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= Alfred_B._Meacham =
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Introduction
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Alfred Benjamin Meacham (1826-1882) was an American Methodist
minister, reformer, author and historian, who served as the U.S.
Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon (1869-1872). He became a
proponent of American Indian interests in the Northwest, including
Northern California. Appointed in 1873 as chairman of the Modoc Peace
Commission, he was severely wounded during a surprise attack on April
11 by warriors, but saved from death by Toby Riddle ('Winema'), a
Modoc interpreter.
Meacham continued to work for justice for American Indians. He wrote a
lecture-play about the Modoc War, and made a national tour with Modoc
and Klamath representatives in 1874-1875. He helped represent American
Indian tribes to Washington officials, and testified about relocation
issues to Congress. In 1880 he served on the Ute Commission. Meacham
published two books about the war. The reformer Wendell Phillips wrote
the introduction to the first book, and Meacham dedicated the second
and named it for Winema Riddle.
Early life and education
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Meacham was born on April 29, 1826, in Orange County, Indiana, where
his parents Anderson Meacham and Lucinda Wasson had moved from North
Carolina because of their objection to slavery. When he was still a
child, the family moved further west to Iowa, where he came to know
people of the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes. In Indiana and Iowa he was
educated in the common schools.
In 1844, he worked with others hired to assist with the Sauk and
Meskwaki removal 100 miles to the west across the Mississippi River,
and saw their grief. He realized they would never voluntarily have
left "the graves of their fathers."
Marriage and family
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Meacham married Orpha Caroline Ferree (1827-1888) in Brighton, Iowa,
on October 28, 1852. She had also been born in Indiana. He had
returned from working in California to marry her. They traveled
together back to the West Coast by way of New Orleans and the Isthmus
of Panama. They had three children together: Clara B., b. 1855, who
married Dr. J. N. Prather of Iowa; George F., b. 1856, who married
Lucia M. Mills of Seattle, Washington, where he moved as an adult; and
Nellie Francis, b. 1859, who married Charley Troup (died of
tuberculosis) and later Colonel J. W. Redington of Walla Walla,
Washington.
Career
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As a young man, Meacham went to California in 1850 trying to find gold
during the gold rush. After his marriage in Iowa, he returned with his
wife Orpha to California, where they lived in Solano County for a
time.
In 1863 they went to Washington Territory, east of the Cascade
Mountains in eastern Washington, near Walla Walla in the Blue
Mountains. He worked at mining and farming. This area was in
present-day northeast Oregon. The future Umatilla Indian Reservation
was established near present-day Meacham.
Meacham became a prominent figure in Oregon politics; its delegation
supported him for Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon in 1866.
At the time, Andrew Johnson was president, and his administration
learned that Meacham did not support him. His nomination to office was
not supported.
He supported Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election of 1868.
Under Grant's Peace Policy (also called the Quaker Policy) to appoint
clergy rather than military to administer U.S. Indian affairs, Meacham
was appointed in 1869 as U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs for
Oregon. He was instrumental in trying to bring peace to the Klamath
Reservation, where the Modoc had been relocated. They complained of
harassment by their traditional enemies, the Klamath.
A Modoc band left the reservation to return to Northern California and
their traditional territory. Meacham recognized their problems with
the Klamath and recommended to the Commission of Indian Affairs (CIA)
that a sub-agency be set up for them at the southern border at Yainax.
The Department of Interior never acted on his recommendation, and the
problems increased.
Many settlers continued to complain about the Modoc, who did more
raiding during the winter because the U.S. government did not provide
them with adequate supplies. In early 1872, during the crisis, T.B.
Odeneal was appointed as U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs in
Oregon, replacing Meacham. He "knew almost nothing of the background
of the situation and had never met Jack or the Modocs" but was charged
with "getting the Modocs to leave Lost River." In turn, Odeneal
appointed a new U.S. Indian agent, who was also unfamiliar with the
parties and conditions. They turned to military solutions, trying to
force the Modoc back to Oregon, and the Modoc War started in 1872.
