The Modoc War in the Lava Beds

The six-month war is a classic case study of the cultural conflicts that made up the North American Indian wars. It has the distinction of being the most costly Indian war fought by the United States Army; considering the shortness of the war and the number of Indians involved. It was also the only Indian War in which a general grade officer was killed. It highlighted the deficiencies of the post Civil War Army- a motley crew of badly trained soldiers led by equally poorly trained officers, who fought on battlefields of the Indian's choosing and about which the Army had absolutely no information what so ever. At the end of the war there were over 1000 soldiers hunting down 160 Modocs, of which there was not more than 60 effective fighting men. The Modocs are gone from Lava Beds, but they are not forgotten. The land they fought for was a wild landscape of lava flows, caves and cinder cones. Today the area is preserved as Lava Beds National Monument.