Christie
On December 14, 1852, Christie begins life in Wauhillau, Going Snake District of the Cherokee Nation in what will one day be the state of Oklahoma. He is the son of Trail of Tears survivors (the government forced removal of Native Americans from ancestral homelands in Georgia and North Carolina ... in the movement out to Indian Territory of Oklahoma, over 4,000 Cherokees will lose their lives, among them, Christie's Irish grandmother), Watt (he will become a Civil war veteran, fighting for the Union) and Lydia Thrower Christie, members of the tribe's most traditional band, the Keetowah (which translates into English as "the real people"). Growing up in a family of loving parents and siblings, Christie learns the blacksmithing trade from his father, along with his dad's abilities with firearms, becoming a crack shot, many feel the best in the entire Cherokee Nation, by the time he is ten. As a youth, he is also a marble champion, a popular local fiddle player, a well regarded stick ball player, and learns to speak English fluently. Growing into a handsome man of 6'4", he is well regarded within his community, and in 1885, follows in the footsteps of his brothers and father, and is elected to represent the Going Snake District in the Cherokee National Council (he will serve as one of three advisers of Chief Dennis Wolf Bushyhead). Only his hot temper, especially after drinking, gives anyone any qualms (he is brought to trial in 1884 for the liquor-related murder of William Palone, but declared not guilty of the killing). Sadly, he has been drinking a lot on Easter of 1887, April 10th.
Christie And His Half-Brother, Jim
Bushyhead
Living in Rabbit Trap with his third wife, Nancy, and his son, 13-year-old James from a previous marriage, as a member of the Executive Council, on Sunday, Christie finds himself in Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation's capital for an emergency session of the legislature to see what can be done to rebuild the recently fire destroyed Cherokee Female Seminary. As usual when in town, he stays at the home of one of his wife's relatives, Senator Ned Grease, and also in habit. after completing the demands of his office, with a friend named John Parris (a half blood troublemaker known for selling illegal whiskey), goes out seeking liquid refreshments, booze the men find in the Dog Town northern end of town, at the home of Nancy Old Lady Shell, bought from whiskey runner, Thomas Bub Trainor, Jr. Imbibing massive amounts of hooch (the pair meet up with friends, John Hogshooter, George Paris, and Charley Bobtail), Christie for the rest of his life will claim to spend the rest of the night passed out cold in a clump of bushes (a tale that will be verified years later, in 1918, by traumatized witness, Dick Humphreys). Unfortunately though, someone is awake, and that person murders 41-year-old U.S. Deputy Marshal Daniel Maples when he goes into Dog Town that night looking for whiskey runners (he has arrest warrants for both Parris and Trainor), shot in the chest while crossing a log footbridge. Waking the next morning, Christie is stunned to discover he is a suspect in the death of the lawman, and after attending to his duties with the National Council, he takes the advice of his father and Senator Grease, and flees back to his home in Rabbit Trap, very aware that it is a death sentence for an Indian to kill a white man (writing to the authority for the region, Jude Isaac C. Parker, the infamous "Hanging Judge" of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Christie offers to surrender if he will be granted bail to prove his innocence in the death of Maples, but his request is denied by the judge). Warning system in place of friends and relatives, he hides from authorities, eventually losing his position on the National Council and his blacksmith business, and needing funds, begins bootlegging whiskey, transformed into the criminal he wasn't, warning all that will listen that he will not be taken into custody without a fight. What follows will be known in Oklahoma's history as Ned Christie's War.
