Cheewa James

Modoc: The Tribe that Wouldn’t Die by Cheewa James, who is the great-granddaughter of the Modoc fighter the white people called Shacknasty Jim. This is an important book in the literature of the American Indian, eminently readable but also scholarly. There have been many books written about the Modoc War of 1873, in which fewer than sixty Indian fighters defeated more than a thousand U.S. soldiers. These books are thrilling to read and make one think long and deeply about Keintpoos (known to history as Captain Jack) and the Modoc people. That they were deeply wronged when war was forced upon them by the settlers and military is no longer in doubt. James brings forward documentation that has been hidden or ignored for more than a hundred years to delineate exactly who were the greedy white men who fomented the war. James writes in a balanced manner, without bitterness and without histrionics. Most writers end their books with the hanging of Captain Jack, Schonchin John, Black Jim, and Boston Charley; James continues and brings the history of the Modocs up to date. President Ulysses S. Grant and his Secretary of War, William Tecumseh Sherman, had hoped the Modocs would be exterminated in the war. When that failed, they exiled the survivors to Oklahoma and gave them into the keeping of a dishonest Indian agent who stole the meager supplies and medicine allotted to them. Ultimately, genocide failed, whereupon the government tried to commit cultural genocide. But the Modoc heart is strong and the Modoc spirit is unbreakable. The book contains many photographs, some dating from before the war, others right up to the present. Includes end notes, bibliography, and index. Reviewed by Barbara J. Olexer… (más)