A Far Piece from Home - Travelogue 2017v8: Modoc Indian Culture at Lava Beds

Loop Trail around Captain Jack's Stronghold
Lava Beds National Monument

Our Day 3 at Lava Beds was our exit day on the way up to stay a couple days with Inga and Sean in Portland.  Before I left Lava Beds National Monument, there was some historical and pre-historical places to visit inside the Monument.  The first place we went to that morning was "Captain Jack's Stronghold"; a place where in 1872-73 about 60 Modoc warriors held off the much larger US Army command that was looking to either negotiate or force Captain Jack and his band back onto the Klamath Indian Reservation (a group the Modoc considered enemies).  Though there was a groundswell of support by the local European settlers to accommodate the Modoc and their claims, a series of blunders and miscalculations on both sides led to a conflict that sealed the fate of the Modoc.  General Canby led a negotiating party that met with Captain Jack and several warriors, only to be surprised by treachery by the Modoc and killed in an ambush.  General Canby's death is significant as it is the only time in US history where the commanding general was killed in the conflict.  After Canby's killing, more troops and artillery led to the Modoc's capture; Captain Jack was hanged and most of the Modoc were shipped off to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).  Being interested in this part of the only Indian War in California, I'd checked out a book on this sad affair in 8th grade, and had wanted to see the place myself someday.

Mount Shasta in the distance, natural fortifications used by Modoc warriors in the foreground

We parked at the head of the interpretive loop trail that wound around the roughed terrain of volcanic rock, caves, crevices and other elements of natural fortification.  At the time, Tule Lake, now much diminished by irrigation water use, lapped to the edge of the stronghold.  Once the US soldiers cut off the Modoc from their access to water, the conflict was over.  We soberly strode across the terrain on this bright morning, and as is the case with most all the battlefields I've visited, it is difficult to truly imagine the suffering and pain that was once associated with this hallowed ground.

Sheltering cliff face used to hold off a superior US Army force

Spontaneous Memorial to Captain Jack and the Modoc
raised inside of the stronghold. 
Numerous trinkets, coins, ID cards
and other personal items left in the high desert

Before we crossed into Oregon to visit Crater Lake National Park, we had one last stop to make at the edge of the Monument.  We were going to see Petroglyph Point, a butte made of layered volcanic ejecta, including a basal layer of volcanic ash that has been inscribed with numerous enigmatic glyphs by the early Modoc people, perhaps as far back as 6,000 years.  Petroglyph Point was once accessed only by boat as it has been surrounded by Tule Lake through most of its existence, but the lake is smaller now and we can drive right up to the cliff face and see what humans hands had carved between 1,500 and 6,000 years before us.

Petroglyph Point
A volcanic vent that erupted through Tule Lake thousands of years ago,
provided a soft layer of volcanic ash into which the
Ancestral Modoc Peoples carved enigmatic (to us) markings and patterns 

Abundant markings that to me signify perhaps rivers, mountains and trees

Glyphs etched into volcanic ash that settled into the ancient Tule Lake