Sam Paul and the Chickasaw Light Horse Police

Back in Indian Territory before 1898 when the Indian governments were abolished, the Chickasaws had their own police force, known as the "Light Horse Police." The Chickasaw Nation, reborn in 1983, now has a modern police force called by the same name, so the Chickasaw Light Horse Police still ride, though now in cars instead of horses.  

The Chickasaws' first police force was organized in 1829, in the Chickasaw homeland in what is now the state of Mississippi. The Chickasaw laws were few, but the punishments were swift. Theft was punished by 39 lashes and the offender had to restore the property. Whiskey was banned. There was no need for jails. An offender was honor bound to submit to his punishment. Murder was punished outside the law by revenge killing, and a member of the victim's family would mete out the punishment. If a killer fled, a member of his family would be executed in his stead, and afterward he would be shunned by the tribe, a fate considered worse than death.

The Chickasaws, by Arrell Gibson, P 153, describes the first laws of the Chickasaw 

After 1837, when the Chickasaw were forced to migrate to Indian Territory, they were for several years considered citizens of the Choctaw Nation.The two tribes shared a similar language, and they had many customs in common, but the Chickasaw were not happy living under Choctaw rule. In 1857, just before the Civil War, the Chickasaw broke away and formed their own nation under their own laws. It was around that time when the Light Horse Police Force was created.   

After the Civil War, there was a flood of settlers into Indian Territory, and because there were few federal marshals to police the vast area, many outlaws sought refuge there. The job of the Light Horse Policeman was difficult and dangerous. Their charge was to:  

…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.  

The Outlaw Statesman, Mike Tower, P 82 

It was during this time that my great grandfather, Sam Paul, became a Light Horse Policeman. Sam Paul was perfectly suited for this job. According to all accounts, he was fearless and ruthless. My great grandmother estimated once that he had killed 15 men.  

The Chickasaw themselves were little threat to the community. Even during the late 1800's the Chickasaw Nation had no jails, and the guilty still reported to the appointed place of punishment, whether it be for lashes or for execution. It was the white men who posed a threat to law and order.  

The Light Horse Police were placed in a difficult situation. They had no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens, so they were expected to sit by passively and wait for a federal marshal to deal with white criminals. Also there was the practical problem of bringing a criminal to trial. The nearest federal court was in Fort Smith, Arkansas, which was 200 miles from the Chickasaw Nation. So if a Chickasaw policeman apprehended a criminal, he was expected to hold him in custody while a U.S. marshal was summoned. Then he had to convince witnesses to travel all the way to Fort Smith to testify.  

My great grandfather and other Chickasaw policemen decided that this was too much to ask, so they often dispensed justice to whites as they saw fit without bothering to contact a federal marshal.  

In 1882, my great grandfather was arrested and sent to Fort Smith to be tried for manslaughter. He had killed a white prisoner, well actually two, and the federal marshal James Mershon decided to make an example of him. Sam then faced an ordeal that would have broken a lesser man. First he was marched to Ft Smith with the other prisoners, who included Sam=s half brother Tecumseh, his nephew Fred Waite, and other members of the posse that had arrested Harkins, one of the men he was accused of killing. On the 200 mile trek, the prisoners were shackled to a log which they were compelled to carry between them as they walked. In Ft. Smith they were put in the filthy jail which housed as many as 6 men per cell. It was June so they also suffered from the sweltering heat.  

Within a couple of weeks the charges against Fred, Tecumseh, and most of the other members of the posse were dropped, and they were allowed to return home, but Sam wasn=t tried until December. Time passed slowly in these hideous conditions. Many men in the Ft Smith jail became ill or malnourished, and several died before they could be brought to trial. My great grandmother, Sarah, took my grandfather Billy and his brother Buck, 6 and 8 years old at the time, to visit their father in jail. She had to lift them up so that they could kiss their father through the bars.  

In January of 1883 Sam Paul was brought before the notorious Judge Isaac Parker, known as "the hanging judge" because he had sent 88 men to the gallows. Sam=s trial resulted in a hung jury, so he remained in jail. His second trial wasn't held until April of 1883, so he languished in the Fort Smith jail for a total of ten months! When his case came to trial, Sam was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to ten years at hard labor in the federal penitentiary at Detroit, Michigan

 

The story doesn't end there, however. After Sam Paul's conviction, the Chickasaw legislature sent a petition, signed by the legislators and other prominent citizens of the Chickasaw Nation, to the President of the United States, Chester Arthur, requesting a pardon, and in March, 1884, the pardon was granted. 

It read:  

Whereas the Chickasaw Council, and a large number of officers and citizens of Indian Territory have petitioned for the defendant's pardon, representing that he committed the offense while endeavoring, as an officer of the United States and of the Territory, to enforce the law, and was excusable. 

And whereas, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are of the opinion that the conviction in this case tends to impair the efficiency of the Indian Police, and that a pardon would be in the interest of law and order, and earnestly recommend it; … 

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers and other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby grant to the said Sam Paul a full and unconditional pardon.  

National Archives 

Sam Paul's pardon set an historic precedent giving the Chickasaw Light Horse Police the authority to maintain law and order in their territory.  

