Joe Barnett, Officer
Creek Lighthorse
Officer Joe Barnett was one of a group of four Creek Light Horse led by Captain Sam Scott, from the National Constitutional party faction of the Creeks. The officers were guarding a “notorious character” that was a captured member of the Loyal Creeks or Sands men at the Barnett place near Wetumka. The Sands men were a gang of about 400 led by the outlaw Dick Glass. About day break on Sunday, July 30, 1882, a company of Sands men attacked the officers and freed their prisoner. Capt. Scott was then stood up and held by the hands by a man on either side while the others filled his body with bullets. Officer Barnett was killed when he tried to go to the aid of his captain.
Shelby Dean Blackfox, Sergeant
Cherokee Nation Marshal Service
The morning of Tuesday, November 6, 2001, Sgt. Blackfox met with Sergeant Garland Thompson and Investigator Donald Bowin of the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service (CNMS) regarding drug interdiction activity to be conducted that evening in Delaware County. Sgt. Thompson approved Sgt. Blackfox to meet with a drug informant in Delaware County prior to the planned drug interdiction activity to be conducted that evening. Sgt. Blackfox departed the CNMS office, located approximately four miles south of Tahlequah, at 11:10 A.M. on his motorcycle in route to Delaware County. At approximately 11:39 A.M., thirteen (13) miles north of Tahlequah on Highway 10, Sgt. Blackfox lost control of his motorcycle and was struck by a passenger vehicle resulting in his death. Sgt. Blackfox was wearing a helmet and was not traveling at a high rate of speed when the accident occurred. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at a Tahlequah hospital. His wife Jennifer and two-year-old son Trenton survived Sgt. Blackfox
Ed Bohanon, Officer
U. S. Indian Police
On Thursday, April 25, 1895, Policeman Bohanon was instructed by Indian Agent D. M. Wisdom to go to the home of a man named Taylor four miles west of Durant to recover a yoke of stolen steers. Bohanon, in the company of a Jack Turner, went to the Taylor home that evening and were met at the gate by Jim Jackson. Bohanon and Jackson drew their guns at the same time and fired at each other. Bohanon fell dead with a bullet through his head, and Jackson walked into the house and fell, where he died from a bullet through the breast.
John R. Boston, Officer
U.S. Indian Police
Officer Boston, a full blood Cherokee, began tracking a gang of seven horse thieves from McAlester in July of 1881. He finally caught up with them on July 20 in the Chickasaw Nation, 20 miles northwest of Denison, Texas. Boston arrested two of the thieves with 14 horses and started back with his prisoners. They were soon overtaken by the other five gang members and Boston was killed.
John M. Brown, Lieutenant
Cherokee Tribal Police
In the fall of 1844, the Starr gang was driving some stolen horses toward Texas when they were approached by a posse of 25 Indian police officers about 25 miles north of Fort Washita in the northern part of what is now Bryan County. Lt. Brown killed Bean Starr in the ensuing gun battle. On December 28, 1845, Charles Smith, a friend of Bean Starr’s who had been riding with the gang when Bean was killed, stabbed Lt. Brown to death
Leander Brown, Private
U.S. Indian Police
Late in the day of Sunday, August 6, 1882, Private Brown arrested Thomas Keener for failure to have a permit to be on Indian land or cut hay there. Brown made camp with intentions to take Keener to the Quapaw Agency in the northeast part of what is now Ottawa County, the next morning. Some time during the early morning hours of August 7th , while Brown was asleep, Keener slipped his shackles and plunged a pick into Brown’s left chest, killing him almost instantly. Keener was arrested two weeks later and because he was a white man was tried in Judge Parker’s federal court. Keener was found not guilty.
Cub Burney, Deputy Sheriff
Deputy Sheriff, Kiamichi County, Choctaw Nation, I.T.
On Friday, July 5, 1901, Deputy Burney and a local citizen named J. H. McIntire had harsh words over an arrest at a Fourth of July barbecue at Goodland. Later that Friday night about 9 P.M. McIntire went to Burney’s home in Grant and called for him to come outside. Burney had already retired for the night but got up and went outside. The two men became involved in a fight and Burney was almost totally disemboweled by McIntire with a pocket knife. Deputy Burney died July 10th in a Paris, Texas hospital from his wounds. McIntire was later arrested, tried and found guilty of manslaughter in the Federal Court at Antlers.
