Kintpuash

Kintpuash , also Kientpoos , better known as Captain Jack (* around 1837 in Wa'chamshwash , †  October 3, 1873 in Fort Klamath , Oregon ), was a chief of the Modoc .

Captain Jack in 1864

Early years

He was in the village at the bottom Wa'chamshwash Lost River, near the present border between California and Oregon born. He was the son of Combutwaush . Because he wore a uniform jacket of the US Army , Kintpuash was called Captain Jack by the settlers at the time.

Chief

As a young warrior he was in favor of peace, as he recognized the majority of the white invaders in his youth. With this decision he stood against his father, who was always out for war. After the murder of his father and 37 warriors ( Ben Wright massacre ) in 1856, he still stood firm for peace after being elected chief chief. This split the Modoc into two hostile camps. Captain Jack faced Schonchin and Schonchin-John . When both pressed him further and further, he sought out the leaders of the white people to discuss the situation of his people with them. He was wanted to be killed for that matter, but the majority of his tribe stood behind him and were impressed by the courage of their elected chief. Captain Jack received help from the attorney Steele. With Steele's support he reached a non-aggression pact with the settler leaders that lasted nine years. Then more and more settlers came to the area until the government decided to relocate the Modoc to the Klamath Reserve . The commission formed deposed Captain Jack when he refused negotiations and transferred the office of chief chief to Schonschin. Captain Jack signed the contract anyway, because he wanted to avoid bloodshed. If the Modoc had received their own reserve , the resettlement would have been carried out to their satisfaction for the Modoc. But the Klamath forbade the Modoc to start and hunt fires. Only when the Klamath did not notice was the hunt possible. Since some Modoc had already died of starvation, Captain Jack decided to leave the Klamath reservation in the spring of 1870. Only Schonchin remained on the reservation, while Captain Jack and his horde as well as Hooker Jim and his people moved to the Lost River - their old home. They set up their tents above Lake Tula.

General Canby's murder

Captain Jack and the families of his 70 warriors set up their tent village on one side and Hooker Jim their camp on the other. The settlers who lived near the Modoc camps complained about the Modoc in 1870, but the government did not respond to the complaint until 1872. When the Modoc were to be brought back to the Klamath Reservation, Captain Jack refused and demanded a separate reservation for his tribe. The military commander of the Pacific region, General Edward Canby , agreed to Captain Jack, but the general's superior department refused this request and Canby had to order a cavalry division to the Modoc, possibly to bring them to the agency by force. Major Jackson and 38 soldiers advanced into the Modoc camp and demanded disarmament. The chiefs and warriors laid their weapons on the ground without resistance, only Scarface Charley refused to surrender his revolver. On Jackson's orders, Lieutenant Boutelle wanted to take the gun from the sub-chief. But before he got there, there was a little skirmish. The cavalry withdrew, but had one dead and seven injured. The Modoc hurriedly left the site of the conflict. The women and children drove south across Lake Tula in boats, while the men secured their retreat from the shore in the thick reeds. They were aiming for the sacred place of the Modoc, the Lava Beds south of Lake Tula. Captain Jack had chosen one of these caves, which was a crater-shaped pit and where walls and trenches of lava rock towered around it. Three lakes could be reached via secret passages. This cave represented a kind of fortress and could easily be defended by the warriors against a whole army. Two days later, Hooker Jim, Boston Charley, and more Modoc came to the fort and reported that soldiers had attacked their camp and wounded or killed tribesmen. Hooker Jim and his warriors had killed twelve settlers on the way to the fortress in revenge for the bloody act. A scouting group of the advancing US Army appeared near the fortress on January 13, 1873, and was forced to retreat by the Modoc.

Three days later, 225 soldiers from the 1st Cavalry and 21st Infantry Regiments, under the orders of Colonel Wheaton and 104 Oregon and California volunteers, were deployed across from the fort. With this show of force one wanted to force the Modoc to give up. Captain Jack tried to surrender, but Hooker Jim and his followers spoke out against surrendering. 37 out of 51 warriors wanted to keep fighting. With the support of mountain howitzers, the soldiers opened fire on January 17, 1873. The soldiers fled the fog-shrouded fortress in the afternoon - they even left their 16 dead behind when they escaped. The Modoc took the weapons, the ammunition and the army rations. Colonel Wheaton called in 300 men for reinforcements. Winema , Captain Jack's cousin , came to the fortress on February 28, and she informed the Modoc that the President had convened a peace commission made up of Modoc agent Meacham and Reverend Eleazar Thomas. The commission was overseen by General Canby, who had also taken command of the fortress. He reinforced the soldiers who were already in position by 1,000 men and also requested a mortar battery.

