The Klamaths, Yai-nax, and Modocs all ought to be removed to the Coast Reservation, a portion of which, lying between the Siletz and Tillamook, west of the Grand Ronde, capable of sustaining a large population, remains unoccupied, abounding in fish, game, and all the products of the soil to which Indians are accustomed.
A peace commissioner should hasten to the scene of trouble as coming from the “Great Father” of all the people, both whites and Indians, with full authority to hear and adjust all the difficulties.
On account of his personal acquaintance with those Indians and their implicit confidence in him, we would respectfully suggest and recommend Hon. A. B. Meacham as a proper man to appoint as a peace commissioner for the adjustment of difficulties with those tribes and the carrying out of the policy herein indicated.—[Signed AS ABOVE STATED.]
The day following the filing of the above set of “Becauses” and recommendations, I received a note inviting me to the Interior Department. When notified of my appointment as Chairman of the Commission, I then expressed doubts of its success, giving, as a reason, the intense feeling of the western people against the Modocs and any peace measures; also as to the safety of the commission in attempting to negotiate with a people who were desperate, and had been successful in every engagement with the Government forces.
It is well known at the department in Washington that I accepted the appointment with reluctance, and finally yielded my wishes on the urgent solicitation of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior. The fact that I knew the Modocs personally, and that I had been successful, while Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, in managing them peaceably in 1869, was given as one reason. Another was, the sympathy I had for them on account of the treatment of them by the Klamaths; and another still, humanity for the soldiers whose lives were imperilled by the effort to make peace through blood, and charity for a poor, deluded people, whose religious infatuation and hot blood had forfeited their right to life and liberty.
My heart was in sympathy, too, with the poor, bereaved wives and mothers, made so by Modoc treachery; but I did not believe that doubling the number of widows and orphans would make the griefs of the mourners less, or lighter to be borne.
The sands of the sage-brush plains had drank up the blood of a score of manly hearts; immersing the lava rocks in blood could not make the dead forms to rise again.
With these feelings, and fully realizing the danger attending, and anticipating the opposition that would be raised against the commission, I left Washington on the 5th of February, 1873, with the determination to do my whole duty, despite these untoward circumstances. The other members of the commission were Hon. Jesse Applegate, a man of long experience on the frontier, possessed of eminent qualities for such a mission, aside from his personal knowledge of existing hostilities, and personal acquaintance with the Modocs, and Samuel Case, who was then acting Indian Agent at Alsea, Oregon. Mr. Case has had long experience and success in the management of Indians; these qualities were requisite in treating with a hostile people. Both these appointments were made on my own recommendation, based on a personal acquaintance with these gentlemen, believing them fitted for the difficult task assigned the commission. I accepted the chairmanship more cheerfully, when informed that Gen. Canby would act as counsellor to the commission, knowing, as I did, his great experience among Indians, and the ability and character which he would bring to bear upon the whole subject of the Modoc trouble. I knew him to be
humane and wise, and I had not the slightest doubt of his integrity.