Modoc_(I.E._"

Modoc (I.E. " southerners"), a tribe of North American Indians of the Lutuamian stock, who formerly lived around Lower Klamath Lake, south-western Oregon. They were always an aggressive people, and constantly at war with their neighbours. They are known mainly from their stubborn resistance to the United States government in 1872 and 1873. This is called the Modoc War, and was caused by an attempt to place them on a reservation. After some preliminary fighting the Modocs retreated to the "Lava Beds," a basaltic region, seamed and crevassed, and rich in caves. Here they made a stand for several months. During the war two members of a peace commission were treacherously massacred by them while under a flag of truce. On their final submission the leaders were hanged and part of the tribe was removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and the others were sent back to a reservation on the Klamath.