As soon as the vote was put and result known, active preparation was made for departure; in fact, the result had been anticipated, for the horses were all ready, the goods packed, and daylight next morning found Jack and his people retracing the road they had gone over so hopefully eleven weeks before.
I will not spend time speculating on what were the thoughts and feelings of that unfortunate band of people, while fleeing stealthily from their new homes, but will simply say, that the little cavalcade carried with them elements that have developed into hatred and revenge, which has since shocked the moral sense of mankind by bloody deeds of savage warfare that stand out on the country’s history without a parallel.
Returning to the old home on Lost river, and feeling that he was not under obligations to obey law any longer, Captain Jack seems to have begun where he
left off; his young men and women visiting Y-re-ka and the mining camps adjacent.
A few weeks later Jack went to Y-re-ka himself, meeting his old friends, who gave him welcome. The Modoc trade may have had something to do with the success of more than one merchant in Y-re-ka. The presence of the Modocs was hailed with pleasure, no doubt, by another class whose social status in society was little better than the Modocs themselves. To these people the Modocs told falsehoods about reservation life, and received in return sympathy for their reputed wrongs, and encouragement in repeating the falsehoods. In this way the belief that they were misused by Government officials has obtained; an unjust censure has been publicly aimed against worthy men. What more natural than the fact that the dissolute portion of the Y-re-ka people should espouse the Modoc cause, and that the better part of society should form their opinions from stories circulated by friends of Modoc women?
Mankind are prone to be swayed in the direction of self-interest, and, when encouraged, any poor mortal may tell a falsehood so often that he really believes it to be true. That Jack, too, confirmed such reports is true, because in the sympathy he found were mingled words of justification. Indeed, a plain, truthful statement of the facts, as they were, was enough to insure him sympathetic advisers.
It is true, then, when Captain Jack returned to Lost river, he was strengthened and confirmed in his ideas of justification, and his determination to remain off the Reservation.
Nothing of grave import transpired until the spring
of 1871, although efforts were made in the mean time by the Indian Department, and by old chief Schonchin, to induce Captain Jack to return.
A home at Yai-nax was proposed, and in order that no reasonable excuse on the part of Captain Jack could be found on account of Klamath Indians, and to remove every obstacle, the Reservation was divided into distinct agencies; the western portion being assigned to “Klamath” Indians, and the eastern portion to “Snakes,” “Walpahpas,” and “Modocs.” A district of country was set apart exclusively for the latter. To this new home old Schonchin removed with his people; and a portion of Captain Jack’s band, meanwhile, also, taking up homes. Commissary Applegate, at one time, was hopeful that the whole Modoc tribe could be induced to come to the new home at Yai-nax. Captain Jack visited it, and talked seriously of settling on this location; but while he was hesitating as to what he should do, an unfortunate tragedy was enacted, so natural to a savage state, which completely changed the current of events.