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at microsoft.com/AI4ALL. Ned

1:14

Christie's life changed dramatically in the space

1:16

of one week in the spring of

1:19

1887. He went from

1:21

being a prominent member of the Cherokee

1:23

National Council and advisor to the chief

1:26

and leading voice of the Cherokee Nationalist

1:28

Party to being an accused murderer

1:30

and a fugitive from the law. In

1:33

May of 1887, Deputy

1:35

U.S. Marshal Dan Maples was ambushed

1:37

and killed outside the Cherokee capital

1:39

city. The only other person

1:42

present at the time of Maples murder was

1:44

his partner, Deputy George Jefferson and

1:47

Jefferson didn't see the shooter or four

1:49

shooters. But one week later,

1:52

six men testified to a grand jury

1:54

in the court of Judge Isaac Parker,

1:56

the hanging judge, that Ned

1:58

Christie planned and executed. The The

2:00

Murderous Ambush. As

2:02

yet, there didn't seem to be a motive

2:05

for wind dead would want to kill a

2:07

deputy or deputies. But. When Ned didn't

2:09

show up to testify in front of the grand

2:11

jury, Judge Parker issued an

2:13

arrest warrant. As soon

2:15

as word reads Ned that he was a suspect

2:18

in the murder. He proclaimed his

2:20

innocence, denied any involvement, and then

2:22

went into hiding. Ned.

2:25

Was convinced that in a federal court with

2:27

an all white jury. He. Would undoubtedly

2:29

be convicted and sentenced to hang.

2:32

So. He hunkered down at his

2:34

home outside the charity capital and avoided

2:36

alarm and who tried to arrest him.

2:39

For. Two years Judge Parker said

2:41

marshals to capture Ned, but every

2:44

attempt failed. And. During that

2:46

time, Ned's reputation as a

2:48

bloodthirsty outlaw. Rose. To epic

2:51

status. Newspapers.

2:53

Road Salacious stories. The claimed he

2:55

had killed dozens of people, robbed

2:57

everything that could be robbed, and

2:59

committed countless other crimes. None.

3:02

Of it was true. But. It made for

3:04

wonderful reading. and it's old. Lots of

3:06

newspapers, Finally, In

3:09

September of Eighteen Eighty Nine. Two

3:11

and a half years after the murder of

3:13

Deputy Maples. George Parker send

3:15

legendary Long and had Thomas in

3:17

the Indian Territory to bring dead

3:20

Christie and Dead Or Alive. Deputy.

3:23

Thomas and his posse cornered Ned

3:25

at Ned's house and the situation

3:27

quickly turned into a shootout. The

3:30

posse set fire to the house with

3:32

Ned inside and watched it burn to

3:34

the ground. They. Assume they

3:36

had killed the alleged outlaw and they

3:39

rode back to Judge Parker's court in

3:41

triumph. But. Ned survived. He

3:43

had escaped the house and his

3:45

wife discovered him in the nearby

3:47

woods. And. Because he had

3:49

survived, he knew the authorities would never

3:51

stop coming form. He said

3:54

to work building a new fortified

3:56

house in a defensible position. he

3:58

was designed to withstand a shootout if necessary

4:00

and it would be harder to burn.

4:04

More importantly, there was no way

4:06

to sneak up behind it like Heck Thomas'