Chin-Chi-Kee, Captain
Chickasaw Lighthorse
Presumably a few days before January 10, 1852, Chin-Chi-Kee attempted to arrest four whiskey smugglers south of Tishomingo, the capitol of the Chickasaw Nation. A fight broke out and Chin-Chi-Kee, armed only with a knife, killed three of the men before the fourth, a Seminole Indian named Bill Nannubbee, shot him in the head and killed him.
Thomas Cloud, Captain
Seminole Lighthorse
On Sunday, March 29, 1885, Captain Cloud, Sam Cudgo and several other members of the Lighthorse had gone to a shack near Sacred Heart Mission ( 22 miles south of present day Shawnee ) and attempted to arrest Rector Rogers for killing his brother-in-law. Rogers began firing at the officers through the cracks of the shack. Cudgo was struck in the abdomen and died an hour later. Captain Cloud was struck in the upper left leg and died two days later, the morning of Tuesday, March 31, 1885.
Ben C Collins, Officer/Deputy U.S. Marshal
U.S. Indian Police/U.S. Marshals
About 9:30 P.M. the evening of Wednesday, August 1, 1906, Collins was riding through the gate to his pasture on his way home, about 200 yards from his home located between Emet and Nida, when he was shot from his horse by ambush with an eight-gauge shotgun. Collins was able to fire at his assailant four times before he was shot fatally in the face. Deacon Jim Miller was arrested for the murder but released
Sam Cudgo, Officer
Seminole Lighthorse
Officer Cudgo was part of a Lighthorse posse led by Captain Thomas Cloud on Sunday, March 29, 1885. The posse was attempting to arrest Rector Roberts when he barricaded himself in a hut and opened fire on the posse. The first shot hit Officer Cudgo in the stomach and the next bullet struck Captain Cloud in the left leg. The posse returned fire and killed Roberts. Officer Cudgo died within the hour. Captain Cloud died two days later.
Billy Cully, Officer
Seminole Lighthorse
Officer Cully had been trying to serve a warrant on Alex Harjo for a fight that had occurred just before the previous Christmas. Officer Cully was found dead in a shack near his home in Sasakwa on Monday, February 5, 1906. His skull had been crushed with a blunt instrument. Harjo and Barney Fixico were charged with the murder the next month.
Robert Patrick “Pat” Flickinger, Special Agent
Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Department
About 7:55 P.M. on Friday, March 7, 2008, Special Agent Flickinger, 37, was east bound on State Highway 199 just east of Madill in Marshall County when he attempted to pass another vehicle in a no passing zone and collided with a west bound pickup driven by Ronny Goff, age 67, of Madill. Agent Flickinger died at the scene. Goff was transported to an Oklahoma City hospital. Goff’s wife Donna Goff, was riding with him in the pickup and was transported to a Madill hospital where she was treated and released.
Robert Flickinger had been in law enforcement for sixteen years. He joined the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Department on September 27, 2004, as a uniformed officer and was promoted to Special Agent on October 15, 2007. He was survived by his daughter.
John Green, Deputy Sheriff
Creek Tribe, I.T.
Deputy Green was killed Sunday, December 25, 1878, by another Creek Indian named Yahola north of Muskogee. Yahola was later arrested, convicted and executed by shooting in Eufaula. Under Creek law, the condemned man could pick his own executioner. Yahola picked Deputy Sheriff Joe Riley, a deputy under Sheriff Richard Berryhill.
