Modoc War
The Modoc War, occurring from 1872 to 1873, was a conflict between the Modoc people and the United States government, rooted in the Modocs' dissatisfaction with life on reservations. Following a treaty signed in 1864, the Modocs were relocated to a Klamath reservation, but by the early 1870s, they felt increasingly marginalized and sought to return to their ancestral lands in the Lost River valley. Tensions escalated when U.S. troops attacked a Modoc camp, prompting the Modoc, led by Kintpuash (or Captain Jack), to take refuge in the Lava Beds, a natural defensive stronghold.
The conflict saw Kintpuash defending his people against significantly larger U.S. forces for several months. However, internal divisions among the Modocs led to a critical turning point when some members, against Kintpuash's wishes, orchestrated an attack on peace commissioners, resulting in the deaths of two, including General Edward Canby. This act ignited a national demand for retribution, leading to a more aggressive military response. Ultimately, Kintpuash was captured and executed, along with several others, marking a significant loss for the Modoc and the broader Indian Peace Policy at the time. The Modoc War not only had immediate consequences for the Modoc people but also highlighted the complexities and failures of U.S. policies regarding Indigenous populations.
Modoc War
Date: November 29, 1872—June 1, 1873
Place: Boundary of Northern California and southern Oregon
Tribes affected: Klamath, Modoc
Significance: The Modoc War was another example of attempted Indian resistance to the loss of their homelands
In 1864, the Modocs signed a treaty in which they agreed to leave the Lost River valley of Northern California and southern Oregon, and live on a reservation with the Klamaths. By 1872, Kintpuash, called Captain Jack by the whites, and other Modocs found reservation life and policies unacceptable. They missed their homeland and could no longer endure sharing a reservation with the Klamaths, who outnumbered them and made life extremely difficult for them.
Kintpuash and a group of Modocs decided to return south to the ceded lands at Lost River. White settlers, whose numbers had continued to increase, refused to accept them and demanded that the Modocs return to the reservation. Government officials tried in vain to convince the Modocs to do so. On November 29, 1872, troops attacked Kintpuash’s camp at Lost River. The American Indians fled, crossed Tule Lake, and strategically entrenched themselves in the Lava Beds, a natural fortress on the lake’s southern shore. For four months, Kintpuash skillfully defended the area with about sixty men against forces that numbered nearly a thousand.
The government again tried negotiation, creating a peace commission headed by General Edward R. S. Canby, a Civil War hero. Kintpuash favored negotiating for a settlement, but other Modoc leaders such as Hooker Jim and Curley-Headed Doctor forced Kintpuash to accept a plan to kill the peace commissioners at a meeting that was to take place on Good Friday, April 11, 1873. At this meeting, Kintpuash and other Modocs drew their hidden weapons and attacked. Two of the four commissioners were killed, including General Canby, who thus became the only regular army general killed in the Indian wars.
This rash action provoked a national outcry for revenge. More troops and officers were sent. Meanwhile, factionalism intensified among the Modocs. In May of 1873 the army defeated a Modoc band, and some of the defeated Modocs agreed to help the army catch Kintpuash. He was finally captured on June 1. All the Modoc prisoners were taken to Fort Klamath, Oregon.
Kintpuash and several other Modocs were tried and found guilty of the murders of the two peace commissioners. Kintpuash and three others were hanged on October 3, 1873, with two other Modocs receiving life sentences at Alcatraz. The executed Modocs’ heads were severed and sent to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. The other Modocs were removed to the Quapaw Agency in Oklahoma; in 1909, they were allowed to return to the Klamath Reservation.
The Modoc War lasted seven months and cost more than $500,000. The war seriously weakened the Indian Peace Policy, a program under the Grant administration that attempted to use reservations as a panacea for the “Indian Problem.”