Tribal Passages by Regina McLemore

THE NEW YORK TIMES called Cherokee Ezekial Proctor a “bad Indian” on November 7, 1897. This was twenty-five years after his involvement in what various newspapers described as “Proctor’s War,” “The Courthouse Riot,” or “The Goingsnake Massacre” and ten years before his death. Many of his fellow Cherokee would have disagreed with that description. They would have praised him for his performance as a Cherokee sheriff. Others who had run afoul of Proctor, either as a private citizen or in his capacity as a lawman, would have called him worse. All of them, however, would have agreed with this statement. Ezekial “Zeke” Proctor was tough as nails and not a man to be approached carelessly. One Ft. Smith paper said of Proctor, “It is not known how many men fell before his rifle, but no two Cherokee were such terrors to their own race and were so thoroughly feared as Tom Starr and Zeke Proctor….”

Born to a white father and Cherokee mother in 1831 Georgia, Zeke’s young life was marred by the tragedy of the Trail of Tears. Phillip W. Steele, the author of The Last Cherokee Warriors, referenced Zeke’s granddaughter Elizabeth Walden’s memories of her grandfather. She said that Zeke often spoke about the hardships of the journey to Oklahoma. Zeke’s family was packed onto flatboats and made the journey by water. Many of the party they traveled with died and were buried beside the riverbanks.

Arriving in Indian Territory at age seven, he grew up in the Goingsnake District near what later became Westville, Oklahoma. Being on the border of Indian Territory and just a few miles from Arkansas, the area was known to attract law breakers and desperados. Zeke’s early skill with weapons was a natural consequence of being brought up in such an environment.

According to Elizabeth Walden, her grandfather, Zeke Proctor, spent a lot of his life “on the scout.” Zeke was quite young when his father sent him to check on two of his brothers who were visiting in the home of the Jaybird family. Zeke arrived in the middle of a hot argument, which rapidly escalated into a gunfight. The end result was the death of two of the Jaybird brothers by Zeke’s hand. This was the first of several times that Zeke went “on the scout.”

A rare photo of EZEKIAL PROCTOR a tough-as-nails cherokee lawman, without his hat,

Proctor’s son Ezekiel Proctor was interviewed by Oklahoma field workers for the Indian Pioneer Papers oral history project in 1938. He said his father moved to Texas in the 1840s where he became an outlaw. Proctor stole fine horses to bring to Indian Territory by rafts on the Red River. He speculated that Zeke murdered about 25 persons in his lifetime.

Zeke served as a scout and sharpshooter for the Union, but he also fought as a “Pin” Indian during the Civil War. This meant that Proctor was part of a special group of Cherokee soldiers who wore crossed pins to identify themselves and officially fought for the Union. Unofficially, they attacked any soldiers who served under the Confederate Cherokee Commander Stand Watie. They considered Watie and his men to be enemies of Chief John Ross. Their violence sometimes extended to civilians, who they believed supported the Confederacy. They often pillaged and stole from the area families. In some cases, they killed innocent civilians in the belief they opposed Chief John Ross and supported Stand Watie. Of course, the same could be said for Watie’s Confederates who treated the Pins and their supporters in like manner.

Serving the union army during the Civil War, Proctor was a member of a special group of Cherokee who attacked fellow tribesmen serving under Confederate Cherokee commander Stand Watie. they wore crossed pins to identify themselves as Union soldiers.

After the war ended, Zeke returned to Goingsnake District in Indian Territory and, seemingly, gave up his old ways. He also served as the Sheriff of Goingsnake District for a time. But Zeke was no saint. Although his family described him as an intelligent, jovial Indian, who loved children, he turned into “Mr. Hyde” when he started drinking. Whenever he got drunk in one of the local saloons, usually at Cincinnati, Arkansas, he became loud, boisterous, and quarrelsome. On several occasions, he shot up Cincinnati with his pair of pearl-handled .45s. Later, when he sobered up, he would sometimes return to the shops he had damaged and offer to pay for repairs. Then 1872 came, and Ezekiel said his father encountered his “first trouble” at Beck’s Mill.

THE GOINGSNAKE MASSACRE

DR. VIRGIL BERRY WROTE about what happened in 1872 in “Zeke Proctor—Uncle Sam’s Treaty with One Man,” in a 1954 issue of The Chronicles of Oklahoma. After interviewing Zeke Proctor’s family, Berry described him as being typical of the old stoic warrior type. He stood tall and straight as an arrow with long, black hair draping over his shoulders. Zeke generally avoided white people and usually only ventured from home to purchase needed goods. In February of 1872, he traveled to Hildebrand’s Mill, which was about twenty miles south of Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Proctor went there to speak to the owner of the mill, a white man named Jim Kesterson, who was married to Polly Beck. Proctor was angry because he had heard that Kesterson was making threats against him for allegedly stealing his cattle. Proctor may have had another motive for visiting the mill. Stories claim that Kesterson had recently been involved with Proctor’s sister and had left her and their children, alone and hungry. Zeke was angry with Kesterson for how he had treated his sister. Whatever his motives were, Zeke walked up to the mill armed with a shotgun and two pistols. When Kesterson and Polly came outside to meet him, Proctor shot at Kesterson. Polly got between them and was instantly killed. Proctor rode off.

