Goingsnake Massacre The Goingsnake Massacre was a shootout that occurred during a trial in the Cherokee court system on April 15 , 1872 , in the Goingsnake District of the Cherokee Nation . Ezekial " Zeke " Proctor was being tried for killing Polly Beck and wounding Jim Kesterson in a shooting incident . The trial was highly charged due to the strong family ties of the accused and victims and because of a jurisdictional dispute between the Cherokee and United States courts . A federal posse consisting of ten United States Marshals was sent to attend the trial and to arrest Proctor on federal charges if he was acquitted . However , shooting broke out in the crowded courtroom during the proceedings , killing eight of the Marshals and three Cherokee citizens . The incident has also been called the Goingsnake Tragedy , the Cherokee Courthouse Shootout and the Proctor - Beck Fight . Background . During the Civil War , Ezekiel " Zeke " Proctor , a Cherokee from Georgia , fought for the Union Army , while all of the Beck family , also Cherokee , fought for the Confederate Army . Following the war , tensions between the Becks and the Proctors were high ; mostly due to those former loyalties , but partly due to Proctor ' s alleged romantic interest in Polly Beck . Also , Proctor was a member of the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society , which strongly believed in the preservation of traditional ways , including a growing dislike of the European - American encroachment . This belief included disapproval of Cherokee women being involved romantically with white men . Thus , Proctor thought Polly should not be in a relationship with a white man , despite Proctor ' s and Polly Beck ' s fathers both having been white . Proctor was the son of a known murderer and was often drunk . He once forced his way into a house where a young girl had been playing the piano ; after she stopped , he held her at gunpoint and made her continue playing . He was involved in several saloon brawls in the small town of Cincinnati , Arkansas , but was also known for his trait of always returning afterward to pay for damages . He had also previously killed two Cherokee brothers from the Jaybird family . Polly was said to have been an attractive woman of mixed race ( her father being white ) . She was the widow of a Cherokee man , Steven Hilderbrand , who had been killed during the Civil War . She remarried several times , and Jim Kesterson or Chesterson , another white man , was either her fourth or fifth husband . Polly had one brother and two first cousins who were Deputy US Marshals . Massacre . The United States Marshals have one version of what led up to the incident , whereas the Cherokee nation another . Over time , various versions of the initial incident have surfaced , but all tend to indicate three particular facts : Aside from these fact , the versions of the story are often quite different . Some versions state that Jim Kesterson had previously been involved with Proctor ' s sister , Susan , and had left her for Polly , leaving Susan and the children destitute ( it is said the children were not Kesterson ' s ) . Another version indicates Kesterson caught Proctor stealing cattle and intended to prosecute . Yet another version claims Proctor had been previously involved romantically with Polly , who was known locally to be promiscuous ( dating several men , most of them white ) , and that he was in love with her . Another version indicates Proctor had never been involved with Polly , but was jealous about an native woman having married or being involved with a white man . Whatever the reason , Proctor confronted Polly and Jim at Polly ' s dead husband ' s mill in the Oklahoma Territory , on February 27 . The incident developed into an argument ; Zeke Proctor produced a rifle and shot Kesterson in the head , slightly wounding him . Proctor then turned to Polly and fired , killing her . Zeke maintained his killing of Polly was accidental . Stories diverge here , but one version says Proctor surrendered himself after the murder of Polly to the sheriff of the Goingsnake District of the Cherokee Nation . Cherokee judge Blackhawk Sixkiller was appointed to the case . Chesterson , believing Proctor would not be convicted in a Cherokee court , appealed to the local federal court , asking that an arrest warrant be issued to ensure that Proctor received a trial in a non - Cherokee court in Fort Smith , Arkansas . Treaties with the United States federal government said that Cherokee Nation courts would have jurisdiction over Cherokee people , so the involvement of non - tribal law officers was seen as a threat to tribal sovereignty and was deeply resented by the Cherokee people . The federal court dispatched ten United States Marshals to secure the arrest of Proctor at the court house in Tahlequah . Several Cherokees were prepared to protect their treaty rights , so the Cherokee court ' s trial of Proctor was moved to the schoolhouse , since it was seen as being easier to defend than the courthouse . All participants of the trial were heavily armed . Without issuing a warning , the marshals attacked the schoolhouse . In the ensuing melee , seven of the marshals were killed , Proctor and the Cherokee judge were wounded , and the Cherokee court clerk was killed . Aftermath . Proctor was acquitted the next day in a Cherokee court . The Cherokee ruling on Proctor was accepted by American courts , since Cherokee courts had jurisdiction at the time , and due to federal laws against double jeopardy . Marshal James Huckleberry immediately dispatched twenty one Deputy Marshals under the command of Charles Robinson . They took with them two doctors , who helped tend to wounded Cherokee civilians . The second posse arrested several men believed to have been involved in the killing of the Marshals , including jury foreman Arch Scaper . There was no resistance made against the second posse . Zeke Proctor had fled by the time this posse arrived . The suspects were taken to Fort Smith , Arkansas for trial , but all were eventually released due to lack of evidence or witnesses willing to testify . A federal grand jury in Fort Smith indicted twenty Cherokees present at the trial as well all the tribal court officers . Cherokee Nation issued warrants for several Cherokee citizens , as well . The federal government later dismissed all indictments . Zeke Proctor continued living in the area . By the 1880s he owned a small ranch . He was elected as a Cherokee Senator in 1877 , and in 1894 was elected sheriff of the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation . Ironically , he served as a United States Deputy Marshal from 1891 to 1894 , under " Hanging Judge " Parker . Proctor died on February 23 , 1907 at age 76 . His interment was in West Siloam Springs , Oklahoma ' s Johnson Cemetery .