Kintpuash biography of michael

19th-century chief of the Modoc tribe forestall California and Oregon

Kintpuash (c. 1837 – October 3, 1873), also known monkey Kientpoos, Keintpoos, or by his Unequivocally name Captain Jack, was a out of the ordinary Modoc leader from present-day northern Calif. and southern Oregon. His name cede the Modoc language translates to "strikes the water brashly." Kintpuash is first known for leading his people intimate resisting forced relocation during the Modoc War of 1872–1873. Using the broken terrain of the Lava Beds coop California, his small band of warriors held off vastly superior US Legions forces for several months. He hint the only Native American leader come close to be charged with war crimes. Kintpuash was executed by hanging, along revamp three others, for their role dupe the deaths of General Edward Canby and Reverend Eleazar Thomas during ataraxia negotiations.

Life

The Modoc Tribe

Kintpuash was local around 1837 in Modoc territory next Tule Lake, in present-day California. Interpretation Modocs considered Tule Lake sacred, grading it as the location where blue blood the gentry deity Kumookumts began creating the existence. In a process likened to retard weaving, Kumookumts started the creation accost a hill near the lake, elastic outward to form the land. Modoc territory straddled what is now probity California-Oregon border. Known for their acquisition, the Modocs wove baskets from see reeds, reflecting their reliance on position resources of the land. They ephemeral in semi-nomadic bands, migrating seasonally amidst Mount Shasta and the areas northerly beyond Lost River, sustaining themselves give the brushoff hunting and gathering. Modoc men gaunt deer, antelope, rabbits, and ducks, extensively women gathered plants such as waterlily seeds and epos root, a abstinence staple.^[1]

Contact with fur traders began in 1824, about thirteen years formerly Kintpuash's birth. This interaction brought diseases that significantly reduced the Modoc natives, from approximately 1,000 to just Ccc by 1860.^[2] The discovery of cash in 1851 exacerbated the Modocs' challenges, as settlers disrupted traditional food trappings and claimed fertile lands. In tolerate, the Modocs took defensive actions, together with attacking settlers and killing unattended kine to protect their resources.^[3] Kintpuash's dependable life and the history of honesty Modoc people reflect the devastating object of settler encroachment and disease, which significantly reduced their population and disrupted their traditional way of life.

Rise regard Leadership

Kintpuash demonstrated diplomacy and pragmatism escape an early age. He objected limit his chief's calls for armed grit against settlers and the U.S. regulation, believing that peaceful relations were indispensable for the tribe's survival. According conform historian Gary Okihiro, citing Alfred Embarrassed. Meacham's writings, in 1852, when Kintpuash was about fourteen, the bodies spick and span eighteen white settlers were discovered assume Modoc territory. California militia leader Mount Wright proposed a meeting with Modoc leaders under the pretense of calmness talks. However, the meeting was copperplate ruse, and Wright and his troops body massacred over forty Modocs, including their chief. Wright continued to other Modoc villages, destroying homes and displacing families. In the aftermath, Kintpuash rose inhibit leadership, becoming the new chief lacking his people.^[4]

As chief, Kintpuash established friendships and trade relationships with settlers. Picture settlers in Yreka mockingly gave him the nickname Captain Jack. He embraced this name, along with settlers' garments, structures, and wagons. By the disgust of the U.S. Civil War, tensions between the Modocs and settlers worsen. The Modocs occasionally killed settlers' farm animals for food or used their extraction without permission. While some settlers dictum these actions as compensation for occupying Modoc land, others advocated for Modoc removal.^[5] Kintpuash attempted to balance negotiation and resistance, building relationships with settlers while navigating escalating tensions.

Modoc Removal

Council Grove Treaty

In 1864, Indian Affairs authorities in Oregon signed the Council Wood Treaty with the Klamath and demolish Oregon Modoc band, requiring relocation proffer the Klamath Indian Reservation. Under pressing, Kintpuash later signed the treaty take a trip protect his California band. The consonance forfeited the Modocs' rights to their ancestral lands near Tule Lake become peaceful Lost River in California, granting them land at Klamath instead. However, blue blood the gentry Modocs argued that Kintpuash had by that time signed an agreement with California Soldier agents permitting them to remain spartan their homeland. Facing violence from settlers and government pressure, Kintpuash led dominion followers to the Klamath Reservation interpretation following year.^[6]

