Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
I formed a partnership with Miller, and we were not long in
gathering up eighty-five head of horses in Jackson county and
starting to market with them.
I was back to Virginia City in a few days over two months from the
time I had left there, and Mr. Miller proving to be a thorough
salesman, we soon disposed of our entire band at a good figure,
and in less than one month from the time we arrived at Virginia
City we were on our way back to Oregon.
After we returned to Jacksonville we settled up and had cleared
eleven hundred dollars each on the trip. That beat ranching all
hollow. Now Mr. Miller proposed to me that we go into horse
raising. He said he knew where there was a large tract of swamp-
land near Klamath Lake. Swamp and overflown land belonged to the
state, and this swamp-land could be bought for a dollar an acre by
paying twenty cents an acre down and twenty per cent yearly
thereafter until it was paid.
Miller being a thorough horseman, I thought I might succeed better
in the horse business than in cattle. So in company with him, I
started over to look at the land, and being well pleased with the
tract, I made application for it at once. This land was located
just on the outer edge of the Modoc Indian reservation. Miller
being acquainted with all the Modocs, he and I, after I had
concluded to settle, rode down to Captain Jack's wick-i-up, which
was a distance of two miles from where I proposed settling.
Captain Jack was the chief of the Modoc tribe, and I found him to
be a very intelligent Indian, and he made a very good stagger
towards talking the English language.
When Mr. Miller introduced me to Chief Jack--or Captain Jack as he
was called--and told him that I was going to be a neighbor to him,
he said, "All right, that's good, and we be friends, too." I told
him yes, and if the white men did not treat him well to let me
know and I would attend to it. Jack then asked Mr. Miller where
Mr. Applegate was, he being agent for the Modoc tribe, and lived
in the neighborhood of Jacksonville, Oregon. Miller told him that
he did not know. Jack said: "My people heap hungry and Applegate
no give us anything to eat, no let us leave reservation to hunt; I
don't know what I do."
Mr. Miller told Jack that he would see Applegate and tell him of
their condition. The next morning Miller started back to
Jacksonville and I remained on the land selected to be my future
home.
Every few days Jack would come to my place to ask my advice as to
what he should do, saying: "We no got anything to eat for three
moons (three months). He tell me he come bring beef. He no come,
no send beef." Finally Jack came to my camp one day and said: "I
don't know what I do, no meat, no flour, wocus nearly all gone."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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