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"Modoc War: Its Military History & Topography" »
A free online book providing an overview
of the Modoc War.
Historic
Photos »
A gallery of selected historic photos.
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History & Culture
The Modoc tribe of OREGON
Our traditional methods of studying history tend
to lead us down some rather narrow paths. A study of the Modoc War is
not about peace. It is about war. It begins with the placing of the
Modocs on the Klamath Reservation and their leaving that reservation in
disgust. It leads us to the battlefields in the lava beds and on to the
assassination of the peace commissioners, to the court-martial of the
assassins, to the exile of the prisoners of war to Oklahoma, and to the
end of the traditional culture of the Modoc people.
There were, however, many Modocs who never left the reservation and
never became involved in war. They never assassinated anyone and never
went to trial. They were exiled, not to Oklahoma but to the Klamath
Reservation. Since the reservation was not far from their ancestral
homeland, the climate and the resources were the same as those to which
they were accustomed. There was, however, the nagging, daily reminder
that they were on someone else's homeland, not their own and like all
Native Americans on reservations in the nineteenth century, they were
forbidden to practice their traditional religion and forbidden to speak
their native language.
There was one Modoc who was caught between the extremes. Toby Riddle was
paid by the army for her services as a translator. Some may call her a
traitor to her people; some, a peacemaker. In an age when women were not
to meddle in the affairs of men she took great risks to save lives. She
warned the commissioners of the impending attack. During the attack she
saved one's life by calling out, "Soldiers coming! Soldiers coming!"
when in fact there were none. The warriors quickly abandoned the scene
and the commissioner was saved from being scalped and left to die.
A Modoc living in the soldier camp, she undoubtedly had knowledge about
the "affairs of men" on both sides that others had not. It is from her,
through her descendants, that we come to know much about the Modoc side
of the war. Her great granddaughter, Alice Chipps, is the oldest known
living Modoc today.
It is difficult today to trace the ancestry of all Modocs in Oregon, but
there are about 500, all descendants of those who never left the
reservation.
For 117 years after the Modoc War, Lava Beds was an uninviting place to
Modoc descendants; "a cemetery" to some. In 1990 they were invited by
the National Park Service to return to their ancestral homeland to drum,
dance, and sing where their ancestors drummed, danced, and sang for
thousands of years and where their spirits still sing. During closing
ceremonies that year the Lava Beds staff became the first white people
in history to smoke a pipe with the Modoc people. Now such gatherings
are annual affairs, held on the third weekend of every July.
Today, the Modocs are back! Spiritually, they were never really gone!. |
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