Page:The Indian History of the Modoc War.djvu/33

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CHAPTER III.

Volunteers from Rogue River, Oregon, make a trip through the Modoc Country; killing done; joined by Ben Wright and his men.

The Modoc people were driven from place to place, after they left the mountains, and went back to Title Lake. After they massacred the emigrants at Wa-ga-kan-na, they went to the mountains, and lived there for nearly two years. They were the guilty parties. The Modocs that did not take a hand in the massacre continued to live in the valleys. The chief among them was Schonchin's father.

The whites named the place where the massacre took place, Bloody Point. The massacre at Bloody Point did not stop the white emigrants from coming through the Modoc country. Every little while there would be an Indian killed. It went on thus for some time. No more whites were killed in the Modoc country; some emigrants being killed out in the Pitt River country right along.

About the year 1856, month of June, about thirty-five men started for Tule Lake from Rogue River, Oregon. They came out to Keno, Oregon, and turned and \vent down the Klamath River and on to Yreka, California. When they got to Yreka they stated they were hunting Indians. There was a man by the name of Ben Wright who told them he would like to hunt Indians. The Oregon volunteers invited Wright to join them and go along; so Wright got some men that liked to hunt Indians to go with him. When they all got together they numbered over one hundred men. They all left Yreka some time in July to hunt down the Modoc Indians. They found some Hot Creek Indians, jumped onto them and killed a few. Wright was ths chosen captain of the company. Wright traveled all through the Klamath Indian country, kill- ing Klamath Indians wherever he could find them. He went through Goose Lake country, killed Paiute Indians wherever he got a chance. He came down Spragues River, Oregon,