Daniel Maples
Parker
The first attempt to arrest Christie takes place in 1885 when Deputy Joe Bowers is sent on his way with a bullet in his leg, the next try is by Deputy John Fields, who leaves the property with a Winchester slug (Christie's weapon of choice is an always chambered 1873 Winchester rifle that firs .44/40 bullets) in his neck (he survives), and then, in 1886, a group of lawmen attack and are chased away when three of them are wounded approaching the Cherokee's cabin. Tired of the situation, in 1889, newly appointed U.S. Marshal Jacob "Blake Jake" Yoes orders U.S. Deputy Marshal Henry Andrew "Heck" Thomas (in his storied career as a lawman, Thomas will engage in an 1878 shootout with the Sam Bass Gang as they try to rob a train in Texas, death best killers Pink and Jim Lee with his Winchester, get shot bringing moonshiner Aaron Purdy to justice (\<knocked off his horse, the crook is killed by the rest of Heck's posse>, quick-draw robber Jim July to death in 1890, dog the Dalton Gang into their disastrous Coffeyville retirement try, be part of the team that kills Doolin Gang member Ol Yantis on the farm of the bandit's sister <he is accompanied by U.S. deputy Marshals Chris Madsen and Tom Houston>, with his Winchester, shatters the hand of Doolin Gang member Little Bill Raidler <brought in later by U.S. Deputy Marshal Bill Tilghman>, gets into a gun battle with Doolin Gang member, Dynamite Dan Clifton, that forces the outlaw out of Oklahoma, and leads the group of men that turn Bill Doolin into a bleeding piece of Swiss Cheese as the outlaw is leaving the home of his father-in-law outside of Lawson, Oklahoma in 1896) to bring in Christie (by this time, there is a $500 reward for the Indian's arrest). On a late September morning, led to Christie's home by Bub Trainor himself, Thomas, U.S. Deputy Marshals L. P. Isbel and David Rusk, along with an officer named Salmon, creep up on the location, but are noticed by the sleeping man's watchdogs. Alerted by the howling the dogs produce, Christie opens fire on the posse (after uttering the turkey gobble he has stated he will use before aiming in earnest at his opponents), who respond in kind, while also setting the out building where the Indian plies his trade as a blacksmith on fire, a fire that eventually jumps to the main cabin. Gun fire and smoke, Christie's wife is allowed to vacate her home, but James is shot in the back climbing a fence to escape the conflagration (he will survive his wound), lawman Isbel takes a round in his shoulder, and Christie is hit with a round that smashes his nose and blinds him in the left eye. Thought dead when gunfire from the house ceases, the posse rides away, seeking help for Isbel, and unknowingly allows the Cherokee renegade to escape when Nancy Christie and other friends pull Ned out of the burning building.
Yoes
Thomas
Hidden in the woods by friends, recovered from his wounds, seeing his son shot and his home burnt to the ground, Christie moves into a virtually impregnable rock fortress on a hilltop (it will soon be known in the region as Ned's Fort Mountain) about a mile to the west ... a cliff structure with two-log thick walls, augmented with cushioning sand and lined by Oak two-by-fours, with a loft for improved shooting at enemies (along with fields of fire denuded of trees), that is fully stocked with food, water, and plenty of ammunition. Weeks later, when another Thomas posse returns, the lawman sees what he is up against and decides it might be more conducive to his health if he withdraws from the area and concentrates on bringing down the Dalton Gang (returned to civilization, the lawman will state that it would take a fully armed regiment to remove Christie from his new home). Other lawmen however are not as wise as Thomas (emboldened perhaps by the reward on Christie's head being raised to $1,000). Blamed for almost every crime that takes place in the region (there are rumors he has murder eleven men), in November of 1890, Christie is next confronted by legendary African-American lawman, Bass Reeves and his posse ... another failure that leaves two more men wounded.
Reeves.
Christie
Next up to have a go at Christie is U.S. Deputy Marshal David Rusk, a member of the Heck Thomas attempt to bring in the Cherokee warrior. In 1892, with Yoes emphatic about not letting Christie get away, Rusk, five other deputies, and a small group of Indians attack the fort, with the same kind of results that previous posses have had ... no Christie and four more wounded men. Not dissuaded despite the setback, one at least two more occasions, Rusk sneaks back into the area alone and tries to ambush Christie, with each attempt ending with rifle fire from the Indian marksman sending him on his war. Any thought about a third attempt on Rusk's part is only increased when Christie, knowing the name of his antagonist, slips away from the stronghold, slips in to the town of Oaks, to the north of Tahlequah, and burns Rusk's general store to the ground (though not in charge, Rusk will be in on the final assault on Christie's fort). Undaunted, another group of lawmen go after Christie in October, a group that includes Charley Copeland, Milo Creekmore, and D. C. Dye ... their try ends with two officers wounded, a wagon filled with flaming brush meant for the cabin instead setting fire to an outhouse on the property, and lit sticks of dynamite bouncing off the walls of the fort and detonating harmlessly causes the posse to leave in disgust.
