Captain Jack
It was 150 years ago that American was involved in one of the costliest Indian Wars ever fought. The 1872-1873 Modoc War pitted between 50 and 60 warriors against, by the 8-month war’s end, over a thousand U.S. Army soldiers. Fought in a no-man’s land in what today is the Lava Beds National Monument, located in north central California, they used the jagged, hostile lava land against their enemies. Most amazing was that the Modocs had their families, women and children, with them during the entire war, using lava caves for homes.
Our own Cheewa James is a great-granddaughter of Modoc warrior Sh-ke-itco (renamed Shacknasty Jim by settles unable to pronounce his name!). Her grandfather was born in the Lava Beds during the war. Cheewa was a Lava Beds National Park Service Ranger for two years, walking the battlefields and leading visitors through war sites. Her book MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die has a newly revised edition (2022). She was the primary consultant and appeared in the hour PBS documentary “The Modoc War,” which aired across the United States.
So come and hear a fascinating story from one whose knowledge of the Modocs is vast. It’s a story you will not easily forget.