Summary and Analysis Chapter 10: The Ordeal of Captain Jack
New Characters
Captain Jack/Kintpuash: Modoc chief who sought to keep his tribe in California
Lava Beds and was betrayed by Hooker Jim and hanged by the Army.
Hooker Jim: Modoc chief who disagreed with Captain Jack’s strategy and later betrayed Captain Jack to the Army.
Summary
The Modocs, a tribe living in Northern California near Tule Lake, are led by
Captain Jack. After signing a treaty during the Civil War that situated them on
the Klamath reservation in Oregon, conflicts with the Klamaths, who felt the
Modocs were intruders on their land, prompted the Modocs to go back south. The
Army and the Modocs skirmish in late November 1872, and in the aftermath of the
skirmish, the Modocs head for sanctuary in the California Lava Beds. Shortly
thereafter, a separate band of Modocs led by Hooker Jim kills 12 white settlers
at local ranch houses. The Modocs decide to fight the Army rather than
surrender Jim’s band, and they defeat the soldiers. A peace commission then
arrives, and Hooker Jim escapes arrest. General Canby, who had let Jim’s band
escape through accidental neglect, came in with his troops, and in the spring
of 1873, Army negotiations with Captain Jack fail. Hooker Jim and Captain Jack
argue, and under pressure from Jim’s supporters, Jack vows to kill Canby if he
doesn't let the Modocs have their homeland. Canby does not grant the request,
and Jack kills him. Hooker Jim then betrays Jack to the Army, and Jack is
hanged on October 3, 1873.
Analysis
The readers see, in the clashes between Klamaths and Modocs on the Klamath
reservation, that Indian tribes sometimes put their disputes with each other
before their collective dispute with the whites. Indeed, this theme of internal
clashes among Indians is present throughout the chapter. Captain Jack’s
decision to retreat to the California Lava Beds gained the Modocs a stronghold
against the whites, but trouble emerged from within after the murders by Hooker
Jim’s band. Jack, pressured by Hooker Jim’s successful push to fight the Army
rather than surrender as criminals, and his threat to kill surrendering Modocs,
unwisely promised to kill General Canby if his demands weren’t met. In that
murder, and Jim’s betrayal of Jack, the readers see how disunity and treachery
could easily push Indians to make unwise strategic decisions in their responses
to whites. The members of Hooker Jim’s band win freedom through their betrayal,
but that individual freedom ensures that the tribe’s own freedom will be
short-lived.
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