Other accounts of the incident say that Kesterson went upstairs to his living quarters over the mill to get a gun. When he came downstairs to confront Proctor, Polly got between the two men on the stairs. Proctor accidentally shot and killed her. Some accounts also say that Proctor shot and wounded Kesterson, but other accounts say he simply left. Whichever account is accurate, they all agree that Zeke Proctor killed Polly Beck Kesterson.

Proctor soon agreed to surrender to the Cherokee authorities and be tried in the Cherokee court in the Goingsnake district where he lived.

Meanwhile, Kesterson and the Beck family members were clamoring for justice, and they said they couldn’t get it in Cherokee courts. They went to Fort Smith and persuaded U.S. Commissioner J.O. Churchill to issue a writ for Proctor’s arrest. The writ could have been illegal because in Indian Territory Indians could only be tried in federal courts if one of the parties involved was white. Both Proctor and Polly Beck were considered to be Cherokee. However, if it is true that Proctor wounded Kesterson, a white man, that act would have given Churchill legal grounds to issue the writ. Regardless, Marshals J.O. Owens and J.S. Peavy were sent to bring Proctor in. Some of the men who volunteered for the posse were relatives or friends of the Beck family.

Ezekiel Proctor also identified Marshal Riley Woods and Special Agent Eugene Bracken as being part of the posse, along with Paul Jones and Jim Ward. He said that four of Polly’s relatives rode with them: White Sut, Black Sut, Sam, and Bill Beck.

The posse rode to the Whitmire School in Goingsnake District where Proctor was being tried. Proctor was surrounded by Cherokee lawmen and his friends as well as some relatives and friends of the Beck family. Seated at the trial were Zeke, his brother, Johnson Proctor, Judge Blackhawk Sixkiller, Mose Alberty, Proctor’s attorney, Joe Starr, the Court Clerk, Johnson Spade, the District Attorney, some guards, and several spectators. Standing outside the building were more guards and many bystanders who couldn’t find a place to sit in the building. Steele said that an armed party of Beck family members and friends were waiting outside and immediately joined the approaching posse. The marshals quickly lost control of their command.

In the midst of the trial, someone called out a warning. At that moment, the doors to the building opened, and the posse burst into the room. One of the Becks, likely White Sut, immediately aimed his shotgun at Zeke, but Zeke’s brother Johnson grabbed the barrel just as it fired. He took the full charge in his chest. The second bullet hit Zeke in the knee. Alberty was struck by stray buckshot as he sat near the judge’s desk.

Bedlam ensued with shots being fired by all parties, and several people were wounded. At some point, Zeke grabbed a gun and joined in the fray. Being outgunned, what remained of the posse rode off. The entire gunfight was over in about fifteen minutes. Wounded people lay all over inside and outside the schoolhouse.

E.H. Whitmire, another interviewee, who lived close to the school house, said his mother told him and his brothers to gather up the wounded and dead. They put the living and the dead in wagons and brought them to their house. Their home became a temporary hospital until relatives could come and collect the wounded. He said they laid nine corpses on their front porch.

Whitmire, whose brother was a spectator at the trial, stated that from the Beck side, Sam Beck, Black Sut Beck, Riley Woods, Bill Hicks, George Selvage, and Jim Ward were all killed outright. Marshal Owens and Bill Beck were mortally wounded and died later. Marshal Owens reportedly said before he died that as soon as his posse dismounted, “the boys” made a rush for the door, and he tried to stop them but could do nothing with them.

On the Proctor side, Johnson Proctor and Mose Alberty were killed. Andy Palone, Ellis Foreman, and Proctor himself were all wounded but recovered.

Ezekiel Proctor’s account differs by saying that Andy Palone was killed from the Proctor side, and Joe Chewey was wounded. He stated that on the Beck side, White Sut, Paul Jones, and George McLaughlin were also wounded but survived.

Regardless of the statistical differences, the bloodbath in Goingsnake District made history. At least eight members of the Marshals Service died in a single day, and some have called it the largest single day of marshal loss of life in the agency’s history.

In the April 21, 1872, Arkansas Daily Gazette, appeared a letter from Marshal J.S. Peavey, sent from Barren Fork, Cherokee Nation, to the United States Marshals’ Office. In the letter, Peavey stated, “We have had a terrible fight—lost seven of our side killed, dead…. Owens is wounded…. For God’s sake, send help and send quickly…. We are looking to be attacked every moment….”

Zeke Proctor was taken to Cherokee Arch Scraper’s house and guarded until the next day. The interrupted trial proceeded, and Proctor was acquitted.

The verdict didn’t end Zeke’s trouble. The marshals were still after him, and he went on the scout again. Zeke believed that if he were captured and taken to be tried in Ft. Smith, he would surely hang as an example of the federal court’s authority over the Indian nations.

