The Modoc Nation

We are the Modoc People (Mowatocknie Maklaksûm)

Monday, June 9, 2025


 

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  • Home
  • The Modoc Story of Creation
  • The Modoc Nation Citizenship Ordinance
  • Constitution of The Modoc Nation
  • The Modoc Nation Enrollment Packet

Modoc War

  • News on Modoc War

Contacting Us

To ask for an Enrollment Packet or if you have any other

questions please contact us at:

E-mail: modoc-nation@hotmail.com

Mail :
The Modoc Nation

P.O. Box 971
Dorris, CA. 96023
OR
P.O. Box 506
Independence, OR. 97351

Welcome to The Modoc Nation

Gelidanka, (Bid Welcome, meet as friend)

"We, [are] the Mowatocknie Maklaksûm (Modoc Indian People),Reaffirming our spiritual obligation and commitment to protect, restore and preserve the health and wellbeing of this planet and of all living creatures in, on and above it, with specific regard to our ancestral homeland and its indigenous life-forms;Reaffirming our spiritual obligation and commitment to walk the good red road of harmony and balance, establishing and maintaining goodwill and good relationships with all peoples and governments;Solemnly committing ourselves to the perpetuation, development and manifestation of our unique indigenous tribal identity and culture, and to the attainment, preservation and enjoyment of all rights and privileges arising therefrom and attendant thereto;Solemnly committing ourselves to the political sovereignty, cultural integrity, economic security, health and wellbeing of our people and to a better future for our descendants;" adapted from the Declaration of the Rights of the Free and Sovereign People of The Modoc Indian Tribe (Mowatocknie Maklaksûm)



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About Me

My photo
Greywolf
Aka-ushKini(Native of Hot Creek), I'm a decendant of the Hot Creek Band of Modoc Indians relative of Chief Sub-Bus-Ka-ni
View my complete profile

Followers

Captain Jack

Captain Jack
The Klamath required the Modocs to pay for the land they used. Like the sawmills they set up. Lied about stealing the rails the Modocs made. Captain Jack asked for help from the Agent Capt. O.C. Knapp but the agent told him to get out or he would kill him. Captain Jack stood with his arms folded across his chest, he told Bogus Charley who spoke English to tell him “I am not a dog, tell him I am a man, I am an Indian. Tell him that I and my men shall not be slaves for a race of people that is not any better than my people. If the agent does not protect me and my people I shall not live there. If the Government refuses to protect my people, who shall I look to for protection?”

Modoc Bows

Modoc Bows

Modoc Basket

Modoc Basket

Modoc Fish Hooks

Modoc Fish Hooks

Modoc Petroglyphs

Modoc Petroglyphs

Modoc War

Modoc War

Medicine Flag

Medicine Flag
Worldwide media on the war

Modoc War

In November 1872, the U.S. Army was sent to Lost River to attempt to force the Keintpuash's band back to the reservation. A battle broke out, and the Modocs escaped to Captain Jack's Stronghold in what is now Lava Beds National Monument, California. The band of 60 warriors was able to hold off the 3,000 troops of the U.S. Army for several months, defeating them in combat several times. In April 1873, the Modocs left the Stronghold and began to splinter. Keintpuash and his group were the last captured on June 4, 1873 when they voluntarily gave themselves up, after assurances from the U.S. government personnel that their people would be treated fairly and that all of the warriors would be allowed to live on their own land.

The US Army hanged Keintpuash and three of his warriors in October 1873 for the murder of Major General Edward Canby, after the general violated agreements that had been made with the Modocs. They sent the rest of the band to Oklahoma as prisoners of war with Scarfaced Charley as their chief. The tribe's spiritual leader, Curley Headed Doctor also made the voyage to Indian Territory.[4]

In the 1870s, Peter Cooper brought Indians to speak to Indian rights groups in eastern cities. One of the delegations was from the Modoc and Klamath tribes. In 1907, the group in Oklahoma was given permission, if they wished, to return to Oregon. Many did, but some stayed behind willing to live in exile rather than slaves at the Klamath's hands.

About Our People

The Penutian speaking Modoc, a more warlike people than the other Indian groups surrounding Mount Shasta, occupied a territory, for at least 14,000 years, that was more inhospitable than their western California neighbors. The three most important groups of Modocs were the Lower Klamath Lake people, gombatwa·s; the Lower Lost River people, ġoġewa·s; and the Tule Lake people, pasganwa·s (Stern 447). The Modoc have also been known as the Modok (Brandt and Davis-Kimball xvi).


Territory

The Modoc inhabited about 5,000 square miles (James) of the plateau country, east of the Cascades in Southern Oregon and Northern California. This area is at the edge of three culturally distinct Indian groups: the Plateau, the Great Basin, and California peoples (Stern 446).

The Modoc Plateau, at about 1400 METERS (4593 feet) above sea level, has had a long volcanic history, one that produced a landscape of lava flows, fissures and basalt plains (Moratto 8-9). The area, fed by Klamath River and its tributaries, has many lakes and streams. The major lakes are: Goose Lake, Clear Lake, Tule Lake, and the Lower Klamath Lake. Although a relatively harsh environment, characterized by long, harsh, snowy winters, it was also rich in plant foods, fish, waterfowl and large mammals (Stern 447).

foraging people, the Modoc inhabited permanent winter settlements, and made seasonal rounds in search of food during the rest of the year. Villages "owned" favorite hunting, fishing and gathering places (Stern 454).

