Indian History Modoc War

Jefferson C. Davis Riddle (1863-1941) was the son of Frank and Tobey Riddle, both of whom played prominent roles in the Modoc War. After the war, his parents renamed him for the Army colonel who ended the war and toured the East Coast, lecturing on the conflict. Riddle’s book vividly chronicles this episode of Western history. Only ten years old, the author, then known by the Modoc name “Charka,” experienced the conflict firsthand. The account was written “to give both sides of the troubles of the Modoc Indians and the whites.”