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Modoc Indian
Chiefs and Leaders
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Winema
('woman chief'). A Modoc woman, better known as Toby Riddle, born in
the spring of 1842. She received her name, Kaitchkona Winenta (Kitchkani
laki shnawedsh, 'female sub-chief'), because, when a child, she
guided a canoe safely through the rapids of Link River. She
justified her title when, but 15 years of age, she rallied the Modoc
warriors as they took to flight when surprised by a band of
Achomawi. After she grew up she became t |
| he wife of Frank Riddle, a miner from
Kentucky. When the Modoc left Klamath reservation in 1872 to return
to Lost River he served as interpreter to the various commissions
that treated with them. After they had fled to the lava-beds and had
defeated a detachment of soldiers, the Government decided to send a
commission of men known to be in sympathy with them to arrange a
peace. Winema warned Commissioner Meacham of the murderous temper of
some of Captain Jack's followers (see Kintpuash). Meacham was
convinced and told his fellow commissioners, Gen. Edward R. S. Canby
and Rev. E. Thomas, that they were going to their death, but could
not swerve them from their purpose. Shonchin, the shaman, threatened
to kill her unless she confessed who had betrayed the plot, but she
declared that she was not afraid to die, and Captain Jack forbade
him to shoot a woman. When Gen. Canby refused to withdraw the troops
from the lava-beds, the Modoc chief gave the signal, and Canby and
Thomas fell instantly. Shonchin then turned his rifle upon Meacham.
Winema, who was present as interpreter, pleaded for the life of the
man who, when Indian superintendent, had presented to white men
living with Indian women the alternative of legal marriage or
criminal prosecution. She seized the chief's wrists and thrust
herself between the assassins and the victim, and when he dropped
from several bullet wounds and a Modoc seized his hair to take the
scalp Winema cried out that the soldiers were coining, where upon
they all fled. When the soldiers came at last, she advanced alone to
meet them. Meacham, crippled and invalided, afterward took Winema
with her son and Riddle, one of the two whites who escaped from the
massacre, to the east to continue his intercession in behalf of the
Indians, especially the Modoc, who had so perfidiously requited his
previous benevolence. |
| Scarface
Charley, A celebrated warrior, best
known through his connection with Capt Jack, or Kintpuash, during
the Modoc war of 1873. By the natives he was known as Chǐkclǐkam-Lupalkuelátko,
meaning ` wagon scar-faced,' whence the name by which he was known
to the whites by reason of a disfigurement caused by his having been
run over by a mail stage when a child. Capt Jack spoke of him as a
relative, but it is said also that he was a Rogue River |
 |
Indian of the Tipsoe Tyee (Bearded
Chief's) band and joined Capt Jack some years prior to the war of
1873, when 22 years of age. Scarface was among those who taunted
Jack when, after the first attack and repulse of the white soldiers,
he was disposed to enter into a treaty of peace. When the Modoc
became angered during Judge Steele's last visit to them in the
lava-beds, Scarface and Capt Jack saved the life of Steele by
guarding him during the night; and when Odeneal and Dyar visited the
Modoc, Jan. 27, 1873, on behalf of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, Scarface would have killed them on the spot had he not been
restrained by Jack. He was also the first to fire on the troops when
Capt Jackson attempted the arrest of Jack's band on Jan. 28.
Rev Dr. Thomas, who was killed in the peace commission
massacre, on the day before his death called Scarface Charley the
"Leonidas of the lava-beds." He was never known to be guilty of any
act not authorized by the laws of legitimate warfare, and entered
his earnest protest against the killing of Gen. Canby and Dr Thomas.
He led the Modoc against Maj. Thomas and Col. Wright when the troops
were so disastrously repulsed with a loss of about two-thirds in
killed and wounded. Wearied of the slaughter, he is said to have
shouted to the survivors, "You who are not dead had better go home;
we don't want to kill you all in a day!" Later he said, " My heart
was sick at seeing so many men killed."
Scarface Charley was one of the witnesses called to
testify in behalf of the Modoc prisoners during their trial in July
following. He was sent with other prisoners successively to Ft D. A.
Russell, Wyo., Ft McPherson, Neb., and the Quapaw agency, Indian
Territory, where he died about Dec. 3, 1896. |
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Kintpuash 'having the water-brash'—Gatschet; also spelled
Keiutpoos, but commonly known as Captain Jack. A subchief of the
Modoc on the Oregon-California border, and leader of the hostile
element the Modoc war of 1872-73.
