The story of the American Wild West is filled with legendary gunfighters, yet the names of Native American marksmen are rarely mentioned alongside Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Jesse James. These men, however, were among the most lethal and skilled fighters the frontier ever produced. They combined centuries of tracking expertise, stealth, and traditional hunting skills with deadly accuracy in the use of firearms. Some of these men took up arms against the U.
S. government, while others served as sheriffs, scouts, or bounty hunters. A few, like Cherokee Bill, embraced the outlaw life entirely. Cherokee Bill, born Crawford Goldsby on February 8, 1876, at Fort Hondo, Texas, became one of the most notorious criminals in the region.
He was of African-American, Cherokee, Mexican, and white descent, a mix that reflected the complexity of the chaotic frontier in which he lived. His father, George Goldsby, served as a Buffalo Soldier in the 10th U. S. Cavalry, while his mother, Ellen Beck, had Cherokee and African-American ancestry.
By the age of 18, Crawford had already gained a fearsome reputation, committing his first recorded crime, a murder, in 1894 at Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation. Taking the alias Cherokee Bill, he formed a gang that terrorized Indian Territory, robbing banks, trains, stagecoaches, and stores. He was personally linked to at least eight killings, and some accounts suggest an even higher number. His violent path eventually led to his capture in 1895.
Held at Fort Smith, Arkansas, under the jurisdiction of Judge Isaac C. Parker, the so-called “hanging judge,” Bill attempted a bold escape, seizing a gun and shooting a prison guard. He was quickly subdued, and the attempt sealed his fate. After a rapid trial, he was sentenced to death.
When asked for his final words, he reportedly replied, “I came here to die, not to talk. ” On March 17, 1896, at just 20 years old, Cherokee Bill was hanged at Fort Smith. Another figure who became a legend was Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl, known as the Apache Kid. Born around 1860 in Aravaipa Canyon, now Arizona, he was a member of the Tonto or Dilzhe’e subgroup of the Western Apache.
In the early 1880s, he served as a scout for the U. S. Army under General George Crook, using his unmatched knowledge of Arizona’s harsh terrain to track renegade groups. Tensions between Apache scouts and the Army erupted in 1887 during a tribal ceremony in Arizona, and the Apache Kid was accused of desertion and mutiny.
He was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted to seven years in prison. In 1889, he escaped from a prison transport, vanishing into the wilderness. For years, soldiers and bounty hunters pursued him, but he used his mastery of the land to remain a ghost. Some claimed he formed a small band that raided settlements, while others said he acted alone.
The truth of his fate remains a mystery, with some believing he died in a shootout in the early 1890s and others claiming he fled to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. Ned Christie, born Ne-wa-de-yah on December 14, 1852, was a full-blooded Cherokee who chose a different path before being forced into a violent conflict. He served on the Cherokee National Council, defending his people’s sovereignty, and worked as a skilled blacksmith and gunsmith. In 1887, U.
S. Deputy Marshal Daniel Maples was shot dead near Tahlequah, and Christie was blamed despite a lack of evidence. He insisted on his innocence and sought a fair trial, but his request for bail was rejected. Facing an unfair system, he chose to fight.
He fortified his home, constructing a two-story log cabin reinforced with thick timber and stockpiling weapons. For five years, Christie repelled repeated assaults by federal marshals, becoming a symbol of resistance for the Cherokee. In 1892, U. S.
Marshal Jacob Yoes led a posse armed with dynamite and heavy firepower to end the standoff. After a fierce battle, explosives blasted open his defenses, and Christie was shot and killed. Years later, evidence surfaced proving he had been wrongly accused; witnesses confirmed he had no role in Maples’ murder, and the actual killers were likely whiskey smugglers or outlaws settling a grudge. Sam Starr, born in 1859, was a Cherokee outlaw deeply embedded in the most infamous criminal networks of the time.
He ran with the James Gang and the Younger Gang, building a reputation as a fearless horseman and skilled criminal. In 1880, he married Belle Starr, who became known as the “Bandit Queen of the West. ” They established a ranch along the Canadian River in Indian Territory, naming it Younger’s Bend, a refuge for fugitives that reportedly included Jesse James. The couple engaged in horse theft and bootlegging, and Sam was arrested multiple times but always managed to slip away.
In 1886, during a heated dispute with lawman Frank West, a gunfight broke out and both men were killed. Henry Starr, born on December 2, 1873, was Sam Starr’s nephew and even more accomplished at bank robbing. Educated and well-read, his criminal career began in 1892 after he was falsely accused of horse theft. He committed his first robbery that year and killed U.
S. Deputy Marshal Floyd Wilson during an attempted arrest. He went on to lead a gang that executed some of the most audacious daylight heists in the Old West. Captured in 1893 after a bank robbery in Bentonville, Arkansas, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
After his release in 1903, he tried to reform, opening a restaurant and marrying, but by 1914 he was robbing banks again, pulling off 14 heists in two years. In 1915, he was wounded during a double bank robbery attempt in Stroud, Oklahoma, and sentenced to 25 years. While in prison, he starred in a silent film about his own life, a feat no other outlaw matched. He was released, but in 1921 he attempted one last bank job in Harrison, Arkansas.
The bank’s president shot him before he reached the vault, and he died from his wounds four days later, on February 22, 1921. Ezekiel “Zeke” Proctor, born in 1831, was a full-blooded Cherokee leader who served as a sheriff, federal marshal, and Cherokee senator. His life took a tragic turn in 1872 over a family dispute involving Polly Beckerson, a Cherokee woman married to a white man, Jim Kerson. On February 27, 1872, an argument at a local mill turned deadly, resulting in Polly’s death and Jim’s wounding.
Proctor faced Cherokee justice in the Going Snake District Courthouse. Seeking revenge, the Beck family enlisted U. S. marshals.
On April 15, 1872, marshals and the Becks stormed the courthouse, igniting a gunfight that left eight marshals and three Cherokee dead in what became known as the Going Snake Massacre. Proctor survived, was acquitted by the Cherokee court on grounds of self-defense, and the Cherokee Nation’s support prevented a federal retrial. He resumed his leadership roles until his death in 1907 at age 75. Tom Threepersons, a full-blooded Cherokee born on July 22, 1889, in Vinita, Indian Territory, carried his people’s spirit into the Wild West’s final days.
He joined General John “Black Jack” Pershing’s expedition into Mexico as a scout after Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916. He later joined the police force in El Paso, Texas, where he survived a chest wound in a 1921 gunfight. He became a federal prohibition agent in 1922, and later managed a ranch in Mexico. His greatest legacy, however, was a holster he designed in 1920 with a cutaway top for quicker draws.
The “Tom Threepersons style” holster became iconic among gunfighters and Hollywood cowboys. Forced to retire by injuries in 1929, he built a ranch in New Mexico and guided hunting expeditions until his death in Safford, Arizona, in 1969.