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MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die
136 YEARS AFTER MODOC WAR, INTENSE RESEARCH AND HIDDEN LETTERS REVEAL NEW TRUTHS
Sacramento, CA, July 1, 2009. “I have fought a hundred battles, lived a hundred lives, shed a thousand tears, and now I am ready to tell what I have learned,” says Modoc descendent and author Cheewa James upon completion of MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die (Naturegraph). The book represents a decade of research and writing—the dogged determination and struggle of one woman to tell the story of her own tribe.
The newly published MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die is a page-turner, a prototype of Native Americans across the United States. Fought 136 years ago, this almost unbelieveable war was the most expensive Indian war ever waged, pitting, by war’s end, over 1,000 U. S. Army soldiers against 55 Modoc warriors, one of whom was the author’s great-grandfather. The book has over 150 rare, many unpublished, photographs.
The book has been selected by USA Book News as an Award-Winner Finalist in the Native American Books category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards. It was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2008 London, England, Book Festival Awards, one of fourteen non-fiction books honored. The book was also one of four books awarded Honorable Mention in the San Francisco Book Festival in the history category. An abbreviated essay version of the book was selected by the Western Writers of America to appear in Roundup!, an anthology to be released by WWA in the fall of 2009.
James, enrolled with the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma and born on Oregon’s Klamath Reservation, has created a unique and exciting book destined to become a classic in Native American literature. In a desperate, last-ditch effort in 1873 to cling to their ancestral lands, the Modoc Indians fought a massive six-month war. The military attempted to rout out the Modocs and their families from their natural fortification, which still exists today in the jagged, desolate terrain of the Lava Beds National Monument, California. “The match for the Modoc Stronghold has not been built and never will be…It is the most impregnable fortress in the world,” despaired Lt. Thomas Wright, who fought and eventually died in the war.
This war dominated the front pages of newspapers all over America. A brigadier general was killed. Military men dropped like flies and most soldiers never even saw an Indian, as elusive Modocs slipped through the tortuous lava, in and out of the Stronghold.
What is generally unknown is the equally astounding story of the Modocs as they were resettled as prisoners of war in Oklahoma Indian Territory following the war. To most people, the Modocs simply ceased to exist. But an Indian agent in 1874 said, “The Modocs plow and sow and reap with the same resistant courage with which they fought.”
James, now a professional speaker and television talent in Sacramento, California, says that for all their attempts to adjust to their new home and climate, the Modocs faced an opponent more deadly than any they encountered in the Modoc War. “I fought back tears through most of the account of how Modoc men, women, and children were helpless in the onslaught of consumption (tuberculosis). The most unbelieveable part was why they did not receive medical service and medicine—the greed and disregard of one single U. S. Indian agent resulted in a terrible number of deaths,” says James. “It is a miracle I am even here. So many Modocs did not live to have descendents.”
James has penned the most comprehensive book ever written on this amazing tribe, covering Modoc ancestral times, the Modoc War, the exile to Oklahoma Indian Territory, and concludes with information and color photographs of Modocs today. The book is filled with accounts from U. S. soldiers and Modocs never before revealed.
James states that, “This is not a ‘Modoc book.’ It is a story of many people doing the gutsy, incredible things that war demands and feeling the pain and horror. For the first time, women—both Modoc and settler—are acknowledged as a vital part of Modoc history. Sarah Brotherton, a settler woman whose husband was killed by the Modocs, was under attack and converted her cabin into a fort with her children manning the guns. I recovered letters from a relative's old trunk of Harry De Witt Moore, a young officer who exposes new truths related to the war. As he lay one night in the lava rocks covered only with a canvas tarp, he wondered why soldier or Indian was there at all—a senseless war. I wish I had been there to comfort him.”
The richly documented and illustrated non-fiction book also contains 30 fictionalized vignettes. Cheewa says, “I wrote fiction, all drawn from actual historical events, because I want readers to feel the emotion and pain of this historic event. I want young people and families to get excited about history—seek their own ancestral roots.”
James does indeed touch the heart and spirit as well as the mind and intellect. “The message in my book is distinct and unmistakable. We need to build an understanding of other people. Raise our children that way. Honor people as the human beings they are, regardless of race, gender, religion, and all the other walls and barriers.”
