Goingsnake massacre

Zeke Proctor

During the Civil War, Ezekiel "Zeke" Proctor, a Cherokee who had been removed from Georgia, fought for the Union Army. All of the Beck family men, also Cherokee, fought for the Confederate Army. Most of the Cherokee Nation was allied with the Confederacy; many of its members were slaveholders, and the Confederate representatives had promised the Cherokee and other Native Americans an Indian state if they were victorious in the war.

Following the war, tensions between the Proctors and the Becks were high; due mostly to the wartime loyalties, but also to Proctor's alleged romantic interest in Polly Beck. Proctor was a member of the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society, which strongly believed in the preservation of traditional ways, and was trying to resist European-American encroachment on land and culture. These members disapproved of Cherokee women being involved romantically with white men. In 1872 Proctor thought Polly Beck should not be in a relationship with a white man; she had been widowed in an earlier marriage to a Cherokee. Both Proctor and Beck had white fathers themselves, but identified as Cherokee. Proctor's father was a known murderer.

The Union veteran was described as 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 he was also known for taking responsibility and returning afterward to pay for damages. He was said to have previously killed two Cherokee brothers from the Jaybird family.

Polly Beck was described as an attractive woman of mixed race. She was the widow of Steven Hilderbrand (Cherokee), who had been killed during the Civil War. She remarried several times after his death. Jim Kesterson (or Chesterson),[5] who was white, was either her fourth or fifth husband. Polly had one brother and two first cousins who worked with the Deputy US Marshals based at Fort Smith, the site of the US District Court for Western Arkansas and Indian Territory.

The United States Marshals and the Cherokee Nation have differing accounts of what contributed to the shootout in the court. Over time, other versions of the initial incident have surfaced, but all tend to indicate three facts:

• 1. The murder suspect, Zeke Proctor, was known to object to Cherokee women being involved with white men.
• 2. Jim Kesterson, a white man, had once been married to Proctor's sister, and was now married to Polly Beck.
• 3. Proctor had a romantic interest in Polly Beck.

Hilderbrand's (or Beck's) Mill was the site where Proctor killed Beck and wounded Kesterson. It was located in the Flint community of Delaware County. This 1933 photograph shows the structure built around 1900 to replace the original mill where the shootings occurred.

Some versions say that Jim Kesterson had previously been involved with Proctor's sister, Susan, and had left her for Polly. Susan and the children were left destitute (it is said the children were not Kesterson's). Another version says that 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 have dated several men, most of them white. He was said to be in love with her. Another version says that Proctor had never been involved with Polly, but opposed any Cherokee women marrying or being involved with a white man.

Proctor is known to have confronted Polly and Jim on February 27 at her late husband's mill in the Oklahoma Territory. They argued and Proctor shot Kesterson in the head with a rifle, slightly wounding him. Proctor also shot Polly, killing her. Proctor said that he had accidentally killed her.

Stories diverge here, but one version says Proctor surrendered himself after the murder of Polly to the sheriff of the Goingsnake District of the Cherokee Nation. Cherokee judge Blackhawk Sixkiller was appointed to the case.[6]

Chesterson, believing Proctor would not be convicted in a Cherokee court, appealed to the regional federal district court, asking that an arrest warrant be issued to ensure that Proctor received a trial in a non-Cherokee court in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Treaties with the United States federal government said that Cherokee Nation courts would have jurisdiction over Cherokee people. The prospect of non-tribal law officers being involved in the case was considered a threat to tribal sovereignty and was deeply resented by the Cherokee people.[6] The federal court dispatched a ten-member posse including two Deputy US Marshals to secure the arrest of Proctor at the court house in Tahlequah if he was acquitted by the Cherokee jury. Five members of the Beck clan traveled with this posse.

Because of the strong emotions related to the case, the trial was moved to the schoolhouse, seen as easier to defend than the courthouse. All participants of the trial were heavily armed. Without issuing a warning, members of the group with the Deputy US Marshals attacked the schoolhouse. In the ensuing melee, eight of the posse members were killed or mortally wounded and nine Cherokee, including Proctor and the judge, were wounded, several mortally.[6]

The Cherokee authorities moved the trial to a different location. The jury acquitted Proctor. District Attorney James Huckleberry dispatched a large posse from Fort Smith under the command of Deputy US Marshal Charles Robinson. They took with them two doctors, who helped tend to Cherokees wounded in the shootout.

The second posse arrested several men believed to have been involved in the killing of the marshals, including jury foreman Arch Scaper. The Cherokee did not resist the second posse, but Zeke Proctor had fled by the time it arrived.

A federal grand jury in Fort Smith indicted twenty Cherokee who were present at the trial, as well as all the tribal court officers. The Cherokee Nation issued warrants for several Cherokee citizens. 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. The federal government later dismissed all indictments.[6]

Zeke Proctor returned to live 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 of the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation.[6] He served as a deputy US marshal from 1891 to 1894, under Isaac Parker, who had been in office during the Goingsnake Massacre. Proctor died on February 23, 1907, at age 76. His interment was in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma's Johnson Cemetery.

• Federal Writers' Project. Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941.
• Ernst, Robert (2006). Deadly Affrays: The Violent Deaths of the US Marshals. Indiana: ScarletMask Enterprises. pp. 268–270. ISBN 0975321919.
• "The West's Worst Shootout: The tragedy at Goingsnake left 11 men dead – and a lot of questions". The Tombstone Epitaph. Tombstone, AZ. CXXXXII (3): 3, 8–9. March 2022. ISSN 1940-221X.

• U.S. Marshalls Service, History – Line of Duty deaths prevalent in Old West
• Points West Article – Violence Would Not Prevail
• Blood Bath at Going Snake: The Cherokee Courtroom Shootout
• "Goingsnake Massacre". MarlinOwners.com. Retrieved 2013-09-14.