Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 1 3
right, title, and claim to all the country claimed by them, and accepted
a reservation described in said article by natural boundaries, upon
which they agreed and bound themselves to locate immediately after
the ratification of' the treaty.
The ratification of this treaty was advised and consented to by the
Senate, July 2, 1866, and the same was proclaimed by the President
February 17, 1870. At the date of proclamation the Modocs were
found on their reservation, where they remairted until April, 1870, and
then left for their cainp on Lost River.
There is evidence that Captain Jack and his band were prepared at
this time to remain upon the reservation and settle down in the way of
civilization, if there had been ordinary encouragement and assistance,
and if the Klanmaths, who largely outnumbered Captain Jack's band,
and who were their hereditary enemies, had allowed them so to do. This
band began to sp)lit rails for their farms, and in other ways to adopt
civilized habits; but the Kilamatlhs demanded tribute fr6m them for the
land they were occupying, which the Modocs were obliged to render.
Captain Jack then removed to another part of the reservation, end
began again to try to live by cultivating the ground. But he was followed by the same spirit of hostility by the Klamaths, from which ihe
does not seem to have been protected by the agent. The issue of rations
seems also to have l)een suspended for want of funds, and for these reasons
Captain Jack and his band returned to their old home on Lost River,
where they became a serious annoyance to the whites, who had in the
meanwhile settled on their ceded lands.
This annoyance led to serious apprehensions on the part of the
military.authorities, and under date of the 19th of March, 1872, the
honorable Secretary of War transmitted to this Department copies of
correspondence between the military in regard to the matter. A copy
of this correspondence was sent to Superintendent Ddeneal by the Indian Office, April 12, 1872, with directions to have the Modocs removed,
if practicable, to their reservation; and if removed, to see that they were
properly protected from the Klamaths.
The superintendent was then instructed, in case they could not be
removed, to report the practicability of locating them at some other
point. The superintendent reported on the 17th June that their
reservation was the best place for them to be located, but that he
did not believe it practicable to remove them without using the
military for that purpose, and that if they should resist, he doubted
whether there was force enough in the country to compel them
to go. In reply, the superintendent was directed, July 6, 1872,
to remove them to the Klamathireservation. The attempt to execute
this order resulted in a conflict between the TModocs and the troops and
the white settlers. For the purpose of examining into the same, and,
if possible, to procure a peaceable solution of the difficulties, a commission was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior in January last.
This commission, as finally composed, consisted of A. B. Meacham,
late superintendent Indian affairs for Oregon, L. S. Dyar, agent
for the Klamath agency, and Rev. E. Thomas, and by direction of the
Secretary of the Interior, under date of March 22, 1873, they were put
under the direction of General Canby. While engaged in a conference
with Captain Jack, chief of the Modocs, and other representative men
of the tribe, on the 11th of April, General Canby and Dr. Thomas
were brutally murdered by these Indians, and Mr. Meacham severely
wounded.
Thus ended the negotiations with the Modocs, who, after seven months'