and killed Brigadier General Canby and accompanying Peace Commissioner Reverend Thomas (Thompson, 1971). The swelling national support the Modoc had gained was instantly destroyed (Faulk, 1988).
War raged on until the Modoc were eventually starved out and forced to surrender
(James, 2008). Two-thirds of the Modoc deserted Captain Jack’s leadership (Bancroft,
1888). California ordered a volunteer militia of 50 sharp-shooters raised to hunt the wandering Modoc (Bancroft, 1888). One group and then another worked their way out of the stronghold in surrender (Quinn, 1997). However, even peacefully surrendering
Modoc who were supposed to be returned to Yainax on Klamath Agency were brutally murdered in route (Dillon, 1973). Honest individuals remained mute to demand justice, such as the case when Rancher Fairchild possibly knew the border ruffians but the crime of murder remained unpunished because of fear of ruffian retaliation (Dillon, 1997).
Indians’ testimony was useless; state policy clearly stated that no evidence could be brought against Whites by anyone of Indian blood (Norton, 1979).
By June 1873, all of the Modoc had surrendered or been captured and were placed in a stockade at Klamath agency (Faulk, 1988). Federal officials determined that only the
60 Modoc actually involved in the killing of the Peace Commissioners would be court
marshaled and the rest of the Modoc participants would be considered to have committed
acts of war – a decision that outraged citizens (Faulk, 1988). On October 3, with a
military band playing and the Klamath and Modoc tribes forced to watch, four of the
Modoc leaders were marched to the gallows and hanged (James, 2008). Shortly thereafter
the remaining one hundred fifty-three Modoc (thirty-nine men, fifty-four women, and sixty children) prisoners of war were taken by wagon to Redding, California, where they boarded a train bound for Baxter Springs, Kansas, to be placed in their new home inside
Indian Territory upon the Quapaw Agency (Faulk, 1988). One hundred Modoc who had maintained neutrality and stayed at Yainax remained there with Chief Schonchin (Faulk,
1988). The exiled bands of Modoc were not allowed to return to their kinsmen until 1909, thirty-six years later, when Congress finally restored the Oklahoma band of Modoc
Indians to the Klamath Reservation Oregon rolls (Dillon, 1973).
The Modoc War is distinguished from other Indian Wars on at least two counts: it was the most expensive to the federal government which spent more on this Indian
conflict in relation to the number of Indians involved and resulted in the highest ranking
federal officer ever killed - Brigadier General Canby was murdered as he led the Peace
Commission to reconcile differences (James, 2008). Tragically, General Canby was
genuinely a friend to Indians and may have been the Modoc’s only hope for securing
their own reservation (Thompson, 1971). Canby had written to his superiors that the best
solution was to allow the Modoc to establish their own reservation (Meacham, 1875).
61 America’s sympathies were changing in support of the Modoc (Faulk, 1988). It
was the first Indian campaign in the west extensively covered by a number of reporters
(Thompson, 1971). The New York Herald dedicated a full page, a huge expense in
telegraph charges alone, to unfolding events of the Modoc War (Dillon, 1973). The
nation was riveted by the dramatic story of a handful of Indians holding off the U.S.
Army in defense of their homeland (Thompson, 1971). Soldiers involved in the fighting
sent letters to newspapers asking for changes in the country’s administration and tactics
to conquer the Indians (Dillon, 1973). Still more soldier communications revealed the
belief that contractors and other profiteers perpetuated the war intentionally for profit
(Dillon, 1973). Even after the fighting had ceased and most of the nation had again
shifted its opinions against the Modoc, questions arose as the true cause of the tragedy
(James, 2008). Senator Lutrell protested the outcome of the Modoc trial when he said,
“Humanity demands a thorough investigation of the causes of the late war… Such
investigation … will convince the public that fraud and speculation was the cause of the
war… The war was caused by the wrongful acts of bad White men.” (as cited in James,
2008, p. 161)
Indians of western tribes dealt with the massive White problem by fighting back and drawing upon inner spiritual strengths (Nabokov, 1978). Modocs fought to cling to the land of their ancestors with a tenacity winning Whites’ admiration of Indian patriotism (Applegate, 1895).The Modoc were not brought to war by prophetic talk but through the force of circumstances – the war had been prepared and made inevitable by events antedating its outbreak (Powers, 1976). The November 1852 massacre of the
62 Modoc planted the roots of distrust for peace negotiations that twenty years later led to
the tragic killing of Brigadier General Canby on April 11, 1873 (James, 2008).
The Modoc War was a tragedy for all. Miscommunications, misunderstandings, and
assumptions led to bloodshed. The Modoc demonstrated desire to adapt to American
presence and they tried to live by American law. The Modoc returned to their ancestral
homelands, but settlers who coveted Modoc land protested. The head of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs in Washington D.C. responded with an immediate order to the Oregon
Superintendent to return the off-reservation Modoc to Yainax. An Indian Agent issued orders to bring the Modoc back peaceably if possible, but forcibly if peace was not an option. However an Army fort commander did not follow orders from his supervisors to report any intended action before confronting the Modoc. The Army arrived in insufficient numbers to overpower Captain Jack’s band. A civilian militia attacked a different Modoc band and the enraged Modoc band retaliated and united with other
Modoc bands in the Lava Beds where they made a determined stand to preserve their identity. Some Americans who had earlier been against Indians began to see the valor of the Modoc. A peace commission assembled to resolve the conflict, and there was a good chance that the members of the commission may have found a way to allow the Modoc their six-mile reservation at Tule Lake. However, the Modoc, remembering White treachery from twenty years prior, convinced Captain Jack to murder the Peace
Commissioners because Whites had murdered Modoc under a flag of truce. The support the Modoc had gained in their honorable self-defense was instantly lost. Modoc
63 individuals involved in the actual killings were put to death or imprisoned for life. The
warring Modoc were exiled to Oklahoma as prisoners of war.
After the War
The federal and state governments dealt poorly with the Modoc upon the Klamath
Agency reservation (Meacham, 1875). After attempting to rectify the failings, they left
and sought a conciliatory agreement in the form of their own reservation on their ancestral homeland (Dillon, 1973, James, 2008). Ranchers and businessmen wanted
Modoc as workers and friends and so supported the proposal, but the plan was derailed
(Dillon, 1973, James, 2008). People with more influence over decision makers in
Washington won out, and a federal attack was launched against the Modoc tribe to remove them and clear land for White development (Dillon, 1973, James, 2008). Fifty- five warriors defended themselves against over one thousand soldiers for over six months
(Dillon, 1973, James, 2008). The Modoc suffered hunger, fatigue, and internal strife as they defended their position (Dillon, 1973, James, 2008). The murder at the peace talks repeated the act of treachery Modoc elders had endured twenty years prior from Indian hunters (Dillon, 1973, James, 2008).
In the end, America had to forfeit its self-respect (Dillon, 1973). The Army was so disgraced that Americans demanded reprisal by means of the hanging four Modoc leaders (Bancroft, 1888; James, 2008). The balance of the Modoc defenders became political prisoners confined to an area in Indian Territory (James, 2008; Riddle, 1914).
Stripped of their Modoc status, the rebel Modoc became models of civility living in what is now known as Oklahoma (James, 2008). They took education, agriculture, and
64 Christian faith very seriously (James, 2008). After banishment to Indian Territory, the
Modoc continued strong spiritual connections but this time aligned their beliefs with the
Quaker Church (James, 2008).
The Modoc still exist, though their beliefs and cultural practices reflect the
experience of the past (James, 2008).
The Modoc were a solid, enduring people of great history. They had tenacious staying power over thousands of years. The tenacity carried them though years of unrest, war and then disease. The bloods of many cultures and nations mingle in the veins of Modocs today. That mixing of bloods speaks to an appreciation of uniqueness and a spirit of tolerance for all people. (Cheewa James, as cited in James, 2008, p. 259) For thirty-five years, the Modoc were banished as prisoners of war but were
reinstated to the Modoc roles and allowed to reunite with relatives in Oregon and to claim
allotments of land in 1908 (James, 2008). Finally, in 1924, American Indians were given
rights of American citizenship (Act of June 2, 1924, Pub L 68-175, 43 STAT 253).
Summary
Despite the claims of many historians, 19th century North America was not free for the taking. Quite the contrary, the land to which European settlers laid claim was already occupied by hundreds of independent, indigenous Indian Nations. European
nations first acknowledged a right of occupancy for these nations, but the United States’
hunger for land and power undermined any respect for original owners of the land. The
United States gained millions of acres of land in a very short time period. The policies
that applied to early interactions with Indian Tribes changed as Americans desired to take
Indian lands for their own uses. Additionally, the United States created seemingly
unrelated policies which in practice competed with Indian policies.
65 Atrocities to Native Americans sprang from American policies and were amplified during westward expansion. The Modoc became caught in the political fallout.
Foreign nations cut lines through Modoc territory, forced laws and new beliefs upon the original people, and ultimately delivered death and exile. In an effort to block European countries from claiming North America, the United States moved its boundaries west toward the Pacific. Missionaries wanted to save the souls of the savage heathens, so they pushed westward in the name of righteousness. Opportunists who saw a prospect for riches in the form of land and gold, also pushed westward but in the name of profit
(Nelson, 1979).
Early American policy directed the federal government’s behavior regarding tribes. Treaties were designed to take land title away from Indians to encourage development of the ceded lands by Americans. At the time the Modoc negotiated with the federal government, policy had evolved to consolidate many tribes upon single reserves which seemed logical to the individuals who arranged treaties on behalf of the federal government.
State and Federal policy predominantly favored Whites. This is most obvious when state and federal money funded massacres upon Indian people. Policies allowed
Americans to take occupancy and have Indian land granted to them as White individuals.
Policies forbade Indians from testifying against Whites and encouraged the removal and open extermination of Indian people.
The deep hurt, mistrust, and anger that members of tribes feel must be acknowledged. Americans need to understand that the United States was once all tribal
66 land. That land was not given freely to the United States; rather, most often it was taken by force and trickery.
67 Method
Introduction
The westward movement of the 1800s is an important time in American history.
The nation rapidly expanded its boarders and population. Student textbooks offer limited information about the people who were in America before the United States began claiming land. Native American nations were overrun by White newcomers. The newcomers had different dress, technologies, and ideals than the indigenous people they encountered. In many instances Native American nations made good faith efforts to accommodate the newcomers only to have those agreements twisted or broken.
Fundamental cultural differences and the straightforward attempts at compromise are often absent from textbooks.
I decided to approach my research by examining federal Indian policy and was reminded straightaway that policy involving Indian rights often was created to serve the desires of the dominant White population. California’s state policies of the 1800s were even more abysmal: eviction, enslavement, and exterminations being a few of the justified outcomes. Initial research findings produced outrage, but we must realize that history is messy. In the initial methods coursework through Humboldt State University, my advisor, Dr. McBroome, helped me hone my subject and suggested the Modoc experience as a focal point to examine the outcomes of federal and state Indian policy and observe how policies effect culture.
68 Most of my information has come from secondary sources written after the time period however, the learning lab lesson plans rely heavily upon primary sources such as time period maps and newspaper articles. I have spent the past four years attempting to gain an understanding of the people living in the area of north-eastern California and south-eastern Oregon in the early 1800s. There were several different groups with different objectives influencing their actions. Cultural bias also had to be considered when evaluating written works. All of the writings I reviewed were done in English.
Modoc writing was often scribed by a translator and as such had potential to not convey the true meaning intended. Although primary sources were limited I did extensive comparison between authors. Visiting sites gives deeper understanding to written words; therefore I traveled to Modoc country. I visited Lower Klamath, Tule Lake, and the Lava
Beds where the Modoc lived and fought. I visited museums in Klamath Falls (Linkville) and Yreka to see artifacts.
Research Question
Does federal and state policy effect cultural change? What happens when distinct cultures interact? How can I give meaning to the function of policy upon real people so that my eighth grade students can understand that policies affect how we all live our lives? I realized that non-Indian student populations might not be able to relate to a culture different than their own, so began thinking about ways to have students understand different world viewpoints.