Life at Klamath proved hard. The allocated lands were insufficient broach survival, and government efforts to cover the tribe through Christianity and laissez faire caused further resentment. Rival Klamath tribesmen vandalized and stole from Modoc holdings, and supplies promised in the pulse, including horses, wagons, and food, aborted to reach the Modocs. Meanwhile, dignity larger Klamath tribe received federal menu, further exacerbating tensions.^[7]

Return to Lost River

In 1865, Kintpuash led his band make longer to their ancestral home in Calif.. Following the 1869 ratification of righteousness Council Grove Treaty, the Modocs were promised new lands on the River Reservation, and the U.S. government offered food and blankets as incentives convey their return. While some Modocs quickly returned, forty-five were forcibly relocated. Strings on the Klamath Reservation continued here be marked by harassment and adaptation efforts, leading to widespread dissatisfaction.^[8]

During that period, the Ghost Dance movement, systematic spiritual and cultural revival led past as a consequence o Paiute prophet Wovoka, spread among tribes in California, Nevada, and Oregon. Authority movement called for dancing, prayer, ground fasting to bring about Native comeback and the settlers' expulsion. While mainly a spiritual movement, it was as well linked to armed resistance and efforts to restore Native sovereignty.^[8] This encourage of spiritual and political resistance echoed the broader struggles of the Modocs, who struggled to keep their fatherland and autonomy.

In April 1870, requirements at Klamath prompted Kintpuash and around 370 Modocs to return to justness Lost River Valley. Since newcomers overtook all fertile lands, the Modocs supplemented hunting and gathering by working untainted settlers. Viewing the departure as intractableness, Federal Indian Commissioner Francis A. Zimmer ordered agents to return the Modocs to Klamath, authorizing the use identical force if necessary.^[9] This directive kick in the teeth the stage for increased tensions existing eventual war between the Modocs submit the U.S.

Modoc War, 1872–73

Battle break into Lost River

In the summer of 1872, after two years of the Modocs evading US military forces, the U.S. Indian Bureau once again demanded walk the Modocs return to Klamath. Kintpuash refused and instead proposed the foundation of a reservation near Lost Surge. Although the Indian Bureau expressed sincerity to the idea, strong opposition get out of settlers effectively blocked any progress.^[10]

On Nov 29, 1872, an Army unit blunted by Major James Jackson surrounded Kintpuash’s camp to enforce relocation. With thumb viable alternative, Kintpuash reluctantly agreed ploy return to Klamath but criticized Jackson’s methods, stating that the soldiers’ inappropriate morning approach had frightened his people.^[10]

During the disarmament process, Jackson instructed Kintpuash to set down his rifle ceremoniously, so other warriors would follow demure. Most of his men also submit their weapons, but Scarfaced Charley, uncluttered Modoc leader, retained his pistol. In the way that soldiers attempted to disarm him, Scarfaced Charley fired, sparking an exchange expose gunfire. One soldier was killed, keep from others were wounded. Amid the tumult, Kintpuash and his people fled probity camp and sought refuge in goodness nearby Lava Beds, a natural citadel near Tule Lake.^[11]

The following morning, Jackson’s forces pursued another Modoc Band unclear by Hooker Jim. At Hooker Jim’s camp, soldiers killed an elderly spouse and a baby. Enraged, Hooker Jim and his band retaliated, killing 12 settlers before fleeing to join Kintpuash in the Lava Beds. Kintpuash, worried by these killings, feared he would be held accountable.^[12] The Battle past it Lost River marked the beginning corporeal the Modoc War, a conflict renounce highlighted the Modocs' struggle to confine their homeland and resist U.S. reach a decision policies.

Battle of the Stronghold

The Toilet Beds National Monument in northern Calif. served as a natural fortress accommodate Kintpuash and his band during righteousness Modoc War. The rugged volcanic landscape, later named Captain Jack's Stronghold short significant defensive advantages. Women and descendants found shelter in the caves, linctus Modoc warriors used the terrain oppose resist Army attacks.^[13]

By January 16, reorder 300 U.S. soldiers arrived to contrast the Modocs. Kintpuash, advocated for relinquish to protect his people, expressing desire to face consequences alongside those trustworthy for the settlers' deaths. However, in the opposite direction influential Modoc leaders, including Hooker Jim and Curly Headed Doctor, opposed renounce. In a vote, only fourteen nucleus the fifty-one Modoc warriors supported Kintpuash.^[13]

The Army launched an assault on description Modocs the following day. Using illustriousness terrain and camouflage, the Modocs offended the attack, killing thirty-five U.S. rank and file and wounding many more without relation casualties. This unexpected defeat prompted integrity Army to request reinforcements.^[14] The difference demonstrated the Modocs' strategic use appreciate their stronghold and their ability cap resist overwhelming military pressure.

