MODOC INDIANS.

SOURCE: AA GUIDE TO THE INDIAN TRIBES OF OKLAHOMA.@

MURIEL H. WRIGHT.

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS. [1951, 1986].

MODOC

In their own language, the Modoc call themselves Maklaks, Apeople.@ The name Modoc is from Moadokkni (or Moatokni), Asoutherners,@ their kindred tribe, the Klamath, referring to them as Moadok Maklaks, Apeople of the south.@

The Modoc and Klamath are classed as the two branches of the Lutuamian linguistic family, whose original home was in the Klamath Lake and the Tule Lake regions of south central Oregon and northern California. The two tribes have the same language, usually referred to as Klamath, with slight dialectic differences in speech.

The full blood Modoc were described as superior fighting men in tribal days. They were slow to action, but remarkable for their independence and perseverance. Wherever they have been allowed to remain undisturbed on the land, they have been peaceable, temperate, and industrious.

Present Location. The Modoc in Oklahoma are living in Ottawa County, having been allotted lands in the Eastern Shawnee reservation (see Shawnee). Most of the tribe, however, live on the Klamath reservation in Oregon.

Numbers. About 50 Modoc are living in Oklahoma. According to a separate listing of the tribe by the Quapaw Agency, there were 40 in the state in 1923. The Modoc have always been a small tribe, their numbers estimated at about one-half that of the Klamath during the historic period. The combined population of the two tribes at discovery has been estimated at 2,000. In 1861, there were 310 Modoc reported on the Klamath reservation in California. In 1864 the number of Modoc attending the treaty negotiations at Fort Klamath, Oregon, was 339. In the next year, their total number in California and Oregon was 700.

At the end of the Modoc War, the tribe was divided. Those who had had a part in the conflict were brought to the Indian Territory, 153 arriving at the Quapaw Agency in November 1873; the rest, numbering about 100, remained on the Klamath reservation in Oregon, where they finally settled and increased. In 1890, there were 84 reported in the Indian Territory and 151 on the Klamath Reservation; in 1905, 223 on the Klamath Reservation and 56 in the Indian Territory. The official census of the Indian Office in 1944 listed 334 Modoc living on the Klamath Reservation in Oregon.

History. Modoc were first noticed in the latter part of the eighteenth century by Spanish missionaries of the Roman Catholic church in California. The introduction of the horse among the Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest in the early eighteen thirties resulted in changes in tribal life, and within twenty years the Klamath and the Modoc established trading relations with inhabitants of the Pacific Coast region to the northwest and came into closer contact with the tribes to the north and the east from the region of the Plains.

The Klamath reservation in northwestern California along the Klamath River was first opened in 1855. Then, by the terms of a treaty signed by the Modoc and the Klamath on October 14, 1854, at Fort Klamath, Oregon, this tract was given up and another of 1,056,000 acres in southern Oregon was set aside as the permanent Klamath reservation. Under this treaty, the two tribes ceded to the United States the country east of the Cascade Mountains in northeastern California, the Modoc agreeing to move to the new Klamath reservation in Oregon. But the United States agent refused to protect the Modoc from the Klamath, who, greatly outnumbering them, were hostile and interfered with their peaceable settlement on the reservation.

Restless and discontented, a band of Modoc led by their chief, Kintpuash, called ACaptain Jack,@ set out in 1870 for his home country on the Lost River, where they remained, demanding that a separate reservation be assigned the tribe. Attempts to return them to the Klamath reservation brought on the Modoc War of 1872-73, during which Captain Jack and about eighty warriors, with their families, retreated to the rocks and caves in the impenetrable lava beds south of Tule Lake.

Fighting at first was desultory, but after the killing in April, 1873, of General E. R. S. Canby and another of the commissioners who had come to discuss peace terms with Captain Jack and his band, pursuit of the Modoc was stepped up. A full-scale military campaign was launched against them by seasoned, well-equipped troops, at one time numbering 1,000 regulars, 78 Indian scouts, and a company of Oregon volunteers. The knowledge that annihilation was certain if resistance was continued, coupled with the desertion of some of his own men, finally compelled the surrender of Captain Jack. He and three other warriors were condemned in a court-martial at Fort Klamath for the murder of the commissioners, for which crime they were hanged on October 3, 1873.

