Thomas Doty – Storyteller

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First Contact

Gumbat -- "among the rocks" -- was an ancient Modoc village on the south shore of Tule Lake. In January of 1827, Hudson's Bay Company fur trapper Peter Skene Ogden and his company of 43 men were the first Europeans to visit the village. Ogden wrote in his journal: "We took the liberty of demolishing their Huts for fire wood.... I should certainly regret that our side should cause a quarrel with these Indians, for so far their conduct toward us has been certainly most correct and orderly and worthy of imitation by all."

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