In the spring of 1873, Meacham was drawn back into the conflict when
he was appointed as chairman of the Modoc Peace Commission to try to
end the Modoc War. The government believed his knowledge of Captain
Jack would be useful, but Meacham refused to participate unless
assured that Odeneal would not be on the commission. He was distressed
that the issues with the Modoc had resulted in war. Although severely
injured in 1873 when Modoc warriors attacked the peace commissioners,
Meacham was saved from being killed by 'Winema' (Toby) Riddle, a
bilingual Modoc woman who served as a U.S. interpreter. She yelled
that soldiers were coming and interrupted the warriors, who fled.
Meacham recovered and continued to work to improve conditions for the
Modoc and other American Indians.,
Working for Indian justice
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Meacham wrote a lecture-play, 'The Tragedy of the Lava Beds,' about
the war. He arranged a national speaking tour for Winema and her
husband Frank Riddle (who took their son Charka with them), as well as
other Modoc and Klamath tribal representatives. He wanted to inform
Americans about the issues related to the Modoc War and Indian
relocation in general. In 1874, Meacham and the delegation spoke
before a group organized by the social activist and reformer Wendell
Phillips. In 1875, the delegation addressed Alfred Henry Love's
Universal Peace Union in Philadelphia and a meeting of Peter Cooper's
U.S. Indian Commission in New York City.
In 1879, Meacham brought Chief Joseph and other Nez Perce to
Washington, D.C., to speak to government officials. During the
administration of Rutherford B. Hayes, Meacham served on the 1880 Ute
Commission with George W. Manypenny, a former Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, and the railroad executive Otto Mears to plan and oversee the
relocation of the Colorado Ute tribe, led by Chief 'Ouray', to a new
reservation in Utah.
In addition to public lectures, Meacham reported on Native American
issues by publishing a journal called 'The Council Fire and
Arbitrator,' with Dr. Thomas Bland in 1878. He also wrote two books
dealing with the Modoc War: 'Wigwam and Warpath; or, The Royal Chief
in Chains,' a history of the War, was published in 1875 with an
introduction by Wendell Phillips. The former abolitionist wrote,
To show the folly of our method, examine the south of the Great
Lakes, and you will find in every 30 miles from Plymouth to Omaha the
scene of an Indian massacre. And since 1789 we have spent about one
thousand million of dollars in dealing with the Indian. Meanwhile,
under British rule, on the north side of these same lakes, there has
been no Indian outbreak, worth naming for a hundred years, and hardly
one hundred thousand dollars have been spent directly on the Indians
of Canada. What is the solution to this astounding riddle? This, and
none other. England gathers her Indian tribes as ordinary citizens,
within the girth of her usual laws.... With us martial law, or no law
at all, is their portion; no civil rights, no right to property that a
white man is bound to respect...
Meacham published 'Wi-ne-ma (The Woman-Chief) and Her People' in 1876
and dedicated it to Toby Riddle, who had saved his life.
This book is written with the avowed purpose of doing honor to the
heroic Wi-ne-ma who at the peril of her life sought to save the ill
fated peace commission to the Modoc Indians in 1873. The woman to whom
the writer is indebted, under God, for saving his life.
Meacham petitioned Congress for years to award a military pension to
Winema Riddle for her heroism; in 1891 Congress finally approved the
pension, one of the few enacted for a woman and a Native American.
Lecture-play
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*'Tragedy of the Lava Beds' (1874)
Books
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* [
https://archive.org/details/wigwamandwarpat00meacgoog Wendell
Phillips, "Introduction", 'Wigwam and Warpath; or, The Royal Chief in
Chains'], Boston: John P. Dale & Co., (1875), at Internet Archive,
full online text
* [
https://archive.org/details/winemwomanchiefa00meacrich 'Wi-ne-ma
(The Woman-Chief) and Her People'], Hartford: American Publishing
Company, 1876, at Internet Archive, full online text
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_B._Meacham