James H. Guy, U.S. Marshal/Sergeant
U.S. Marshals/U.S. Indian Police
On Friday, May 1, 1885, Deputy Guy had arrest warrants for the Lee brothers, Tom “Pink” and Jim for cattle theft and a warrant for Della Humby for murdering his wife. Humby was believed to be hiding out with the Lee’s at their ranch, near Dresden (now Gene Autry) a small town northeast of Ardmore. Marshal Guy deputized a posse of about 15 men, including William “Bill” Kirksey and brothers Andrew and Jim Roff. The posse approached the Lee ranch soon after dawn that Friday morning. The ranch house was occupied by “Pink” and Jim Lee, their brother-in-law, Ed Stein and Della Humby. As the posse approached the front of the house the occupants opened fire on them. Marshal Guy and his possemen, Andrew Roff, Jim Roff and William Kirksey were all shot and killed. The rest of the posse retreated and the men in the house escaped. The Lee brothers were killed in a shootout with lawmen September 7th. The other men were later arrested and acquitted at their trials.
Armstead Homer, Deputy Sheriff
Kiamichi County/Choctaw Nation I.T.
In 1891 Kiamichi County covered most of current Choctaw County. On Saturday, May 16, 1891, Deputy Homer went to the farm of James Lowman, near Antlers to search for illegal whiskey. While Deputy Homer was talking to Lowman about the whiskey and advising him he intended to destroy it, Lowman drew his gun and shot the deputy several times killing him
Sequoyah Houston, Deputy Sheriff
Tahlequah Distric, Cherokee Nation, I.T.
Deputy Houston, 32, was a member of a posse that was attempting to arrest members of the Bill Cook gang at The Halfway House on Fourteen Mile Creek near present day Hulbert (halfway between Tahlequah and Wagoner) on Sunday afternoon, June 17,1894. Deputy Houston was in a ravine on the west side of the house when the gunfight with the outlaws broke out during which he was shot and killed. Although Jim Cook was convicted in Cherokee Court of manslaughter in the death of Deputy Houston it is generally believed that Crawford Goldsby “Cherokee Bill” actually killed the deputy. “Cherokee Bill” was later hanged at Fort Smith on March 17, 1896, for another murder.
Benjamin Franklin Jones, Sheriff
Tobucksy (Toboxy) County, Choctaw Nation, I.T
On Wednesday, September 20, 1876, Sheriff Jones was standing in John J. McAlester’s store in McAlester Station (later McAlester) named after the store’s owner, when a blast of buckshot was fired through a window, hitting him fatally in the side. Robert Ream, immediately surrendered to another officer, admitted the shooting and claimed self-defense because Jones intended to kill him on sight. The local paper reported there had been difficulty between the two men for some time and blamed the killing on the interaction between illegal liquor and Indians.
John B. Jones, Constable/Deputy U.S. Marshal
City of Pawhuska/Osage Nation I.T./U.S. Marshals
Friday, July 3, 1903, was the first day of a two day Independence Day celebration by the Osage Tribe on the grounds of the home of tribal Governor Bigheart on Bird Creek about 12 miles southeast of Pawhuska. The governor asked Constable Jones to be present during the festivities to maintain order. All seemed to go well until about 11 P.M. when Jones came upon two men drunk on wine. When the Constable tried to take the wine away from the men, one of them, Ed Lile, ran away up some stairs threatening to get a gun and shoot the Constable. Constable Jones was standing at the bottom of the stairs in a lit area. Lile came back out of a room at the top of the stairs with a rifle, which the Constable could not see due to the darkness at the top of the stairs. As Constable Jones tried to talk Lile in to coming down, Lile shot him, killing him almost instantly. Lile went back into the room and escaped out a window. The next day Ed Lile turned himself in at Pawhuska and was charged with the Constable’s murder. Constable Jones reported to be “about 50 years old” was married to a blind woman, 17 years younger than himself, named Grace Stutsman. When Mrs. Jones died in 1916 she was buried next to her husband in Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City.
James Knight, Constable
Cherokee Nation, I.T
Cherokee Junction was a small settlement a short distance from Fort Smith across the border in Indian Territory. The night of Saturday, October 5, 1901, Constable Knight saw a man, apparently drunk, staggering down the railroad tracks, “whooping and shooting”. Constable Knight went up on the tracks and called to the man to surrender himself. The man fired at the Constable, striking him in the left breast below the heart. The man fled and was never identified. Constable Knight died a few hours later.