Winchester 1873
Like Lincoln looking for the right Northern general to win the American Civil War, Yoes next puts together a battle plan that will include his marshals, led by U.S. Deputy Marshals Gideon "Cap" White and Paden Tolbert, and a group of local lawmen, including Dan Maples' son, Sam, all under the direction of bounty hunter Gus York. Plan simple for the twenty-five men involved, one group of men will establish a perimeter around the fort to keep Christie's friends away, while the other group will attack the fort using pistols, rifles, dynamite, and a borrowed cannon that fires three pound bullet shaped balls. The posse pierces the Cherokee Nation in darkness, and by 4:00 in the morning of the next day, has taken up positions around the fort; sleeping inside, unaware of what awaits them at first light (the dogs that warn Ned of previous posses are off hunting with Christie's son) are Christie, his wife Nancy, his daughter Mary, his granddaughter Charlotte, Charles Hare, a young full-blood Cherokee new to the area, 7-year-old Charles Grease, Nancy's nephew, and an Indian fugitive named Little Arch Wolf.
Some Of The Posse - After
Players in place, the battle of Christie's fort begins in the early dawn of 11/2 when Wolf ventures outside for some water and is immediately called on to surrender. Refusing the order, Wolf fires at the voices in the brush as he runs back to the cabin, making it despite being wounded in the leg, arm, and head. After Christie's notorious gobbling, the battle is on. Bullets exchanged, in a pause in the action, Nancy, Mary, and Charlotte are all allowed to leave, but for some reason Grease stays behind in the root cellar. Frustrated by the bullet battle (Christie is asked again to surrender, in Cherokee, by full-blood local, Sheriff Benjamin Knight ... in response, the renegade laughs at the lawmen), at about 1:00 in the afternoon the cannon is brought into play. Set up on an oak stump across a creek and out of range of Christe's rifle, thirty-eight balls are sent at the fort with little effect (the balls bounce off the structure's stout walls), so it is decided to increase the weapon's powder charge ... a mistake that blows the cannon apart with its next firing. Last chance improvising, the lawmen discover the remains of the wagon that burnt the outhouse down and jury-rig the remains into a barricade that allows Charley Copeland, when the moon goes down in the evening to place a grouping of six dynamite sticks against the south wall of the fort (by this time, family and friends of Christie have gathered in a hollow below the fort, watched the entire time by armed and ready members of the posse ... there are no disturbances from the group other than a couple of half-hearted attempts to get more ammunition up to the fort).
More Posse - Back Row L-to-R - Tom Johnson, Bill Smith, John Tolbit, Abe Allen, and Wes Bowman - Front Row L-to-R - Gideon White, Charley Copeland, Paden Tolbert, Heck Bruner, and David Rusk
Surrender requested and refused once more, in the morning of 11/3 the charge is lit. Big boom created as hoped (it is said it can be heard in Tahlequah), the consequent explosion takes out a wall and corner of the fort, and sets the entire structure on fire. Retreating to the root cellar, Wolf's hair catches on fire (he will lose all of it) and burning timbers strike Hare as the place comes apart ... and both men flee the structure (arrested, they will both spend time in jail for resisting arrest and attempted murder, with Wolf eventually ending up in an insane asylum). Grease already dead in the root cellar, Christie is the last to leave, trying to slip away in the chaos and smoke ... and he almost makes it. Running through the thick smoke, he suddenly comes face-to-face with Wes Bowman ... snapping off a shot, Christie barely misses the lawman (he does succeed in giving Bowman a powder burn on his face that he will wear the rest of his life). Spinning, Bowman gets off a shot of his own that hits the tall 39-year-old Indian behind the ear, killing him instantly ... the war is over, but the victors have some final indignities to put the Cherokee to anyway. Running up to where Christie lays, young Sam Maples empties his pistol into the corpse, then, the posse lashes Ned to his own front door and takes their trophy to Fayetteville, Arkansas (where his killers are photographed with their prize and postcards for sale are created), then on to Fort Smith (Judge Parker will personally congratulate each member of the posse) for the reward money (the $1,000 is given to bounty hunter Gus York, but after paying for expenses and divvying up the bounty, he makes only $74 for the kill).
Posing With Ned
Body eventually returned to his family, Christie is interred at the Watt Christie Cemetery in Wauhillau, Oklahoma. And as these things go, his life and death soon turn him into a Wild West legend, suitable for magazines, books (Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurty will tell his tale in his novel, Zeke and Ned), television, and movies ... and in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, at the Cherokee Court House, the oldest public building in the state, a memorial plaque on the wall of the structure simply notes, "... assassinated by U.S. Marshals in 1892." A hero to the Cherokee people now, rest in peace Ned!
Final Resting Place
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