The Modoc War
A Story of Genocide at the Dawn of America's Gilded Age
by Robert Aquinas McNally
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Pub Date Nov 01 2017 | Archive Date Dec 14 2017
University of Nebraska Press | Bison Books
Description
Although little known today, the Modoc War dominated national headlines for an entire year. Fought in south-central Oregon and northeastern California, the war settled into a siege in the desolate Lava Beds and climaxed the decades-long effort to dispossess and destroy the Modocs.
The war did not end with the last shot fired, however. For the first and only time in U.S. history, Native fighters were tried and hanged for war crimes. The surviving Modocs were packed into cattle cars and shipped from Fort Klamath to the corrupt, disease-ridden Quapaw reservation in Oklahoma, where they found peace even more lethal than war.
The Modoc War tells the forgotten story of a violent and bloody Gilded Age campaign at a time when the federal government boasted officially of a “peace policy” toward Indigenous nations. This compelling history illuminates a dark corner in our country’s past.
Advance Praise
“From the opening scene to the end, The Modoc War unfolds with an unrelenting pace and engaging immediacy. One rarely comes across a historical account written with such verve, truly deserving to be called a page-turner. Here is ethnohistory at its best, an accounting of Indian-white relations from multiple perspectives.”—James J. Rawls, author of Indians of California: The Changing Image
“Robert McNally’s page-turning The Modoc War is one of the finest books ever written on this tragic history.”—Benjamin Madley, author of An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873
“Robert McNally’s history of the Modoc War, convincingly told from engrossing start to finish, tells the story of an American tragedy, but not without powerfully illustrating the nobility and endurance of the people who suffered it.”—Greg Sarris, chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and author of Grand Avenue and Watermelon Nights
“Well-paced, with vividly drawn characters and exciting, dramatic prose, Robert Aquinas McNally’s narrative history of the Modoc War is the most thoroughly researched and historically accurate account of that tragedy to date. A tour de force of historical storytelling, The Modoc War is an insightful exploration of one of America’s most important but forgotten Indian wars.”—Boyd Cothran, author of Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781496201799 |
PRICE | $34.95 (USD) |
PAGES | 432 |
Links
Featured Reviews
I received an electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Robert Aquinas McNally, and University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.
This history Covering the Lost River Modoc Tribe seems more evenhanded than anything I have read concerning these times before. This country, so starkly beautiful, and these democratic and moral people receive an honest and empathetic hearing. It is long overdue. The bibliography is impressive.
I have looked for Modoc related works over the years and found very few. With this list and the internet I will be able to expand my reading. This will go on my research shelf for sure.
This is the story of the war that the United States waged against the Modoc Indians in the Lava Beds of southern Oregon in the late 19th century. The author has done a great job of bringing to life the main players of the story, both Americans and Indians, and discussing their motivations. The Americans were determined to destroy the Modocs largely for the purposes of profit but also because of the mindset at the time that saw the Indians as little better than animals. I appreciated the author’s dip into the history of how this attitude came about in the culture of the time. I found this story to be riveting and thoroughly researched. It still surprises me that as a culture we know so much about the atrocities committed against blacks, but almost nothing about what was committed against the Indians. This is an excellent book in its category and I highly recommend it.
I received a free Kindle copy of The Modoc War: A Story of Fenocide at the Dawn of America's Guilded Age by Robert Aquinas McNally courtesy of Net Galley and University of Nebraska Press , the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.
I requested this book as I have an interest in Native American history and I currently live in Oregon where a good deal of this book took place. This is the first book by Robert Aquinas McNally that I have read.
This is a well researched and interesting read. It depics the conflict between the Modocs and the federal and state government. They lived in southern Oregon and northern California and like numerous tribes occupied land that white settlers wanted. They were a small band of Indians that were continually harrased until they surrendered. While the sub title of the books indicates that this is a rant about Indians being all good and whites are all evil, the author does a good job of balancing the reality of the times.
I recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in native american history.
The title of this book caught my interest because I did not remember of ever hearing of the Modoc's. This book was interesting, insightful and well researched. The author did an amazing job of writing not only the good on both sides but also the bad. The insight in to the motivations of people that were involved in this war was well done. This book brings to light an area that has been in the shadows of other more highly profiled encounters with the Native American nation. There is a lot of lost and missing history from this period of time. Wonderful book for an one to read.
A good book that has great history that is well researched. Highly recommend and will be using in the classroom.
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