Native American

American Horse – A Shrewd Sioux Chief
One of the wittiest and shrewdest of the Sioux chiefs was American Horse, who succeeded to the name and position of an uncle, killed in the battle of Slim Buttes in 1876. The younger American Horse was born a little before the encroachments of the whites upon the Sioux country became serious and their methods aggressive, and his early manhood brought him into that most trying and critical period of our history. He had been tutored by his uncle since his own father was killed in battle while he was still very young. The American Horse band was closely attached to a trading post, and its members, in consequence, were inclined to be friendly with the whites, a policy closely adhered to by their leader.
When he was born, his old grandfather said: “Put him out in the sun! Let him ask his great-grandfather, the Sun, for the warm blood of a warrior!” And he had warm blood. He was a genial man, liking notoriety and excitement. He always seized an opportunity to leap into the center of the arena.
In early life, he was a clownish sort of boy among the boys —an expert mimic and impersonator. This talent made him popular and in his way a leader. He was a natural actor, and early showed marked ability as a speaker.
American Horse was about ten years old when he was attacked by three Crow warriors while driving a herd of ponies to water. Here he displayed native cunning and initiative. It seemed he had scarcely a chance to escape, for the enemy was near. He yelled frantically at the ponies to start them toward home, while he dropped off into a thicket of willows and hid there.
A part of the herd was caught in sight of the camp and there was a counter chase, but the Crows got away with the ponies. Of course, his mother was frantic, believing her boy had been killed or captured; but after the excitement was over, he appeared in camp unhurt. When questioned about his escape, he remarked: “I knew they would not take the time to hunt for small game when there was so much bigger close by.

“Captain Jack”, Kintpuash (c. 1837-1873)
Modoc Tribe, Oregon and California
Kintpuash was born near Tule Lake, an area that now straddles the Oregon-California border. The ancestral homeland of the Modoc Peoples consisted of 5,000 acres until 1864 when they were forcibly removed by the federal government to the lands of their neighbors on the newly-created Klamath Reservation. The Klamath was a much larger tribe than the Modoc, and conflict was inevitable.
Now casually referred to as “Captain Jack” by white colonizers, Kintpuash stood firm. In 1865 he led a band of Modoc from the reservation back to their lands in California. Four years went by before the United States army rounded them up again and back to Klamath territory, but Kintpuash was undaunted. In 1870 he marched back home again with 180 of his Modoc kinsmen.
The government’s outright refusal to allow the Modoc back into their homelands led to the outbreak of the Modoc War from 1872 to 1873.
Kintpuash fled with his band into the area now protected as the Lava Beds National Monument, and they settled into this natural fortress. His warriors made use of its many caves and trenches in the lava beds for defensive fighting, and women and children could be sheltered there. When the Modoc were finally located, the Army launched an attack on January 17, 1873. The US Army was beaten in this conflict but they weren’t retreating either.
Kintpuash’s advisers suggested that the Army would leave if their warriors killed its leader General Edward Canby, (the future namesake of the town of Canby, Oregon) but Kintpuash hoped for a peaceful solution that would allow his people to stay in their territory.
It wasn’t to be. During the next meeting of the peace commission on April 11, Kintpuash and several other Modoc broke down and drew pistols at a prearranged signal; he shot General Canby twice in the head. For this, he was executed on October 3, 1873.
The area of the Lava Beds National Monument where Captain Jack and his men held out against the United States Army is now known as Captain Jack’s Stronghold. It took until 1984 for Kintpuash’s skull to be returned for proper reburial by his Modoc descendants. He is buried at Fort Klamath Park, Oregon