Modoc War apology bill proposed

Spokesmen for Girod said he has no comment on why he is sponsoring the resolution and will not discuss the proposal until Wednesday’s public hearing. Office staff declined to answer any questions. Some people have wondered why an Oregon state senator from outside the Klamath Basin — Stayton is 12 miles southeast of Salem — is sponsoring the proposal and whether it could open the way for similar resolutions. Girod is listed as a practicing dentist who was appointed to the Oregon Senate in 2008 after serving in the state House of Representatives.

According to a summary of the measures “essential features,” the resolution outlines Captain Jack’s (Kintpuauh or Kientpoos) history and the 1864 treaty between the United States and the Modoc, Klamath and Yahooskin tribes. The summary notes incidents during the Modoc War of 1872-73, including the battle in what is now known as Captain Jack’s Stronghold that was decisively won by the Modocs. It also notes that “during a truce period on April 11, 1873, a group of Modocs led by Kintpuash killed peace commissioner Rev. Eleazer Thomas and Gen. Edward Canby, the highest-ranking U.S. Army office to be killed during the Indians war.”

The summary recounts Captain Jack’s capture, the trial in which he and five other Modocs were found guilty of murdering Canby and Thomas and attacking others by a federal military court at Fort Klamath.

The resolution notes Jack, Schonchin John, Black Jim and Boston Charley were “the first Indians to be tried and executed by the federal government for war crimes.” Before the hanging, the two others convicted, Brancho and Sioux, sentences were commuted to life imprisonment at Alcatraz.

In addition, the summary notes about 150 Modocs were “herded into rail cars and sent as prisoners of war to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma)” and in 1909 offered the opportunity to return to the Klamath Reservation, which was accepted by 29 Modocs.

As worded the resolution states, “Be it Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon: That we, the members of the Eightieth Legislative Assembly, commemorate the Modoc War of 1872-73, and we recognized and honor all those who lost their lives in that costly conflict; and it further resolved, That we express our regret over the execution of Kintpuash, Schonchin John, Black Jim and Boston Charley in October 1873 and for the expulsion of the Modoc tribe from the ancestral lands in Oregon.”