The remainder of the band set out on October 24, 1873, under military escort, by train to Fort McPherson, Nebraska, whence they were taken to the Quapaw Agency in the Indian Territory. During the journey, members of the band were praised for their good behavior and willing cooperation with the authorities. On June 23, 1874, the government purchased a tract of land two and one-half miles square (4,040 acres) in the northeastern corner of the Eastern Shawnee reservation for the permanent settlement of the Modoc (see Shawnee).

The Quapaw Agency in Indian Territory reported the Modoc, almost without exception through the years, to be loyal, peaceable, and industrious, generally living on the products of their own farm labor, although members of the tribe never ceased to long for their old homes in the Northwest. . . .

An act of Congress, approved March 3, 1909, provided that the remnant of Captain Jack=s band should be restored to the Modoc tribal rolls at the Klamath Agency, Oregon, and accorded all the rights and privileges of other Indians living there. Tribal members allotted lands in Oklahoma were granted the right to sell or lease (for a period not to exceed five years) their allotments and return to Oregon. The last one of the original Modoc warriors, Johnny Ball, left Oklahoma and returned to the Klamath Reservation in 1913. Among the Modoc who remained in Oklahoma, in 1948 Mrs. Cora P. Hayman, of Tulsa, was the last full blood and the only survivor of the band brought to the Indian Territory. Her son, Claude Hayman, was an employee at that time at Chilocco Indian School.

Government and Organization. Government relations with the Modoc in Oklahoma were closed by 1924. During the agency period, each member of the tribe had been dealt with individually by the Quapaw agent. The band had only a nominal tribal organization in the Indian Territory, military authorities having appointed Charley Jackson, better known as AScarface Charley,@ as chief of the band on the way from Oregon. He had been one of Captain Jack=s leading warriors and was reputed to be the first who fired a shot in the Modoc War. He proved a good, thrifty man and was respected and loved by his followers. A Christian convert, he was a member of the Society of Friends.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, May 8, 1873.

The Modocs, who were to be so readily exterminated, have thus far killed three soldiers and officers for everyone lost upon their side. Recently our troops were surprised by them and suffered great loss.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, May 27, 1873.

The Modocs are out of the lava beds, say our dispatches, and their trail indicates that they are on their way to join the Pin River Indians. In a few days a reconnaissance party of soldiers will go stumbling onto them in the lava beds, and twenty-five or thirty of them will get killed again.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, June 12, 1873. Front Page.

The Modocs Captured.

Applegate mansion, Clear Lake, California, June 1. This morning the troops at camp in Langell's Valley were divided in several parties and sent out to scout for the fleeing Modocs. Just as the scouting party left the ModocsCthe present captives with the exception of Boston Charley, Hooks Jim, Steamboat Frank, and Shocknasty JimCwere sent to the ranche of Lieut. Laylor of the 4th artillery, with a small detachment of men.

LATER. 3:30 P.M. A series of prolonged yells and cheers aroused the camp from a pleasant siesta. Half an hour after the departure of my courier, Gen. Davis, Gen. Wheaton, and other officers, and all the men marched from the house and tents to find the cause of the uproar, and at once the whole camp was in commotion.

Down the lava plain north of the house was a whole cavalcade of mounted horsemen. "Captain Jack is captured," shouted a sturdy sergeant, and again the valley echoed with cheers and yells. The mounted party was that of Perry. He had returned from a scout of 23 hours. Three miles above the mouth of Yellow Creek, at 10:30 this morning, the Warm Spring Indian scouts struck a trail and after a brief search Modocs were discovered. Col. Perry surrounded the Indians' retreat, and his men were bound to fight. Suddenly a Modoc shot out from the rock with a white flag. He met a Warm Spring Indian and said Capt. Jack wanted to surrender. Scouts were sent to meet Jack. He came forward and held out his hand to his visitors; then two of his warriors, seven children, and five squaws came forth and joined in the surrender. Jack is about 40, is 5 feet 6 inches high, and compactly built. He has a large and well formed face, full of individuality. Although dressed in old clothes, he looks every inch a chief, and does not speak to anyone. The Modocs are grouped in the field near the house and surrounded by a guard of spectators. They peer into Jack's face with interest, but he heeds them not. He is still as a statue.