69 Curriculum
At times, students are detached from their subjects. The lessons contained within this unit were inspired by Jean Piajet’s theory of development by noting that eighth grade students have entered their formal operational stage and the findings of Howard
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences which directs me to provide a wide range of instructional avenues. This unit supports students at different stages and styles of learning. Intentionally concrete learning experiences vest students to the subject matter.
In order to understand how someone else feels you need to know their circumstances and students are given the opportunity to become the researchers, evaluate sources, and draw their own conclusions of history. I need to understand my students so they may understand their subject. Therefore, to differentiate my instruction for each of my students I developed a creative way for them to bond with Modoc through instructional strategies including: (visual-spatial) mapping and mural creation, (linguistic) storytelling,
(kinesthetic) acting and construction, research (with intentional interpersonal outcome), and culminating with (logical) reasoning.
The first day of my lessons utilize language arts skills. As an author develops the characters of the story before the plot is strongly developed, I set to work devising lessons that would elicit emotional connections to people we would study. A map from the time period of initial contact showed students the expanse of the United States at the contact time. Creating a mural of the environment set the scene. Eating together creates a familial bond, so bringing in foods that might have been eaten strengthened bonds to real people. Honoring spirituality and oral tradition by dramatizing myths established
70 cohesion, and finally, the group effort involved in construction of winter homes bonds the
whole group (Juillerat, 2002). All of these pieces would need to be in place before the eighth grade students could truly feel the implications of policy. Though eighth grade students can reason more abstractly these activities help those still in a concrete stage of development.
Once students knew Modoc values they could then objectively examine viewpoints of other groups and the implications of federal and state Indian policy.
Teaching in a rural school, my students hunt, fish and gather plants and animals living around them. Many homes’ only heat source is gathered wood. Weather can make roads impassable and isolate them. All of these modern rural challenges allow students to identify with pioneers, soldiers and Modoc of the early 1800s. Once the playing field is leveled the learning could begin.
Students need to develop analytical skills to compare perspectives in history.
Students use technological resources to research primary evidence from time periods and evaluate the evidence to judge whether the work is fact or fiction, being wary for embellishments. Eighth grade students are expected to write an argument (CCSS.ELA-
LITERACY.W.8.1) and so need to be alert for propaganda attempting to persuade the
reader. Most newspaper articles from the time period reporting on Modoc or on Indian
policy contain cultural bias (Johnston-Dodds, 2002). Students need to be able to
distinguish whose bias is reflected. Students may notice very few primary documents
possess a Modoc worldview. I hope that seeing the lopsidedness of the cultural contact
71 will pique student interest and lead to more global analytical skills as they will one day decide how the United States interacts with cultures unlike than mainstream American.
Overview of Instructional Delivery
Students will need access to natural building materials, space, and the internet.
The first few days utilize language arts, visual and performing arts, and life skills activities. The remainder of the lessons will require students to access digital archives to research and gather primary documents destined to become the foundation of a short essay evaluating competing cultural perspectives in history.
Teachers need to read the lessons thoroughly before embarking on this journey.
They will need to ensure internet access and verify links before the lessons begin, provide art supplies, food samples, and building materials. Teachers need to make copies of the appendix for students to use and refer to. There are also books to be used in lessons that are listed both in the day presented to the students and in the reference section of this document.
Conclusion
This teaching unit informs students and teachers that not all history is included in textbooks. A social account exists which reveals a variety of perspectives throughout history. There is an abundance of information at historical sites, in traditional stories
(sometimes still in oral form), and at museums. Historical societies and families still house much information that is not yet public knowledge. We all need to be alert for bias in reports we receive, both historical as well as current. Students need to be alert for an
72 author’s viewpoint and writing purpose. Students need to always ask, “What isn’t this telling me?” then use their research skills to go find out for themselves.
73
Eighth Grade Lesson Plan
Objectives: Students will be able to:
1. understand the goals and consequences of Federal Indian Policies to remove
Indians from their native land rather than only protection of native lands
2. articulate the challenges of sovereignty, that American Indians were
recognized as sovereign, and the ways that federal policy undermined
sovereign status of American Indian tribes;
3. identify various important Federal and State policies passed and administered
by European-American government during the 19th Century that impacted
Indian peoples;
4. Identify the ways in which Westward Movement had different meaning for
European-Americans who were colonizing new lands than for the Modoc
Indians whose land was being occupied;
5. evaluate arguments, evidence, and absence of evidence using multiple texts;
6. utilize internet resources to locate historical primary documents; and
7. evaluate and analyze internet sources and their content;
8. correctly cite sources.
Academic Language (words or phrases with which students should be familiar): assimilate, contiguous United States, ceded, cultural, ethnocentric, genocide, immigrant, emigrant, Indian agent, Indian agency, indigenous, legal remedy, riparian zone,
74
negotiation, resilience, resistance, savage, stereotypical, sovereignty, treaty, perception,
protest, wickiup, contact between cultures, historical federal policy
Note to teacher: Appendix A is a chronological record of historical events that relate to
subject matter covered throughout this unit.
Day 1 Introduction:
Today we are going to learn about an aspect of economic, political, and spiritual
differences forming cultural diversity of North America.
Hook: Have this “Do Now” written on the board, overhead or projector:
The year is 1412, BEFORE 1492! Think about who was living across the North
American Continent. What was the land like? Were there lots of plants and animals?
What were the people like? How did the land and animals effect how the people were?
What did people do for a living? What were their houses like? What did they eat? What did they wear?
Give students 5 minutes to write in their journals about what America was like in
1412. Describe the people living here. Tell about how they lived, include: housing, travel, food, community size, and government style.
Have students discuss in pairs what they came up with then have the pairs contribute ideas to the whole group. Discuss how students know their understanding is
75
accurate. Discuss sources: primary-secondary and how some written primary sources could be bias because they are not from the person or people being reported.
Remind students that there is no one description to generalize indigenous tribes that lived across the American Continents because so many distinct cultures existed.
Though tribes have unique languages, lifestyles, and spiritual beliefs the written sources from the 1800s, which they will be studying, are only written in English so they should be alert to bias even when writing that claims to be appears to represent Modoc point of view was scribed through an interpreter. Newspaper articles from 1840s-1860s use
derogatory terms in reference to Indian people. The 1850 Constitution of California did
not allow Indian people legal right but gave all rights to White (Johnston-Dodds, 2002).
Students will need to think critically as historians while they conduct their research. This
lesson is going to focus on the Modoc tribe who can link their heritage back to the ice-
aged hunters; the Modoc historically lived in a land area that included 2,000 to 3,000
square miles in what is now the boundary of California and Oregon. Today’s lesson will
put that land area into context and connect to students’ prior knowledge.
What do we know of local tribes? Where did they live? What were their houses like long ago? What did their diet consist of long ago? – Take into account tribal identities represented within the class. If anyone wants to volunteer information allow them to share their knowledge. This is also a good time to find out if anyone has relatives (elders) who might be additional sources of information or even be able to speak with the class.
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Activity – mapping:
Provide each student with a black-line of the North American continent with
1830s political boundaries. Use black-line map of United States (see Appendix B)
available at http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/graphics/missouricompromisemap.jpg
Students will create individual maps of the United States. Guide students in
coloring in major physical features of continent: Rocky Mountains, Mississippi River,
Missouri River, Rio Grande, Columbia River, and California’s Central Valley. Once
students have their points of reference have them add physical features more closely related to the Modoc region: Klamath River, Pit River, Goose Lake, Tule Lake, Klamath
Lake, Mount Shasta, the Coastal Range and the Klamath Range. Have students add color to enhance their maps and reinforce the plentitude of water and the vegetation associated with waterways. However, have students use grey or brown in the open expanses of land where little vegetation grows as a result of the area being a high desert climate and product of volcanic activity.
Tell students you are going to read them a story that might help them add details to their maps or inspire them to draw pictures around the margins of their maps. These maps will be referred to later in the unit. Students will use information in their map to
illustrate human movement over time.
While students are finishing their mapping read vignette, “A Child’s Life,”
(James, 2008, pp265-267), which describes the land as well as customs unique to Modoc
culture in the year 1670. Invite students to discuss prior lessons which identified the
importance of oral traditions in Native American collective knowledge. Guide students to
77
reiterate the importance of the keepers of stories to the preservation of culture. Tell
students they will have an opportunity to teach one another Modoc stories during English
Language time.
Conclusion:
Invite students to discuss the images they are thinking of, have heard, or have
drawn. Collect their work and hang around the classroom. Tell students they are going to
learn more about beliefs of the Modoc through myths collected and written down
Second block Day 1 (English Language Arts/Visual and Performing Arts):
Students access Myths of the Modocs by Jeremiah Curtin available from several
free online sources, e.g. https://archive.org/details/mythsmodocs00curtrich. For students
with disabilities, the site link above will read myths aloud.
Review with students the characteristics of a myth. Read “Gaukos and Kulta”, pages 81-82, to the students; students may recognize thematic similarities to Cinderella or Disney’s Frozen; Inform students that you will read a similar picture version to begin tomorrow’s lesson. Have students predict the central ideas they will be looking for in tomorrow’s picture book version of “Gaukos and Kulta.” Tell students to visualize how they could convey the myth they just heard to share the story with others without actually reading it. Discuss the importance of oral tradition in conveying cultural beliefs.
Students will work in pairs or small groups to create brief, written skits from stories of their choice located within Myths of the Modocs by Jeremiah Curtin. Display
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the online book web address and direct students to begin their own search for a selection;
shorter stories occur on or after page 73. Teacher may wish to give each student team a
limited page range for the team to select their story from as well as provide paper and
drawing materials for students to create visual props to use during their skit presentation.
Note: students need to look for examples of the environment as described through setting.
Students should read several stories, chose one that they can transform into a
performance and write a skit accurate to the story they selected. Students will need three
class periods to complete this assignment. At least one more working class period is
needed before presentations. Teacher should allow a day or two before presenting final
projects to class to allow slower groups to finalize their projects. Ideally, myth
performances will coincide with the creation of the timeline, Day 5.
Preparation for Day 2:
Obtain long piece of tan or gray bulletin board paper, at least ten feet. This will be placed along a wall and referred to for the next several lessons. Project and outline
Modoc landscape onto this paper: Tule lake, Lower Klamath lake, rivers, marshes, hills, rocks. Students will be applying natural resource details on day 2. (Optional: obtain
seeds, potatoes, and possibly trout to cook and sample during class period.)
Day 2
Drawing upon yesterday’s lesson, review students’ understanding of Modoc land and its resources that it could hold for Modoc inhabitants. Student will work in teams
79 today to discover, create representations of, and arrange images of natural resources available throughout the 2,000 square mile Modoc homeland.
Hook: read aloud Modoc creation picture book story, Moon and Otter and Frog by Laura
Simms (1995). Teacher may also find the original story of Gaukos and Kulta recorded by
Jeremiah Curtin online at http://archive.org/stream/mythsmodocs00curtrich/mythsmodocs00curtrich_djvu.txt
Question students about where the story agrees and where it disagrees with Jeremiah
Curtin’s retelling. Have students generate the lessons
Discuss the physical environment where the Modoc lived before contact with
Americans. Rich in spirituality, the Modoc saw their world as a friendly, bountiful home that provided for all of their needs. Today students will create an artistic representation of that place. Have students work in teams to investigate physical landscape of Modoc environment, create sketches planning what the class mural will look like, and generate images to be used as part of the mural. Student teams need to address landscape, plant and animal life. The myths students read yesterday included descriptions of the environment. Direct students to draw from the setting of their myth study.
Students design the outline on the bulletin board paper (teacher may wish to designate where lake, marsh, open areas, and rocky formations should go). Use colors, green and blue, to accentuate where food would be plentiful. Other teams can locate
(print out or draw) specific species: trout, perch, and sucker fish; ducks, geese, and other water fowl; rabbits, squirrels, sage hens, prairie chickens, and other small animals;
80 antelope, elk, mountain sheep, brown bears, grizzly bears; and editable plants such as camas (lily) bulbs, epos (wild potatoes), wocas (water-lily) seeds as well as various fruits and nuts. Attach these to the outlined landscape. If possible set up a cache (buffet) where students can come to sample traditional foods.
