Donald McKay was a Scout, actor, and Indian spokesman. He was the leader of the Warm Springs Indians during the Modoc War and the later Indian wars. in 1852, he was the translater for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Army. He was involved in trying to negotiate and end to the Modoc Wars but it was not accomplished. The war ended in 1873 with the defeat of the Modocs and help from the Warm Springs Scouts under McKay. After the war, McKay toured the west with other Warm Spring Scouts and even joined some Wild West Shows. In 1877, he was part of Texas Jack Omohundro's "Texas Jack Combination". After that, he promoted patent medicines with the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company of Boston, and later the Oregon Indian Medicine Company. In 1892 he continued his work as a translator at the Umatilla Indian Reservation and died in 1899.
