Cochise and Howard discuss the Chiri-cahua’s set-
tlement on a reservation. During the negotiations,
Cochise holds out for a reservation in the Chirica-
hua homeland in present-day southeastern Arizona.
He also insists that Jeffords be assigned as the reser-
vation’s agent.
November 14
An earthquake rocks Indian lands in
Washington State.
A large earthquake strikes north-central Washington
State, east of the Cascade Mountains. Its epicenter
is in the lands of the Chelan Indians. Catholic mis-
sionaries take advantage of the natural disaster by
using it to frighten would-be-Chelan converts into
giving up their traditional religion and adopting
Christianity. Furious at the missionaries’ efforts,
Chelan leader Nmosize burns the priests’ mission
to the ground.
The quake has an even more dire effect on the
Entiat, who were relocated to Lake Chelan by the
terms of the Yakima Treaty of 1855. When rocks
dislodged by the quake dam the Columbia River,
the Entiat’s new lands are flooded, forcing them
to uproot their villages for the second time in two
decades.
November 29
U.S. troops attack renegade Modoc led
by Kintpuash.
Responding to complaints by whites in the Lost
River Valley of California, the U.S. Army sends
out troops to expel a group of Modoc Indians led
by Kintpuash (known to whites as Captain Jack)
from the region and take them back to the Klam-
ath Indian Reservation in Oregon. The Modoc,
who traditionally lived in northern California and
southern Oregon, had been assigned to the Klam-
ath’s reservation by an 1864 treaty. The Klamath,
however, refused to let the Modoc hunt or fish in
the area. Unhappy and desperate, Kintpuash’s fol-
lowers soon escaped the reservation and returned to
their ancestral territory near Lost River.
When the soldiers arrive, they immediately
attack Kintpuash’s camp, killing several Indians be-
fore the Modoc are able to retreat to the lava beds
on the shore of Tule Lake. The lava beds are a natu-
ral stronghold, with caves in which the Modoc can
easily hide from the troops.
The renegade Modoc will remain holed up in
the caves for six months, while more than 1,000
soldiers lie in wait. The cost of siege to the U.S.
Army will be great. Some 400 troops will be killed,
and nearly $500,000 will be spent on their ef-
forts to root out the Indians. (See also entries for
APRIL 11, 1873, and for OCTOBER 3, 1873.)1873Congress repeals the “civilization
fund.”
Early in the 19th century, Congress established the
“civilization fund” (see entry for 1819) to finance
Indian education at schools run by missionaries.
Repeatedly challenged as unconstitutional for vio-
lating the separation of church and state, the fund
is repealed. The measure moves the Bureau of
Indian Affairs to establish a system of government-
operated Indian day and boarding schools.April 11U.S. negotiators are attacked by renegade
Modoc.
Attempting to end the six-month standoff with
Modoc hiding in the lava beds near Tule Lake (see
entry for NOVEMBER 29, 1872), the federal gov-
ernment sends four peace commissioners to meet
with the Modoc and negotiate a settlement. Led by
Kintpuash (Captain Jack), the Modoc attack the
commissioners, murdering two, including Edward
Canby, the only regular army general killed dur-
ing the Indian Wars. A third commissioner, Alfred
Meacham, is shot and almost fatally knifed, but
Kintpuash’s cousin Winema (also known as Toby
Riddle) scatters his attackers by screaming that
more U.S. troops are en route.