Conclusion: Think-Pair-Share:
Students discuss resources available in abundance and associated the seasonality
(may need more of explicit instruction above to produce this), what the environment was like beyond the riparian zone (potential harshness), and how the students might feel living there (establish a personal connection).
Preparation for Day 3: Soda-flat cardboard containers (one for each student/team), compactable soil as sculpting material (for sculpting ‘earth’ winter homes), 6” or 8”x1/4” round, strait sticks (approximately 100 per student or student team, you might split popsicle sticks or collect thin branches), small twigs (to be rungs of a ladder), thin twine or string, small rocks, and white glue. Straw is required to weave miniature mats to become the roof and to furnish the structure’s interior. Moss, pebbles, and sand can be added to enhance detail.
Day 3 and 4 The People - Spiritual Connections: Review what students know from the previous two lessons about the environment and its resources. Discuss the seasons and temperatures.
Images available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modoc_County,_California
81
Today we will learn about the people living there. Review prior knowledge in
regards to using resources available for survival (housing, gathering/storing food).
Winters were cold where the Modoc lived, so their housing provided protection from the
cold.
How do we stay warm in the winter? (Wear layers, insulate)
How do houses keep people warm? (Insulation, staying closed up, heat source)
What else do homes offer the people who live in them? (safety, security, a
place/identity)
Hook: http://www.mooseadventures.net/2013/04/05/spelunking-at-lava-bed-natl-
monument/ Visit blogspot, discuss terrain and Modoc winter wickiup lodge. Compare
winter and summer homes. We are building Modoc homes today. Notice how much
work goes into creating the model and think about how long it must take to make a real
winter lodge. The Modoc insulated their houses by piling earth on wooden structures.
Mats woven of dried grass supported the earth roof. Notice the logs bound by rope that
make up the inner walls supporting the layer of earth on the sides. See the ladder for
entry.
How would you feel if you were a Modoc family member living in one of these
winter lodges? http://www.heraldandnews.com/article_a711f8a2-706d-538a-b46a-b0d14c50d9a2.html
Read article and share picture of man inside of winter house. Discuss what does Jackson
mean by, “The lodge is a first step in gaining tribal identity.”?
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How would you feel about walking up to one of these homes if you were a
pioneer, new to the area? Remember this lodge because the significance of the work
involved during construction and the security this winter home offers will emerge later in
our historical investigation.
Direct students in construction of a cube shape from straight twigs (you can create
3-sided squares before the lesson by gluing 3 equally proportioned sticks at 90* angles so that each student/team can begin their cube formation with two dried forms to which students will only need to secure 2 additional sticks as cross-supports. While the inner structure dries students can be weaving together the side stick mat which will become the inner wall and support the earth that will later be piled around the sides. At this point students can decide if they would like to make an enclosed lodge, cut-away to reveal inner features, or devise some sort of method to lift away a portion of the home to be able to see what it looks like inside and out.
To construct the winter lodge: fill the low-sided cardboard box with compactable soil. Distribute the soil so that a circular pit can be formed with enough space between the pit and the wall of the box to extend the structure out the radius of the pit, beyond the pit to accommodate sloping walls. The cube structure is to be assembled over the pit.
Next create the woven pole walls to angle down from the cube support. Place woven mats over the structure leaving a hole where occupants of the winter lodge can enter/exit.
Students will need teacher support and encouragement to work through geometric challenges of construction. White glue is best for securing structure, but it takes hours to dry, so students might also try using string to lash together the inner, supporting pole
83
structure. If you have access to low temperature hot glue it can speed up the project but
has less hold. Final assembly will occur on day 4.
Summer wickiups will be important for discussion, so have a volunteer or
students who finish the Winter lodge portion of this project research and design a summer
version. Have flexible sticks or chenille craft wires and straw available for students to
create these grass covered domes.
Display winter and summer houses near paper mural created by students. Winter houses should be displayed separately from summer houses to reinforce the geographic areas involved and the cyclical nature of Modoc life.
Day 4 -( continuance of Day 3) Student will continue to work on their homes and create village displays near the mural from Day 2. While students work read “The Killer Snow” vignette by Cheewa James (2008, pp 276-278). Have students pile rocks at a distance away from their winter village site to symbolize the food cache that could not be found during the brutal winter of 1830.
To understand Modoc strong spiritual beliefs read another vignette, “The Healer,”
(James, 2008, pp 289-291). Explain to students that a shaman was critically important as religious leaders and doctors for the people. Give examples of spirits revered in Modoc culture: Kumookusmts was the creator and was referred to in the past tense.
Kumookusmts created the Modoc by throwing out bones and left spirits through which
Modoc could influence their world: Frog, Rattlesnake, Mole, Fish, Hawk and Coyote, but
spirits had the ability to take the form of any animal. Wash is a female coyote and a
84 trickster. Tstuk is a rock squirrel spirit who had chewed a hole in the bag of snow that
Kumookusmts kept which is why the snow came each year. In fact, the Modoc believed that even aspects of weather had unique spirits that could affect the lives of people. But, overall, the Modoc saw their world as a friendly place.
Closing:
View Rock Art video clip (available at: http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/nat/mod/wor.htm ) Discuss what students see in the petroglyphs, their class mural and the winter house. Students give examples from their research to describe what makes the environment a friendly place as well as to describe security in day-to-day living.
Preparation – Students will need to see newspaper articles to assist them in beginning their own research. Teacher can provide printed copies or digitally place articles into googledocs for student access (see Appendix J). In the classroom, attach five sections of bulletin board paper together to create a long strip. Draw one dark horizontal line across the entire length of the papers. Mark off nine intervals and label them for the decades:
1800, 1810, 1820, and so on through 1880, for students to anchor their findings. Finally, attach a sixth strip above to attached papers which will label the timeline “Expansion and
Reform - Early to Mid 19th Century”. Students will research and apply important information to this timeline as a class project. Information they gather will also be used for their document based analysis.
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Day 5 – timeline: Students seek out major events for Modoc and settlers, federal and state
Acts, establishment of overland trails, federal recognition of treaties, territories, and states. Research within online newspaper archive.
Present students with the Era timeline with the eight intervals and secure it in a centrally visible location where students can work to attach information. Teams of students use internet searches, specifically looking for documents that give them insight into their research area. They will become the experts and share out what they discover.
Now we are going to focus our study into the period of United State history known as
“Expansion and Reform”. This period was once referred to as Manifest Destiny. As
anthropologists, today’s goal is to be researchers and locate written information to
develop a better picture of the people living in the Modoc area up to the mid-19th century.
Have students bring forth significant events with dates which the class has already
studied boldly written on sticky tabs and attach them to the timeline. Divide the students
into five research teams to hunt up more information for the class timeline: Modoc
perspective, California settler perspective, Oregon settler perspective, soldier perspective,
government official perspective. How do perspectives inform the timeline?
Student teams determine entries for the class timeline: entries might include
encounters, treaties, changes in where certain individuals live, and economic practices for
various groups. Today students will select the years 1850 and 1864 from drop down
windows and click search again. In upcoming lessons students will visit cdnc.ucr.edu site
to search specific years: 1872, 1873, and 1874.
86
Distribute copies of newspaper articles (see Appendix J). Student teams will read the articles and identify the central idea of each article, the people, and the events. They will draw conclusions about societal elements such as relationships within or between
Indian tribes, federal, state and local governments, and Whites. Allow student team discussion time then allow student groups to participate in a whole class discussion of their finding. Give students the task of finding their own primary documents related to those you have provided to them. Their goal is to substantiate their arguments as to the relationships they believe existed.
Primary research source for this lesson is California Digital Newspaper Collection http://cdnc.ucr.edu, but students may wish to search other online sources, suggested sites:
Southern Oregon University Hannon Library Digital Archives http://soda.sou.edu, http://www.militarymuseum.org/MilitiaandIndians.html, Modoc National Forest www.fs.usda.gov/modoc, Washington University washingtonhistoryonline.org, or legendsofamerica.com. To begin the class-search direct all students to the California
Digital Newspaper Collection (link below). After initially entering the search term
“Modoc”, the Advanced Search tab will allow students to filter their results to only include news between specific years. Students who are having a hard time getting started can use key words from the articles you provided (see Appendix J).
Students are searching for reports that give them an idea which people were in the area and how they related to the world around them: attitudes, values, desires, etc.
Student-groups copy and paste dates, titles, and article content into a word document for
87
use later in a comparative analysis. The groups record dates correlating significant events
on sticky tabs to apply to class’s timeline.
Challenge activity for avid researchers: Students identify three styles of Modoc day-to-day clothing, locate example images and attach those to timeline. They should be looking for clothing styles derived from tule-reed or small animal skins, buckskin styles of the mid-western tribes (after trading brought tribes into contact at The Dalles), and finally pants and flannels as worn by pioneers. Their information may not be in pictures, but in worded descriptions.
Day 6 – infer perceptions of era. Examine newsprint articles, ethnographic accounts, and
the proximity of reports to their relevant time period
Student teams examine their information and construct a descriptive narrative
(stereotype) of collective beliefs/values held by a group of individuals from the time period they just researched. In the 1840s, settlers saw native peoples as an obstacle in their quest westward and desire to establish power by controlling land. Military officers were sent west to do a job: maintain peace and stability as the nation expanded; the Civil
War also happened in this time period which distracted soldiers, attention in the 1860s as well as provided an abundance of officers needing work assignments in the 1870s. All through the 1800s the Modoc worked to maintain a livelihood and adapt to changing balances of power. Discuss that stereotypes are not true statements of all members of a given group and that sources they used may only report on outliers. Make students aware that reporting individuals incorporate bias or simply do not understand the whole picture
88
because world views differ. Students are to make rough draft notes citing specific
examples from the articles that illustrate perspectives of certain individuals living in the
Modoc area between 1850 and1864.
Day 7 – mapping: Original territory, Valentines treaty, October 1865 treaty.
This lesson builds upon the timeline (Day 5) and their initial mapping (Day 1),
Fold black-line master of ‘Territorial Expansion 1840’ map (see Appendix B) in half then copy enlarging western half to full page image.
Connect to prior lessons:
Have students examine the maps they created on Day 1. Discuss what has been learned about the people who are living in the region of Klamath Lake, Tule Lake and
Goose Lake. Who is living there? What do those people want in life? Make connections to the timeline and newspaper articles recently studied. Give students enlarged western portion of black-line maps of the western United States and have them draw in the lakes and waterways for the region being studied. Using three different colored pencils, direct students to outline the boundaries of original Modoc territory, the territory described in the Valentine’s Day Treaty of April 1864, and Yainax within Klamath Agency which was arranged at Council Bluffs in October 1864. Have students find and circle the Lava Beds area which is where the next part of this story takes place. Provide students with copies of the Valentine’s Day Treaty and excerpts from E. Steele’s letter to his brother (See
Appendix H). Have students carefully read and discuss both selections.
Closure:
89
Have students report out their discoveries and wonderings as a result of researching newspaper articles, mapping where the Modoc lived, and the two assigned readings. How does the land grant of 1862 fit into what they have studied so far?
(Monroe is trying to claim land; Miller is telling Captain Jack that he should claim land; provision of land grant is citizenship and not raising arms against the government.) Tell them that tomorrow the class will research the war between the Modoc and United States government.
Day 8 More research and building a DBQ
Divide the class into two research divisions: 1872 and 1873; using www.cdnc.ucr.edu students work in small groups to locate 5 articles centered around
Modoc people wanting to live upon their ancestral homeland. Instruct students to capture digital documents since they will be using those as a foundation for an essay. Teams will compare the articles they locate with Captain Jack’s Speech published in Congressional records and their documents from yesterday’s lesson. Students will write five document relevant questions that their selected newspaper articles can support -- to show interpretation of the documents (not only recall). Students may include documents used in previous lessons. They may argue an opinion as to the actions of one particular group of individuals living in 1872(1873) based on the news articles selected. Questions the students generate may include: Do the settlers’ land claims adhere to process outlined in
The 1862 Homestead Act? What was the dominant public opinion of Native Americans as represented in the newspapers published in 1872(1873)? Did dominant public opinion
90
change over time? In what ways? What evidence shows that Modoc followed stipulations
of ___ Treaty? What evidence shows that settlers followed stipulations of Treaty law?
