One deputy U.S. marshal killed in Indian Territory was James Harris "Jim" Guy, a Chickasaw Indian, published poet, nephew of Cyrus Harris, the first elected governor of the Chickasaw Nation, and a brother to William M. Guy, a future governor of the C.N.[1] His story reveals how, in I.T., the death of one or more law enforcement officers often meant injury or death for other people as well. On May 1, 1885, Guy and a posse of about ten men set out to arrest notorious criminals Dallas Humby, charged with killing his wife, and brothers Jim and Pink Lee, well known cattle rustlers.[2] The men were holed up at the Lee ranch house in the southern part of the Chickasaw Nation, not far from the Red River. According to Joe T. Roff, a brother to two of Guy's men who were killed that day, one of the outlaws inside the house indicated that he and the others were willing to negotiate their surrender. No one in the posse suspected that there were as many as a dozen men inside. Within seconds after the men outside relaxed, a shot was fired from the house, instantly killing Jim Guy. A moment later, a hail of bullets burst from the house killing two more men, Jim Roff and Billy Kirksey. Andy Roff was also hit, but was able to crawl to a nearby tree. The other members of the posse were able to escape. Andy Roff's body was recovered sometime later. Powder burns on his clothing made it clear that after the others had fled, he had been executed.[3]
Notes
[1] Joe T. Roff, "Reminiscences of Early Days in the Chickasaw Nation," Chronicles of Oklahoma 13, no. 2 (June 1935), 185. On James Harris Guy as a poet, see Robert Dale Parker, ed. Changing is Not Vanishing: A Collection of American Indian Poetry to 1930 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 141-46. On Cyrus Harris and William M. Guy as governors of the Chickasaw Nation, see Arrell M. Gibson, The Chickasaws (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 297-99.
[2] Roff, "Reminiscences," 185-86.
[3] Ibid., 186-77.
No comments:
Post a Comment