The San Francisco Bulletin gives the figures, obtained from official sources, of the troops engaged with the Modocs. These number, all told, 20 officers and 480 men. Deducting the men required for escort and guard duty, the fighting force is reduced to 500. Add the Warm Spring scouts, and the aggregate force in the field is 458. These figures will correct the erroneous impression of the force now existing. Thus far in the campaign, from Nov. 29, 1872, to May 7, 1873, our loss has been 71 killed and 67 wounded.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, May 8, 1873.

The Modocs, who were to be so readily exterminated, have thus far killed three soldiers and officers for everyone lost upon their side. Recently our troops were surprised by them and suffered great loss.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, May 27, 1873.

The Modocs are out of the lava beds, say our dispatches, and their trail indicates that they are on their way to join the Pin River Indians. In a few days a reconnaissance party of soldiers will go stumbling onto them in the lava beds, and twenty-five or thirty of them will get killed again.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, June 12, 1873. Front Page.

The Modocs Captured.

Applegate mansion, Clear Lake, California, June 1. This morning the troops at camp in Langell's Valley were divided in several parties and sent out to scout for the fleeing Modocs. Just as the scouting party left the ModocsCthe present captives with the exception of Boston Charley, Hooks Jim, Steamboat Frank, and Shocknasty JimCwere sent to the ranche of Lieut. Laylor of the 4th artillery, with a small detachment of men.

LATER. 3:30 P.M. A series of prolonged yells and cheers aroused the camp from a pleasant siesta. Half an hour after the departure of my courier, Gen. Davis, Gen. Wheaton, and other officers, and all the men marched from the house and tents to find the cause of the uproar, and at once the whole camp was in commotion.

Down the lava plain north of the house was a whole cavalcade of mounted horsemen. "Captain Jack is captured," shouted a sturdy sergeant, and again the valley echoed with cheers and yells. The mounted party was that of Perry. He had returned from a scout of 23 hours. Three miles above the mouth of Yellow Creek, at 10:30 this morning, the Warm Spring Indian scouts struck a trail and after a brief search Modocs were discovered. Col. Perry surrounded the Indians' retreat, and his men were bound to fight. Suddenly a Modoc shot out from the rock with a white flag. He met a Warm Spring Indian and said Capt. Jack wanted to surrender. Scouts were sent to meet Jack. He came forward and held out his hand to his visitors; then two of his warriors, seven children, and five squaws came forth and joined in the surrender. Jack is about 40, is 5 feet 6 inches high, and compactly built. He has a large and well formed face, full of individuality. Although dressed in old clothes, he looks every inch a chief, and does not speak to anyone. The Modocs are grouped in the field near the house and surrounded by a guard of spectators. They peer into Jack's face with interest, but he heeds them not. He is still as a statue.

The San Francisco Bulletin gives the figures, obtained from official sources, of the troops engaged with the Modocs. These number, all told, 20 officers and 480 men. Deducting the men required for escort and guard duty, the fighting force is reduced to 500. Add the Warm Spring scouts, and the aggregate force in the field is 458. These figures will correct the erroneous impression of the force now existing. Thus far in the campaign, from Nov. 29, 1872, to May 7, 1873, our loss has been 71 killed and 67 wounded.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, November 6, 1873.

The Modocs have at last reached their destination, and will hereafter be "at home" on an island in the Platte River, near Fort McPherson, Colorado, where there are no lava beds.

Winfield Courier, August 14, 1874

LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO, July 2, 1874.

ED. COURIER: After leaving Santa Fe I continued south, via Albuquerque, Socorro, and Val Verde, saw Mexicans harvesting wheat on the fields of the battle field of Val Verde, fought in 1862; about 2,500 union troops under General Canby of Modoc fame stubbornly contested the field against 3,000 Texas rebels under Gen. Sibly, but were finally compelled to retire within the fortifications of Fort Craig. The noble Capt. McRea fell in this action below Fort Craig.

Cowley County Courant, November 17, 1881.

The remnant of the band of Modoc Indians, now located in the Indian Territory, are about one hundred in all, and are said to be good farmers.