Was “utmost good faith” stated in Article III of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance still being
followed in 1872 (1873)?
Day 9-10 –writing, mapping (Angel Island, Yainax, Oregon to Quapaw, Oklahoma),
connections beyond
Provide another black-line map of the continental United States from
http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/iht8201448.jpg Illinois Periodicals Online. Students locate
Angel Island (of which they are already familiar and during peace negotiations was
mentioned as a place to send Modoc until a suitable reservation could be established),
Yainax, Yreka, Redding, Baxter Springs in Kansas and Quapaw Indian Agency (in the
northeastern most corner of what is known as Oklahoma). Students draw a wagon along a
path from Yainax to Redding, then they draw a railroad from Redding to Baxter Springs,
Kansas. Just south of the Kansas border students mark “POW” where the Modoc
prisoners lived from 1874 until 1909 when they were granted federal permission to return
to their homeland.
Students have completed and in-depth exploration of history and are now expected to write an opinion essay for the teacher to assess student understanding. On day 9, students will plan and begin their response. On day 10, students will use class time to finalize their essays.
Final project, writing, students will write defending a central idea supported with specific examples from documents. Using the questions generated in yesterday’s lesson,
91 students will select 5 documents upon which to create a final essay analyzing westward expansion. Any perspective supported with convincing reasoning supported through historical documentation is accepted. Citation of sources used in the essay is required.
92
Discussion
I wanted my students to know there was more to the westward movement than the
United States stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. They already had
an idea of the diversity of Native American Nations across the continent and many have
affiliation with local tribes. The goal of this unit was that students should seek out
perspectives of individuals who participate in the whole story but whose perspective is
not obvious at first glance.
This teaching unit begins with stories and construction to help the students
disengage from their 21st century minds and begin to understand the day to day existence of people who lived in Modoc country before the coming of the Whites. Through the mural, students build an understanding of the richness of the resources in a seemingly sparse landscape. Next, Modoc myths, Cheewa’s vingnettes, and children’s picture books
complement one another to weave the physical landscape into a richness of human
culture. Then, by working together to build the Winter lodge students learn about
teamwork and leadership in order to accomplish tasks; furthermore the extensive
investment of labor shows how important the winter villages were, so when the students
respond on an emotional level when they learn that white settlers, thinking a winter lodge
to be abandoned, dismantle one for its wood. By investing their own time they become
more deeply involved with the subject matter as Modoc history unfolds before them.
Students compare their acquired knowledge with the text book facts they have
learned throughout their eighth grade year. The create a concrete classroom display of
93 their knowledge then begin to explore social history through digital research of primary documents. The renewed comparison spurns renewed insight into their evaluation of history. My students found this portion of the lessons particularly interesting though would sometimes begin diverging into random events of the time period they were reading. During their research, students liked becoming the editors of newspaper transcripts (see site cdnc.ucr.edu). They stepped beyond students doing a lesson to and became historians and contributing members in the preservation of history. Students practiced critical examination of documents throughout the year, but the document evaluation in this unit was close to home for many of my students.
At the time this unit was developed and piloted Mountain Valley Unified School
District, I had a significant Native American student population. Through strong community support, most Mountain Valley students had participated in two years in the primary grades of Indian Days hosted in their town. Additionally, many have a connection to Natural Bridge, a 1852 massacre site. That same year a massacre upon
Modoc occurred. The students I worked with had personal interest in the subject matter and made the connection to our local history. They were genuinely interested in having access to the digital archives from the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s though having so much available to them allowed tangential explorations.
As the students became experts in the social biases of their pre-1870 subjects we watched an Oregon Public Broadcasting 57 minute documentary on the The Modoc War which I had the DVD to. At the latest revision of this project the 2011 showing was available in streaming HD at http://watch.opb.org/video/2165728995/
94
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Appendix A
Chronology
1786 an early federal Indian act was passed by congress establishing two reservations
(one north/one south of the Ohio River). Each reservation had a director to grant
licenses for trading and settling within reservation boundaries.
1789 War Department established to guard Indian frontier and supervise public lands.
Commerce Clause of Constitution - Article I Section 8 assigns president
responsibility to conduct business with foreign nations.
The Power to Make Treaties – Article II Section 2 assigns president power to
appoint people to positions and have treaties negotiated with the advice and
consent of the Senate.
1790 Trade and Intercourse Act reiterates commerce clause as it pertains to Tribes
within American possession Reminds Americans that the Federal Government has
exclusive control over contact with Indians (nations) basically telling non-
licensed folks to keep out of Indian business.
Independent American settlers, filled with a strong sense of nationalism, are
moving west making demands that the government provide for roads, cheap land,
loans and protection.
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1795 An Indian Factory system was established by federal government to see that
Indians got a fair price for their trades with white traders. Friendship not profit
was their aim.
1796 Congress passed a game protection law to restrict white encroachment of Indian
hunting grounds.
1812 War of 1812 gives Americans a sense of nationalism and superiority.
1818 Statue (3 U.S. Stat. 428) regularized the appointment of Indian agent and sub-
agent officials.
The United States and Britain agreed to occupy the Oregon land jointly. Monroe
served two terms as president, and America saw this period as The Era of Good
Feelings.
1822 The United States abolishes factory system of regulated trade with Indian tribes. It
had been in competition with other trading interests both foreign and private.
Bitter opposition from American Fur Company was as much to blame for the
failure of the system as its own fiscal inefficiency.
1823 President Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine. This policy stated that any
attempt by a European power to influence any part of the Western Hemisphere
would be considered a threat the peace and safely of the United States.
1824 John C. Calhoun used his authority as secretary of war to create a Bureau of
Indian Affairs within the War Department. Within a few months of creation the
BIA became known as the Office of Indian Affairs.
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Monroe in his annual message to Congress declares that the only solution to the
Indian problem is to induce Indians to move west.
1825 Hudson’s Bay Company trading brigades traded with tribes of the Pacific
Northwest region. American Fur Company is also there.
1827 Congress authorized the president to appoint the commissioner of Indians affairs
as a subordinate to the secretary of war who would be empowered to direct and
manage all Indian affairs and relations with Indian tribes (4 U.S. State. 564).
1829 Indian Removal Act brought before Congress.
1830 Terrible winter experienced in Pacific Northwest. Modoc lost track of food supply
caches. Many in the tribe died.
President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act forcing Indian Tribes
out of the way for white occupation.
1831 & 1832 Justice Marshall supports Cherokees’ right to control their own land and
make their own decisions in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v.
Georgia. Executive branch (President Jackson) ignores Judicial branch (Supreme
Court) ruling to not force Cherokee thereby demonstrating
1833 Hudson Bay Fur Company and Rocky Mountain Fur Company travel throughout
northern California and Oregon on trapping expeditions.
1835 French Canadian Trappers introduce Modoc people to trading of The Dalles, a
major Indian trading center. The young men are the ones who go to The Dalles
and acquire material goods leading to prestige which in time leads to changing of
cultural values.
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‘Wants’ become more important. Horses are particularly coveted. Modocs are not
a fur gathering tribe, so to obtain the wealth they want they barter their women. In
addition, Modoc go about raiding to take slaves and possessions from others.
1837 Financial depression began which sparked a large migration of settlers still further
west.
1838 President Martin Van Buren sent army, Cherokee and Seminole are forcibly
removed from their homelands.
1841 America organized its first overland expedition, the Bidwell-Bartleson Company,
for the purpose of settlement in California.
American missionaries in Oregon land send enthusiastic reports which attract
many would-be farmers to the region.
The Preemptive Act encouraged settlers to claim 160 acres beyond the frontier;
once surveyed settlers could purchase additional acreage at $1.25/acre.
1842 Explorers looked for routes across continent.
1843 John Charles Fremont was the first American known to have passed through the
Great Basin area. He did meet the Klamath-Modoc and it was peaceful.
1844 Expansion was the big issue of the presidential election. James K. Polk wanted to
have rapid expansion toward the Pacific. He won the election further promoting
the idea that Manifest Destiny was an entitlement to Americans.
1846 Fremont was driven from California by Governor Castro.
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Northern Paiute leader, Truckee, counseled friendship with the white strangers.
Members of his band serve as guides through the sierras including the group of
explorers lead by Fremont.
Klamath/Modoc lands of Northern California where a messenger sent by
Fremont’s father-in-law, expansionist senator Thomas Hart Benton. The
messenger had been attacked in an attempt to steal their horses. Upon arrival at
Fremont’s camp the whole party was attacked again by Klamath Indians and three
of their party were killed. Mountain man, Kit Carson joined the Fremont party. In
retaliation for the Indian attack the white explorers burned a Klamath town.
Klamath and Modoc became fearful of whites.
Britain and the United States agreed to divide Oregon along the 49th parallel. The
land of the agreement later became Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Applegate brothers, Jesse and Lindsey, set out from The Dalles to find a route to
North Eastern California and Southern Oregon. The existing Oregon Trail was
quite dangerous as it ran along the Blue Mountains and Columbia Gorge. In July
they had established ‘South Emigrant Road’ right through Modoc lands. The first
wagon train through scared game away from hunting grounds, the second train
was attacked by Modoc at Tule Lake in retaliation for the intrusion. Modoc
reputation grows.
1847 smallpox outbreak among the Great Lake Basin Indians kills 25%-50% of tribal
populations. No exact numbers about Modoc, but they were quiet until 1849 (not
killing, stealing, taking slaves).
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United States Military governors and administrators declared California Indians
must possess a pass and prove they are employed or be arrested.
1848 Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill at present day Coloma. Thousands would
immediately flock to California in search of fortune. Two-thirds of able-bodied
men capable of bearing arms left Oregon for California that summer and autumn.
Oregon gold-seekers used the Applegate route and then the California emigrant
trail to get to the gold fields of California which meant they traveled right through
Modoc land.
Mexico ceded title to California and its other northern provinces to the United
States in The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Under treaty rights the Indians
reserved their protections given under Mexican law. Americans ignored the
Indian protection provisions.
Vast new additional territories added to United States (Texas 1845, Oregon 1846,
and Mexico’s lands 1848) necessitated an extension on Indian policy to cover the
new regions. Westward movement brought demands from settlers for a safe
corridor to the Pacific through the lands just recently guaranteed to the Indians.
This would lead to the development of the reservation system in which Indians
would be put into established enclaves of land in order to keep them out of
contact with whites.
California was governed under military rule whereas Oregon governed itself as a
territory.
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United States Federal Army Colonel R.B. Mason declared that inhabitants must
rely on themselves to put down Indian aggression.
1849 The first territorial governor, Joseph Layne, arrived in Oregon. He also assumes
the ex officio duties of superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon but without the
application of Congressional provisions to deal with Indian inhabitants.
Eighteen settlers killed where South Emigrant Road comes in contact with Tule
Lake, a desirable campsite. The site is later named ‘Bloody Point’
1850 United States Federal Troops from Sonoma killed 135 Pomo Indians who had
protected themselves against brutality of white settlers, Andrew Kelsey and
Benjamin Stone.
The United States Congress passed an act to apply the provisions of the trade and
intercourse acts to Oregon and appointed commissioners to negotiate treaties in
Oregon as well as assign 3 commissioners to California.
California Legislature passes the Government and Protection of Indians Act
which stated, “in no case shall a white man be convicted of any offence upon the
testimony of an Indian.”
California Legislature also passes the Volunteer Act allowing citizens of any
county to arm themselves as an army and the Militia Act which stated that all
“free, white, able-bodied male citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-
five years, residing in the state” were subject to state-mandated military duty with
the Governor as their commander in chief.
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California Legislature passes AB65, An Act for the Government and Protection of
Indians, which allows the taking of Indian minors as prisoners for the purpose of
domestication of those Indian minors and the white guardian had custody control
and earning of such Indians.
