Captain Jack (1837-3 October 1873), born Kintpuash, was a chief of the Modoc tribe of northern California and Oregon. From 1872 to 1873, he fought the United States in the "Modoc War", in which the Modoc killed General Edward Canby. He was the only Native American leader to be tried for war crimes in the history of the United States, and he was hanged for Canby's murder.
Biography[]
Kintpuash was born in 1837 in the Tule Lake area of California, and his family was moved to the Klamath reservation in Oregon by the United States in 1864. The Modoc tribe was poorly treated by the Klamath majority on the reservation, which was on Klamath ancestral land; in 1865, he began a breakout from the reservation (by which point he had been nicknamed "Captain Jack"), only to be sent back in 1869. In 1870, he escaped again with the Modoc tribe, and the US Army attempted to force Captain Jack and the Modoc to return to the Klamath reservation. Fighting broke out in the Modoc War in 1872, and on 11 April 1873 the Modoc murdered General Edward Canby, believing that his death would lead to the Americans pulling back. However, this only led to more US troops being sent to quell the Modoc, and Captain Jack was captured when the Americans captured his stronghold after two tries and succeeded in capturing him at Dry Lake. Along with Boston Charley, Hooker Jim, and Shacknasty Jim, he was hanged as a "war criminal" for murdering Canby.