As for Sam Paul, he went on to be elected senator representing Pickens County in the Chickasaw legislature; he practiced law in the Chickasaw courts, and he owned two newspapers, the Chickasaw Enterprise and the Chickasaw Chieftain. Sam testified in Washington, D.C. before the Joint Committee on Indian Affairs of the U.S. Congress, and he later ran for governor of the Chickasaw Nation. Sam Paul was one of the most progressive and farsighted men in the Chickasaw Nation.

 

Sam Paul, Part Four

The only other surviving record of Sam Paul's career as a Chickasaw policeman concerns his investigation of a group of outlaws known as the Sturdivant - Cox gang during the year 1882. These outlaws had made threats against Ben Burney, a former Chickasaw Governor, and Sam Paul was instructed to form a posse to track down the gang. The posse first went to the home of two brothers, John and William Harkins, who were known to be friends of Sturdivant.  

Early on the morning of April 22, 1882, Sam's posse surrounded the Hawkins' house. At sunrise they called out to John Harkins who took his rifle and went outside. After seeing that he and his brother were outnumbered, John invited the posse in. Sam asked the brothers  to accompany them over to Birnie's place, a nearby farm, to see if they could identify a prisoner held there. The brothers were then disarmed, and forced to go with the posse, which soon split up into two groups, each taking one of the brothers. 

The group which took John Harkins was led by Sam Paul, while William went with the other group, led by Galloway Frazier, Sam's old friend, and the sheriff of Pickens County. The plan was to scare the boys into revealing the outlaws' hiding place. Frazier's group threw a rope over the limb of a tree, and threatened to hang William if he didn't cooperate. Sam and the other posse members took John and rode down next to a small creek. There they got him down off his horse and forced him to remove his belt and his knife. Then, according to Sam, John grabbed a gun from Jim Ross, one of the posse members, and attempted to shoot him. Sam was faster though, and he shot and killed John Harkins. 

After the shooting, John's brother William was taken to Tishomingo, the Chickasaw Capital, where he was turned over to the federal marshal, James Mershon, on a charge of whiskey peddling. William told Mershon about his brother being shot, and Mershon, remembering Sam's killing of Ferral and Smith, decided that Indian policemen were taking too many liberties in dealing with white suspects. Judge Parker evidently agreed, and so, in July of 1882, warrants were issued for the arrest of Sam Paul and for the other posse members involved in the shootings of Smith and Harkins.  

Mershon arrested Sam Paul in Miller and Greens while he was buying a pair of gloves. Then he was put in chains, along with his half brother Tecumseh McClure, his nephew Fred Waite, and a half dozen other men, and marched the 200 miles to Ft. Smith, where they were thrown into Parker's rat infested jail. Within a couple of weeks the trial began for the murder of the horse thief, Smith. Tecumseh and the tracker, Frank Welch, were released before the trial began, because witnesses testified that they were two miles away at the time of the shooting. In the trial of Sam and Fred, the jury found them innocent of Smith's murder, since they were acting as police officers, and they were fired on first. 

Fred Waite was then released, but Sam Paul and Jim Ross were held without bond until the second trial was scheduled, in January, 1883. During the next six months Sam became weak and malnourished in the filthy Ft. Smith jail. My great grandmother Sarah, took the children, Bill and Buck, to see their father. My grandfather Bill, who was six at the time, remembered his mother holding him up to the bars.   

The second trial ended in a hung jury, so a third trial was scheduled, this time for April, so Sam Paul was forced to remain in the Ft. Smith jail for another four months. I don't know how he survived. When the trial resumed, the other defendant, Jim Ross, managed to turn the jury in his favor, and against Sam. Sam was found guilty of manslaughter, and was sentenced to ten years in the federal prison at Detroit, therefore escaping the gallows, which claimed many of his cell mates. 

Still, facing another ten years in prison must have seemed like the end of the world to Sam, especially after languishing in the Judge Parker's jail for almost a year, but he had a surprise coming. The Chickasaw Nation fought for his freedom. On September 13, 1883, the Chickasaw legislature passed a resolution to apply for a presidential pardon for Sam Paul, and on March 7, 1884, almost a year after his conviction, the pardon was granted.

I'll quote a portion of it:

          And whereas, the Chickasaw Council, and a large number of the officers and citizens of Indian Territory have petitioned for the defendant's pardon, representing that he committed the offence while endeavoring, as an officer of the United States and of the Territory, to enforce the law, and was excusable; 

          And whereas, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are of opinion that the conviction in this case tends to impair the efficiency of the Indian Police, and that a pardon would be in the interest of law and order, and earnestly recommend it; and the defendant being also recommended to clemency by Senators Garland, Vest, Cockrell, Walker, Jackson, Harris and Maxey, and by the jury:  

          Now, therefore, be it known, that I Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the promises and divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby grant to the said Sam Paul, a full and unconditional pardon.

Sam Paul's pardon was an important milestone in the Chickasaws' fight for sovereignty. Sam had lost two years of his life and had suffered unimaginable hardships, but he hadn't lost his spirit. When he returned home a free man, he came determined to lead his tribe through the difficult times ahead.