The Modoc, a warlike and aggressive offshoot front the
Klamath tribe of south east Oregon, occupied the territory
immediately to the south of the latter, extending across the
California border and including |
the Lost River Country and the famous
Lava-bed region. They had been particularly hostile to the whites up
to 1864, when, under the head chief Sconchin, they made a treaty
agreeing to go upon a reservation established on Upper Klamath Lake
jointly for them and the Klamath tribe. The treaty remained
unratified for several years, and the meantime Jack, with a
dissatisfied band numbering nearly half the tribe and including
about 70 fighting men, continued to rove about the Lost River
Country, committing frequent depredations and terrorizing the
settlers. He claimed as his authority for remaining, in spite of the
treaty, a permission given by an Indian agent on the California
side. With some difficulty he was finally induced in the spring of
1870 to go with his band upon the reservation, where the rest of the
tribe was already established under Sconchin. He remained but a
short time, however, and soon left after killing an Indian doctor,
who, he said, was responsible for two deaths his own family. He
returned to Lost River demanding that a reservation he assigned to
him there on the ground that it was his home country and that it was
impossible to live on friendly terms with the Klamath. One or two
conferences were arranged both by the military and civil
authorities, but without shaking his purpose, and it became evident
that he was planning for a treacherous outbreak at the first
opportunity. At a final conference, Nov. 27, 1872, he absolutely
refused to go on the reservation or to discuss the matter longer,
and the attitude of the Indians was so threatening that an order was
sent the military at Ft Klamath to put him and his head men under
arrest. The attempt, was made by Capt. Jackson with 36 cavalrymen at
Jack's camp on Lost River, Oregon, Nov. 29, but the Indians
resisted, killing or wounding 8 soldiers with a loss to themselves
of 15. The Modoc, led by jack, fled into the impenetrable Lava-beds
on the south shore of Rhett (Modoc or Tule) lake, just across the
California border, killing a number of settlers on the way. Those
under Sconchin remained quietly on the reservation. The war was now
begun, and volunteer. companies were organized to assist the small
body of troops available. A number of friendly Modoc, Klamath, and
other Indians also enlisted. The Modoc position was so strong with
rocks and caves and hidden passages that it was practically
impossible for the troops to enter with ally prospect of success. On
Dec. 22, 1872, the Indians attacked a wagon train with ammunition
supplies and a skirmish ensued which one or two were killed on each
side. On Jan. 17, 1873, an attempt was made by Col. Greer to storm
the Modus stronghold by the entire force of regulars and volunteers,
numbering nearly 400 men, assisted by a howitzer battery, but after
lighting all day among the rocks against a concealed foe the troops
were obliged to retire with the loss of 9 killed and 30 wounded.
Soon afterward civil indictments for murder were
procured by the settlers against 8 Modoc concerned in the killing of
settlers. Another conference was appointed under a regular peace
commission, consisting of Gen. E. R. S. Canby, Indian superintendent
A. B. Meacham, Rev. E. Thomas, and Indian agent L. S. Dyar. By
agreement with Jack, the commissioners, together with Frank F.
Riddle and his Indian wife, Toby (Winerma ), as interpreters, met
Jack several of his men near the Modoc camp, Apr. 11, 1873, to
debate terms of settlement. Hardly had the talk begun when, by
premeditated treachery, Jack gave a signal, and drawing a revolver
from his breast shot General Canby dead, while his companions
attacked the other commissioners, killing Mr. Thomas and putting 5
bullets into Meacham, who fell unconscious. The others escaped,
pursued by the Indians until the latter were driven off by a
detachment of troops who came up just in time, one of the officers
having already been killed in the same treacherous fashion by
another party of the same band.
Active measures were now put into operation and a
company of Warmspring Indian scouts from northern Oregon, under
Donald McKay, was secured to assist the troops in penetrating the
maze of the Laya-beds. With these and the aid of the field guns the
Modoc were soon compelled to vacate their stronghold and take refuge
in the rocks farther along the lake shore. On Apr. 26 a search
detachment of about 85 men, under Lients. Thomas and Wright, was
suddenly attacked by the Indians from cover, with the loss of 26
killed, including both officers, besides 16 wounded. In consequence
of this defeat Col. Jefferson C. Davis, in command of the Department
of the Columbia, restored control of operations to Col. Wheaton, who
had been temporarily superseded by another officer. Other miner
encounters took place, in one of which Jack in person led the
attack, clad in the uniform which he had stripped from Gen. Canby.
