The Battle of Infernal Caverns

This locally-famous battle occurred over three days in September of 1867, with 110 soldiers and about 15 Warm Springs Indian scouts fighting "about 75 Paiutes and thirty Pit River Indians, plus a few Modocs, all led by chief Si-e-ta," on the fractured volcanic palisade immediately east of Crooks Canyon. The encounter left as many as 20 Native people dead, including a number of women and children. Eight U.S. Army soldiers also died in the attack. The following narrative is provided by Ike Leaf, a Pit River Indian, whose grandmother and great-uncles were at the battle.

Original map of the Infernal Caverns battle site, possibly from the diary of Lieutenant William Parnell who participated in the attack.

" It was a sneak attack. [The soldiers] just all went in there, just sneaked in there. The Indians were all scattered, all bunched up there, right below Infernal Caverns. There's tules there, a lot of tules and swamp, so when the soldiers made the sneak attack - well, they heard a shot you know, a gun . . . The Indians heard a shot, so some of their scouts who were around - they went to take a look. Well, they came back reporting that White men were coming. "

General George Crook, who had been sent after the Civil War to battle Indian groups in the west, arrived in the Goose Lake area on September 22nd, specifically looking for "some particularly bad Indian bands to the south." Once in California, the general and his troops saw

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