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 Three

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.

The Trackers, Part 2

                               


                                 Isaac C Parker, "The Hanging Judge"

          When I started my last post what I really had in mind was this story, but I had read about what phenomenal trackers the Chickasaws were, so I began with that.

           Several years ago, I ordered a transcript of the murder trial of my great grandfather, Sam Paul, from the National Archives. When I received the transcript I took it with me on a visit with my mother so we could read it together. What fascinated us most about the transcript was the testimony of a cowboy who described how he tracked down a horse thief. 

          Before I let you read this remarkable account I'm going to have to give you some background about the situation in Indian Territory in the late 1800's. The Indian Nations were sovereign states. They had their own laws, their own governments and their own police force. At the same time however, their territory was part of the United States and they had no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens. As a result, Indian Territory became a haven for outlaws.

          It was during this time that Indian Territory came to be known as the "Wild Wild West." It was the time of Jesse James, and Belle Starr, of the Dalton Gang and Cherokee Bill. The federal court responsible for Indian Territory was in Ft. Smith Arkansas, presided over by  Judge Isaac C. Parker, nicknamed "the hanging judge" because during his tenure he sentenced 88 men to hang. Several more men died in Judge Parker's crowded, rat infested jail before they could be hanged, and one was shot while attempting to escape. Judge Parker's marshals, such as James Mershon and Heck Thomas, became famous in their own right. Many of the well known western dramas such as True Grit and Hang 'Em High have been inspired by Judge Parker, his deputies, and the outlaws they went up against. 

          What is not so well known is the story of the Indian police. The Light Horse Police, as they were called, were a tough bunch. Their instructions were to: Awith 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 US Marshals in the enforcement of the laws and make yourself a terror to evil doers. If afraid, turn in your resignation and I=ll appoint better men in your place.@ My great grandfather, Sam Paul, was a sergeant in the Chickasaw Light Horse Police force.

          The Light Horse Police had to deal with dozens of white criminals living on their land, with only a handful of federal marshals to whom they could turn for support. These criminals were dangerous, and they had friends. It was hard to transport them to Ft Smith for trial, and it was hard to find witnesses. Few were willing to travel the 200 miles from the Chickasaw Nation to Ft. Smith to testify against a man whose friends were likely to take revenge on them or on their family afterwards. As a result an Indian policeman sometimes made himself judge, jury, and executioner.That's how Sam Paul came to be charged with murder. He shot a horse thief.

          There's a lot more to that story, but what I want to do now is get to the testimony of the cowboy, Frank Welch, who tracked down the horse thief that Sam Paul killed. I've changed some of the punctuation to make the narrative more readable, and added a few comments in parentheses.

United States vs. Sam Paul, etc. For the murder of Smith (first name unknown).

Court of the Western District of Arkansas, Judge Isaac C Parker presiding.

Testimony of Frank Welch:

          It was on Saturday night the horse was stolen. I think it was in April. I missed the horse at 9 o'clock. On that night I had tied this horse so that I could have him to go to the prairie in the morning. I had him tied in the lot behind a little corn crib.

          There were 18 or 20 head of horses in the lot. There was only one bar up between the pasture & the lot. Part of the rope was there, and part was gone. It looked as if the rope had been partly cut & partly broke. It looked as if there was two more men's tracks & three horse tracks on the outside of the fence.

          The men's tracks looked as if they had stopped. The horse tracks stopped there at the lot fence; the horse had been taken through the bars into the pasture and then the pasture fence let down where the horse was taken out. 

          The three other horse tracks came down along the fence and met this horse and all went off together. I noticed the tracks. They looked like the same tracks that had stopped at the lot fence. The stolen horse was shod in front. The track going out was that of a horse shod in front. They came close to the house. The men's tracks came into the lot; cannot tell which way they went. I called the horse I lost a dapple grey. The tracks of one of these three horses outside of the fence was a large rough shod steel toed shoe. The tracks of these horses from the gap went west right close to the house where old man Ross lived. My horses track went along with the others. ("old man" Ross' son was one of the horse thieves)  

          John Covey (Welch's boss) and Watt Holford went with me and tracked them near to Rosses house. The four tracks kept together. Ross started the next morning from there. He had gone when we tracked these horses close to his house. I trailed them for several days.

          Covey had me to go on. He could not leave. I was in his employ. Two tracks went up to the house. One of them the steel toed horse & another, and the track I took for my horse and another track went north across the Washita (River). I saw some tracks up near Cherokee Town. The track was a bare footed track, I think with that of my horse…..I followed them and overtook them right there near the valley. I was alone when I saw them. I did not molest them at all. I was afraid to….. When I saw two men, I went off the road. I examined the tracks after they passed me. I think Smith's (the horse thief who was killed) horse was barefooted.

          It was my business to watch and track these men. Dr Lewis told me about meeting these men. He said he lived near Springville on Canadian (River). He said they were going towards where he lived. It is but a few miles from Cherokee Town to the Valley Store. I had been watching the train (wagon train) expecting them to meet it. I never saw the men with the train. They went to the train about ten miles below Cherokee Town. (The horse thieves were part of a wagon train led by "old man" Ross which was travelling through the territory.)

          The next morning I went around the train and saw these two parties leave the train and come up the road following me. They came for about a mile and left the road. I got into the road above the train. I went on up into the valley. Got information from Strain at Cherokee Town that two men answering the description of the men I had received information of before had gone down the direction I had seen the two men meet the train. I started to Sam Paul's house to get him to help me as he was an officer and I met him going to the valley store. I told him what I wanted and he promised to help me.

          The testimony is a little hard to follow because it is redundant and it doesn't include the lawyer's questions, but you can figure it out if you read it slowly.

          The cowboy, Frank Welch, really makes his tracking sound easy, but I think his story is remarkable. Even though the horse thieves have a head start, he manages to track them for several days before he actually sees them. He determines the number of men, the number of horses, and he can identify each of the horses by their tracks. He doesn't lose them even though they split up, cross the river, and pass by towns. Finally when he gets close enough to identify the thieves by sight and sees them join a wagon train he finds the local Indian policeman, my great grandfather, and asks him for help. Pretty amazing, don't you think?