Modoc leaders called laġi (laki) were heads of extended families whose members provided the lagi with foodstuffs, which he later "redistributed to visitors and the needy" (Stern 454). Leaders were successful hunters and warriors, and good at games and gambling; they were respected for their wisdom, good judgment and oratory skills. The successes of the leaders were "often attributed to the aid of supernatural allies," and as a result, shaman often became influential leaders (Stern 453-454). The responsibilities of the leaders included: urging others to be respectful of each other and to avoid arguing, and they also provided lectures on morality to children (Stern 455).

Modoc society was stratified with the leading (wealthy) families at the apex. Marriage alliances were arranged between the leading families, consolidating wealth and power. Other members of "society ranged downward to the poor and ne'er-do-well" and slaves, which were women and children captured from other tribes, principally the Achumawi and Atsugewi (Stern 454- 455).

The Modoc conducted warfare to fend off raids, "to avenge past losses, or as ventures to secure booty" (Stern 456). Warriors wore armor made of serviceberry rods and helmets constructed of elk hide. Weapons included obsidian daggers, bow and arrows, and spears (Stern 456).

Pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum periods were times of dietary and hunting taboos. Childbirth took place in a wickiup attended by a midwife or shaman if difficulty was encountered. Babies were not named until they were a year old.

At puberty, girls were secluded in a wickiup for five days, attended only by their grandmothers. During this period of isolation, the girls observed dietary restrictions. Resting during the day and dancing at night, girls avoided sleeping and the fatal risk of dreaming about thunder. Most women observed menstrual taboos, as menstruating women were considered a danger to both themselves and others, especially hunters and the sick (Stern 457).

Marriages were arranged and accompanied by ceremonial visits and gift giving between the families. The newly married couple usually lived with the woman's family until they produced several children, at which time the family moved closer to the husband's family and constructed their own lodge (Stern 458).

The Modoc deceased were cremated after the bodies were washed, dressed in their finest clothes and wrapped in a tule mat.

Among the Modoc, the corpse, once prepared, was borne headfirst out the hatchway and carried to the cremation grounds. Their neighbors and friends had gathered wood for the funeral pyre, on which the body was laid with its head toward the west, the direction of the afterworld. (Stern 458)

The deceased's lodge was dismantled and fumigated by burning juniper, sage or cedar. The name of the deceased was not spoken until after a mourning ceremony had been performed to remember those who had died since the previous ceremony. Widows cropped their hair and covered their heads with pitch and charcoal; they also observed dietary taboos and stayed in the mourner's sweathouse for five days. After one year, the widow took a final purifying sweatbath, but she was only able remove the pitch when she remarried, two or more years after the death of a husband. Restrictions for widowers were slightly less stringent than those for widows (Stern 458).

The Modoc were hunter and gatherers (foragers), who hunted mammals, fished, and collected a variety of plant materials for food, building and basketry making. Traditionally, men did the hunting and fishing while women gathered plant foods. Although the ancestral Modoc occupied a harsh high desert territory, they were fortunate in that the Pacific Flyway provided them with over 40 different species of migratory waterfowl. They also collected the eggs from geese and ducks that used the area as nesting grounds (Howe 37-39). Analyses of the faunal remains excavated a village site known as Nightfire and historic ETHNOGRAPHIES revealed that the people living there were utilizing a wide variety of plants and animals.

Modoc Subsistence Animals

Coots Ducks Geese Swan Pelican Grebe Heron Cormorant Loon Plover Gull Merganser
Elephants, Camel early (Howe 23)
Rabbits Ground Squirrels Marmots Beaver Otter Bison (before 3,000 B.C.) Grizzly Bear Wolf Dog Coyote Elk Pronghorn Antelope Big Horn Sheep Mule Deer

Salmon Tui chubs Trout Suckers Eels Mussels

Turtles (Composite of Howe 36-96, 142-165 and Stern 448-450)

Howe reports that by the historic period (after European contact), the Modoc no longer consumed dogs or coyotes, as they were considered taboo (82).

Hunting was preceded by rituals consisting of "praying to earth, mountain, and rocks" and sweating, as means of purification (Stern 449). Hunting strategies included the use of BOLAS for taking birds (Howe 45). Women dressed the birds and hung them to dry (Howe 50). Rabbits were hunted by driving them into outstretched nets (Howe 95). Hunters used deerhead disguises to stalk their prey; however, the use of dogs to drive deer into close range, where hunters with bows and arrows shot them, was a more popular method of hunting. They also stalked antelope and mountain sheep then driving them, with fires, to hilltops or into a brush enclosure (Stern 449).

Small mammals cooked by stone boiling in baskets; heated stones (basalt or lava) were placed in baskets with water and food (Howe 64-67). Larger game animals were roasted in roasting pits/ovens (Howe 64).

Fish Hooks From Alfred Kroeber
Fishing was done by driving fish into weirs then spearing them (Howe 146). Chub were caught in canoe shaped baskets, using dried fish eggs as bait. The chub were then dried over fires and stored for winter use (Howe 148).

Plants Utilized as Food

Tule called Mai , white tips eaten, Camas, bulbs eaten
Ipo, tubers
Yellow Pond Lily called Wokas, seeds were eaten
Arrow Leaf Root called tchua, roots wer eaten
Onions called koipiluyeah
Wild Plum, Chokecherry, Sugar Pine, nuts
Serviceberries, Currants, Elderberries, Huckleberries
Rye grass, seed
Desert Parsley, root eaten
Black cherries, Prunes,Blackberries
Tree lichen
Compilation of Howe 97-118 and Stern 448-450

Wokas or yellow pond lilys, a Modoc staple food, were harvested in summer, after the "first-fruits rite" was held. All members of the community participated in the harvest. The pods were gathered from dugout canoes, and put in tule bags to transport them back to the village where they were put in pits to decompose. The seeds were then separated from the decomposed plants, parched, hulled, winnowed and stored in sacks (Stern 449).
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