They ranged south and southeast well into what is now Modoc County. Originally they were an offshoot of the Klamaths whose hunting grounds were located further to the west. They occupied northwestern Modoc County around Clear and Tule Lakes, the Lost River section and extended along Sprague River in Oregon. The Modocs were part California and part Oregon Indians - to use present day geographical distinctions. This numerous tribe of the Shoshone Indian nation was distinctly divorced from the Digger Indians, also ranging through Western Nevada and pushing over into Eastern Modoc. The country to the east and Surprise Valley generally was occupied by the fierce Paiutes pushing down from the Idaho mountain country.

There is hardly a township of land anywhere within or adjacent to the Modoc Forest which has not given evidence of Indian use and occupancy. In a very short time these bones disintegrated from exposure to the air but gave mute evidence of the swarming population which must have existed in that section. In places the bed of the lake was literally covered with human bones for several hundred yards out from the old shoreline - remains of former Indian occupants of the region. In the summer of 1924 a party of forest officers traversed the south and southeast shoreline of Tule Lake, from parts of which the waters had just recently receded due to reclamation development. Records left by the earliest white explorers and extensive remains of Indian occupancy substantiate this statement. It is probably no exaggeration to say that the Modoc country supported an aboriginal population equal to or perhaps exceeding the total permanent population of the present time. Neither should it be regarded to represent current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. *Please do not assume this content reflects current Forest Service attitudes and/or practices. Modoc NF History, 1945 - Chapter II, Early History

Warlike indian tribes