Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/620



and mustered into the service. Applegate's company was made up of seventy men, nearly half of whom were selected Klamaths, Modocs, Shoshones and Pit River Indians, and from their training and knowledge of the country proved to be the most alert and effective soldiers in the service.

Jack's warriors were finally rounded up and forced to retreat to the lava beds on the east shore of Tule Lake, from which it looked as if nothing but an earthquake or another outflow of lava would ever be able to get him out. Prom the time Jack and his warriors retreated into this lava ^p.d stronghold on De- cember 16, 1872, until he was finally forced out after the massacre of General Canbey and the peace makers on May 30, 1873, — five ane. a, half months — there was continuous effort to capture or destroy him, without success. The savage Chieftain never at the best had more than sixty warriors to support him, while the regular army and volunteers amounted to fully five hundred men equipped with every then modern means of effective gunnery. And this also shows that the Indian must have been preparing for such a siege by laying in provisions for a long time before.

The massacre of the Peace Commissioners by Jack and his leaders on the 11th day of April, 1873, was a terrible revelation to the kind-hearted advocates of justice to the Indian. And it showed that there were fully as many white men who did not understand the Indian character, as there were Indians who could not comprehend the white man. When warned over and over by Riddle, the white husband of an Indian wife, that the Indians must not be trusted in a proposition for a peace talk in their lava bed den. Rev. Thomas, the Methodist minister who was murdered with Canby, replied "That God Almighty would not let any such a body of men be hurt that were on as good a mission as peace making." To this Riddle returned the only sensible and safe reply that could be made : ' ' Mr. Thomas, you may trust God as much as you please, but I don 't trust any of them Injuns."

The sad record of the treachery and murder of the peace makers is briefly as follows: Commencing about the 5th of March, 1873, diplomatic negotiations between Jack and Gen. Canby was carried on until the 10th of April; Jack endeavoring to get the General and his aids into his power and murder them, and the General trying on his part to secure honestly and fairly, just terms of peace between Jack and his adherents and the white settlers. Dozens of mes- sages were passed to and from the opposing camps. Toby Riddle, the white man with an Indian wife, and who understood the Modoc language acted as interpreter and go-between, and repeatedly warned Canby that it would not be safe for him to meet Capt. Jack in Council. The negotiations proved that the Indian was more than a match for the educated army officers in cunning, saga- city and diplomatic genius. Jack finally agreed to meet the Peace Commission, composed of Brig.-General E. R. Canby, Rev. E. Thomas, Supt. of Indian Af- fairs, A. B. Meacham, and Indian Agent, L. S. Dyer, and meet them at a point one mile from the soldiers, without guards, and all to go unarmed. Jack to be accompanied by five of his warriors. Toby Riddle still opposed the meeting, and again warned Canby of his danger. Meacham and Dyar also both opposed the meeting fearing a trap, but yielded to the wishes of Canby and Thomas. But so earnest was Riddle in his opposition to the meeting and determined to be not blamed for results, he forced the Commissioners to go with him to the