A history of two Cherokee men and the personal hardships they faced against the US government in the nineteenth century. The expanding American frontier in the late 1800s created a battleground on which white and Indian cultures inevitably clashed. Slowly and inexorably the Native Americans were pushed from their land and stripped of their birthright. This engrossing volume documents the lives of the last Cherokee warriors—Ned Christie and Ezekiel Proctor—two angry men who struggled against the tide of history and the power of the United States government to slow the encroaching whites and preserve their Cherokee heritage.

This engrossing volume documents the lives of the last Cherokee warriors-Ned Christie and Ezekiel Proctor. They struggled to show the whites and preserve the Cherokee heritage.

This engrossing volume documents the lives of the last Cherokee warriors-Ned Christie and Ezekiel Proctor-two angry men who struggled against the tide of history and the power of the United States government in an effort to slow the encroaching whites and preserve the Cherokee heritage.

Full of adventure, grace, and tragedy, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana tell the story of two powerful Cherokee warriors searching for the future of Indian Territory. Zeke and Ned is the story of Ezekiel Proctor and Ned Christie, the last Cherokee warriors—two proud, passionate men whose remarkable quest to carve a future out of Indian Territory east of the Arkansas River after the Civil War is not only history, but legend. Played out against an American West governed by a brutal brand of frontier justice, this intensely moving saga brims with a rich cast of indomitable and utterly unforgettable characters such as Becca, Zeke's gallant Cherokee wife, and Jewel Sixkiller Proctor, whose love for Ned makes her a tragic heroine. At once exuberant and poignant, bittersweet and brilliant, Zeke and Ned takes us deep into the hearts of two extraordinary men who were willing to go the distance for the bold vision they shared—and for the women they loved.

Desperate to save her small farm, Susanna Copeland decides to drive a herd of cattle to Kansas—but no crew will work for a woman. Looking for a man who'll pretend he's her husband, she bails Eagle Jack Sixkiller out of jail...and gets more than she bargained for. Jack enjoys beautiful women, and he especially enjoys teasing his "wife," kissing her in front of the men, inventing new verses of "Oh, Susanna", and inisting they share a tent. After all, to protect their charade—and her—everyone must believe they're married. And Susanna finds she likes it all much too much. But, happily widowed, she's decided no man will ever control her life again. Yet as they face stampedes, hailstorms, and theives together, they begin sharing a bedroll—and soon, their hearts.

Among all the famous Native American Indian chiefs, people today easily recognize names like Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, and Crazy Horse. However, unless you live in North Alabama or Central Tennessee, chances are you've never heard of Cherokee Chief Doublehead. Described as overbearing, hot-tempered, and haughty, he possessed possibly one of the strongest personalities of any man who lived at the time. Through sheer force of will, Chief Doublehead became the principal leader among the Cherokees. Refusing to cede the valuable hunting grounds to white intruders, he managed to confederate several tribes of Indians to wage war for twenty-five years. It has been said tha Doublehead killed more men than anyone who lived during that time period. Butch Walker has written an excellent biography on the great chief, which has been long overdue. Walker takes Doublehead from warrior to famous chief to shrewd businessman. Butch Walker has painstakingly researched all available material on the fierce Cherokee Chief Doublehead. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Native American history.

Who was Nede Wade Christie? Was he a violent criminal guilty of murdering a federal officer? Or a Cherokee statesman who suffered a martyr’s death for a crime he did not commit? For more than a century, journalists, pulp fiction authors, and even serious historians have produced largely fictitious accounts of “Ned” Christie’s life. Now, in a tour de force of investigative scholarship, Devon A. Mihesuah offers a far more accurate depiction of Christie and the times in which he lived. In 1887 Deputy U.S. Marshal Dan Maples was shot and killed in Tahlequah, Indian Territory. As Mihesuah recounts in unsurpassed detail, any of the criminals in the vicinity at the time could have committed the crime. Yet the federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, focused on Christie, a Cherokee Nation councilman and adviser to the tribal chief. Christie evaded capture for five years. His life ended when a posse dynamited his home—knowing he was inside—and shot him as he emerged from the burning building. The posse took Christie’s body to Fort Smith, where it lay for three days on display for photographers and gawkers. Nede’s family suffered as well. His teenage cousin Arch Wolfe was sentenced to prison and ultimately perished in the Canton Asylum for “insane” Indians—a travesty that, Mihesuah shows, may even surpass the injustice of Nede’s fate. Placing Christie’s story within the rich context of Cherokee governance and nineteenth-century American political and social conditions, Mihesuah draws on hundreds of newspaper accounts, oral histories, court documents, and family testimonies to assemble the most accurate portrayal of Christie’s life possible. Yet the author admits that for all this information, we may never know the full story, because Christie’s own voice is largely missing from the written record. In addition, she spotlights our fascination with villains and martyrs, murder and mayhem, and our dangerous tendency to glorify the “Old West.” More than a biography, Ned Christie traces the making of an American myth.