Wi-Ne-Ma. (The Woman-Chief) and Her People.

£750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Toby/Wi-ne-ma/Nanuokdomah Riddle (1848-1920) was a Modoc woman who acted as an interpreter and negotiator for the American army during the Modoc War. She saved the life of Alfred B. Meacham, an event which compelled him to write this biographical sketch of her, that also serves as a history of that war and her people. Alfred B. Meacham (1826-82) served as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon between 1869 and 1872, and in this time became acquainted with the Modoc tribe. Originally native to the lands surrounding Tule Lake in California, the American government’s relocation programme pushed the Modoc north into rival Klamath tribe land on the Oregon border. This resulted in a resistant Modoc faction headed by Kintapuash/Captain Jack (cousin of Wi-ne-ma) leaving the reservation they had been forced to migrate to and returning to their ancestral home. The American army’s attempts to re-relocate these Indigenous insurgents resulted in the Madoc War, wherein the rebels sought refuge in the naturally fortified lava beds. In the proceeding attempts to negotiate with Kintapuash’s warriors, Meacham assumed the role of Chairman of the Peace Commission, and enlisted Wi-Ne-Ma’s assistance as a translator and negotiator. Following pressure from within his tribe, Kintapuash and his warriors attacked a delegation of American army forces, killing General Canby and Rev. Eleazor Thomas. Wi-Ne-Ma, acting as interpreter alongside her bilingual white husband Frank Riddle at that meetin

• Year: 1876

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