Page:The Indian History of the Modoc War.djvu/199

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and says it is law. If I am to die, I leave my son, and I hope he will be allowed to remain in this country. I hope he will grow up like a good man. I want to turn him over to the Old Chief Schonchin at Yainax, who will make a good man of him. I have always looked on the younger men of our trihe as my especial charge and have reasoned with them, and now I am to die as the result of their bad conduct. I leave four of my children and I wish them turned over to my brother at Yainax. It is doing a great wrong to take my life. I was an old man and took no active part in the war. I would like to see those executed for whom I am wearing chains. In the boys who murdered the Commissioners I have an interest as though they were my own children. If the law does not kill them, they may grow up and become good men. I look back to the his- tory of the Modoc war and I can see O'Deneal at the bottom of all the trouble. He came down to Linkville 1 with Ivan Applegate, sent Ivan to see and talk with Capt. Jack. If

Deneal came by himself, all the Modocs would go to Yainax.

1 think that O'Deneal 2 is responsible for the murder of Canby, for the blood in the Lava Beds and the chains on my feet. I have heard of reports that were sent to Yreka, Ashland and Jacksonville, that the Modocs were on the warpath and such bad talk brought Major Jackson and the soldiers down. I don't want to say if I am found guilty, that it would not be right, but after our retreat from Lost River, I would come in and surrender and be secure. I felt that these murders had been committed by the boys and that I had been carried along with the tide. If I had blood on my hands like Boston Charley. I could say like him, 'I killed General Canby. I killed Thomas.' But I had nothing to say about the decision and I never asked.

"You are the law-giving parties. You say I must die. 1 am satisfied if the law is correct. I have made a straight

iKlamath Falls, Oregon.

2Supt. Thomas B. O'Deneal, a native of Kentucky, was born Oct. 21, 1834, and went to Missouri at an early age, and came to Oregon in 1852 He was a lawyer, County Judge of Benton county, Oregon in 1870, and was the founder and editor of the "Corvallis Gazette." Was appointed Superintend- ent of Indian Affairs in 1872 with headquarters at Salem, Oregon and re- tained that position until it was abolished in 1874. He was then made busi- ness manager of the "Portland Daily Bulletin," at that time a strong com- petitor of the "Oregonian." The papers were merged in 1875 retaining the name "Oregonian." He was afterwards clerk of the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon. He died at Salem, Oregon, June 25, 1886.