Resistance is Futile

This morning we started our day with breakfast at a restaurant called "Captain Jack's Stronghold" in Tulelake, California.  This restaurant is not named after Captain Jack Sparrow, but after Keintpoos, a Modoc chief, who was known as "Captain Jack" by the whites.

He and a few of his companions were responsible for the most costly Indian war in the history of the United States, as well as for the death of the only US general to die in an Indian war.  Lava Beds National Monument is the site of Captain Jack's Stronghold, where Keintpoos and about 50 of his followers managed to hold off the US Army for six months in 1872, despite the fact that they were outnumbered ten to one.  Our first mission of the day was to visit these lava beds and see for ourselves how the Modoc accomplished this amazing feat.

Now here's something very odd: literally within sight of this place of siege, where the Modocs fought for the right to stay in their home (the government had assigned them to a reservation up north, to be shared with the Klamath tribe, instead of allowing them to remain by the Lost River), another group of people had been uprooted from their homes and placed in a segregated facility by the white man's government. Just down the road lies Tule Lake concentration camp, where more than 18,000 Japanese Americans were sent in 1942.

Not much remains of the original Tule Lake Segregation Center, because most of the buildings were repurposed by "homesteaders" later, and the barracks buildings used for houses.  There was one remaining building on the site, and another one that they took to the museum we went to.  I tried to imagine myself being given two or three days to leave my home, taking only what I could carry with me, and being sent to this place.  I tried to imagine the mixture of feelings of anger, confusion, shame, denial.

Just across the road was the Stronghold, with its magnificent view of Mount Shasta in the distance.  It's easy to see how the US Army could miss seeing the people hiding down in the lava formations here.  The Modoc men were here, and so were their families.  The old chief, Schonchin, had signed the treaty promising to relocate to the Klamath reservation, but young Keintpoos was tired of being harassed by the Klamath, and of the harsh conditions on the reservation.  He asked for a separate reservation, which would have cost the US only 10,000 dollars.  The Modoc war ended up costing the government half a million. 

The Modocs spent six months in these narrow lanes and lava caves while the army tried to flush them out.  Finally, a small group of unarmed negotiators arranged a meeting with the Modoc.  Under pressure from his friends, after his final request for a separate Modoc reservation had been refused, Captain Jack shot and killed General Canby, who had come to negotiate a treaty.  Shortly thereafter, the Modoc warriors were captured, and Captain Jack and two of his companions became the only Indians tried in a military tribunal.  Gallows had been constructed even before the trial began.

Tule Lake became a segregation center to contain the most "dangerous" of the Japanese-American prisoners, because of their answers to two questions on a "loyalty questionnaire" provided by the US Government.  The first question asked if these prisoners would be willing to serve in combat duty in the armed forces of the United States, and the second question asked them to swear unqualified allegiance to the US and to renounce any loyalty to Japan.   Anyone who answered "no" to either of these questions, or who refused to fill out the questionnaire, or who wrote anything like "yes, if you will let my family go home" was deemed disloyal and dangerous.  These prisoners were called "no-no's" and most were ultimately transferred to Tule Lake, which was the only one of the internment camps to be put under martial law.

In my "Visions of America" class, we do a "Monument Project" every year, where I ask the students to select a monument or memorial and analyze it.  What does it commemorate? Whose story does it tell?  Has it been moved or changed?  What, if anything, is written there?  What is not written?  It took the US Government until 1988 to say sorry for the wrongful imprisonment and the violation of the rights of American citizens, and until 2008 for the Tule Lake Camp to be designated a national monument.

The Historic Marker by the side of the road: very difficult indeed to find!

It took just nine years for the soldiers to erect this "Canby Cross" to commemorate the killing of General Canby by Captain Jack. 

Finally, there has never been an official monument to Keintpoos, his warriors and their families, who, after the trial and execution of the leaders of the rebellion, were moved to reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma.  Despite General Sherman's stated wish not to leave a Modoc man, woman or child alive, they are still around today and you can read all about them here:
Read all about the Modoc Tribe today!

We did find a monument, although not an official one.  It's a pine tree post, its branches decorated with wind chimes, scraps of fabric, bells, plastic wrist bands, key rings, Mardi Gras beads, bottle openers, and at its foot had been placed pairs of shoes, a three month sobriety coin, rosary beads, hand warmers...I couldn't tell what they all meant, but as I stood there, moved, at this memorial to the "no no's" of 1872, I realized that I was also looking at the site of Tule Lake Segregation Center just across the way.  You can see it in the background of this picture.

Read more about Tule Lake here