Modoc War Historical Marker

This small historical marker was placed at the location of a former army encampment where around six hundred recruits, many of whom were recent immigrants, lived during a six-month series of skirmishes and surprise attacks in the United States Army's campaign against the Modoc Indians in 1873. Visitors to Lava Beds National Monument might see the surrounding area as a beautiful, yet stark and inhospitable place, but to the Modoc people, this land was home. This marker is one of a series that depicts known events and landmarks related to a war in which the Modoc attempted to defend their land and maintain their sovereignty against a much larger force. On April 11, 1873, Kientpuash, chief of the Modoc people, also known as Captain Jack, along with other members of the tribe, attacked and killed United States Army General Edward Canby and Reverend Thomas Eleazer at a peace negotiation meeting near Tule Lake, California. In response, the United States government ordered the capture and arrest of Kientpuash. 

The seeds of war were sown about ten years earlier when the Modoc and other neighboring tribes were pressured to sign the Council Grove Treaty. Signing the treaty created an internal division within the Modoc, with some members of the tribe believing they gave up too much. The tribes ceded their sacred lands over to the United States government in exchange for promises of sovereignty that proved short-lived. Further western expansion led to more discoveries of natural resources and more would-be settlers seeking Native land.

Similar to previous treaties, including that of the Cherokee in 1831, the Council Grove Treaty and its aftermath led to the creation of reservations. In this case, the lands reserved for the Modoc were within Klamath territory, a tribe that the Modoc considered their enemy. Unfamiliarity with the land greatly affected their livelihood while compounded with the harsh treatment from the Klamath. With little chance of reversing their declining position and facing poor living conditions, Kientpuash and his followers decided to return back to their home. This action placed the Modoc in direct direct conflict with settlers now living on those lands and those conflicts led to the start of the Modoc War.

Hostilities between the settlers and the Modoc ended with deaths on both sides after a series of battles prompting Columbus Delano, the Secretary of the Interior to propose a meeting between the Modoc people and a delegation appointed by the U.S. government. At this point, Kientpuash only wanted a peaceful resolution for his tribe, but a few members remained suspicious of the government, so they plotted to attack the delegation at the meeting. At a tribal council of elders, Schonchin John and Hooker Jim placed women’s clothing on Kientpuash for his reluctance in joining their plot. The clothing signified a symbolic ritual of emasculation, a demonstration of weakness in front of the tribal council. Kientpuash wanted to retain his leadership so he agreed to the plan where he would shoot and kill General Canby.

After killing Canby and Thomas, Kientpuash and fifty of his warriors along with about one hundred Modoc men, women, and children made their way to an area near Tule Lake in what is now known as Lava Beds National Monument. This area is located south of the border between Oregon and California. It had been the ancestral home of the Modoc and Klamath people for thousands of years, giving them a tremendous advantage over the Army and militias sent to capture Kientpuash. Their knowledge of the land allowed them to access fresh water, food stored in caches, and shelter in caves created by ancient lava flows. Kientpuash and his men fought in several battles and managed to hold their own against the Army’s much larger force of close to a thousand men armed with .50 caliber Springfield rifles and artillery. The surprise attack at the Battle of Dry Lake became a turning point for Kientpuash and his men when Ellen’s Man George, a prominent and well-liked member of the Modoc was killed. His death demoralized the war party which led others to abandon the fight and leave the group. One of those who left was Hooker Jim, who was captured by the troops. Hooker Jim offered to help them find Kientpuash and on June 1, 1873, Kientpuash was captured. On October 3, 1783, Kientpuash, Schonchin John, Black Jim, and Boston Charley were hanged at Fort Klamath, putting an end to the Modoc War.

The Modoc War was historically significant in many ways, including the demonstration of staging supplies and utilizing siege tactics and the ultimate victory by a superior force in a war determined largely by resources and manpower. Various media reporting brought the public’s attention back to the issues of the government’s treatment of Native Americans. The American public largely viewed Native control of the West as a barrier to progress, but they also felt empathy for a people defending their homeland against tremendous odds thanks to the work of journalists and a series of stereographic images taken by Edward Muybridge which showed Modoc warriors embedded in the lava beds they hoped to defend. These images and depictions were published in newspapers which brought the Modoc’s plight to the rest of the country. In the end, the Modoc War demonstrated the untenable position of Native American tribes who hoped to defend their territory through force of arms. The conflict ended at a high cost to the U.S. government, with the total cost to the government being close to half a million dollars. As a result, the conflict led to more support for negotiation with tribes in hopes of preventing similar wars.

Cothran, Boyd. Remembering the Modoc War : Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence. Vol. 1st edition. First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. 

McNally, Robert Aquinas. 2017. The Modoc War : A Story of Genocide at the Dawn of America’s Gilded Age. Lincoln, NB: Bison Books. 

McNally, Robert Aquinas. “Little Indian War Goes Big.” Wild West 33, no. 6 (April 2021): 52–57.