Going Snake Massacre
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The Going Snake Massacre was an incident that occurred on April 15th, 1872, during the early days of the Old West, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, then the capitol of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. In the incident, eight US Marshals were killed when ten US Marshals were ambushed during the trial of a murder suspect, who had been arrested for shooting one man, then murdering the man's Cherokee wife. The incident is generally referred to as a massacre mostly due to the killing of eight Deputy US Marshals, but the term also comes from the fact that fourteen Cherokees were also killed by the US Marshals. In true fact, it was actually more of a gunfight than a massacre.
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[edit] Prior to the ambush
The US Marshals have one version of what led up to the incident, whereas the Cherokee nation had another. Over time, various versions of the initial incident have surfaced, with all indicating three particular facts. That the murder suspect, Zeke Proctor did object to a Cherokee woman being involved with a white man, that the victim Jim Kecterson had once been married to Proctor's sister, and that the murder victim Polly Beck was a love interest to Proctor. Aside from those, the variations of the story have several detailed differences, and are often quite different.
Zeke Proctor, a Cherokee, maintained his killing of Polly, also a Cherokee, was accidental. Some versions state that Jim Kecterson, a white man, had previously been involved with Proctor's sister, Susan, and had left her and their children destitute, leaving her for Polly. Susan Proctor and Jim Kecterson had once been married, but it is also said that the children were not Kecterson's. Another version indicates that Kecterson had caught Proctor stealing cattle, and intended to have him prosecuted. Yet another version indicates that Proctor had been previously involved romantically with Polly, who was known locally to be promiscuous, dating several men, most of them white, and that he was still in love with her. Yet another version indicates that Proctor had never been involved with Polly, but was jealous over an Indian woman having married or becoming involved with a white man. She was said to have been an attractive woman, of mixed race with her father being white, the widow of another white man named Steve Hilderbrand, who had been killed during the Civil War, and Kecterson was either her fourth or fifth husband. Polly was formerly Polly Beck, with one brother and two first cousins being Deputy US Marshals.
During the Civil War, Zeke Proctor had fought for the Union Army, whereas all of the Beck family had fought for the Confederate Army. Following the war, tensions between the Beck's and the Proctor's was high, much due to those former loyalties, and partly due to Proctor's alleged romantic interest in Polly Beck. Also, Proctor was a member of the Cherokee Keetoowah tribe, which believed strongly at the time in the preservation of the traditional ways, and strongly believing against the encroachment of whites. This belief included the disapproval of Cherokee women becoming involved romantically with white men, despite Proctor's father having been white, and Polly Beck's father having been white.
Proctor was the son of a known murderer, was known to often be drunk, and had previously been known to have forced his way into a house where a young girl had been playing the piano, and after she stopped he held her at gunpoint and made her continue playing. He had previously been involved in several saloon brawls in the small town of Cincinnati, Arkansas, but was known for his trait of always returning afterward to pay for damages. He had previously killed two Cherokee brothers from the Jaybird family.
Whatever the reason was that brought them together, Proctor confronted them both at Polly's dead husband's mill, near Siloam Springs, Arkansas but in Oklahoma Territory, on February 27. The incident developed into an argument, whereas Zeke Proctor produced a rifle and shot the Kecterson man in the head, slightly wounding him. Proctor then turned to the Cherokee wife, Polly, and shot her, killing her.
He was captured and arrested by US Marshals working the territory. At the time, American Indian courts handled all cases involving American Indians. Kecterson, believing Proctor would not be convicted in a Cherokee court, appealed to the local federal court, asking that an arrest warrant be issued to insure that Proctor received a trial that was unbiased, in a non-Cherokee court. This prompted the federal court to dispatch ten US Marshals to secure the arrest of Proctor at the court house in Tahlequah. However, prior to the US Marshals arriving, the trial had been moved to a local Cherokee school house.
[edit] The ambush
The posse of ten US Marshals was led by Deputy US Marshal Jacob Owens and Deputy US Marshal Joseph Peavy. Three members of the posse were Cherokee, from the Beck family, and kin to murder victim Polly Beck. This added to the tensions already in place prior to their arrival. Also, the Beck and Proctor families had other issues that led to a common dislike of one another.
The Marshals entered town, and went straight to the school house. As they approached, a large band of Cherokee men ambushed them. The Marshals, caught in the open, had no cover. They immediately returned fire, and began retreating from the open school yard. The Marshals killed three of the Cherokee men, and wounded six others, before being overwhelmed by a mass of men numbering around thirty. Seven of the US Marshals were killed on the spot, with three escaping. Deputy Marshal Owens died several hours later from wounds he'd received. At least fourteen other Cherokee men were wounded by the end of the fight, eleven of those dying within days.
[edit] List of the US Marshals killed
- The two Marshals who survived were Joseph Peavy and Isaac Vinn. Both were wounded, but recovered.
- Will Beck
- Black Sut Beck
- Will Hicks
- George Selridge
- Jim Ward
- Riley Woods
- Sam Beck
- Jacob Owens
[edit] List of Cherokee men killed
- Johnson Proctor, brother to suspect Zeke Proctor
- Alberty, Proctor's attorney
- Andrew Palone, a Cherokee and Civil War veteran
- Eleven other Cherokee men, whose names are not known, died within days of the shootout
- Six Cherokee men were wounded, including Zeke Proctor and the Judge, Sixkiller.
[edit] Aftermath
Proctor was acquitted the next day, in a Cherokee court. The Cherokee court ruling on Proctor was accepted, due to federal law not allowing him to be tried twice for the same crime, and at the time Cherokee courts did have jurisdiction. US Marshal James Huckleberry immediately dispatched twenty one Deputy US Marshals under the command of Charles Robinson. They took with them two doctors, who helped tend to wounded Cherokee civilians.
The second posse arrested several men believed to have been involved in the murder of the Marshals, to include jury foreman Arch Scaper. There was no resistance made against the second posse. Zeke Proctor had fled by the time of this posses arrival. The suspects were taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas for trial, but all were eventually released for lack of evidence or witnesses willing to testify.
Several indictments were issued after the shootout, by both the federal court and the Cherokee court. Zeke Proctor and twenty others were indicted for the killing of the Marshals, whereas the Cherokee court issued indictments against the US Marshals for the killing of fourteen Cherokee men. Eventually, by 1873, all indictments on both sides were dropped, and Zeke Proctor received amnesty.
Zeke Proctor continued living in the area. By the 1880s he owned a small ranch. He was elected as a Cherokee Senator in 1877, and in 1894 he was elected Sheriff. He also, ironically, served as a Deputy US Marshal from 1891 to 1894, under "Hanging Judge" Parker. Proctor died in 1904, at the age of 76.