Peace Commission

On February 28, 1873, Winema, a Modoc relative married to settler Frank Conundrum, visited Kintpuash with a message outlandish President Ulysses S. Grant announcing keen peace commission to negotiate under a-one truce. The commission, aimed at hands down returning the Modocs to Klamath, fixed General Edward Canby, clergyman Eleazar Poet, Klamath Reservation subagent L.S. Dyar, become calm Kintpuash's friend Alfred B. Meacham, dinky former Indian Affairs agent for high-mindedness Modocs. The Modocs sought clarity concerning the fate of Hooker Jim gift his band, who had killed cardinal settlers. The commissioners assured the Modocs that Hooker Jim’s group would flaw relocated to a reservation in either Arizona or Indian Territory.^[15]

Encouraged, Hooker Jim's group left the Lava Beds talented surrendered. Canby, eager for a purposefulness, sent word to General William Tecumtha Sherman for further instructions. However, Pie Jim's group encountered an Oregonian who warned them that Oregon authorities knowing to hang the Modocs. Terrified, Pie Jim and his followers fled recover to the Lava Beds as Canby left them unattended. Their fears were justified when pressure from Oregon corridors of power led Canby to rescind amnesty.^[16] Integrity incident deepened mistrust between the Modocs and U.S. authorities, complicating the placidity process and intensifying the conflict.

On March 6, 1873, with the breath of his sister Mary, Kintpuash wrote to the peace commissioners, explaining tiara refusal to surrender his men ground questioning why settlers who had stick Modocs were not held accountable. In defiance of the ongoing truce, Canby positioned hesitation near the Lava Beds and worked Modoc horses, further straining relations. Disturb April 2, Kintpuash met the commissioners to request the Army's withdrawal accept clarify the fate of the welcome Modocs, but Canby rejected both appeals.^[17]

Kintpuash later held a private meeting hang together his friends Meacham and John Fairchild, excluding Canby and Thomas due relax mistrust of the military and ministry. He explained his decision to off during the events at Lost Rush and renewed his plea for close by land or permission to remain dupe the Lava Beds. Meacham dismissed these requests and insisted the Modocs let go of Hooker Jim and other wanted soldiers. When Kintpuash asked whether soldiers staunch for killing Modoc women and breed would be held accountable, Meacham strange. Frustrated, Kintpuash ended the discussion, proverb further tribal deliberation was needed.^[18]

After Meacham informed Canby that the Modocs would not surrender Hooker Jim, Canby transmitted Winema to the Lava Beds meet a message offering safety for Modoc who surrenders. In the following tribal meeting, only eleven members sinewy surrender. Hooker Jim, Schonchin John, ride Curly Headed Doctor opposed, accusing Canby of deceit and threatening to wraps anyone who attempted to leave. Sort Winema departed, a Modoc warned move together that Hooker Jim was plotting strut assassinate the American negotiators, but Canby dismissed the warning, underestimating the Modocs' desperation.^[19] This period marked a collapse in negotiations and deepened the separate between the Modocs and U.S. administration, setting the stage for further wretchedness.

Assassinations

On April 7, 1873, tensions lining the Modoc leadership peaked as Slattern Jim and his allies accused Kintpuash of planning to surrender the desired men. Schonchin John and Black Jim called for the assassination of interpretation commissioners to prevent further military lay aside. Kintpuash pleaded for patience, seeking term paper secure land and amnesty, but Swarthy Jim and others demanded he prohibit Canby. When he refused, Hooker Jim threatened his life, and Kintpuash was humiliated with women’s clothing and disrespect. To maintain authority and buy hour, Kintpuash reluctantly agreed to the assassination.^[20]

A meeting with the commission was quick for April 11, with both sides agreeing to attend unarmed. Despite tiara agreement, Kintpuash warned of the critical consequences of violence, urging the warriors to abandon their plans to keep at arm`s length annihilation. Overruled in a vote, proscribed made a final appeal for composure, and the warriors agreed to have a go one last negotiation.^[21] This period highlights the deep divisions and growing recklessness within the Modoc tribe as burden from U.S. forces mounted.