Robert Marshal, Private
U.S. Indian Police
Private Marshal may also have been commissioned as a Deputy U S Marshal and a member of the Creek Lighhorse. He is described as a mixed blood Creek-Negro. On Monday September 10, 1894, a black man named Charles Smith was in Muskogee and in the process of cutting the harnesses of some horses he intended to steal when another man, John Welch, interrupted him. Smith shot and killed Welch. Later that same day Private Marshal attempted to arrest Smith for Welch’s murder when Smith shot and killed Private Marshal. Smith was later arrested, convicted of murder and sentenced to death but his verdict was reversed and he was given a new trial. The new trial found Smith guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him to ten years in prison.
Henry McGill, Deputy Sheriff
Tishomingo County, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory
On Saturday night November 3, 1883, Tishomingo County Sheriff Jep Fry and Deputy McGill were attempting to arrest Edmiston Parker, who was drunk and firing his gun, when Parker shot Deputy McGill. Parker then emptied his gun shooting at Sheriff Fry who was able to escape unharmed. Parker then took the wounded deputy’s gun and shot him three more times, killing him. Parker then fell to his knees beside Deputy McGill’s body and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with the deputy’s gun.
Michael Grant Miller, Agent
U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
On Monday August 28, 1995, BIA Drug Enforcement Agent Miller was a member
of a multi-agency drug task force targeting marijuana growers and traffickers in
the Tulsa/Bixby area of the state. Agent Miller, 34, was an observer in an
Oklahoma National Guard helicopter flown by Chief Warrant Officer Dennis Laffick,
49. The helicopter was one of two being used that day to conduct airborne
searches for marijuana fields and suspects. About 2:30 P.M. their helicopter
struck some power lines and crashed. Both Miller and Laffick were killed. Agent
Miller was survived by his wife, Gerri, and five children
James T. Musgrove, Sheriff
Cooweescoowee District
Cherokee Nation, I.T.
On Monday, June 3, 1895, Sheriff Musgrove went out to a home on Bird Creek north of Catoosa to arrest Frog Davis for illegally selling horses and cattle in the neighboring Osage nation.
As Sheriff Musgrove approached the house, Davis open fire on him with a rifle through a crack in the wall of a log outbuilding. The bullet struck Musgrove in the abdomen and he died about an hour later. Davis escaped but was arrested near Tulsa the next week. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the sheriff’s murder. Davis was hanged September 13, 1895, and is believed to be the last person executed at the Cherokee Nation’s Prison at Tahlequah.
Dave Ridge, Sheriff
Saline District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory
Jess Sunday was just completing a term as Sheriff of Saline District and his half brother, Dave Ridge, had been elected to take his place. About noon on Sunday, September 20, 1897, Sheriff-Elect Dave Ridge was on his way to the Baggett store to pick up some items his wife had sent him for. Ridge ran into some friends and had several drinks with them. Realizing that it was late, about 6:00 p.m., and he still needed to get the items from the store, Ridge headed over to the Baggett store which was closed. Desperate to get the items for his wife, he began banging on the door to the store. Tom Baggett and his family lived above the store. Baggett leaned out of the window above the store and told Ridge to leave because he was drunk. Baggett had closed the store early that day due to the rowdy drinking of several men and a warning there might be trouble later. As Ridge and Baggett argued over the closed store, a shot came from across the street hitting Baggett and killing him. Ridge stayed around with a gathering crowd to help Mrs. Baggett and her four daughters.
About an hour later, two witnesses, one of whom was Jesse Sunday’s son, Andy, and Dave Ridge met two men on a trail about 200 yards away from the shooting scene. The two men were Sampson Rogers and Wilson Towery. Ridge confronted Rogers with the fact that he had seen him fire the shot that killed Baggett. Rogers, enraged, then hit Ridge over the head with a whiskey bottle. Andy Sunday then stepped out and got the men to leave his uncle alone. Dave Ridge died from his head injuries that night.
