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.

I am but one man. I am the voice of my people. Whatever their hearts are, that I talk. I want no more war. I want to be. You deny me the rights of a white man. My skin is red; my heart is like any man's heart; but I am a Modoc. I am not afraid to die. I will not fall on the rocks. When I die, my enemies will be under me. Your soldiers began (fighting) me when I was asleep on Lost River. They drove us on these rocks like a wounded deer. I have always told the white man heretofore to come and settle in my country; that it was his country and Captain Jack's country. That they could come and live there with me and that I was not mad with them. I never received anything from anybody, only what I bought and paid for myself. I have always lived a humble life like all men, and wanted to do so. I have always tried to live peaceably and never asked any man for anything. I have always lived on what I could kill and shoot with my gun, and catch in my trap.

Kintpuash (Captain Jack) Last Free Chief of the Modoc’s