The book is available at www.cheewa.com (signed copy) or amazon.com.
MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die (Naturegraph), ISBN # 0-87961-275-4 350 pages, over 150 color and blk/wh photographs, soft cover $19.95
MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die - Maine Press Release
MODOC INDIAN TO BE HONORED IN PORTLAND 122 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH
Portland, ME, July 10, 2008. In a strange twist of fate, Frank Modoc, a Modoc Indian who fought in the 1873 California/Oregon Modoc War, was buried in 1886 in Portland’s Friends Meetinghouse Cemetery. On Thursday, August 7, 2008, 10:00 a.m., Cheewa James of Sacramento, California, one of Frank Modoc’s descendents, will pay homage to him 122 years after he was laid to rest.
In a desperate, last-ditch effort in 1873 to cling to their ancestral lands, the Modoc Indians, numbering some 55 warriors, fought the U. S. Army’s most expensive American Indian war. By the end of the six-month battle, over 1,000 soldiers were involved, trying to rout out the Modocs and their families from their natural lava fortress.
“The match for the Modoc Stronghold has not been built and never will be…It is the most impregnable fortress in the world,” despaired Lt. Thomas Wright, who fought and eventually died in the war. The natural fortification still exists today in the jagged, desolate terrain known as the Lava Beds National Monument, California.
This war dominated the front pages of newspapers all over America. A brigadier general was killed. Military men dropped like flies and most soldiers never even saw an Indian, as elusive Modocs slipped through the tortuous lava, in and out of the Stronghold.
At the end of the war, 150 Modoc men, women, and children were sent as prisoners of war to Oklahoma Indian Territory, among them the warrior known as Steamboat Frank. He soon became known as Frank Modoc, and like almost all of the Modoc exiles, he became a Quaker. But he was no ordinary Quaker. His dream was to become a Quaker pastor, and in pursuit of that, he traveled in the mid-l880s to Vassalboro, Maine, to study at the Oak Grove Seminary. He left his son Elwood, affectionately known by his Modoc name Lep-is, in the care of relatives in Oklahoma Indian Territory. His wife Alice had died a few years before of consumption (tuberculosis), a major killer of the Modocs.
Frank Modoc was especially known among Quakers for his eloquent preaching. He spoke English, but the Friends in Maine were particularly moved when this six-foot Indian would fervently speak and pray in Modoc. Understanding the words weren’t important to those who listened. They felt the spirit.
Frank Modoc’s dream was never fulfilled. He contracted tuberculosis while at the seminary, and realizing the seriousness of his disease, he immediately left for Oklahoma Indian Territory to be with his son Elwood. He made it only as far as Portland when he fell critically ill. He was taken in by the Quakers of the Friends Meetinghouse and while in their care died on June 12, 1886. After Frank’s death the Quakers were amazed at the number of scars Frank had, which were revealed when his body was prepared for burial in Portland.
Frank Modoc was acknowledged in 1884 as being the first full-blood American Indian ever recorded as minister of the gospel in the Society of Friends.
James’ book MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die, has just been published and is the most comprehensive book on the Modoc ever written, from ancestral times to the present. “The Frank Modoc saga was one of the most heart-rending stories that I wrote. I cannot imagine the emotion I will feel when, after all these years, I finally stand next to Frank Modoc’s grave,” says James. Elwood followed his father in death four years later at the age of 16, also a victim of tuberculosis. James is bringing with her dirt and prairie grass from Elwood’s grave in the Oklahoma Modoc Cemetery to place on Frank Modoc’s grave. In turn, she will take dirt and a pinecone from the elder Modoc’s grave to be put on Elwood’s grave.
“There is little surviving of the Modoc culture,” says James, “but one simple song remains. It is a song of sharing that was given to me by Modoc relatives. We will all share that song at the grave site. The song says, ‘A change is coming.’ How appropriate for Frank Modoc it is.”
MODOC: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die (Naturegraph), ISBN # 0-87961-275-4 350 pages, over 150 photographs, soft cover $19.95