On April 18, 1872, Deputy United States Marshal C.F. Robinson made a formal request of the Cherokee Chief Lewis Downing. He demanded the surrender of the Cherokee who were involved in the attack made on Deputy United States Marshals, J.G. Owens and Peavey, and their posse members. He named Ezekiel Proctor, Jesse Shill, Soldier Sixkiller, One Sixkiller, Thomas Walkingstick, John Creek, John Proctor, Isaac Vann, Ellis Foreman, Joe Chaney, and the jury that was impaneled to try Ezekiel Proctor.

Chief Downing considered the case against Proctor to be closed since he had been tried by a Cherokee court and acquitted. Not only did he refuse to comply with Robinson’s demand, he sent out a letter to the Cherokee delegation in Washington, consisting of William Potter Ross, William Penn Adair, and C.N. Vann. He asked for their help to restore the Cherokee Nation’s treaty rights of self-government.

Meanwhile, the United States Marshal Logan H. Roots of the Fort Smith Federal Court and the United States District Attorney, James. H. Huckleberry, were appealing to the Attorney General in Washington for support and help. One letter even suggested that federal troops be sent in to capture Proctor and his followers.

On May 10, 1872, the Daily Arkansas Gazette said that Marshal Joe Peavy and his posse came upon Zeke Proctor and his party of supporters on Bird Creek in the Cherokee Nation, and another gunfight ensued. When it was over, five of the marshal’s party were killed, and eight were wounded. Six outlaws lay dead on the ground, but “Zeke Proctor, with his usual good luck, escaped.”

Part of Proctor’s “luck” came from his fellow Cherokee. Several of them appeared to travel with him, and his many relatives and friends warned him if marshals or other lawmen were in the area.

All of the lobbying, appeals, letters, and acts of violence attracted President Grant’s attention. According to Steele, he ordered a grand jury hearing of the case on June 10, 1873. On August 14, 1873, Zeke and the others named in the marshals’ charges were summoned to a hearing. Each of them was granted total amnesty for their crimes.

However, evidently the affair wasn’t over. On October 29, 1873, John B. Jones, U.S. Agent for the Cherokee, wrote a letter on their behalf. He said that they “were the victims rather than the criminals in this terrible affair.” Even though the Cherokee condemned “the attack on the court and the killing and wounding which followed,” they would not pursue the matter.

Then Jones dropped a bombshell. He quoted from a recent letter he had received from the U.S. District Attorney. “I was directed by the Attorney General of the United States, to dismiss the case of U.S. vs Zeke Proctor & others for murder at Goingsnake District, but was further directed that if the authorities of the Cherokee Nation should attempt to prosecute any of the Marshal’s party, to re-indict Proctor and his party.”

Jones then said, “While I am perfectly willing to have the Marshal’s party go free, if it thought best by the authorities at Washington, I wish it distinctly understood that I consider them guilty of a most flagrant crime vs peaceable, unoffending, and unarmed citizens.”

Neither did Proctor’s story end in 1873. In Vinita, Oklahoma’s Weekly Chieftain, on August 17, 1899, an article appeared about Zeke. It pointed out that after his trial, he represented Goingsnake District in the Cherokee Senate for two years and was sheriff of his district at a later date.

As an old man, he spoke out about the encroachment of the United States on Cherokee sovereignty. Proctor boldly asked permission from Cherokee Chief Joel Mayes to come to Vinita and “wipe out the Dawes Commission” as he had wiped out the Becks long ago.

Elizabeth Walden remembered Zeke as a doting grandpa who brought his grandchildren apples or candy from town and took them on walks by the river. There he told them stories while he sat and whittled.

Walden said that among Zeke’s last words was the admonition to “Take care of my boys, give them shelter, and feed them.” Later, she understood that he was speaking about the three Wickliff brothers, who were wanted for moonshining and killing a U.S. marshal. The night of Zeke’s death they were hiding in his smokehouse and came into the house to pay their respects before they left to go back “on the scout.”

Elizabeth Walden once said, “My grandfather was not an outlaw but someone who was brave enough to take a stand against a government that sought to take away the freedom of the Cherokee to govern their own nation. I am glad to say that Ezekiel Proctor was my grandpa.”

In his obituary in the March 7, 1907, Stilwell Standard, Zeke Proctor was described as one of the most noted Cherokee of modern times. He was also called the “hero of the Goingsnake Courthouse tragedy.” He had filled many positions of honor and trust under the Cherokee government, including councilor, sheriff, and senator. The article concluded by alluding to the poem, “Thanatopsis,” saying, he died “in the forest of his beautiful home on the Illinois River, not like the Gladiator, but wrapt the drapery of his couch about him and laid (sic) down to pleasant dreams.”

—REGINA MCLEMORE is a retired educator of Cherokee heritage. Her great, great grandmother, Susie Christie Clay, survived the Trail of Tears in 1839. Her novel, Cherokee Clay, was a finalist for the 2020 Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award for Best First Western Novel.