Roundup: January 13, 2016
Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM
Speaker: Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Subject: California’s Modoc Indian War, 1872-73: Fact, Fiction, and Fraud
California’s Modoc Indians tenaciously resisted the incursions of white prospectors and settlers. Then, after more than a decade of violence, they found ways to coexist with these new neighbors. Wrong-headed bureaucrats, however, forced the Modocs onto a reservation where they found life intolerable. The Indians only wanted to live in California’s lightly populated “empty quarter,” but the U.S. Government would not let them. So, they fought, defeating and defying military forces up to 25 times their size. The Modoc War of 1872-73 was the most unnecessary and preventable of all 19th Century Indian wars. It unfolded like a Classical Greek tragedy with all participants trapped, inexorably doomed. Insult compounded injury when this tragedy was later trivialized by photographic, literary, and cinematic fraud. The Modocs, one of the smallest of all American Indian tribes, still cast one of the largest shadows, over us all.
Make your reservations early for our first speaker of 2016, our own Brian Dervin Dillon, Deputy Sheriff. This will be a fascinating look into a very important aspect of California’s rich Native American history. Come one, come all!
John Selmer
Deputy Sheriff