Sheriff Jesse Sunday was then ten miles east of Saline guarding some prisoners when the killings occurred. Notified of the murders, he rode to Saline and began investigating. He deputized several men including Wilson Towery and Cooie Bolin, both of whom had witnessed the Ridge murder. Sunday and Bolin went to the nearby home of Jim Teehee to see if anyone there had witnessed anything. John Colvard and Martin Rowe were sitting on the porch, Colvard with a rifle across his lap. Sunday took the rifle away from Colvard without resistance, talked with the men and was told they knew nothing of the killings.
Bolin and Sunday walked back to their horses when Rowe opened fire on them hitting Sunday. Sunday dropped Colvard’s confiscated rifle, Bolin picked it up and began firing at the fleeing Martin Rowe while the wounded Sheriff Sunday was trying to catch his horse.
Andy Sunday found his wounded father by a tree near the Teehee home the next morning. He took him to the Teehee home where the sheriff died that night. Jesse Sunday was survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters.
Sampson Rogers was indicted for the murder of Dave Ridge but was freed after witnesses refused to testify against him. Sheriff Dave Ridge was survived by his wife and four children.
Running Eagle, Officer
Pawnee Tribal Police, O.T.
On Monday, June 29, 1891, two men were riding through the Pawnee Reservation in Oklahoma Territory when they saw a man sleeping in a location that appeared as though he was hiding. They rode into Pawnee and reported it to the authorities and Running Eagle was sent to investigate. Running Eagle found the man about 14 miles south of Pawnee. As he approached the man, the officer held out his hand to shake hands. The man grabbed the officer’s outstretched hand with his left hand, then drew a gun with his right hand and shot the officer fatally. The suspect escaped and was not identified.
Running Over Water, Officer
Ponca Tribal Police
On Sunday, October 18, 1908, the body of Ponca Tribal police officer Running Over Water was found on Salt Fork a mile and a half west of the White Eagle depot by local children. His body had two bullet wounds leading to the theory that this was indeed murder. John and Sophia Bull were arrested for the crime. Running Over Water was a popular citizen and officer.
Defford T. Oyebi Jr., Officer
Otoe-Missouria Tribal Police
At 9:35 P.M. on Sunday, December 20, 1998, Officer “D.J.” Oyebi, 23, was responding to a report of an overturned vehicle when his south bound patrol unit skidded out of control on icy US 177 about 2.3 miles north of State Highway 15 West near the Otoe Indian Agency in Noble County. Officer Oyebi’s patrol car was struck in the passenger side by a north bound vehicle. Officer Oyebi and a passenger in the other car were pinned in their cars for 45 minutes and were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the other car was injured but survived.
Charlie Proctor, Deputy Sheriff
Tahlequah District, Cherokee Nation
On Monday, August 10, 1896, Charlie Proctor and Eli Wofford, a Cherokee Indian policeman, were shot and killed during the Cherokee National Convention. Wofford had been drinking. Sheriff Leonard told Wofford’s brother to take his whiskey away from him. Willams and Wofford got into a fist fight until former Cherokee Sheriff Charlie Proctor broke it up. As the men were walking away someone made a provocative remark and a gunfight started between the two men and their allies. Proctor was struck in the breast, side and thigh. Proctor and Wofford were both killed. Sheriff Williams was wounded. Charlie Proctor, nephew of Zeke Proctor, was buried at his home in the Flint District.
C. Pushmataha, City Marshal
Nowata, Cherokee Nation
During the mid-1890’s racial prejudice was rampant and tensions were high in Oklahoma and Indian Territories. The Cherokees appointed a town marshal named Pushmataha, also known as John Fulsom, Johnson Fulsom, Johnson Push and Push Johnson. His half-brother, known as William Fulsom and Willie Hickey, acted as his deputy. The white citizens hired their own marshal, a renowned gunfighter named George Goodell. No amateur, he had served alongside of men like Wyatt Earp, Bill Tilghman, the Masterson brothers, Ben Thompson and Doc Holliday. Goodell was also commissioned as a Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Indian Territory.
