Well, I guess I'd better get back to my story. If you want to refresh your memory, you can refer back to my posts of July 10 and 17, Sam Paul, Parts One and Two.
Back in 1877, when Sam Paul was tried in Judge Parker's court for selling liquor and for killing the prisoner John Ferral, he was the head of the Paul family. His mother Ela Teecha had died, and his father Smith Paul had married a younger woman and was building a house in town. Sam ran the ranch. He had married my great grandmother, Sarah Lambert, in 1874, and they had two children together: Smith Whealton Paul, then three years old, and William Hyram Paul, my grandfather, a year old baby. Sam's oldest son Joe, now eight, also lived with them.
Sam may have been ruthless, but he was also fearless, a quality which was valued in a time when the threat of marauding plains Indians had been replaced by that of horse thieves and bank robbers. Sam was an officer in the Chickasaw Light Horse Police, and constable of Pickens County. He had become a prominent member of the community.
The kind of man the Chickasaws wanted to defend their citizens against outlaws is illustrated by the charge given to their officers: "with or without warrant, arrest all outlaws, thieves, and murderers in your section, and if they resist, you will shoot them on the spot. And you will aide and assist all U.S. Marshals in the enforcement of the laws and make yourself a terror to evildoers. If afraid, turn in your resignation and I'll appoint better men in your place." In other words, the Chickasaw Light Horse Policeman was expected to serve as judge, jury, and if he deemed necessary, executioner in order to provide law and order.
The Indian police were effective too. When my grandmother came to Indian Territory with her mother and father in 1888 she said, "We had some trouble crossing Arkansas, but after we crossed into Indian Territory we never were bothered by anyone. My father would buy feed from the Indians, and they were the most accommodating people I ever met." The Five Civilized Tribes welcomed white settlers, and they kept the peace.
Technically the Indian police could not arrest a white man, and their courts had no jurisdiction over them. The white settlers were no problem. Many of them had been living peacefully with the Indians for generations, but gradually, white outlaws sought refuge in Indian Territory, and soon they became the scourge of the territory, robbing and stealing, and killing anyone who got in their way. The 200 or so federal marshals assigned to Indian Territory were incapable of dealing with the situation. The challenge of arresting suspects, getting witnesses to travel 200 miles of more to Fort Smith for the trials, the sheer volume of cases, was overwhelming, so for the most part the Indian Police were on their own.
During the four years Sam Paul served as an Indian Policeman, we don't know about the dozens of cases he must have dealt with, the dangers he faced, the decisions he had to make. The only two stories about his service that have been handed down to us are the two cases that led to him being tried for murder.
The first of these episodes occurred in 1881. A cowboy named Frank Welch came into town to report a stolen horse, and was referred to Sam Paul. Welch reported that his boss, a rancher in the southern part of the territory named John Covey, had sent him to track down two men who had stolen one of their horses. The trail had led Welch to two men who joined up with a wagon train near Pauls Valley. The remarkable story of this tracker's skill is recorded in the record of Sam Paul's trial. (see The Trackers, Part 2, posted Jan 21, 2011.) Welch was able to identify the two individuals involved: one was a man named Smith, and the other was Sam Ross, son of the leader of the wagon train, "Old Man" John Ross.
Sam Paul quickly organized a posse, and with Welch's help identified the man Smith as he came into Miller and Green's, a general merchandise store. Sam decided to wait until morning to make the arrests because the wagon train was getting ready to make camp down by Rush Creek. When the posse reassembled the next morning, he split them up in order to cover all the exits from the valley.
As Sam and his nephew Fred Waite rode down toward the camp, they met two men on horseback, one of which they recognized as Smith. He was riding the stolen horse. When Sam called out for the men to halt, they pulled out their rifles and started firing. Sam and Fred returned the fire, killing Smith. The other man got away.
Sam Paul sent word to the rest of the posse to apprehend the other horse thief, Sam Ross, as well as the man riding with Smith. Then as he was riding down toward the wagon train he met Welch and his half brother, Tecumseh McClure. They had just finished having breakfast. It seems that Welch, on hearing the shots fired during Sam and Fred's gun battle, rode into the camp and confronted Old Man Ross. He warned Ross that if he didn't pay for or return the stolen horse, his son was going to hang. Ross paid for the horse. Welch told Sam that he was dropping the charges, and that was the end of that, at least for the time being.
To be continued.
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