Modoc War

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Modoc War
Engraving of soldiers recovering the bodies of the slain May 3, 1873
Date July 6, 1872 – June 4, 1873 Location California and Oregon, United States Result United States victory
Belligerents
Modoc	United States
Commanders and leaders
Kintpuash Scarface Charley Shaknasty Jim	Frank Wheaton John Green Reuben Benard Alvan Gillem Edwin Cooley Mason Jefferson C. Davis Edward Canby  † Donald McKay Billy Chinook
Strength
120 warriors[1]	1,000 infantry, scouts and cavalry[1] 2 howitzers
Casualties and losses
17 warriors killed[2] 39 warriors captured[2]	83 soldiers and volunteers killed[2] 46 wounded

The Modoc War, or the Modoc Campaign (also known as the Lava Beds War), was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc people and the United States Army in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon from 1872 to 1873.^[3] Eadweard Muybridge photographed the early part of the US Army's campaign.

Kintpuash, also known as Captain Jack, led 52 warriors in a band of more than 150 Modoc people who left the Klamath Reservation. Occupying defensive positions throughout the lava beds south of Tule Lake (in present-day Lava Beds National Monument), those few warriors resisted for months the more numerous United States Army forces sent against them, which were reinforced with artillery. In April 1873 at a peace commission meeting, Captain Jack and others killed General Edward Canby and Rev. Eleazer Thomas, and wounded two others, mistakenly believing this would encourage the Americans to leave. The Modoc fled back to the lava beds. After U.S. forces were reinforced, some Modoc warriors surrendered and Captain Jack and the last of his band were captured. Jack and five warriors were tried for the murders of the two peace commissioners. Jack and three warriors were executed and two others sentenced to life in prison.

The remaining 153 Modoc of the band were sent to Indian Territory (pre-statehood Oklahoma), where they were held as prisoners of war until 1909, settled on reservation land with the Shawnee. Some at that point were allowed to return to the Klamath Reservation in Oregon. Most Modoc (and their descendants) stayed in what became the state of Oklahoma. They achieved separate federal recognition and were granted some land in Oklahoma. There are two federally recognized Modoc tribes: in Oregon and Oklahoma.