The Fulsoms openly made threats against Goodell and threatened to ambush him if he ever crossed them. In early November of 1897, Goodell arrested Johnson Fulsom for being drunk. His half-brother and other Indians soon broke him out of jail. On November 13, Goodell arrested Willie Hickey and, when he tried to escape, shot him mortally. The dying man was taken to a local store. When Marshal Pushmataha (Johnson Fulsom) heard about it, he rushed to the store to confront Goodell. When he arrived at the store, Goodell killed him also. The whites said Goodell had killed the men to prevent them from ambushing him and the Indians said he had murdered both in cold blood.
Goodell surrendered, unknowing of the depth of the political morass he was entering. Promising a light sentence, a U.S. Attorney convinced Goodell to plead guilty to manslaughter. The judge, however, sentenced him to 20 years. A year after the killings, Goodell went to prison in Columbus, Ohio. After serving three and one-half years of his sentence, Goodell was pardoned by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902.
Sam Scott, Captain
Creek Lighthorse Police Indian Territory
Between 1878 and 1883, a civil war erupted between factions of Creek Indians. A party of about seventy-five men visited the neighborhood of the Sands men, in the northwestern part of the Creek Nation, and arrested a notorious character. They placed the notorious character in the charge of Captain Sam Scott and three Lighthorse. . On Sunday, July 30, 1882, about daylight, a company of Sands men attacked the Lighthorse, rescued the prisoner and murdered Captain Scott in cold blood. He was held by the hands by men on either side of him while others filled his body with bullets. His body was pulled and torn and shot until it was nearly unrecognizable. Joe Barnett, a colored Creek Lighthorse, in trying to aid his captain was also fatally shot. In April of 1883, several men were captured and taken to their respective districts to be turned over to the civil authorities for trial. One of the men, He-ne-ha Chupko, tried to escape but the guards fired on him, killing him instantly. He was one of the leaders in the killing of Captain Sam Scott and his deputy, Joe Barnett.
Charles H. Strickland, Territorial Sheriff
Chickasaw Nation
When Indian Territory was opened to the white settlement, Charles Strickland became the first elected Sheriff of the Chickasaw Nation. On Tuesday, March 19, 1895, Strickland and Bill Lewis were riding together in a buggy near Byrd’s Mill, close to present day Pauls Valley. It has been reported that Bill Lewis killed Sheriff Strickland over an old grudge. After he killed Strickland, he took his body to the home of Strickland’s daughter, Elizabeth, and dumped it over her fence. Judge Billy Perry issued a writ of arrest for Bill Lewis. The Indians came from all over for Strickland’s funeral, playing drums and dancing the dance of the dead all night. Strickland was buried in Stonewall Cemetery near the current town of Frisco.
Jesse “Jess” Sunday,
Sheriff
Saline District, Cherokee Nation
Jess Sunday was just completing a term as Sheriff of Saline District and his half brother, Dave Ridge, had been elected to take his place. About noon on Sunday, September 20, 1897, Sheriff-Elect Dave Ridge was on his way to the Baggett store to pick up some items his wife had sent him for. Ridge ran into some friends and had several drinks with them. Realizing that it was late, about 6:00 p.m., and he still needed to get the items from the store, Ridge headed over to the Baggett store which was closed. Desperate to get the items for his wife, he began banging on the door to the store. Tom Baggett and his family lived above the store. Baggett leaned out of the window above the store and told Ridge to leave because he was drunk. Baggett had closed the store early that day due to the rowdy drinking of several men and a warning there might be trouble later. As Ridge and Baggett argued over the closed store, a shot came from across the street hitting Baggett and killing him. Ridge stayed around with a gathering crowd to help Mrs. Baggett and her four daughters.
About an hour later, two witnesses, one of whom was Jesse Sunday’s son, Andy, and Dave Ridge met two men on a trail about 200 yards away from the shooting scene. The two men were Sampson Rogers and Wilson Towery. Ridge confronted Rogers with the fact that he had seen him fire the shot that killed Baggett. Rogers, enraged, then hit Ridge over the head with a whiskey bottle. Andy Sunday then stepped out and got the men to leave his uncle alone. Dave Ridge died from his head injuries that night.
