Ned Christie

Marriage and family One source says that Christie first married Nannie Dick about 1871, but the burial registry of the Watt Christie Cemetery notes her as his father's fifth wife. Christie is recorded as marrying Peggy Tucker in 1875. He next married Jennie Scraper (about 1877). Last, he married Nancy Greece (about 1888). Because the Five Civilized Tribes had their own territories rather than reservations in Indian Territory, they were excluded from the beginning implementation of allotment.

But Christie's opposition to such positions, which were supported by powerful whites in the region and in the East, became known. He began to earn some enemies, particularly as he was regarded as a leader among his people.

Christie was a member of the Keetoowah Society, which was based on traditional religion. His father, Watt, and grandfather (Lacy Christie), were chiefs of their ceremonial ground, where sacred rituals were performed, near the family home at Wauhillau (present-day Adair County, Oklahoma). According to a 2018 biography by Devon A. Mihesuah, newspapermen and dime novel writers played up these elements of his life in Wild West lore to create sensational accounts and sell their writings, particularly in the period when he evaded federal marshals. She describes these as "libelous stories."

Ambush of Daniel Maples On May 3, 1887, U.S. Deputy Marshal Daniel Maples led a posse into Indian Territory seeking sellers of illegal whiskey, which had been made a federal crime in that territory. A principal suspect was Bud Trainer, who had a record for selling whiskey and was known for violence. After spending the day unsuccessfully seeking Trainer, Maples and posse member George Jefferson started back to their camp near Spring Branch Creek, outside Tahlequah. Maples was shot from ambush in the territory of the Cherokee Nation and died the next day of his wounds. The shooter had escaped.

In 1889, Jacob Yoes was appointed as the U.S. Marshal in Fort Smith. Yoes assigned his top deputy, Heck Thomas, to lead the effort to bring in Christie. Thomas was assisted by Deputy Marshall L. P. Isbell of Vinita, two other marshals, and the notorious Bud Trainer. In an attack in 1889, lawmen burned Christie's house to the ground, but Christie escaped with friends, although he was wounded by a gunshot. Christie never went to trial. The Cook photography studio took a photo to reproduce and sell as postcards.

Christie's body was finally released by authorities to his family. They returned with it to Wauhillau for burial. The body was interred at his father's Watt Christie Cemetery in Wauhillau. Its location is marked by a tombstone. Wolfe died there in 1912. Run by officials with no background in psychiatric care, Steele, Philip W. 1973/1987 edition. The Last Cherokee Warriors: Zeke Proctor, Ned Christie., Pelican Publishing Company, 111 pages; a book classified by Google as "juvenile fiction". (Steele claimed to have firsthand observations from the son of Christie's half-brother, but the boy was only two in 1892, when Christie was killed.)