The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-29
PASSING OF THE MODOcS.
4 FIMOUS TRIBE NOW ALMOST
GONE.
Only Thirteen Bucks nre Now Left,
and There are But Seventy-eigh In
dams i'm the Whole Tribe.

dams i'm the Whole Tribe.
The Modoc Indians are rapidly pass
ing away 1t will be only a few years
until they have all become good Indi-
ans and their tribe will be extinct.
The Modocs at one time We're the most
troublesome and bloodthirsty savages
that this government ever tried to gov
ern. Long before the white man put in
an appearance on the shores of the
Pacific they were seekers for gore
They were always in tiuuble with other
tribes. That is the way they got the
name Modocs. 1t means enemies" 1t
was given them by the other tribes on
the Pacific, against whom they had
waged war.
But now things have changed. The
Modocs no longer thirst for war. They
are a slovenly, INDECENT and dull set of
beings, with no ambition. From
strong tribe Of brave warriors they
have dw.rdle6 down until there are
only thirteen buoks left in the tribe
The total population of the tribe Is sew
enty-eighr mostly Tonen and diseased
children. In rece years the Modocs
have died off like Weep, and if the ra-
ito keeps up. in lese than decade
Modoc Indian will bee.ne Of the curios-
tiles of practically satncttt race Ihey
are now chartered o, 81 reserva-
ton in the ouapaw Ainevitch asr miles
south of this cityfrom st. Petersbthe
government, teg order to-. ~, n,tthhdrawff
the tribe are gaent. IL because taay
cannot go back tdlthe Pacific soEe ana
SPEND the remainder OF their days.
The Modocs once We're part of the
klamath tribe in northern California
and southern Oregon. They became
the boxers of the Klamaths. They
broke away from that tribe and set up
government of their own and then
waged war against their mother tribe
lust as the boxers are doing in Chi
ma. They also tackled outsiders just
as the boxers" did, and with the same
result. Before they We're subdued they
would make slaves of their prisoners of
war and buy and sell them among each
other after the fashion of the ancient
Romans and Carthaginlons They had
| a peculiar religion in which mythical
deity whom they called Kamoose stood
in the place of a God. In 1S47, after
having licked all the tribes on the Pa
cific coast until it was no longer any
fun for them, they brushed UP against
the Federal troops. That was the first
mistake they made. They got licked.
/ But they didn't get enough to satisfy
them and broke out again two years
later and massacred a lot Of viii .es.
Then they got whipped some more ana
hundreds of them We're murdered by
the regular army.
In 1858 they put their blankets on ana
left their reservation again, squatting
on some land on Lose river, which
didn't belong to them The govern
ment ordered them back to their own
reservation. They refused to so, and
another war was on. The Modocs re-
treated to the Lava beds" where they
withstood two attacks by General
| Wheaton and General Gillem. The
government then appointed commits
sion to arrange a settlement. The COM
miesioners met the Modocs on April II,
1873, and also their fate, because the
Indians treacherously ambushed them,
killing General Candy and DR.. Thomas,
and woundng A. B. Mitchell so that he
was left on the field for dead This is
one of the great crimes of '73, but not
the one the pops talk about
The war was again renewed. The
Modocs desperately resisted the Fede-
, raj force, but were finally starved out
ard compelled to surrended, General
jeff Davis court-martialed Captain
Jack, chief and three others who
planned the massacre of the commits
sioners, and they were executed. The
rest of the tribe. as prisoners Of war
were transferred to the Indian terrific
ry, and placed on a small reservation
under guard in the Quapaw nation.
At the time of their removal they were
told, so they say, that they would then
be permitted to return to their old
hunting-groun in California. The
twenty-five years was up in '9S, but the
Modocs. or what is left of them, are
still here, and and they are liable to
stay. The Indian commissioner has no
notion of sending them back to the
coast.
lie CHlel Oh lHe Last NdlilSuHS lIlDS
now is Yellow Hammer He is a
strapping big young Indian, six feet
three, and weighs probably two hun
dred and twenty pounds. He looks as
strong as an OK, but he isn't. He is
sick a great portion of the time and he
hasn't many years to live. Lung dis
ease is getting away with him. That
is what has killed the tribe off so rap
idly. 1t seems that all are afflicted
with it, except one old Indian Chief
Yellow Hammer has his hammer" out
knocking on the way his tribe Is being
treated. He says they will all soon be
dead unless the big Chief" at Wash
ington let's them go back to California
His tribe has petitioned the president to
be returned Recently he visited Kan
sas City with his mother. File had
good time In speaking of the town. he
said: Heap big town; heap lots peo-
pie; heap good whiskey. Had heap
good time Coin back again"
What seems most remarkable in the
face of the rapid manner in which the
Modocs are going to their happy hunt
ing ground is the fact that there is in
the tribe an Indian buck one hundred
and six years of age. His name is
Sam Boil He was one of the original
''boxers" who first left the Klamaths
and organized a tribe of their own. He
still has his 'dander up" and wants to
take the war path again. He is as
IT.. IT