Sheriff Jesse Sunday was then ten miles east of Saline guarding some prisoners when the killings occurred. Notified of the murders, he rode to Saline and began investigating. He deputized several men including Wilson Towery and Cooie Bolin, both of whom had witnessed the Ridge murder. Sunday and Bolin went to the nearby home of Jim Teehee to see if anyone there had witnessed anything. John Colvard and Martin Rowe were sitting on the porch, Colvard with a rifle across his lap. Sunday took the rifle away from Colvard without resistance, talked with the men and was told they knew nothing of the killings.
Bolin and Sunday walked back to their horses when Rowe opened fire on them hitting Sunday. Sunday dropped Colvard’s confiscated rifle, Bolin picked it up and began firing at the fleeing Martin Rowe while the wounded Sheriff Sunday was trying to catch his horse.
Andy Sunday found his wounded father by a tree near the Teehee home the next morning. He took him to the Teehee home where the sheriff died that night. Jesse Sunday was survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters.
Martin Rowe surrendered himself a month later. He was arrested, tried and convicted of Sunday’s murder. Originally sentenced to death, the sentence was later commuted to ten years in prison at Tahlequah. Three months later Rowe escaped and went to west Texas, later joining the Army. While in the Army all charges were dropped and he came out of the Army a free man.
Jeff Surratt, Sheriff
San Bois County, Choctaw Nation
On December 3, 1900, Sheriff Jeff Surratt of San Bois County in the Choctaw Nation found one of his deputies, N.M. Woolridge, a half-breed Choctaw, drunk. While Surratt was trying to calm his deputy, Woolridge drew his gun and shot the sheriff through both lungs. Surratt died two days later and Woolridge was charged with murder.
Isaac "Chute" Walkingstick, Sheriff
Goingsnake District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory
On Saturday July 29, 1894, Sheriff Walkingstick arrested a full-blood
Cherokee man in Muskogee for some misdemeanor charge and was in the process of
taking him to jail. On the way, another full-blood Cherokee man named Johnson
Corntassel accosted Sheriff Walkingstick. Described as “crazy drunk”, Corntassel
demanded that the sheriff release his prisoner. When Sheriff Walkingstick
refused to release his prisoner, Corntassel shot the sheriff to death.
Corntassel was promptly killed by Sheriff Walkingstick’s unnamed deputy.
Franklin Pierce West, Officer
Cherokee Tribal Police
Officer West was attending a Christmas dance on Friday, December 17, 1886, at the Emachaya Creek home of Lucy Surratt, daughter of Emachaya. Emachaya was one of the earliest Choctaws to settle in the vicinity of Whitefield. Emachaya Creek was named after Lucy’s father. Lucy was known to the locals as “Aunt Lucy.” Belle and Sam Starr arrived at the dance just after dark with Belle’s two children. Officer West was warming himself by a log fire when Sam Starr, 27, began to curse him for killing Belle’s favorite horse during an earlier gun battle when West and a posse arrested Sam Starr. Sam reached for his gun at the same time Frank drew his weapon. After gunshots rang out, both men were on the ground mortally wounded. Officer West had been hit in the neck and died within minutes. Starr was shot in the chest and died a few moments later. Frank West, 34, was buried just east of Briartown at the McClure Cemetery and was survived by his wife and two children.
Adam Wilkins, Officer
Choctaw Tribal Police
About 6 A.M. the morning of Wednesday, May 26, 1920, the badly mangled body of Officer Wilkins was found on the tracks of the Kansas City Southern Railway half way between Howe and Heavener. The officers had been decapitated. His head had two gun shot wounds also. Officer Wilkins was last known alive about 8 p.m. the night before at his home by a church minister who had stopped by to visit. Officer Wilkins, 38, lived with his wife about two and one half miles from where his body was found. Automobile tracks led from his house to near where his body was found. Witnesses stated they heard several gun shots near the tracks where Wilkins’ body was found about 9 p.m. the night before. It was believed that the murder was in retaliation for Wilkins’ strict enforcement of “choc” beer manufacturing laws in the area. Officer Wilkins was buried in the Howe Cemetery. Dan Perry was arrested for the murder of Officer Wilkins a few days later.