Hooker Jim, Black Jim and other respected warriors asked Captain Jack, after several unsuccessful negotiations, to kill the general, which the general refused. When he was threatened that he would be killed by his own people, the chief declared his approval. Boston Charley conveyed Modoc's approval to Canby for negotiations. The fixed date was Good Friday, April 11, 1873, when General Canby, three commissioners and Winema and her husband Frank Riddle did not show up at the negotiating tent until 11 a.m., as Winema had warned the general and the commissioners of the meeting. Boston Charley and Bogus Charley were the commissioners' interpreters. After an argument and further negotiation, Captain Jack suddenly drew the pistol and shot Canby, Boston Charley killed the Reverend, while Dyar and Riddle managed to escape. Winema saved Meacham's life by pushing Schonchin John's pistol aside and when he tried to aim again, knocked him out without further ado.

Captain Jack fled with his warriors to the rock fortress, which came under heavy mortar fire from soldiers on April 14th. The battle lasted two days until the Modoc were driven to the lakes by the soldiers. Eight soldiers were killed and 17 injured. When the Modoc counterattacks were unsuccessful, they withdrew to a new hiding place on the night of the third day of the battle. The pursuing 85 soldiers, led by Captain Thomas, were led into an ambush, where 23 soldiers - including the captain and 4 officers - were killed and 18 wounded. The soldiers were rescued under cover of a snow storm. When storming the fortress, the troops found three dead warriors and eight women killed. Brigadier General Davis now took command. 72 Indian scouts were recruited in the Warm Springs reservation to track down the Modoc's new hiding place. The general's vanguard was almost completely wiped out by the Modoc before they came under heavy artillery fire and had to retreat further into the lava beds. At Sorass Lake, the Modoc lost some of their 35 warriors to Colonel Hasbrouck's cavalry, as well as 24 mules.

death

On the run, Captain Jack and Hooker Jim got into an argument about the strategy, so Hooker Jim ran over to the soldiers with his warriors. They were used as scouts against their own tribesmen. Hooker Jim took up the chase with three of his warriors on May 27th and called on Captain Jack and his 37 warriors - when they were found - to surrender. Captain Jack chased away the traitors and threatened to kill them the next time they met. Schonchin John and his people surrendered after a merciless hunt. Captain Jack followed suit with the surrender on June 1st. General Davis wanted to hang the General and Commission killers immediately, but the Department of War in Washington prevented him from doing so while a trial was being prepared. At Fort Klamath, Schonchin John, Black Jim , Barcho , Sloluck , Boston Charley, and Captain Jack came before a military tribunal. With no lawyer available, Captain Jack took over the defense. The verdict was already clear as a gallows was erected in front of the courthouse during the trial. Hooker Jim and his supporters also witnessed the prosecution.

The six defendants were found guilty, as expected, and sentenced to death by hanging. There were protests in Washington over the conviction. The death penalty was requested to be commuted to life imprisonment. US President Ulysses S. Grant pardoned Sloluck and Barcho only, the others were executed on the morning of October 3, 1873. The night after the execution, Captain Jack's body was secretly dug up and taken to Yreka, where he was embalmed and then displayed in stalls in cities on the east coast. Hooker Jim and his followers had been granted impunity for betraying Captain Jack. 153 Modoc, including Hooker Jim and his group, came to the Quapaw agency in Indian Territory . The last 51 Modoc were allowed to move to a reservation in Oregon in 1909.

Repository- California Historical Society (15458104939)

literature

• Bruce E. Johansen and Donald A. Grinde, Jr .: The Encyclopedia of Native American Biography. ISBN 0-306-80870-6
• Ernie Hearting : Kintpuash (Captain Jack), leader of the Modoc Indians in the fight for their homeland (1962)

Web links

Commons : Kintpuash  - collection of images, videos and audio files

---

This article is based on the article Kintpuash ( memento of July 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from the free encyclopedia Indianer Wiki ( memento of March 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and is under Creative Commons by-sa 3.0 . A list of the authors was available in the Indian Wiki ( Memento from July 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).