The West's Worst Shootout

The tragedy at Goingsnake left 11 men dead-and a lot of questions.

- MARK BOARDMAN AND DAVID KENNEDY

Ezekiel Proctor was a Cherokee and proud of it. "Zeke" had walked the Trail of Tears from Georgia to the Indian Territory when he was a seven-year-old boy in 1838. He clung to the Cherokee language, culture and customs. He dealt with White folks, but he didn't have much use for them.

In 1872, the prosperous farmer and local lawman had a beef with one specific White man: his former brother-in-law, Jim Kesterson. Stories circulated of bad blood between them, a situation made worse when Kesterson abandoned Proctor's sister and kids for another woman.

Proctor confronted Kesterson at the Hildebrand Mill, just west of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. He pulled a gun and opened up, but Kesterson's new woman, Polly Beck, got in the way and was killed.

The shooting would bring Proctor into another confrontation: with the U.S. Marshals Service.

A Shocking Statistic

Formed in 1789 to enforce federal law, the U.S. Marshals Service suffered its first casualty five years later.

Between then and 1872, 11 other officers would die in the line of duty.

But the Indian Territory was bad ground for the U.S. marshals. Officially, between 1872 and Oklahoma statehood in 1907, a shocking 93 officers were killed there. Shocking because, to date, the U.S. Marshals Service has lost a total of 287 officers nationwide, meaning that nearly one-third of those killed lost their lives in the Indian Territory. The statistic is unmatched by any other place or any other period for line-of duty deaths in American history.

The reasons for the disparity in the Indian Territory vary. Too few officers (200 or fewer) to patrol too large an area (more than 70,000 square miles). Many Indians didn't think highly of the authorities representing the White government. And hard cases of all races found the region fertile ground for illegal enterprises, which fostered an ongoing struggle to control land and power.