The Fierce Battle for the Modoc Homelands

October 3rd 2023 is the 150th year since the hanging of Kintpuash (Captain Jack) and three other Modoc men by the US Government at Fort Klamath. 

Thousands of pages and uncountable photographs and illustrations have been written and pictured about the Modoc peoples before, during, and after “The Fierce Battle for the Modoc Homelands,” the sub-title of Jim Compton’s vital and essential 2017 book: Spirit in The Rock. 

Two centuries of invasion, conflict, killing, settlement, and displacement of Modocs occurred before, during, and after a series of pivotal events of 1872-1873 known as The Modoc War. Conflict and claim continue into this year 2023.

Photos: Rock paintings from the collapsed lava tube caves in the Lava Beds National Monument, near the Modoc stronghold on southern edge of Tule Lake basin, in the traditional territories of the Modocs. No specific relationship to the 1872-1873 battles is suggested here; simply a thoughtful proximity. 

Traditional Modoc country is centered around the hundreds of square of the Lost River watershed; lands and waters severed by the arbitrary border of the Oregon and California in the early 19th-century: the 42nd parallel. One of many mappings, namings and claimings resulting in devastating effects for the native peoples.