The Modoc War: A Story of Genocide at the Dawn of America’s Gilded Age

432 Pages·2017·5.31 MB·English

by  Robert Aquinas McNally

THE MODOC WAR
A Story of Genocide at the
Dawn of America’s Gilded Age
ROBERT AQUINAS MCNALLY
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln & London
© 2017 by Robert Aquinas McNally
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Publication of this volume was assisted by the Virginia
Faulkner Fund, established in memory of Virginia Faulkner,
editor in chief of the University of Nebraska Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: McNally, Robert Aquinas, author.
Title: The Modoc War: a story of genocide at the dawn of
America’s Gilded Age / Robert Aquinas McNally.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2017011122 (print)
lccn 2017034893 (ebook)
isbn 9781496201799 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 9781496204226 (epub)
isbn 9781496204233 (mobi)
isbn 9781496204240 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Modoc War, 1872– 1873.
Classification: lcc e83.87 (ebook)
lcc e83.87 .m37 2017 (print)
ddc 973.8/2— dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011122
Set in Garamond Premiere by John Klopping.
For my remarkable family:
Gayle Eleanor, Darren McNally and
Sara Pollock, Brian McNally and Renee Lucas
McNally, Ali Smookler, Aimée Smookler
and Arnaud Schneider.
And for the Modoc Nation, a people who,
though once slated for destruction, exhibits
still the bravery of resilient survival.
May we all continue.

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Prologue: Duel at Lost River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Part 1. Holy Lands Here and There
1. Bad to Worse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
2. Stone and Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
3. Running the Pagans Out of the Promised Land . . . . . . . . . 23
4. Death Squads, Sex Slaves, and Knights of the Frontier . . . . .29
5. The Peace That Wasn’t, the Treaty That Was, Kind Of . . . . .49
6. The Bacon of Three Hundred Hogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
7. Gray- Eyed Rancher to the Rescue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
Part 2. True Fog, Real War
8. Glove and Fist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
9. Modoc Steak for Breakfast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
10. A Look Inside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
11. First Fog of War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
12. Celebration and Postmortem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Part 3. Firing into a Continent
13. Give Peace a Chance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
14. The News That Fits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
15. Heroic Reporter Dens with Lions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
16. Talking for Peace, Lying for War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
17. The Warrior Takes Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
18. Squeeze Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
19. A Homeland to Be Named Later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
20. Pride and Prejudice in the Peace Tent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
21. Martyrs at Midday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
22. The War Goes Cosmic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
23. Girding for Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
24. Half- Empty Victory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
25. Scalps and Skulls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
26. Into the Volcanic Valley of Death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248
Part 4. Things Fall Apart
27. The Center Cannot Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
28. Hounds and Scouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
29. Hang ’em High . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
30. Varnishing Vengeance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
31. Still Small Voices Swell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
32. Strangled Necks, Severed Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
33. Exile and Showbiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
34. Requiem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Epilogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
ILLUSTRATIONS
Maps
1. The Klamath Basin in the 1870s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. The Modoc War battlefield, November 1872– June 1873 . . . 126
Figures
Following page 260
1. Kientpoos before the Modoc War
2. Shacknasty Jim, Hooker Jim, Steamboat Frank, and
John Fairchild
3. Jesse Applegate
4. Brigadier General E. R. S. Canby
5. The killing of Canby, according to William Simpson
6. Toby and Frank Riddle
7. Scarface Charley
8. Colonel Jefferson C. Davis
9. The women in Kientpoos’s life
10. Schonchin John and Kientpoos
11. The Modoc Touring Company
ix