The Modocs and Their War (1959) Keith A. Murray

 Book Review

The Modocs and Their War (1959)

by Keith A. Murray

University of Oklahoma Press

Civilization of the American Indian Series #52

   American Indian history has been pretty risible until very recently.  The Civilization of the American Indian Series from the University of Oklahoma Press represents the longest running effort in this genre, but most of the books, while well meaning, are dated in terms of attitudes and approaches to Native American history.  This book is pretty good from a 1950's perspective, in that it isn't openly racist, but it still reads as one sided.  All the sources are white people who were fighting the Modocs or contemporaneous accounts written by white journalists.  There is a brief mention of the ghost dance phenomenon but the Native characters are poorly drawn and one dimensional.  Captain Jack, the leader of the band of Modocs who gave the US Army their greatest beating in an Indian War- and killed a US general to boot, is portrayed as a vacillating coward.  Considering the Captain Jack Modocs were actually removed to Oklahoma, you would think that Murray could have talked to someone there and gotten a different perspective. 

   There's also no context about the Native environment prior to the arrival of the whites, which, to me, anyway, seems relevant to describing the Modoc experience.  But, if you are just looking for dates, names and a general description of how this war went down, Murray's book is an inoffensive starting point.