Customer Reviews

Modoc: The Tribe That Wouldn't Die

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Cheewa James has written a very interesting, readable account of a fascinating story. My first impression was that she went a little overboard on stressing her personal family connection to the drama of the Modocs (Her great-grandfather, Shacknasty Jim, was one of the most outstanding of the group of 60 warriors that held off several hundred and finally over a thousand regular army and volunteer soldiers for about 5 months--I guess I'll forgive her for taking a little pride). That aside, and a James family photo album, this book tells an exciting, exasperating story of real-life heartbreaks. It really held my interest. For nonfiction narratives of Native Americans in conflict I would rank this my third favorite after Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas by Mari Sandoz, and The Truth About Geronimo by Britton Davis. That's pretty exalted company. Highly recommended!

This is history that reads like a great adventure! The Modocs are a story of bravery, perseverance, adaptability and pride.

Cheewa James has honored her people by telling their story. She has honored us by sharing their story.

Jim Bouchard
Author of Dynamic Components of Personal POWER

Modoc: The Tribe that Wouldn't Die by Cheewa James, who is the great-granddaughter of the Modoc fighter the white people called Shacknasty Jim. This is an important book in the literature of the American Indian, eminently readable but also scholarly. There have been many books written about the Modoc War of 1873, in which fewer than sixty Indian fighters defeated more than a thousand U.S. soldiers. These books are thrilling to read and make one think long and deeply about Keintpoos (known to history as Captain Jack) and the Modoc people. That they were deeply wronged when war was forced upon them by the settlers and military is no longer in doubt. James brings forward documentation that has been hidden or ignored for more than a hundred years to delineate exactly who were the greedy white men who fomented the war. James writes in a balanced manner, without bitterness and without histrionics. Most writers end their books with the hanging of Captain Jack, Schonchin John, Black Jim, and Boston Charley; James continues and brings the history of the Modocs up to date. President Ulysses S. Grant and his Secretary of War, William Tecumseh Sherman, had hoped the Modocs would be exterminated in the war. When that failed, they exiled the survivors to Oklahoma and gave them into the keeping of a dishonest Indian agent who stole the meager supplies and medicine allotted to them. Ultimately, genocide failed, whereupon the government tried to commit cultural genocide. But the Modoc heart is strong and the Modoc spirit is unbreakable. The book contains many photographs, some dating from before the war, others right up to the present. Includes end notes, bibliography, and index. Reviewed by Barbara J. Olexer, author of The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times.

The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times

I bought this for my sister in honor of the time we spent together in Modoc. I'll read it after she is finished with it. She says it is very well written.