Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/576

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558
THE MODOC WAR.

that the rocky pass round the head of Tule Lake came to be called Bloody Point. Yet he had observed the conditions of the treaty faithfully, living with his band at his old home on Sprague River, within the limits of the reservation, and keeping his people quiet. But Keintpoos, or Captain Jack, as I shall henceforth call him, still continued to occupy Lost River Meadows, a favorite grazing-ground, where his band usually wintered their ponies, and to live as before a life combining the pleasures of savagery and civilization, keeping his agreement neither with Steele nor the United States, two of his followers being arrested in 1867 for distributing ammunition to the hostile Snakes.

This practice, with other infringements of treaty obligations, led the agent in charge of the Klamath reservation in 1868 to solicit military aid from the fort to compel them to go upon the reserve,[1] which was not at that time granted.

In 1869 the settlers of Siskiyou county, California, petitioned General Crook, in command of the Oregon department, to remove the Modocs to their reservation, saying that their presence in their midst was detrimental to the interests of the people. Crook replied that he would have done so before but for a report emanating from Fort Klamath that the Indian agent did not feed them.[2] After some weeks, however, he, on the demand of Superintendent A. B. Meacham, ordered Lieutenant Goodale, commanding at Fort Klamath, to put Jack and his band upon the reserve if in his belief the Indian department was prepared to care for them properly. Accordingly, in December, Meacharn obtained a detachment of troops and repaired to the ford on Lost River, where he had an interview with Jack, informing him of the purpose of the government to exact the observance of the

  1. Yreka Journal, Nov. 15, 1867; Woodbridge Messenger, Nov. 23, 1837; Ind. Aff. Rept, 1868, 124.
  2. Military Correspondence, Oct. 14, and Dec. 7, 1869; Ind. Aff. Rept, 1869, 155; Portland Oregonian, Aug. 4, 1868.