Shaman's Dream: The Modoc War. Lu Boone's Mattson

you’ll find it a good road,” Tichnor said. “No steep grades. Just gets itself up onto an elevation it can hold and goes on like that. Laid it out above the cinder cones and lava beds, so I didn’t have to do too much serious blasting or anything. I looked that line over for years to be sure I could get above all those problems. Not much bridging. It gets up in the pines, but here and there you can get a good view out over the lavabeds. Probably could see where your place is from up there. I know I could make out Crawley’s ranch. What is it, forty miles south to north across the lavabeds and Tule Lake?”

      “More like twenty-five, I would guess. Well, that’s for me to go have a look at,” Miller said. “I’ll probably have to fight my way through the crowds who will pour in over it now. You’re going to make that whole southwestern corner of the basin get settled. Put Yreka really on the map. It will be that easy to get to from the east.”

      Tichnor laughed, embarrassed at the compliment. “I don’t know that my road will cause all that,” he said, “but some of it might happen.”

      #80

      Ivan stepped outside to get a good look at the sky. It felt like winter again, and the Snakes and Sprague River Modocs were starting to hang around the commissary most of the time now, their blankets pulled up around their ears and wrapped over their chests. But he couldn’t let them start in yet on the rations he held back for the coldest months. He reckoned they were hungry enough; this wasn’t just hope for a handout. But what was he supposed to do with a bunch of people who wouldn’t work? And if they would work, what would he do with them then?

      He looked again at the letter, wondering whether he really was supposed to saddle up and ride down to Lost River.

      1 November 71

      A.B. Meacham

      Superintendent of Indian Affairs

      To: Ivan Applegate

      1) See Captain Jack. Tell him to keep peace with the citizens. He must not beg and annoy them. 2) I have asked Washington, but have received no answer yet. 3) I have recommended a home for them near the mouth of Lost River. Enclosed is the diagram. Show it to them.

      Meacham

      That’s what he needed, Ivan thought: A hundred or two more ‘Wards of the Nation’ to divide allotments among. The Klamaths would really love that! For that matter, so would Ocheo’s and Old Schonchin’s people.

      He really must stop thinking like this, he told himself as he went back into the office and started shrugging on his jacket. Diligence!, he thought, mouthing the word. Diligence and persistence!