October 3rd - Captain Jack Hanged

On this day, in 1873, Captain Jack and some of his closest buddies were hanged for selfishly defending themselves in the Modoc war. Captain Jack was the leader of the Native American Modoc tribe and his real name was Kintpuash. In European circles he was better known as Captain Jack. Perhaps he liked the name better, but it seems unlikely.

Settlers wanted the Modoc land so the tribe had been moved onto a reservation where there were "heap big buffalo and heap less chance of being shot." It was a like a summer camp all-year round. Think of how many wallets you could make.

Kintpuash was unhappy with all the settlers had done for his tribe. How ungrateful. So he got a band of men together and headed out of the reservation. After not achieving much they starting negotiating a surrender at Lost river. It was an ominous sign.

While negotiating, a fight broke out between a soldier and one of the tribe. It started when the tribesman started with a string of "Your mama so heap big" jokes.

Over the next few months a number of skirmishes erupted while Kintpuash negotiated peace, but his subordinates didn't agree with the official strategy of "not doing anything". They revolted and turned Kintpuash over to the soldiers. The group that handed him over included Hooker Jim, Bogus Charley, and Steamboat Frank (brother of Steamboat Willie).

Kintpuash was hanged and now has an electrical substation named after him. What an honour. And it isn't really named after him, it's called the Captain Jack Substation, not the Kintpuash substation.