Jessie Benton Fremont utilized enslaved Indians taken from a Mission and
refereed to them as “picturesque peasants.”
California obtained statehood. Governor Peter Burnett declared, “a war of
extermination will continue to be waged,” against the Indians.
Indian scalps sold for $5 to $15 each in areas including Marysville, Yreka, and
Shasta City.
The United States Congress appointed three commissioners to treat with the
Californian Indians stating they had two choices: “exterminate” or “domesticate”
them. The cost of feeding Indians for a year, they argued, would be cheaper than
fighting Indians for a week. To this the policy would also benefit the whites with
a source of cheap labor and provide protection and improvement to the Indians.
Congress rejects ratification for all 6 treaties negotiated in Oregon.
1851 federal government negotiates Treaty of Fort Laramie establishing defined
geographic boundaries for eight Plains Indian groups and promise the defined
territories would belong to Native Americans forever.
California passed legislation authorizing payment to citizen volunteer companies
to suppress and kill Indians. The United States, by 1859, reimbursed California
over one million dollars for these hired killers.
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A pack train is attacked (perhaps by Modoc or Pitt River tribes or even Paiute)
((Brady, 18). Forty-six mules and horses are taken; horses were later found in
Modoc possession. Livestock’s owner, Agustus Meamber, organized a vigilante party to get back his material property. He hired mountain man and Indian fighter by the name of Ben Wright.
California governor Peter H. Burnett reiterated, “a war of extermination will continue to be waged” against the Indians. In his annual address to the California
Legislature he referenced increased “calls upon the Executive for aid of the militia to resist and punish the attacks of the Indians upon the frontier.” Governor
Burnett had called out the militia twice in 1850 and then ordered sheriffs to
“pursue such energetic measures to punish the Indians, bring them to terms, and protect the emigrants on their way to California.”
United States Treaty Commissioners made eighteen treaties with California
Indians which would never be ratified because the land preserved to the tribes was too valuable a loss from the perspective of greedy politicians and citizens.
California Legislature passes a resolution officially asking the United States
Government to remove all Indians from the state. (A request that Indian
Superintendent Edward Beale knew was impossible.)
Newspaper, The San Francisco Alta, called for the “extermination or domestication” of California Indians
California Land Claims Act declared that anyone who claimed land under Spanish or Mexican law had to file their claim in San Francisco. Indians who had
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aboriginal rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo were driven off
their lands by American settlers, land grabbers and corporate entrepreneurs.
Shasta and Karuk Indians were invited to a feast near Fort Jones, in Siskiyou
County, but the beef was filled with strychnine. Five hundred to some thousand
Indians were killed.
1852 Wright’s group sought to exterminate Modocs with treachery profession of peace
talks, white flag, and attempted poisoning as had been done to the Shastas and
Karuks were employed. But when those avenues failed the militia army simply
massacred most of Modoc band in a sneak attack. Wright scalped and mutilated
his victims. Upon return to Yreka, the townspeople gave Wright and his company
a celebratory party for his part in exterminating Indians.
36 men but a force that became 70 men by the time it poised for attack was
comprised of volunteers led by Sheriff Dixon to avenge the death of John
Anderson. The vigilante group was supplied by the merchants of Weaverville
went on to surround a Wintun bands’ encampment at Bridge Gulch, or Natural
Bridge, near Hayfork while the band slept. At dawn the volunteers released a
barge of gunfire that massacred 147 men, women, and children and collected 3
prisoners according to newspaper accounts.
California Senators were adamant that the eighteen California treaties should not
be ratified. The United States Senate rejected the 18 treaties in secret session. In
California the effected tribes had no idea their good faith agreements were
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unrecognized. (Tribes who negotiated treaties in 1851, would not learn of the
rejections for another fifty years.)
U.S. Senate delayed ratifying any treaty made in Oregon and ordered negotiations
halted until Indian policy in the territory could be reviewed.
Superintendent Edward Beale established the first military reservation which
served Indians of Southern California, since he saw southern Californian Indians
as more of threat to the state’s dominant cattle industry. Indians of Northern
California remained unprotected from rape, kidnapping, enslavement,
concubinage, and murder by anyone.
Superintendent Beale proposed that the government set aside reservation lands for
the California Indians each of which would be self supporting and guarded by a
military force. Congress agrees to allow 5 such reservations but stipulates that
these may not interfere with white interests.
1853 United States Congress approved Beale’s reservation proposal but limited him to
the creation of only 5 such reserves.
Federal troops offered protection to Modoc. Military conducted roll call to be
sure no Indians had left the safety zone.
Joel Palmer is appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon.
1854 Joel Palmer begins negotiating new treaties with the tribes of Oregon and
Washington.
Settlers continued to make accusations of Modoc attacks and killings. (Yreka
Union)
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Ben Wright is appointed Indian Agent by Oregon Indian Superintendent Joel
Palmer.
1857 South Emigrant Road was not used which therefore resulted in no Modoc attacks.
1858 Felix Scott and seven others are killed in September near Goose Lake (eastern
edge of Modoc range)
1859 Emigrant wagon trains were attacked and captives killed near Tule Lake in an
area that will then on be known as Bloody Point.
Oregon becomes a state.
1861 Americans drawn away from the western front to fight in the Civil War back east.
1862 Congress charters the transcontinental railroad and commits the government to
open the West - pledging to “extinguish as rapidly as may be possible Indian title”
to the land involved.
Congress passes the Homestead Act. In an effort to populate and settle the west
Congress decreed that any homesteader pledging loyalty to the United States of
America and having paid a filing fee of $10 could claim 160 acres of land which
the land’s title would then be granted upon 5 years of occupancy.
Resources were depleted due to a bad winter. For survival the Modoc barter their
girls (as concubines) and boys (as house servants) to townspeople of Yreka.
1863 Government report refers to 1849 killings of 18 whites: Report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the year 1863
President Lincoln appoints Elisha Steele as Indian Agent for Yreka area tribes.
However, there is a California Senator who doesn’t like Steele and when Lincoln
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will not act on the demand to remove Steele there is legislation passed that will
not allow Steele to continue at his assignment.
1864 Modocs approach Steele to help them develop a treaty. He is no longer an Agent
when this treaty is written in February ’64. Steele is acting in good faith since the
Superintendent of Indian Affairs has differing approach than Military department.
The appearance of lack of leadership invited possibility of war which Steele
sought to avert. (Dillon, 58)
Modeling virtue stated in treaty stipulations a Modoc warrior returned to Colonel
Drew three mules run off in a raid upon a pack train, June 12, 1864 (Dillon 58)
In June, Congress appropriates $20,000 for a treaty to be created, get Modoc
lands, and move Modocs out.
In October, Superintendent Huntington negotiates at Council Bluffs on Klamath
Reservation. Captain Jack is there but only adds his mark under duress. Modoc
are assigned an area of the Klamath Reservation.
1865 Klamath and Modoc not getting along. Captain Jack and his band leave. They
also take some ammunition to Paiute Tribe who are having their own issues with
invading Americans. David Allen, slave trader later appointed Klamath Chief,
finds out about the arms dealing and tells the federal officers causing further
hatred of Klamath by Captain Jack’s Modocs.
Several representatives try to get Captain Jack and his band to return to the
Klamath Reservation: Commanding Officer Captain McGregor, Lindsey
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Applegate (1866), Superintendent Huntington (1867 with annuity goods e.g.
supplies)
Jack stays off the reservation. His Modoc band lives in the Lost River region
conducting business in Yreka and visiting their Modoc relations at Yainax on the
Klamath Reservation.
Congress shifts control of Klamath agency from Interior Department to Army
control.
1869 US Grant takes office. He plans to use religious groups to solve Indian Problem.
His plan is called ‘Quaker Policy’.
Council Bluffs Treaty (October 1864, Klamath Agency Oregon) is ratified
May 1, 1869 Alfred B Meacham replaces Huntington as Superintendent.
Meacham appalled at treatment of Indians and conduct of Americans.
Captain Jack returns to Yainax on Klamath Reservation but Klamath’s taunting
continues, Knapp only tells Jack to move his people, which he does, but the
Klamath follow right along with the harassment. Finally, when food supplies run
low Jack and his people leave the reservation again to return to their homeland
and the old ways of living.
The first transcontinental railroad was finally completed.
1870 Brigadier General Canby is placed in charge. Originally Canby, a decorated Civil
War general is assigned to the Army’s Department of the Pacific to give him
much needed rest from a decade of active duty during the Civil War. Canby has
extensive experience with Indian tribes, moving, and wars.
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Military stations throughout Oregon are depleted as soldiers, including General
Crook, are sent to fight Indian of Arizona.
Jack makes his first request for the Lost River lands as in the terms of the
Valentine’s Day treaty of 1864 he was party to creating with the help of former
Indian Agent Elisha Steele. Meachum supports the Modoc being given land in
the Lost River area.
Congress passes a law banning Army officers from holding civilian positions such
as Indian agents.
1871 January Jack’s niece is ill. Regular Shaman is out with young men steeling
horses. A Klamath Shaman is hired, but the girl dies. Indian custom is to kill the
practitioner if patient dies. Klamath get mad and demand white man’s justice.
Ivan Applegate asks the Siskiyou sheriff to arrest Captain Jack who had already
gone into Yreka to speak with Judge Steele about how to handle this conflict of
cultural norms. Judge Steele wrote that whites need to not meddle in Indian
business. Canby dropped the arrest order, but the settlers kept their grudge.
A nativistic revival is happening. Ta-vibo teaching in Virginia City, Smohalla
teaching Tribes to the north, Frank Spencer (a Walker River Paiute) brings
religious teachings to the Modoc: common idea that a great earthquake is coming
and Indians will rise from the dead to fight off the White occupation.
July, Yreka has a town fire which the Modoc helped extinguish. Townspeople met
with Modoc to talk about peace. Letter was sent to Meacham that successful
meeting would be likely. But Meacham does not get right to that meeting.
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1872 Settlers petition Canby to move the Modoc out of Lost River area. A second
petition, in June, even tells officials how many troops will be needed to complete
a forced move.
Settlers petition Oregon Governor Grover who then demands action from the
federal representatives via a letter to Canby. The Army, however, wants the
situation to stay quiet until they get a decision from Congress about Meacham’s
recommendation to designate Lost River area for Modoc reservation.
War Department issues an order to move Modoc to Yainax whether they agree to move
or not.
Captian Jack conferring with Yreka Lawyers Steele and Rosborough about other
options allowing them to continue residence in Lost River area such as
disassociating ties to tribe and using the XIV Amendment to qualify as a citizen
homesteader (Homestead Act of 1862)
November : 35 troopers arrive, whether or not the initial shots were intentional or
not the war ignites.
December 4 : Rancher John Fairchild attempting to secure safe passage for Hot
Creek band. Drunks at Linkville upset Hot Creek Modoc who then flee and join
Captain Jack’s band at the Stronghold.
1873 January Secretary of War issues a cease-fire for peace negotiations
Negotiations. Captain Jack is urged by his tribe to kill peace commissioners.
April 11 Canby and Reverend Thomas killed. Canby was in support of Modoc
having land in Lost River region.
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May 29 some Modoc are captured
June 1 Captain Jack surrenders
July 7 Military trial finds 5 Modoc Guilty (4 hanged, 1 imprisoned). Modoc
captives banished to present day Oklahoma ‘Indian Territory’.
Oct 3 hangings
October : One hundred fifty-five Modoc arrive at Fort McPherson, Nebraska
December Modoc are relocated to Quapaw Reservation in Indian Territory
(Oklahoma)
1884 Modoc at Quapaw gain praise from Commissioner E. A. Hayt for their good
progress in White ways. A few visits to homeland are permitted by select Modoc.
1902 Klamath Tribal Council agrees to hear Modoc request to return to reservation to
take up homes
1909 Congress authorizes allotments for Modoc on Klamath reservation which is
unsettling to some Klamath tribal members.
