Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/622



derers hanged for their crimes; and all the rest of the Modocs sent into per- petual exile from their country at Quapaw Agency in the Indian Territory.

At the outset Jack 's warriors were estimated at sixty ; and on the final sur- render there were fifty fighting men and boys, over fifty women and sixty chil- dren. And while Jack was on the war path forty-one soldiers had been killed, fifty-nine wounded and twenty-four settlers had been killed and sixty-three wounded. Jack is described as rather small in stature, with small hands and feet and thin arms. His face was round, forehead low and square, expression serious, almost morose, his eye black, sharp, watchful, indicating cunning, cau- tion, and a determined will, and his age 36 when executed.

Thus ends the review of the Indian wars of Oregon. What was called the Shoshone war of 1866 and 8 never amounted to a serious war. While the In- dians committed many depredations on travelers, and isolated settlements, it was all of the horse-stealing character of warfare, and never amounting to a regular battle in any case with either settlers or soldiers. According to Mrs. Victor 's count, going over the whole history of Indian troubles in Oregon, Wash- ington and Idaho, the total number of white people killed in this region by In- dians from 1828 down to 1878 — fifty years — was 1896.

In closing this chapter a few words should be said in order to perpetuate the memories of three men — mixed bloods — who served Oregon well in the Indian wars — Captain Thomas McKay and his two sons. Dr. William C. McKay and his brother Donald. Captain McKay was the efficient commander of a company of volunteers in the Cayuse war, and died at Scappoose in 1849. Dr. McKay and Donald were scouts in the Yakima war of 1855-56, whose services were invaluable. It was the skill of the latter, under most hazardous conditions, that saved the lives of Major Haller's command of one hundred U. S. soldiers at the time he was defeated in Klickitat county, Washington, in October, 1855. In the Modoc campaign in 1872-1873 Donald McKay, with his sixty Warm Spring scouts, did more in ninety days to rouse the Modoc Indians from their stronghold in the lava beds than one thousand soldiers of the regular army did in a year. Captain Thomas McKay was a son of Alexander McKay, the partner of John Jacob Astor, who went on the Tonquin from Astoria, to Queen Charlotte's island in the summer of 1811 and was killed by the Indians together •ndth the entire ship's crew. He was the father of Dr. McKay and Donald. The former was born at. Astoria in March, 1824, and the latter near Walla Walla in 1836.