Biography
Barncho was a combatant in the Modoc War (1872–1873) — the only Indigenous fighters in U.S. history convicted as "war criminals" by a U.S. military commission for their role in the killing of Brigadier General Edward Canby during peace negotiations at the Lava Beds on April 11, 1873. The Modoc had resisted forced removal from their California ancestral lands to the Klamath Reservation in Oregon for years before the war. Sentenced to life imprisonment and held at Alcatraz federal military prison.
The National Park Service history records that Barncho died of scrofula at Alcatraz on May 28, 1875, and was buried in grave 57 on Angel Island. It notes that remains were moved from Angel Island to the Presidio National Cemetery in 1947, but that no record of his grave at the latter site had been found by the historian. The existing death-in-custody date is already correct; death is not treated as release.
The National Park Service history identifies the five-member military commission as presided over by Lt. Col. Washington L. Elliott, with Maj. H. P. Curtis acting as judge advocate. It states that the six Modoc defendants were not represented by a legal officer. The trial opened July 1 and ended July 9, 1873. All six were convicted of murder in violation of the laws of war concerning Canby and Thomas, and assault with intent to kill concerning Meacham and Dyar. President Grant approved the findings on August 22, 1873. Grant subsequently commuted Barncho’s death sentence to life imprisonment at Alcatraz in September 1873. Barncho and Sloluck were not told of their commutations until the other four men were about to be executed, and were then led back to the stockade. The roster gives Broncho as a name variant. The already documented May 28, 1875 death in custody is preserved.
National Park Service, Modoc War (1967), PDF pages 181, 182, 184, 206.