right, title, and claim to all the country claimed by them, and accepted a reservation described in said article by natural boundaries, upon which they agreed and bound themselves to locate immediately after the ratification of the treaty.
The ratification of this treaty was advised and consented to by the Senate, July 2, 1866, and the same was proclaimed by the President February 17, 1870. At the date of proclamation the Modocs were found on their reservation, where they remained until April, 1870, and then left for their camp on Lost River.
There is evidence that Captain Jack and his band were prepared at this time to remain upon the reservation and settle down in the way of civilization, if there had been ordinary encouragement and assistance, and if the Klamaths, who largely outnumbered Captain Jack's band, and who were their hereditary enemies, had allowed them so to do. This band began to split rails for their farms, and in other ways to adopt civilized habits; but the Klamaths demanded tribute from them for the land they were occupying, which the Modocs were obliged to render. Captain Jack then removed to another part of the reservation, and began again to try to live by cultivating the ground. But he was followed by the same spirit oi' hostility by the Klamaths, from which he does not seem to have been protected by the agent. The issue of rations seems also to have been suspended for want of funds, and for these reasons Captain Jack and his band returned to their old home on Lost River, where they became a serious annoyance to the whites, who had in the meanwhile settled on their ceded lands.
This annoyance led to serious apprehensions on the part of the military authorities, and under date of the 19th of March, 1872, the honorable Secretary of War transmitted to this Department copies of correspondence between the military in regard to the matter. A copy of this correspondence was sent to Superintendent Odeneal by the Indian Office, April 12, 1872, with directions to have the Modocs removed, if practicable, to their reservation; and if removed, to see that they were properly protected from the Klamaths.
The superintendent was then instructed, in case they could not be removed, to report the practicability of locating them at some other point. The superintendent reported on the 17th June that their reservation was the best place for them to be located, but that he did not believe it practicable to remove them without using the military for that purpose, and that if they should resist, he doubted whether there was force enough in the country to compel them to go. In reply, the superintendent was directed, July 6, 1872, to remove them to the Klamath reservation. The attempt to execute this order resulted in a conflict between the Modocs and the troops and the white settlers. For the purpose of examining into the same, and, if possible, to procure a peaceable solution of the difficulties, a commission was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior in January last. This commission, as finally composed, consisted of A. B. Meacham, late superintendent Indian affairs for Oregon, L. S. Dyar, agent for the Klamath agency, and Rev. E. Thomas, and by direction of the Secretary of the Interior, under date of March 22, 1873, they were put under the direction of General Canby. While engaged in a conference with Captain Jack, chief of the Modocs, and other representative men of the tribe, on the 11th of April, General Canby and Dr. Thomas were brutally murdered by these Indians, and Mr. Meacham severely wounded.
Thus ended the negotiations with the Modocs, who, after seven months'
