In Loving Memory~

In Loving Memory of our Family that was murdered on this day Oct. 3^rd 1873

Captain Jack (our Chief), Schonchin John, Boston Charley and Black Jim 

Although it’s been 144 years ago, we will never forget!

On 1 July 1873, a military commission consisting of five Army officers heard evidence against Captain Jack and five other Modocs. All were found guilty of murder. Four were sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead. Once President Ulysses S. Grant approved their sentences, the accused were hanged at Fort Klamath, Oregon, on 3 October 1873.

Some 2,000 people, among them soldiers, newspaper reporters and school children, attended the hangings on Oct. 3, 1873, at Fort Klamath, Ore. The Army required all Modocs to bear witness.

Measured against today's court-martial procedure, the Modoc military commission was flawed. The accused did not have the assistance of defense counsel, and the trial lasted only four days. Perhaps most importantly, the five officers who decided the case were not impartial or unbiased; all knew Canby, and all admired him. However, this military commission was a unique event in our military legal history: the only time the Army ever prosecuted Native Americans for violating the law of armed conflict. Although the US Military killed unarmed Modocs and murdered some of our unarmed elders, women & children, murdered our people under a flag of truce.  They have never been held accountable for their actions.