Part 38 (1/2)
On the 5th of April Captain Jack sent Boston Charley, with a request for old man Meacham to meet him at the council tent, and to bring John Fairchild along. This message was laid before the board. It was thought, both by Gen. Canby and Dr. Thomas, to be fraught with danger. I did not, and I a.s.sumed the responsibility of going this time; inviting Mr.
Fairchild, and taking Riddle and his wife as interpreters, I went.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WI-NE-MAH (TOBEY).]
Judge Roseborough arrived in camp, and came on after we had reached the council tent.
Captain Jack was on the ground, accompanied by his wives and seven or eight men. On this occasion he talked freely, saying, substantially, that he felt afraid of Gen. Canby, on account of his military dress; and, also, of Dr. Thomas, because he was a Sunday doctor; but ”now I can talk. I am not afraid. I know you and Fairchild. I know your hearts.” He reviewed the circ.u.mstances that led to the war, nearly in the order they have been referred to in this volume, and differing in no material point, except that he blamed Superintendent Odeneal for not coming in person to see him while on Lost river, saying, ”that he would not have resisted him. Take away the soldier, and the war will stop. Give me a home on Lost river. I can take care of my people. I do not ask anybody to help me. We can make a living for ourselves. Let us have the same chance that other men have. We do not want to ask an agent where we can go. We are _men_; we are not women.”
I replied, that, ”since blood has been spilled on Lost river, you cannot live there in peace; the blood would always come up between you and the white men. The army cannot be withdrawn until all the troubles are settled.”
After sitting in silence a few moments, he replied, ”I hear your words. I give up my home on Lost river. Give me this lava bed for a home. I can live here; take away your soldiers, and we can settle everything. n.o.body will ever want these rocks; give me a home here.”
a.s.sured that no peace could be had while he remained in the rocks, unless he gave up the men who committed the murders on Lost river for trial, he met me with real Indian logic: ”Who will try them,--white men or Indians?”
”White men, of course,” I replied, although I knew that this man had an inherent idea of the right of trial by a jury of his peers, and that he would come back with another question not easy to be answered by a citizen _who believed in equal justice to all men_.
”Then will you give up the men who killed the Indian women and children on Lost river, to be tried by the Modocs?”
I said, ”No, because the Modoc law is dead; the white man's law rules the country now; only one law lives at a time.”
He had not yet exhausted all his mental resources. Hear him say: ”Will you try the men who fired on my people, on the east side of Lost river, by your own law?”
This inquiry was worthy of a direct answer, and it would seem that no honest man need hesitate to say ”Yes.” _I did not_ say yes, because I knew that the prejudice was so strong against the Modocs that it could not be done. I could only repeat that ”the white man's law rules the country,--the Indian law is dead.”
”Oh, yes, I see; the white man's laws are good for the white man, but they are made so as to leave the Indian out. No, my friend, I cannot give up the young men to be hung. I know they did wrong,--their blood was bad when they saw the women and children dead. _They_ did not begin; the white man began first; I know they are bad; I can't help that; I have no strong laws, and strong houses; some of your young men are bad, too; _you_ have strong laws and strong houses (jails); why don't you make your men do right? No, I cannot give up my young men; take away the soldiers, and all the trouble will stop.”
I repeated again: ”The soldiers cannot be taken away while you stay in the Lava Beds.” Laying his hand on my arm, he said, ”Tell me, my friend, what I am to do,--I do not want to fight.” I said to him, ”The only way now for peace is to come out of the rocks, and we will hunt up a new home for you; then all this trouble will cease. No peace can be made while you stay in the Lava Beds; we can find you another place, and the President will give you each a home.” He replied, ”I don't know any other country. G.o.d gave me this country; he put my people here first. I was born here,--my father was born here; I want to live here; I do not want to leave the ground where I was born.”
On being again a.s.sured that he ”must come out of the rocks and leave the country, acknowledge the authority of the Government, and then we could live in peace,” his reply was characteristic of the man and his race:--
”You ask me to come out, and put myself in your power. I cannot do it,--I am afraid; no, I am not afraid, but my people are. When you was at Fairchild's ranch you sent me word that no more preparation for war would be made by you, and that I must not go on preparing for war until this thing was settled. I have done nothing; I have seen your men pa.s.sing through the country; I could have killed them; I did not; my men have stayed in the rocks all the time; they have not killed anybody; they have not killed any cattle. I have kept my promise,--_have you kept yours_?
Your soldiers stole my horses, you did not give them up; you say 'you want peace,' why do you come with so many soldiers to make peace? I see your men coming every day with big guns; does _that_ look like making peace?”
Then, rising to his feet, he pointed to the farther sh.o.r.e of the lake: ”Do you see that dark spot there? _do you see it?_ Forty-six of my people met Ben Wright there when I was a little boy. He told them he wanted to make peace. It was a rainy day; my people wore moccasins then; their feet were wet. _He smoked the pipe with them._ They believed him; they set down to dry their feet; they unstrung their bows, and laid them down by their sides; when, suddenly, Ben Wright drawing a pistol with each hand, began shooting my people. Do you know how many escaped? _Do you know?_” With his eye fixed fiercely on mine, he waited a minute, and then, raising one hand, with his fingers extended, he answered silently. Continuing, he said: ”One man of the five--Te-he-Jack--is now in that camp there,”
pointing to the stronghold.
I pointed to ”b.l.o.o.d.y Point,” and _asked him how many escaped there_? He answered: ”Your people and mine were at war then; they were not making peace.”
On my a.s.serting that ”Ben Wright did wrong to kill people under a flag of truce,” he said: ”_You_ say it is wrong; but your _Government_ did not say it was wrong. It made him a tyee chief. Big Chief made him an Indian agent.”
This half-savage had truth on his side, as far as the Government was concerned; as to the treachery of Ben Wright, that has been emphatically denied, and just as positively affirmed, by parties who were cognizant of the affair. It is certain that the Modocs have always claimed that he violated a flag of truce, and that they have never complained of any losses of men in any other way. I have no doubt that this ma.s.sacre had been referred to often in the Modoc councils by the ”Curly-haired Doctor”
and his gang of cut-throats, for the purpose of preventing peace-making.
Captain Jack, rising to full stature, broke out in an impa.s.sioned speech, that I had not thought him competent to make:--
”I am but one man. I am the voice of my people. Whatever their hearts are, that I talk. I want no more war. I want to be a man. You deny me the right of a white man. My skin is red; my heart is a white man's heart; but I am a _Modoc_. I am not afraid to die. I will not fall on the rocks. When I die, my enemies will be under me. Your soldiers begun on me when I was asleep on Lost river. They drove us to these rocks, like a wounded deer.
Tell your soldier tyee I am over there now; tell him not to hunt for me on Lost river or Shasta b.u.t.te. Tell him I _am over there_. I want him to take his soldiers away. I do not want to fight. I am a Modoc. I am not afraid to die. I can show him how a Modoc can die.”
I advised him to think well; that our Government was strong, and would not go back; if he would not come out of the rocks the war would go on, and all his people would be destroyed.