Biography
Schonchin John 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. Convicted alongside Kintpuash and hanged at Fort Klamath on October 3, 1873.
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.
National Park Service, Modoc War (1967), PDF pages 181, 182.
