The Story of the Modoc Nation: History, Identity, and Survival

Ken Sandusky and Brian HerbertCourtesy of Bay Area Innovators

What does it mean to return to the land your ancestors called home for 14,000 years—after being exiled, nearly wiped out, and forgotten?

In this episode of Bay Area Innovators, host Steve Ispas sits down with Ken Sandusky and Brian Herbert of the Modoc Nation—deep in Northeastern Siskiyou County at the edge of Lower Klamath Lake, against the backdrop of Mount Shasta—to tell one of the most remarkable stories in American history.

The Modoc Nation’s ancestral homelands span Northeast California and Southeast Oregon. In 1872, prominent Modoc leader Captain Jack, also known as Kintpuash, led his band into part of what is now Lava Beds National Monument, where a handful of warriors held off the full might of the U.S. Army for months. What followed was violent removal: 133 survivors loaded onto cattle cars and shipped to Oklahoma Indian Territory. At their lowest point, only 62 Modoc people remained alive. Today, 365 members carry that legacy forward.

Now, Ken and Brian are on the ground as the Modoc Nation’s vanguard, managing more than 4,000 acres of restored homeland with plans to grow beyond 5,000. They discuss wetland restoration, regenerative grazing with goats, co-stewardship with the U.S. Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife Service across 40,000+ federal acres, and the sacred ancestral run that brings Modoc people back to the land every October.