The Modoc War 1872-73

The ancestral home of the Modoc Indian Nation consisted of over 5,000 square miles along what is now the California-Oregon border near Tule Lake. The Modoc were a culturally detached and unique band that had habituated the region for centuries. Occasionally they formed war parties to drive out unwelcome visitors or raid neighboring tribes. They were hunters, fishermen, and gatherers who followed the seasons and managed the landscape for food and developed products to be used with their keen sense of economic trade. The arrival of the white European Americans in the early 19th century changed their lives forever.

They initially dealt with trappers and trades but eventually farmers and ranchers began to encroach on Modoc territory. In 1852 a self-proclaimed “Indian Fighter” by the name of Ben Wright took advantage of the California State policy that sanctioned and funded the killing of Indians to raise an army of miners in the town of Yreka. This group set off to find any Modoc they could find, because it was rumored that they were the Indians who had allegedly attacked a wagon train of settlers. Over a one-year period, the Ben Wright led militias ruthlessly killed an estimated 170 Modoc Indians of all genders and ages in a California state-sponsored genocide. The Modoc attempted to barter for a peaceful agreement but government officials decided it best to terminate any Modoc claimed land. They were placed on the Klamath Indian Reservation but were mistreated and left.

Modoc leader Captain Jack led his people to traditional Modoc lands on Lost River. Indian Commissioners were determined to force the Modoc back on the Reservation. There were constant random attacks on the Modoc which led to hostilities. Modoc warriors with their wives and children retreated to the nearby Lava Beds. Captain Jack did not muster more than 60 men throughout the War, but for almost eight months he withstood the United States Armed Forces that came to number over a 1,000 men supported by mountain howitzers and mortars. The Modoc lost only six men by direct combat while the U.S. Army suffered 45 dead including General E.R.S. Canby, the only U.S. General to lose his life in an Indian War (Custer was not a General when he was killed). Canby was treacherously killed by the Captain Jack during a peace commission with the Modoc. The Modoc War cost the United States government approximately half a million dollars.

When the War finally ended on June 1, 1873, Captain Jack and five of his warriors were arrested and tried by military tribunal. They were found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, but two were sentenced to life in prison. On October 12, 1873, 155 Modoc, 42 men, 59 women, and 54 children were loaded on 27 wagons and departed for Fort Klamath, Oregon. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs had decided to place them on a reservation in Indian Territory in Oklahoma. They were shipped East by train. Harsh conditions resulted in over half the tribe dying in the next four years.

Contributed by Steve Lent, Historian