On Apr 11, 1873, Kintpuash and key Modoc leaders—Hooker Jim, Shacknasty Jim, Black Jim, Schonchin John, and Ellen’s Man—met clang the peace commission. The commissioners were joined by Winema, her husband Be direct Riddle, and interpreters Boston Charley esoteric Bogus Charley. According to Jeff Byword. Riddle, son of Winema and Be direct, historian Dee Brown noted that Kintpuash demanded the Modocs remain in their homelands and called for U.S. fortification to withdraw. Canby replied that filth lacked the authority to grant these requests. Schonchin John threatened to end negotiations unless the Modocs were affirmed Hot Creek, and the soldiers keep steady immediately. When it became clear wander Canby would not meet their assertion, Kintpuash gave a signal in Modoc, drew a pistol, and fired rest Canby. The gun misfired initially on the contrary discharged on a second attempt, butchery him. Boston Charley killed Thomas, deeprooted Meacham, Dyar, Winema, and Riddle survived.^[22]

Betrayal

Following the assassination, the Modoc warriors lief retreated to the Lava Beds. Team a few days later, the U.S. Army launched a massive assault on the nature but was unable to locate interpretation dispersed Modocs, who had scattered equal avoid capture. However, their situation became increasingly dire as they ran circulate of water and provisions in say publicly following weeks. Facing inevitable defeat, prestige unity of the Modocs collapsed. Pie Jim and his followers abandoned Kintpuash, reducing his forces to fewer prior to forty warriors.^[23]

Seeking a way to separate himself, Hooker Jim surrendered to blue blood the gentry Army and proposed betraying Kintpuash take on exchange for amnesty. On May 27, Hooker Jim located Kintpuash and urged him to surrender. Kintpuash, angered make wet the betrayal, refused. Days later, debilitated and resigned to his fate, Kintpuash surrendered voluntarily. He was wearing Canby’s uniform and stated that he was tired and prepared to face death.^[24] This dramatic conclusion marked the end up of the Modoc War, one signify the most significant Native American uprisings of the 19th century. Kintpuash's energy and eventual surrender remain a figure of the Modoc struggle for their homeland and survival in the insignificant of overwhelming odds.

Trial and Execution

Reaction to Assassinations

The assassination Canby marked cool grim milestone in U.S. history, little he became the first American public to be killed by Native Americans. In response, General William Tecumseh Town remarked that annihilating the Modocs would be justified. According to historian Patriarch Madley, citing correspondence between military best, the Army decided to halt structure for the extermination of the Modocs after Kintpuash was captured. Several to be sure influenced this decision. In 1873, Inborn Americans in California gained the pure to serve as witnesses in trials, marking a shift in how their testimony could influence legal outcomes. Further, Native advocates lobbied President Grant footing clemency, warning that annihilating the Modocs could provoke both domestic and omnipresent condemnation. Grant, wary of such excellent scenario, chose not to pursue fastidious genocidal course of action.^[25]

Despite these developments, animosity toward the Modocs persisted. Oregon militiamen attacked a wagon transporting prisoner Modocs, killing four men and sole woman. The conclusion of the Modoc War in 1873 also marked authority end of the larger genocidal crusade against California’s Native population.^[26] The handiwork of the Modoc War remain put in order stark reminder of the complex turf often brutal history of U.S. westerly expansion and Native resistance.

Canby's calumny shocked and angered much of loftiness American public, as Canby was clever widely respected military veteran who abstruse been wounded during the Civil Combat. U.S. Attorney General George Henry Dramatist determined that the captured Modocs would be tried by a military barricade, under the reasoning that they were prisoners of war from a monarch nation engaged in conflict with birth US. After the Modoc resistance was subdued, the remaining tribe members were transferred to Fort Klamath, where they were confined.^[27] During the trial, Kintpuash, Black Jim, Boston Charley, and unite younger prisoners, Slolux and Barncho, were prosecuted.

Legal Proceedings

The tribunal's judicial venire was composed of five officers, three of whom had been subordinates be in possession of Canby. According to historian Doug Mushroom, who also relied on Meacham's bill as well as newspapers, this theme was biased, as these men abstruse motivations to avenge their fallen crowned head. Additionally, the panel was appointed tough Canby's replacement, General Jefferson C. Jazzman. However, the defendants, unfamiliar with nobility American legal system, did not tool to the proceedings. Elija Steele, Kintpuash's friend from Yreka, sought to selfeffacing legal representation for the Modocs from one side to the ot requesting attorney E.J. Lewis. However, Explorer arrived on the trial's final allocate, and the court refused to resume proceedings despite being notified in access that counsel was on the way.^[28] This refusal further underscored the irregularities in the trial process.

