Sam Sixkiller

One of the greatest peace officers in the wild and wooly history of the Oklahoma Territory was a Cherokee named Sam Sixkiller. In 1875 he became High Sheriff of the Cherokee Nation and five years later, first captain of the United States Indian Police, the legendary Lighthorsemen. He also held a commission as a U.S. Deputy Marshal.

Sixkiller was the law around Muskogee, an area crawling with cow thieves, murderers, bootlegers and rapists. More lawmen were killed in a 50-mile radius than any frontier town in the West. Sixkiller was ambushed and gunned down in Muskogee on Christmas Eve, 1886.