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. During the trial of a suspect, arrested for shooting a man then murdering the man's wife, eight US Marshals were killed in an ambush. The incident is generally referred to as a massacre due to the killing of eight Deputy US Marshals, but also from the fact fourteen Cherokees were killed by the US Marshals. Though called a massacre, it was actually more of a gunfight.

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[edit] Background

During the Civil War, Zeke Proctor, a Cherokee, fought for the Union Army, while all of the Beck family, also Cherokee, fought for the Confederate Army. Following the war, tensions between the Becks and the Proctors was high; mostly due to those former loyalties, but partly due to Proctor's alleged romantic interest in Polly Beck. Also, Proctor was a member of the Cherokee Keetoowah tribe, which strongly believed in the preservation of traditional ways, including a growing dislike of the whites encroachment. This belief included disapproval of Cherokee women being involved romantically with white men. Thus, Proctor thought Polly should not be in a relationship with a white man, despite Proctor's and Polly Beck's fathers both having been white.

Proctor was the son of a known murderer and was often drunk. He once forced his way into a house where a young girl had been playing the piano; after she stopped, he held her at gunpoint and made her continue playing. He was involved in several saloon brawls in the small town of Cincinnati, Arkansas, but was also known for his trait of always returning afterward to pay for damages. He had also previously killed two Cherokee brothers from the Jaybird family.

Polly was said to have been an attractive woman of mixed race (her father being white). She was the widow of a white man, Steve Hilderbrand, who had been killed during the Civil War. She remarried several times, and Jim Kesterson, another white man, was either her fourth or fifth husband. Polly had one brother and two first cousins who were Deputy US Marshals.

[edit] Prior to the ambush

The US Marshals have one version of what led up to the incident, whereas the Cherokee nation another. Over time, various versions of the initial incident have surfaced, but all tend to indicate three particular facts:

  • 1. The murder suspect, Zeke Proctor did object to a Cherokee woman being involved with a white man,
  • 2. the victim Jim Kesterson had once been married to Proctor's sister, and
  • 3. the victim Polly Beck was a love interest to Proctor.

Aside from these fact, the versions of the story are often quite different.

Some versions state that Jim Kesterson had previously been involved with Proctor's sister, Susan, and had left her for Polly, leaving Susan and the children destitute (it is said the children were not Kesterson's). Another version indicates Kesterson caught Proctor stealing cattle and intended to prosecute. Yet another version claims 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 in love with her. Another version indicates Proctor had never been involved with Polly, but was jealous about an Indian woman having married or being involved with a white man.

Whatever the reason, Proctor confronted Polly and Jim at Polly's dead husband's mill in the Oklahoma Territory, near Siloam Springs, Arkansas, on February 27. The incident developed into an argument; Zeke Proctor produced a rifle and shot Kesterson in the head, slightly wounding him. Proctor then turned to Polly and fired, killing her. Zeke maintained his killing of Polly was accidental.

Proctor was arrested by US Marshals working the territory. However, at the time, American Indian courts handled all cases involving American Indians. Kesterson, believing Proctor would not be convicted in a Cherokee court, appealed to the local federal court, asking that an arrest warrant be issued to ensure that Proctor received an unbiased trial in a non-Cherokee court. The federal court dispatched 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 Marshals were from the Beck family, and kin to murder victim Polly Beck. This heightened tensions already in place prior to their arrival. Further, as previously noted, 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 fired and began retreating from the open school yard. The Marshals killed three Cherokee men and wounded six others before being overwhelmed by around thirty men. Seven US Marshals were killed on the spot; three escaped. All three Becks were slain. Deputy Marshal Owens died several hours later from wounds he received. In the end, at least fourteen Cherokee men were wounded, eleven of them dying within days.

[edit] List of the US Marshals killed

[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 ruling on Proctor was accepted by US courts, since Cherokee courts had jurisdiction at the time, and due to federal laws against double jeopardy. 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 killing of the Marshals, including jury foreman Arch Scaper. There was no resistance made against the second posse -- Zeke Proctor had fled by the time this posse arrived. The suspects were taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas for trial, but all were eventually released due to 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 killing the Marshals; the Cherokee court issued indictments against the US Marshals for killing fourteen Cherokee men. Eventually, by 1873, all indictments 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 was elected Sheriff. Ironically, he served as a Deputy US Marshal from 1891 to 1894, under "Hanging Judge" Parker. Proctor died in 1904, at the age of 76.

[edit] External links