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Appendix B
Appendix B 1
Imperial Territorial Expansion 1840
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/graphics/missouricompromisemap.jpg
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Appendix C
Appendix C 1
Excerpt from Modoc: The Tribe that Wouldn’t Die by Cheewa James page 265 – 267.
Used with permission.
--- A Child’s Life ---
Ku-cin’s tule doll was her pride and joy. It seldom left the soft-spoken girl’s side.
She had made it herself when she was just seven years old. She was now nine, and the year was 1670.
The Modoc land was one of lakes and rivers, and it was in those waters that the tall water plant known as the tule could be found in abundance. Tule Lake was named for the plant. The tule reeds were softened in the water so they were easy to weave. Even so, making her doll has been a difficult thing to do as the reeds slipped so easily from the girl’s tiny fingers.
There had been times when she had wanted to throw the whole thing away. But praise was a powerful motivator for Modoc children. So she had worked hard to make every strand tight and straight. Her care had brought great rewards. Her mother had been proud, so very proud.
Ku-cin hoped that her fingers would become more and more skilled at basket weaving as she grew older. She knew that her ability to learn the art of basketry was important as she moved toward taking an active role in her Modoc band. Already she was starting to weave solid, well-rounded beginnings to her baskets – a sign that the basket
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sides would rise as they should. Often her friends would have basket races to see who
could weave the fasted. The loser was always considered a poor achiever.
She was content to play with her doll, bending the doll over the river now and
then for a sip of water. Ku-cin was like a happy little brown beaver, occasionally slipping
into the water to cool herself and enjoy the feel of the clear water on her skin. She wore a
discarded skin of a water snake around her arm. This was known to be a magical aid to
swimming, and Ku-cin was eager to get all the help she could. She was a strong swimmer and loved to beat any of the children who challenged her to a swimming match.
The last time she had come down to the river, a swarm of butterflies engulfed her,
spinning in a myriad of colors, up and down. The sky seemed to fill with them. She
sucked in her breath, afraid to breathe at the wonder of it and feeling absolutely magical
as the color swirled around her. The wings of the butterflies occasionally brushed her
cheek, and when that happened, Ku-cin felt sure it was Kumookumts blessing her. When
one butterfly actually landed on her, she knew something special was happening. She
wasn’t exactly sure how this god worked, but she knew her father put great faith in
Kumookumts. The prayers during the hunting season seemed to work. She could hardly
wait to ask her father if she had been blessed that day. It felt like it.
When Ku-cin was born, one on her parents, as was the Modoc custom, remained awake throughout the night to be with the newborn infant – who as custom dictated had been powdered with finely pulverized white clay. When Ku-cin was only a few weeks
old, she had been placed in a cradleboard. A pad of folded buckskin had been tied high
across her forehead. The binding had resulted in a flattening of her head. The care taken
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to flatten her head made it obvious that she had parents who cared very deeply that she
would grow into an acceptable and beautiful woman.
A girl living near Ku-cin had never had her head bound. She often wore a tule
basket hat to hide the deficiency. But everyone knew why she wore the hat.
Ku-cin’s thoughts drifted to the girl with the round head. She felt sorry for her.
Ku-cin was grateful for the family she had. Earlier in the day she had played with her father, who had rolled her around in the grass, tickling her and making her laugh. Like most Modoc children, she received nearly all of her hugs and holding from her father, more than from her mother. Fathers had more time than mothers, Ku-cin understood.
There was much work for a woman to do to keep her family fed and provided for. Her father often cared for Ku-cin and her brothers.
Her father had been especially pleased when she brought back, in her small burden basket, mud hen and duck eggs from the swampy places in the lake. He had given her a small bead necklace for her successful foray. He had also promised Ku-cin that he would go with her next time. They hoped to bring back Ku-cin’s favorite food, the wonderful delicacy known as bol’ooqs, duck embryos.
Ku-cin especially loved the times in the evenings when her dad and other adults told myths and anecdotes relating to Modoc tradition and culture. She was a smart little girl and knew when adults were telling stories, they weren’t just amusing the young ones.
It wasn’t just coincidence that there was always a lesson about behavior and ethics. Ku- cin was most willing to get whatever message she was supposed to because the stories were so good -- great stories that stirred her imagination and spirit.
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Respect and obedience to all adults, relative or strangers, were strongly
emphasized, and the act of lying was condemned. Advice was frequently given regarding
relationships with others and not fighting with other children.
With a little shudder, Ku-cin remembered a time when had been belligerent and outspoken to her mother. Sometimes a child was punished by being given very little to eat. But in this case, the punishment was more severe, and Ku-cin was placed in the sweathouse with the entrance blocked. The hot stones covered with water made the environment very uncomfortable, and Ku-cin truly wasn’t sure she would come out alive.
Now, she gave a little chuckle at the memory, and she watched her tongue a little more carefully.
It was a happy like, in a culture that went back for centuries. Ku-cin was glad she
was who she was, and with that thought, she placed the doll carefully on the bank and
slipped once again into the water.
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Appendix D
Appendix D 1
Winter Home Wikiup Model
http://www.mooseadventures.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/winter-lodge-300x198.jpg
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Appendix E
Appendix E 1
Excerpt from Modoc: The Tribe that Wouldn’t Die by Cheewa James page 276-278.
Used with permission.
--- The Killer Snow ---
It was unlike anything that anyone, even the oldest of the elders, had ever seen.
The winter of 1830 was a season of desperation for the Modocs.
It started with a snowstorm that increased in fury and strength. The young men had returned late in the season from a successful hunt, and there was no apprehension about what lay ahead. But the now continued to fall ion a blinding blizzard for seemingly endless days. Deeper and deeper it piled up until nothing in the landscape was familiar.
Ridges, stunted trees, rocks, and bushes had vanished. Everything was flat. Even the wickiup was buried. The world had become strangely silent.
Desperation set in and frantic efforts to reach caches resulted in failure. Strong men struggled, combating the snow, only to return to their families exhausted and hopeless – and the stores of food remained hidden under the snow. The tiny brown faces of the children, pinched in hunger, drew the men out into the unrelenting whiteness again and again until, in a weakened state, they could try no more.
Kak had been named for the raven, and he would have loved to hear his namesake’s call, of the call of any bird, for that matter. The quiet was frightening.
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Inside the wickiup the hush was extended. Kak was only thirteen years old, but in
those thirteen years he had always remembered winter as a time for games and laughter
around the fire. Indeed, the days were long and dark, but he had always felt that having
his family near was good.
His grandmother had been the first to go. It had been so heartbreaking to see her
body carried u- the ladder and placed in the cold outdoors. Kak thought of her often, up there lying in the snow. The baby was much too quiet now, and Kak hated the hush that replaced her gurgling. Even his sister Che-um-nas laid aside her basketry and she, too, simply sat – hungry, like Kak was.
The family had eaten everything that could possibly be eaten, including deer and antelope skins, the skins of wild fowl used as bedding – and even to Kak’s horror, the family dog. He would push that horrible memory from his mind during the day, only to have the image of the dog haunt his dreams at night, whimpering and licking his hand.
Kak’s puberty crisis quest had happened only a few months earlier, before the terrible snows had hit. A puberty crisis quest, a ritual in which young people coming of age roamed the wilderness, was a major part of Modoc life.
Curled in a ball to fight the cold, Kak thought back to his five-day puberty vigil, his quest for talents and power, reaching for the dreams that would guide his future life.
He had fasted for give days and thought the growling hole in his belly then was bad as it could get, but it was nothing compared to the hunger that consumed both him and his family.
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Tears formed in the corners of his eyes as he remembered the joy he had felt during his quest. He had done the ritual bathing, swimming under water to touch the five stones, or “rabbits” as they were known, He had done the ritualistic breading of shrubs, stripping bark from small trees and tying knots in limbs as he moved half-clothed through the rough country surrounding his home.
He especially remembered his rock piles. A significant part of the quest had been taking materials at hand as he traveled and building a stack of rocks, big ones on the bottom. His grandest joy had been the height he had attained with some of his piles – a private accomplishment that only he ever saw.
He closed his eyes and began to recite his rock prayer to himself: “My good helper, stone pile, you give me good luck. I am going out to hunt now. I give you this.
Help me to have good luck hunting deer. That is what I want you to do.” Maybe, maybe, the power of the stones would slice through the cold and snow that gripped the land and somehow bring food.
He opened one eye, then the other, but his heart told him before his eyes that absolutely nothing had changed in the wickiup. His sister hadn’t moved at all, the fire still sent a stream of smoke to the hole in the ceiling, and no venison had miraculously appeared. He obviously had not learned much about prayer on his w=quest.
Kak wondered bitterly if this was the future that his puberty quest had brought on
– cold, hunger, and death. As he huddled miserably on the floor of the wickiup, the tears began to flow freely, and Kak didn’t care that at thirteen he wasn’t supposed to cry.
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Now, just as Kak’s rock piles were out there somewhere, the family’s food cache was also buried. Snow rarely fell in this region deep enough to even consider the possibility of preventing access to the caches. But this year was different. When his father had dug out of the wickiup after the fury of the storm abated, he had confronted mountainous drifts over his head. Like other Modoc men, he had tried to search for the cache, but the snow itself made movement practically impossible.
Kak knew that until the day of his death he would remember his father dropping down into the wickiup exhausted and shivering. He had never felt more strongly that his father was a man devoted to his family. This winter had proved to Kak how much is father loved him. This knowledge helped soothe the horrible hunger pangs a bit.
Curled in a fetal ball, listening to the wicked howl of the wind, Kak wondered if this was happening to all his friends and their families. Would they all die in this Winter of the Big Snow?
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Appendix F
Appendix F 1
Excerpt from Modoc: The Tribe that Wouldn’t Die by Cheewa James page 289-291.
Used with permission.
--- The Healer ---
Jackalunus was jerked from sleep by his invoker, La-da-da. Jackalunus had been working with La-da-da ever since he’s become a shaman. No one needing his medical help ever came to him directly. When Jackalunus was needed, the invoker came to his wickiup with a summons. A shaman worked only at night,never in the daytime. So La-
da-da was on night call, too.
It was the invoker’s job to call Jackalunus’s assisting spirits out in preparation for
the night’s work. La-da-da was chanting in a monotone voice outside the wickiup calling
up the right spirits to work with Jackalunus. The shaman knew that if he looked out he
would see the invoker with his right hand raised palm downward, touching his forehead.
La-da-da would turn in all four directions, look up, then down, as he chanted to entice spirits from all directions to venture out.
But there was no need for Jackalunus to look. What he needed to do was put on
his clothes, grab his hat and go wherever illness in the night had called. Jackalunus had
worn the red buckskin skullcap adorned with woodpecker feathers for many years now. It
settled down around his ears just where it belonged. As the shaman followed his invoker
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into the night, he felt the chill that had settled in. The moon was covered with clouds and
a sudden flash of sheet lightning let Jackalunus know that rain might not be far behind.
Ko-mut’s wickiup was crowded with spectators as the duo walked in. Ko-mut’s wife, sweating and obviously in pain, was stretched out on a wooden plank in the middle of the wickiup, a robe covering her. Casually, using only his peripheral vision,
Jackalunus let his eyes pick up the objects dangling from beams above. He immediately saw the rawhide thong. Ah-ha! A good night this would be. The dangling objects represented what the shaman’s payment would be, and the thong was a symbol of a horse. Pay that good would keep him there two nights, all night if necessary. The bag of the camus plant, a tiny gift, was just an added token.
He was pleased to see the chorus of a few women standing by to assist in his songs. They were good, he knew. Everyone present would sing, but having the women to lead the chorus made the evening go much more smoothly.
The room became still as Jackalunus lit his pie, drew deeply, and blew smoke upon his hands. He then blew smoke three times on the woman extended before him. He laid his pipe to the side and reached forward, placing both hands on her body.
As he touched her, a flash of lightening lit up the room, and a clap of thunder reverberated. Even Jackalunus felt the drama of the moment. The shaman began to sing the special song that he knew would summon the first spirit he needed that night. The woman behind him picked up the melody, leading family and friends of the stricken woman in the singing.