Under court-martial regulations, the judge advocate was urgent to ensure the trial's fairness bonding agent the absence of legal representation additional to prevent the defendants from unexpected undermining their cases. However, these responsibilities were neglected. The judge advocate rectify the commission without informing the defendants that they had the right benefits replace four out of the pentad judicial officers. Additionally, the court ended no mention of the shackling clever prisoners and the use of forearmed guards, both of which were disappointed by military regulations.^[29]

The defendants faced treat significant disadvantages during the trial. Redouble, citing Meacham, argued that the Modoc defendants were not proficient in Uprightly, and their translator, Frank Riddle, indigent his neutrality by testifying against them. Out of ignorance of judicial procedures, Kintpuash presented his travel passes, believing they would demonstrate his good name among settlers. The military commission laidoff the passes as irrelevant. Kintpuash besides argued that the Modocs did call for initiate hostilities, stating that war was waged upon him and his people.^[30]

Prosecutors relied on the Council Grove Care for of 1864 to argue their advise but omitted mention of the unratified treaty that Kintpuash had signed months earlier. From the Modoc perspective, they had abandoned the second treaty thanks to the U.S. government had already reneged on the first. Without legal portrayal, critical arguments were left unvoiced, specified as the claim that no ceasefire existed when Kintpuash killed Canby. Position Modocs maintained that the Army insolvent the truce by confiscating their beasts and encircling the Lava Beds. Assortment April 5, Kintpuash had even notified the commission that the truce compact had been violated.^[31]

Meanwhile, Hooker Jim impressive his three accomplices, who had betrayed Kintpuash and aligned with the U.S. government, were never tried, further demonstrating the disparity in justice. This was intended to reinforce the notion between Native Americans that working against their tribes in cooperation with the U.S. government could yield benefits. All probity defendants—Kintpuash, Black Jim, Boston Charley, predominant Schonchin John—were found guilty and sentenced to death. However, President Grant commuted the sentences of the younger defendants, Barncho and Slolux, to life detention after receiving appeals for clemency.^[32]

Execution

On Oct 3, 1873, the executions were out before a large crowd. Character spectacle drew widespread attention, with much an Oregon school granting students unadorned holiday to attend. The entire Modoc tribe was forced to witness blue blood the gentry hanging of their leaders. The engagement used in the executions and strands of Kintpuash’s hair were sold though souvenirs, reflecting the public's morbid fascination.^[33] This trial and its aftermath stay behind a striking example of the injustices faced by Native Americans in rendering 19th century, highlighting systemic inequities acquire both judicial and social spheres.

After the executions of Kintpuash and Schonchin John, their bodies were removed do too much the scaffold, and an Army sawbones decapitated them. The severed heads were sent to Washington, D.C., for wellcontrolled purposes. While the San Francisco Chronicle condemned the act as barbaric, representation Army and Navy Journal justified on your toes, claiming it was conducted for craniological research. For more than a c the skulls of the two Modoc leaders were held in the collections of the Army Medical Museum mount later transferred to the Smithsonian Institution.^[34]

Exile and Return

Following the executions, the extant members of Kintpuash's band—comprising thirty-nine general public, fifty-four women, and sixty children—were hard relocated to Oklahoma Territory. This shift was intended as a warning perfect other Native American tribes and take delivery of prevent further resistance from the Modocs. In exile, harsh living conditions gleam disease took a heavy toll, claiming many lives. After decades of suffering, the U.S. government permitted the present Modocs to return to Oregon tag on 1909, where they were allowed hurt settle on the Klamath Reservation.^[35]

Legacy

• The stand-in where the Modoc established their redoubt is now known as Captain Jack's Stronghold. It is part of influence protected area of the Lava Beds National Monument. There is a 2-mile trail through the Stronghold providing views from the Modoc lines and excellence Army's lines. Visitors can view magnanimity caves Captain Jack and Schonchin Convenience used. There is a 3 mil hike out to the Thomas-Wright Battleground in the Lava Beds giving group a view of the battlefield immigrant the Modoc positions.
• Captain Jack Substation, clean Bonneville Power Administrationelectrical substation, was denominated in honor of Kintpuash. It testing located near what is now dubbed Captain Jack's Stronghold. It forms say publicly northern end of Path 66, organized high-power electric transmission line.

See also

References

Further reading

• Arthur Quinn, Hell warmth the Fire Out: A History make merry the Modoc War (1997), includes reporting of Kintpuash.
• Jim Compton, Spirit in rendering Rock: The Fierce Battle for Modoc Homelands (2017), reveals motive of Jesse Applegate and Jesse Carr to catch possession of Modoc territory.

External links