By this time the Indians were tired of lighting, and many of Jack's
warriors had deserted him, while he, with the rest, had vacated the
Lava beds entirely and taken up a new position about 20 miles
farther south. The pursuit was kept up, and on May 22, 1873, a party
of 65 hostiles surrendered, including several of the most prominent
leaders. Others came in later, and on June 1 Jack himself, with his
whole remaining party, surrendered to Capt. Perry at a camp some
miles east of Clear lake, north west California. The whole military
force then opposed to him numbered 985 regulars and 71 Indians,
while he himself had never had more than about 80 warriors, who were
now reduced to 50, besides about 120 women and children. The whites
had lost 65 killed, soldiers and civilians, including two Indian
scouts, with 63 wounded, several mortally. The Modoc prisoners were
removed to Ft Klamath, where, in July, 6 of the leaders were tried
by court-martial for the murder of Gen. Canby, Mr. Thomas, and the
settlers, and 4 of them condemned, namely, Jack, young Sconchin,
Black Jim, and Boston Charley, who were hanged together Oct. 3,
1873, thus closing what Bancroft calls "their brave and stubborn
fight for their native land and liberty—a war in some respects the
most remarkable that ever occurred in the history of aboriginal
extermination." The remainder of the band were not permitted to
rejoin their people on Klamath reservation, but were deported to the
south east corner of Oklahoma, where a part of them still remain.
More..... |
Schonchin.
The recognized head-chief of the Modoc at the time of the Modoc war
of 1872-73. In 1846 the Modoc numbered 600 warriors, governed by
Schonchin, whose authority seems even then to have been disputed on
the ground that he was not an hereditary chief. He took an active
part in the early hostilities between the Modoc and the whites, and
admitted that he did all in his power to exterminate his enemies.
Hostilities were continued at intervals until 1864, when a treaty
was made with the Modoc by the provisions of which they agreed to go
on a reservation with the Klamath Indians. At this council the Modoc
were represented by Schonchin and his younger brother, known as
Schonchin John. To the credit of the old chief it is said that after
signing the treaty no act of his deserved censure. He went with his
people on the land allotted to them, and at the time of the outbreak
under Kintpuash, or Captain Jack, remained quietly on the
reservation in charge of his peaceful tribesmen. His brother John,
following Captain Jack, withdrew from the reservation and took up
his abode on Lost River, the former home of the tribe. The old chief
made every effort to induce Jack to return, but the latter
steadfastly refused, on the ground that he could not live in peace
with the Klamath. In order to remove every obstacle to the return of
the fugitives, the reservation was divided into distinct agencies, a
district being set apart exclusively for the Modoc. To this new home
old Schonchin was removed with his people, and a portion of Captain
Jack's band took up their abode with him. The rest, including
Schonchin John, fled to the lava beds, and from this stronghold
waged a destructive war. It is believed that Schonchin John, more
than any other member of the tribe, was influential in keeping up
the strife. He repeatedly advised continuing the fight when Jack
would have made peace, and he is considered responsible for many of
the inhuman acts committed. In 1873 a peace commission was appointed
to deal with the Indians, and a meeting with them was arranged for
April 11. To this meeting the Indians agreed to send a number of men
equal to that of the com-mission, and that all should go unarmed.
The commission were divided as to the advisability of
keeping the appointment. Commissioners Dyar and Meacham suspected
treachery and were of the opinion that it was not safe, while
General Canby and Dr Thomas, a Methodist minister, insisted that it
was plainly their duty to go. The four commissioners, accompanied by
an interpreter and his Indian wife, proceeded to the place of
appoint-ment, and, being met by eight Indians, fully armed, it was
evident that they had fallen into a trap. The council was opened
with brief speeches by Thomas and Canby offering the terms of peace,
only to be interrupted by Schonchin John, who angrily commanded,
"Take away your soldiers and give us Hot Creek for a home!" Before
the commissioners could reply, at a signal from Jack the Indians
fell upon the white men. Canby and Thomas were shot to death, Dyar
fled and escaped, and Meacham was shot five times by Schonchin John,
but finally recovered. As a result of this massacre military
operations were resumed with great activity, and after a few severe
engagements Jack was dislodged from the lava beds and with his party
surrendered on June 1. Gen. Davis decided to hang the leaders
forthwith, Schonchin John among the number. While the scaffolds were
being prepared word was received from Washington that the condemned
men must be tried by a military commission. The prisoners were found
guilty of murder and assault to kill, in violation of the rules of
war, and sentenced to be hanged, but sentences of two of them were
commuted to imprisonment for life. Schonchin John was one of those
who were hanged. The execution took place at Ft Klamath, Oct. 3,
1873. In a speech made by Schonchin immediately before his death he
declared that his execution would be a great injustice, that his
"heart was good," and that he had not committed murder. He asked
that his children should be sent to his brother Schonchin, who was
still at Yainax on the reservation, and who would "bring them up to
be good." Bancroft says that Schonchin John was striking in
appearance, with a sensitive face, showing in its changing
expression that he noted and felt all that was passing about him.
Had he not been deeply wrinkled, though not more than 45 years of
age, his countenance would have been rather pleasing. |
The books presented are for their
historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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