131
Jackalunus invoked spirit after spirit, with the singers accompanying him in the
appropriate song. Then his powerful voice rolled across the room, talking to the spirits,
trying to find the cause for the woman’s illness. Thunder and lightning punctuated his
words and the songs. Finally both the elements and the shaman became still. A recess
was called.
It was at this point in the curing that a shaman could declare that there was
nothing more he could do for the patient, and his services were terminated. Sometimes it
had to do with too small a fee, but often the shaman was unwilling to attempt a cure
because of probable failure. Failure for a shaman would mean possible death for himself
at the hands of the patient’s relatives.
Jackalunus’s mind churned. He felt certain he knew what the illness was. He had seen it before. It was controllable – he could help her. The spirits guiding him were numerous and strong. He signaled his readiness and a murmur of appreciation ran through the wickiup. The moment had come for his most important work.
Jackalunus resumed his place beside the woman. A basket filled with water was
placed near the woman. He dipped his index and middle fingers alternately into the water
and then into his mouth, preparing for the sucking. He placed his lips on the woman’s
temple and began to suck, accompanied by loud explosive sounds. He then moved to her
neck. The singing from the people crowded into the wickiup continued and grew in
volume. Jackalunus felt the spirits responding to their individual songs.
132
Jackalunus’s breathing became labored. He choked and then gasped. A violent jerk threw his head back and he fell back as if pushed by a great force. The shaman held the back of his right hand over his mouth and emitted a gargling sound.
He reached into his mouth with his forefinger and thumb and pulled something out. The crowd surged forward to see. Nestled in Jackalunus’s hand was a sliver of yellowish quartz-like stone, a symbol of a chest disease.
Jackalunus had earned his horse.
133
Appendix G
Appendix G 1
Congressional Series of United States Public Documents
First Session, Forty-Third Congress. Executive DOCUMENTS Printed by THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1873-74 FIRST SESSION FORTY THIRD
CONGRESS
The white settlers are very much opposed to establishing a new reservation for this band of desperadoes and their determined opposition would keep up a continual conflict even though the location should be made and likely would be sufficient to make the thing a failure in the end Chief Skurtian formerly recognized as chief of all the
Modocs now an old man still remains here with over a hundred of his tribe still faithful to his obligations and still anxious and hopeful that his people who have been led away by
Captain Jack will be brought back where they belong. Through Skurtian's people I shall immediately send word to Captain Jack asking him to meet Mr Dyer and I without delay on Lost River and the result of the council will be reported to you as soon as possible after it occurs.
Very respectfully your obedient servant,
JD APPLEGATE
Commissary in Charge
Hon TB Odeneal Superintendent Indian Affairs Salem Oregon
134
p226-7 Captain Jack’s speech as told to JD Applegate May 1872
Yainax May 16 1872
Sir, Under date of May 8, I wrote you in answer to your letter of inquiry in regard to the Modoc matter, and I now would most respectfully report further that on the 14th instant in company with Mr LS Dyar agent at Klamath I met the chiefs and head men of all the Modocs, both those under Skeurian and Captain Jack at the military camp on Lost
River. I used every argument to induce them to return peaceably to the reservation telling them that this was the desire of the Department that such action would insure them all the rights and privileges now enjoyed by the other Indians on this reservation and that they would have perfect protection against the Klamaths.
I did not think it warranted by my instructions nor was it in my judgment prudent to demand of them to return or even to say to them that they would have to come considering that at this season hostilities would certainly result in great loss of life and property. I was not willing to make any issue but thought it best to leave the matter of their final settlement still open feeling satisfied and still hoping for success based on their good conduct. They will be now likely to remain peaceable. I asked Captain Jack if he would obey the orders to come on the reservation but he did not answer pointedly. While he hesitated, Black Jim and several others told him in their own language that it might be dangerous to say no. Jack then said that he would not answer the question for it would make a dispute. Considering all things, I did not think it best to press the question further
Jack's speech was substantially as follows:
135
“We are good people and will not kill or frighten anybody who want peace and friendship. I am well known and understood by the people of Yreka, Cal and am governed by their advice. I do not want to live upon the reservation for the Indians there are poorly clothed suffer from hunger and even have to leave the reservation sometimes to make a living. We are willing to have whites to live in our country but do not want them to locate on the west side and near the mouth of Lost River where we have our winter camps. The settlers are continually lying about my people and trying to make trouble.”
I feel quite safe in saying that there is not much probability of any serious trouble from these Indians as matters now stand, but if the cavalry force is ordered away before winter there will be great danger of open hostility. Any action against them in the summer will be attended with more or less danger. One very bad feature in the matter is the fact that there is a very bitter feeling among the settlers against these Modoc. The delay in moving them has made some of the settlers almost desperate and it is hard to reason with such people and keep them from doing some act that might bring on a general massacre, and yet it would perhaps lie safest to risk this and let the matter rest till winter.
Very respectfully your obedient servant,
JD APPLEGATE
Commissary in Charge
Hon TP Odeneal Superintendent Indian Affairs Salem Oregon
136
Appendix H
Appendix H 1 as found in An Indian History of the Modoc War. Riddle, J. (1914). pp 262-282
About Steele:
P 262- abridged
LETTERS FROM JUDGE E STEELE TO HIS BROTHER I STEELE
Dear Brother,
At your request I subjoin a brief statement of my recollection knowledge and intercourse with the Indians since my leaving the East in the spring of 1850. Crossing the plains that summer while suffering much with other emigrants by short feed for my stock and loss of supplies in our train I had no trouble with the Indians. Others did but I saw or thought a cause with themselves or with some that had shortly preceded them for it.
The Klamath Indians then known as the La Lakes inhabiting that district of country around Big Klamath Lake and north of Klamath River and west of Link River talked a language peculiar to themselves and also understood the jargon. The Modocs inhabiting the country south of Little Klamath Lake and around Tule Lake east of Goose
Nest Mountain and west of Goose Lake also conversed in a language peculiar to themselves and knew but little of the jargon those of the Upper Scott River and the forks of the Salmon River yet another language also those of Trinity River and Upper
Sacramento. This last tribe were more of the Digger (262).
137
During this time Judge Roseborough, now our District Judge came up here as an
Indian agent and for a year or more made his home with me In his whole intercourse with the Indians he was scrupulously careful to do exact justice toward the Indians and compel a like care by both our people and the Indians toward each other This led to a better acquaintance on my part with the Klamath Lake and Modoc Indians who came several times to see him After that my business occupying my whole time it was only occasionally that I saw any of the Indians to hold conversation with them and then only when called upon to settle some difficulty among the tribe or between them and our people During this time and if my memory serves me right in 1855 the Shastas, for some cause unknown to me, became hostile (271).
Occasionally thereafter I was applied to on matters of trifling moment and easily arranged until my appointment to the Indian Superintendency in the summer of 1863 for the northern district of California In this narration I have passed over several Rogue River wars without notice as I had nothing to do with them also the Modoc War of 1852 which took place whilst I was away at Crescent City therefore all I know of that was hearsay but
I know it was generally known that Ben Wright had concocted the plan of poisoning those Indians at a feast and that his interpreter Indian Livile had exposed to the Indians so that but few ate of the meat and that Wright and his company then fell upon the Indians and forty out of forty seven and one other died of the poison afterward. There is one of the company now in the country who gives this version and I heard Wright swearing about Dr Ferrber our druggist now of Vallejo selling him an adulterated article of strychnine which he said the doctor wanted to kill the cayotes. That the plan was
138 concocted before they left Yreka defeats the claim now made for them that they only anticipated the treachery of the Indians John Schonchin was one of the Indians that escaped (272).
The history of that night you have probably seen as it was given by Article B the
Sacramento Record and San Francisco Chronicle for which paper he was corresponding he was made wild he was with me the whole time after. A final peace was made with the
Modocs but the year is now out of my mind, about 1857 or ‘58, they came to Yreka with horses money and furs to trade and get provisions and blankets. On their way out they were waylaid at Shasta River as was claimed by Shasta Indians and several killed robbed and thrown into the river. Many of our citizens thought white men were connected with this murder, and it is probably so. The Shasta Indians retreated they claim that but few of their people were engaged in the massacre but it was mostly done by the white people and in their negotiations for peace in the spring of 1864 mentioned hereafter. But to return to the thread of my history. On taking possession of the Superintendency of
September 1863 I found the Klamath Lakes the Modocs and the Shastas in war with each other (273).
I was legislated out of office by Mr Conness our Senator Mr Lincoln having refused to remove me at his request In the spring of 1864 on returning home from a trip to San Francisco I found my lot adjoining my house south of Yreka since burned filled with Indians of the Modoc Klamath Lake Shasta Scott River Salmon River Klamath
River and Sacramento River tribes numbering several hundred and awaiting my coming
My wife had been lecturing them upon the best way to live with each other and with our
139 people and that they were more than ready to enter into treaties with each other and with us the work left for me to do in arranging all matters was light and two days found all happy and friends at this time all were so well pleased that they agreed that I should be the chief over them all and when any difficulty arose among them that it should be submitted to me and my decree should be binding. This proposition came from Captain
Jack the chief of the Modocs and cheerfully agreed to by all I called quite a number of our citizens to join the treaty and from that day to the outbreak of the war they have troubled me with their difficulties which have generally been decided to their satisfaction
After this I was removed from office and Roseborough was on the bench (274).
Now a few words as to the facts in the case. Some time after Captain Jack and party had left the reservation they called upon me and stated what they had done on the reservation all of which had been confirmed to me by Mr. Meacham and others and why they left claiming that instead of feeding them they had been obliged to kill their horses for food and instead of a pair of blankets only one or as they called it half a blanket had been given to each of the adults and but half of that to each of their children and those of an inferior quality they looked very squalid and poor more so than I had ever seen them before or since My advice to them and always had been was to return to the reservation and further that the officers would compel them to go They replied they would not go and asked why the treaty I had made with them when I was Superintendent of the northern district of California then supposing the State line included their village the fishery was not lived up to They said they were to give up all the balance of their lands would ask nothing for it would take care of themselves as fish and fowl were abundant there and
140
that white men's cattle might graze there and they would not disturb them and that when people came there to cross the river they would assist them I told them they had made a new treaty with the Oregon agency since I sold their lands and that done away with the
one Jack said that he did not agree to it but old Schonchess did but he was no chief But he
finally went to the reservation as they made him such good promises and all his friends
wanted him to go but when he got there he said none of their promises were kept I
frequently urged upon him the power and number of our people and that it would be folly
to resist all to no response I have written several letters for him to the settlers in which I
stated his words to them as he said that there were many that could not talk to him or he
to them and that he wanted them to know that he was determined to be a friend of the
white people and wanted to learn their way of living Always when he came to town when
I was home he called and stated his purpose in visiting Yreka at which time I would
advise him not to let his men and women get whisky or remain in town after sundown.
That some did remain and did drink whisky is true but they were generally women that
were claimed by and living with white men either in the vicinity of Yreka or on the
frontier and would come here and meet with relatives and tribes I have never known Jack
to take a glass of liquor in my life and I have known him to whip his men for taking it.
After trading they uniformly came to bid me good bye and ask a letter to pass them back
to their country so that if they should meet strangers they could show them that it was all
right and they need not be afraid All this put me to much trouble but for which I received
no compensation of any sort As for my being their attorney it is simply absurd All my
acts were in the cause of humanity and to avoid if possible any collision with our people
141 as I knew them and know if properly managed there was no cause for one white settler frequently came in from their country and corroborated their stories and all that I saw gave them a good character.
They were having much trouble and that [rancher Charles Monroe] wanted their land and had applied to the Indian Department to have them removed and that [rancher
Henry Miller] feared it would cause war and that the lives of the settlers would not be safe as they determined not to return to the reservation. He wished to know why as they were industrious and peaceable they could not be allowed to take up farms there as others did and remain I told him my opinion was they could if they would give up their tribal character pay taxes and improve the land He said that was what they wanted to do I then told them I would make the application for them to the Department and get their answer I did not immediately sit down to work as other business was pressing but thought I should see him the next morning but before leisure presented he had returned home Soon afterward the Indians came in and told me that Miller had told them I would ask the big chief to give them land if they would pay taxes and which they said they would do.
