Burnt-Out Fires: California’s Modoc Indian War

Burnt-Out Fires deals with a very dark period of American history, a period that, until recently, had been purposefully forgotten ... a period that hopefully will cause a re-evaluation of the American ideals and dreams.

Everyone pointed to the Modocs as “model Indians.” Living on the Oregon-California border, they had assimilated the American culture more than any other Indian tribe. They had accepted the white man’s way, dressing in cowboy clothes and working as farm hands.

The frontier was...