Captain Jack, the Modoc leader, is depicted as a murderous savage throughout, despite being somewhat admired by the white hero, Alan Ladd, yet the film fails to mention that until the early 1870's the State of California was still offering bounties on Indian scalps, men, women, and children.
The Modocs had been deported to Oregon, and forced to share the reservations of their tribal enemies, and had only returned to their homes in California because they were being murdered.
In fact, it was the white immigrants to California who had murderously attacked, enslaved, and persecuted the Modoc Indians, because they happened to live in "Gold Country," and the more-or-less official policy of the California Government was to "drive the native Indians into the sea," if at all possible, but in the meantime they could legally be sold and used as slaves, despite the fact that California was nominally a "Free" State.
The Modocs had been deported to Oregon, and forced to share the reservations of their tribal enemies, and had only returned to their homes in California because they were being murdered.
In fact, it was the white immigrants to California who had murderously attacked, enslaved, and persecuted the Modoc Indians, because they happened to live in "Gold Country," and the more-or-less official policy of the California Government was to "drive the native Indians into the sea," if at all possible, but in the meantime they could legally be sold and used as slaves, despite the fact that California was nominally a "Free" State.