At this last interview with Captain Jack his reply was very determined that he would not go to the reservation to be starved I told him of the great number and power of our people and the futility of resistance to which he listened with his usual stoical composure and then replied, “Kill with bullet don’t hurt much, starve to death hurt a heap.” This was said through the interpreter Scar Face Charley. Captain Jack talks no
English except the names of a few articles in trade and no jargon and as far as my knowledge of him is concerned he always brought to the conference an interpreter and
142
usually for that purpose Scar Face Charley. A word as to the charge of treacherous
disposition of this people This is a charge instituted since the treacherous massacre of
General Canby and Mr Thomas but before that no one can point to an act of treachery on
their part but on the contrary they were known as a bold and fearless people warlike and a
dread to our early emigrants and the surrounding tribes and very punctilious to their word
so far as I have occasion to know.
Yreka May 26th 1873
Dear Sir,
In [the charges in the Oregon papers] I have only noticed the leading questions
and those falling under my observation's with ill the contradictory reports, it will be
found my judgment of the purpose of the Indians was uniformly correct. 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 entertained by many that do not know them The Modocs are generally a whiter tribe of
Indians than any other that I have met with Captain Jack is very dignified generally and is a full blood Modoc Scar Face Charley is one of the Rogue River Tipue Tie's tribe extinct
I have just arranged at the suggestion of a member of Congress Luttrell for all the straggling Indians of various tribes surrounding us to go to Fort Jones military reservation in Scott Valley and remain under supervision They are highly pleased but they have been under great fear ever since the Modoc War broke out and were nearly starving from the
143 fact that they did not hunt fish or dig for roots from fear from both whites and Modocs
(282).
E. Steele
144
Appendix I
As found in Landrum (1988)
Holt, J. (July, 1873). Official Copy of the Trial of the Modoc Indians.
Excerpt from Proceedings of a Military Commission Convened at Fort Klamath,
Oregon, for the Trial of the Modoc Prisoners. Days 4 and 5 found in House
Executive Document No 122, 43rd Congress, 1st Session, pp. 172-178.
Captain Jack. I considered myself as a white man; I didn’t want an Indian heart any
longer; I took passes from good white men who gave me good advice. I knew all the
people that were living about the country, and they all knew I was an honest man, and
that I always acted right, nor did anything wrong. You men here don’t know what I have
been heretofore; I never accused any white man of being mean and bad; I always thought
them my friends and when I went to any one and asked him for a pass, he would always
give it to me; all gave me passes, and told those people who had to pass through my
country that I was a good Indian, and had never disturbed anybody. No white man can say that I ever objected to their coming to live in my country; I have always told them to come and live there, and that I was willing to give the homes there. I would like to see the man that never knew me to do anything wrong heretofore; I have always dealt upright and honest with every man; nobody ever called me mean, except the Klamath Indians; I never knew any other chief who spoke in favor of the white men as I have done, and I
145
have always taken their part, and spoken in favor of them; I was always advised by good
men in Yreka, and about there, to watch over white men when traveling through my
country, and I have taken their advice and always done it. I would like to see the man
who started this fuss, and caused me to be in the trouble I am in now.
They scared me when they came to where I was living on Lost River, and started
this fight. I cannot understand why they were mad with me. I have always told the white
man heretofore to come and settle in my country; that it was his country and Captain
Jack’s country. That they could come and live there with me and that I was not mad with
them. I have never received anything from anybody, only what I bought and paid for
myself. I have always lived like a white man, and wanted to live so. I always tried to live peaceably and never asked any man for anything. I have always lived on what I could kill and shoot with my gun, and catch in my trap. Riddle knows that I have always lived like a man and have never gone begging; that what I have got, I have always got with my own hands, honestly. I should have taken his advice He has always given me good advice, and told me to live like a white man; and I have always tried to do it;, and did do it until this war started. I hardly know how to talk here. I don’t know how white people talk in such a place as this; but I will do the best I can.
The judge-advocate. Talk exactly as if you were at home, in a council.
Jack, continuing. I have always told white men when they came to my country, that if they wanted a home to live there they could have it; and I never asked them for any pay for living there as my people lived. I liked to have them come there and live. I liked to be with the white people. I didn’t know anything about the war – when it was going to
146
commence. Major Jackson came down there and commended on me while I was in bed
asleep. When Meacham came to talk to me he always came and talked good to me. He
never talked about shooting, or anything of that kind. It was my understanding that Ivon
Applegate was to come and have a talk with me, and not to bring any soldiers, but to
come alone. I was ready to have a talk with any man that would come and talk peace with
me. The way I wanted that council with Applegate to come off, was, I wanted Henry
Miller to be there and hear it. He always talked good to me and gave me good advice.
Miller told me he wanted to talk with me, and wanted to be there when Applegate met
me, he wanted to talk for me and with me. Dennis Crawley told me he wanted to be there
to talk with me when Applegate came. He told me I was a good man and he wanted to see
me get my rights. It scared me when Major Jackson came and got there just at daylight,
and made me jump out of my bed without a shirt or anything else on. I didn’t know what
it meant, his coming at that time of day. When Major Jackson and his men came up to my
camp, they surrounded it, and I hollered to Major Jackson for them not to shoot, that I
would talk, I told Bogus Charley to go and talk, until I could get my clothes on. He went and told them that he wanted to talk; that he didn’t want them to shoot. Then they all got down off their horses, and I thought then we were going to have a talk; and I went into another tent. I thought, then, why were they mad with me; what had they found out about me, that they came here to fight me. I went into my tent then and sat down and they commenced shooting. My people were not all there; there were but a few of us there.
Major Jackson shot my men while they were standing round. I ran off; I did not fight any.
I threw my people away that they had shot and wounded. I did not stop to get them. I ran
147 off, and I did not want to fight. They shot some of my women, and they shot my men. I did not stop to inquire anything about it, but left and went away. I went then into the lava- beds. I had very few people, and did not want to fight. I thought I had but few people and it was not any use for me to fight, and so I went into the lava-beds.
148
Appendix J
Appendix J 1
Example News Articles for DBQ
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 22, Number 3274, 25 September 1861
Indian Fight near Yreka.
Salem (Oregon), Sept. 19th, via Yreka, Sept. 24th.
Yreka, Sept. 24th. Last night a party of Modoc Indians attacked the Shastas in this
vicinity, killing one ot the Sbastas, known as Oleman, and three squaws. Oleman was a
great friend of the whites, very old and grayhaired. The cause seems to have been
revenge for an old quarrel last Spring, in which Oleman had killed three or four Indians
of the Modoc tribe for stealing his gun. The Modocs made a complete job by shooting
seven rifle balls through the old chief.
Abstract of Approved Laws Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume V, Number 103, 30
April 1862
Abstract of Approved Laws
The following is a continuation of our abstract of laws passed at this session of the
Legislature and which have received the approval of the Governor. They number from
149 chapter 158 to chapter 180, … Chap. 179. —An Act to provide for the Redemption of
Bonds issued for expenses incurred in the suppression of Indian hostilities by the following expeditions: The Shasta Expedition of 1851; Siskiyou Expedition of 1856;
Klamath and Humboldt Expedition of 1858; San Bernardino Expedition of 1855,
Klamath Expedition of 1856; Tulare Expedition of 1860; and Modoc Expedition of
1856:State Bonds or certificates for services or supplies furnished in these expeditions are to be cancelled by payment of United States Bonds received from Government for that purpose. …
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 24, Number 3704, 4 February 1863
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Washington, January 9, 1863.
Oregon Indian Affairs.
For some reason best known to themselves, the Indian Agents and Indian Superintendent in Oregon have fallen out among themselves, and a voluminous mass of complaints and counter complaints have been sent on here for adjudication by the Interior Department, each charging each with embezzlement, failure in accounts, etc. The result has baen that
W. H. Rector has been removed from tho position of Indian Superintendent for Oregon, and J. W. P. Huntington is appointed in his place, and Benjamin Simpson is appointed
Indian Agent at Siletz Reservation, vice B. R. Biddle, removed. Certain Federal appointees in the State of California, now in active unfriendly relations with each other, according to accounts received here, may profit by the wholesome example set in the
150
case of the above named gentlemen. The Administration finds it more economical to
remove the disputants than to send out an investigating agent to settle difficulties among
office holders' Various changes are proposed in the Indian Departments of California,
Oregon and Washington, one of which is to create a new Reservation of all that part of
Oregon and Washington east ofthe Cascade Range ; and another, which will be reported
by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, contemplates the erection of a new
Reservation at Klamath Lake or vicinity, for the use of the Klamath and Modoc Indians.
This will take a portion from tbe Oregon and from the California Superintendences, and make a new and separate organization, composed exclusively of "mountain" Indians.
Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 24, Number 3717, 19 February 1863
CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY.
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Washington, January 19, 1863. Senate
… A bill (introduced by Harding of Oregon) to authorize a treaty with the Modoc and
Klamath Indians of Southern Oregon and Northern California, was finally passed.
Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume IX, Number 44, 23 February 1864
Siskiyou.—The Yreka Journal has the following items: Wm. Cooley't auction room
onMain street, was robbed last Sunday afternoon of $3OO. It is supposed to have been
committed by his accommodating China neighbors. The Modoo tribe of Indians have
honored Yreka with their presence during the past week and magnified their importance
by a treaty with the Indian Agent.
151
Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume VIII, Number 134, 6 December 1863
NEAR Yreka, on the 28th ult., a Modoc Indian. was killed by a Shasta. The Journal says that be was shot through the temple, the ball passing through his head, killing him instantly. The ball also passed through the hat of a Chinaman who was mining in the vicinity
152
Appendix K
Appendix K 1
Blackline Map of United States 1870
http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/iht8201448.jpg
For use in Day 9
Students:
Locate, add to this map, and label:
Modoc Country Klamath Agency
Wagon Ride Redding, CA
Train Transport Baxter Springs, KS
Quapaw Indian Agency
153
Appendix L
Student Education Standards
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
8.5.2
Know the changing boundaries of the United States and describe the relationships the country had with its neighbors and Europe, including the influence of the Monroe
Doctrine, and how those relationships influenced westward expansion and the Mexican-
American War
8.8.2
Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny(e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of removal of Indians, settlement) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.
8.12.1
Trace patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets, and trade and locate such development on a map.
8.12.2
Identify the reasons for the development of federal Indian policy and the wars with
American Indians and their relationship to agriculture development and industrialization.
154
The following National Standards will also be emphasized:
NSS-USH.5-12.4 Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861): Student understands United
States territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861, and how it affects relations with
external powers and Native Americans. Student understands how the industrial
revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward
movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions. Student
understands the extension, restriction, and reorganization of political democracy after
1800. Student understands the sources and character of cultural, religious, and social
reform movements in the antebellum period.
National Educational Technology Standards for Students
ITC Grades Profile 6-8.3
Gather data, examine patterns, and apply information for decision making using digital tools and resources. (ISTE Standards 1:Creativity and Innovation, and 4: Critical
Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making)
ITC Grades Profile 6-8.5
Evaluate digital resources to determine the credibility of the author and publisher and the timeliness and accuracy of the content. (ISTE Standard 3, Research and Information
Fluency)
155
California Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts:
RL 8.1
Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL 8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. (See grade 8
Language standards 4–6 for additional expectations.) CA
L 8.6
Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
RI 8.8
Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims.
RI 8.9
Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.
156
RI 8.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text
complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
California Visual and Performing Arts Standards
2.0 CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Creating, Performing, and Participating in Theatre
Students apply processes and skills in acting, directing, designing, and scriptwriting to
create formal and informal theatre, film/videos, and electronic media productions and to
perform in them.
Development of Theatrical Skills
2.1 Create short dramatizations in selected styles of theatre, such as and musical theatre.
Creation/Invention in Theatre
2.2 Perform character-based improvisations, pantomimes, or monologues, using voice,
blocking, and gesture to enhance meaning.