4:08

posse had done at the original cabin. And

4:11

while Ned worked, the media frenzy ramped

4:13

up another notch. Ned

4:15

Christie, the terror of Indian territory, or

4:18

so the papers made him seem, was

4:21

back. And the papers were

4:23

thrilled to add more fantastical chapters to

4:25

his legend. From

4:34

Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the

4:36

Old West. I'm your host, Chris

4:38

Wimmer. And this season, we're telling the

4:40

stories of two outlaws, stage coach and

4:42

train robber Sam Bass, and

4:44

controversial fugitive Ned Christie. This

4:47

is episode five, Ned Christie,

4:50

part two of three, Ned's

4:52

fourth. While

5:00

Ned Christie recovered from injuries sustained in

5:02

the shootout and the fire, the

5:05

marshals and the press learned that Ned

5:07

survived the engagement. The

5:09

press was ravenous, as always, and

5:12

reporters heard about Ned's most serious

5:14

injury. A bullet had

5:16

grazed the bridge of his nose and hit

5:18

his right eye socket. Luckily

5:21

for Ned, he didn't lose the eye. His

5:24

vision was blurred for a while, but

5:26

gradually improved. It would never

5:28

fully return, but it was better than nothing. When

5:31

the injury was reported in the newspapers,

5:33

it was embellished and then used as

5:36

more fuel on the fire of the

5:38

man who was portrayed as a notorious

5:40

outlaw. The press said Ned

5:42

had been shot in the face and lost

5:44

most of his nose and his right eye,

5:47

and his face had been left horribly

5:49

disfigured. One reporter speculated

5:51

that the injury must have been devastating

5:53

for Ned because he took such pride

5:55

in what were referred to as his

5:58

dark, fierce, good looks. According

6:01

to another reporter, Ned's

6:03

gross disfigurement had altered his personality

6:05

and deepened his hatred of the

6:07

white man. The

6:09

reporter claimed that Ned pledged he would

6:12

never speak English again. It

6:14

was pretty extraordinary insight from a reporter

6:16

who had probably never been within fifty

6:18

miles of Ned Christie. Meanwhile,

6:21

Judge Parker was still determined to catch

6:24

Ned and Ned was still determined

6:26

to stay free. In

6:32

Fort Smith, Arkansas, after Judge Parker

6:34

learned of the failed attack, he

6:36

issued another arrest warrant for Ned

6:38

Christie. He requested

6:40

the U.S. Attorney General approve

6:42

a $1,000 reward for Ned's

6:44

capture, which meant bounty hunters

6:46

could now join the effort. At

6:49

Ned's home, about twenty miles outside the

6:52

Cherokee capital of Tahlequah, Ned

6:54

spent about a week recovering from his injuries

6:56

and then he got right back into the action. He

7:00

didn't want to leave the area where he had

7:02

grown up and where his family and friends lived,

7:05

but he couldn't stay on the same plot of land.

7:08

So Ned found a piece of land

7:10

about ten miles outside Tahlequah and started

7:12

building a new house for himself and

7:14

his family. And it wasn't just

7:17

any house. The outer

7:19

walls were double walls. Two

7:21

logs were stacked one behind the other

7:23

with sand packed in between. The

7:26

extra layers made the house virtually

7:29

bulletproof. And with the thick

7:31

logs and the sand, the house was

7:33

about as fireproof as it could be. Ned

7:36

created gaps in the walls on all

7:38

four sides to act as gun ports.

7:41

And the whole setup was about 800 feet

7:43

above sea level, so he had at

7:45

least a slight advantage in terrain. But

7:48

here again, Ned's fortified cabin became

7:50

something almost mythical for reporters of

7:52

the day and later authors of

7:55

Western lore. Some

7:57

referred to, quote, Ned's mountain, where

7:59

his This new house was built on a

8:01

sheer cliff with a 360-degree panoramic view that

8:03

enabled him

8:06

to watch for any approaching threats. Others

8:10

referred to his cabin as Ned's Fort,

8:12

a compound that featured walls six feet

8:15

high and a watchtower. Another

8:17

writer claimed Ned had built a fort of

8:19

stone almost like a small castle. Another

8:22

credited Ned with building an escape tunnel

8:24

with a trap door. Most

8:27

of the details were extreme

8:30

exaggerations or wholesale fabrications, but

8:32

the thing about the trap door will be the one to keep

8:34

in mind. There might have been some truth

8:36

in that one, even if a writer thought

8:39

he was just making up a fun story to

8:41

sell more papers. When

8:47

work was complete on Ned's new

8:49

fortified cabin, he lived quietly with

8:51

his family, tended his livestock and

8:53

vegetable garden, and worked in his

8:55

blacksmith's shop. When

8:57

friends and family gathered, he entertained them

9:00

with his impressive fiddle playing. In

9:03

some respects, Ned's life went back to

9:05

normal, but only in some respects.

9:08

He had once been a prominent member of

9:10

the Cherokee National Council and one of three

9:12

advisors to the chief, but those

9:14

days were long gone. Now

9:17

he was in his third year as a wanted

9:19

fugitive, and newspapers had invented

9:21

a legend for him that almost seems

9:23

comical in hindsight, but was accepted as

9:26

fact back then. In

9:28

the fictional crusade, Ned was

9:31

accused of robbing, raping, and murdering

9:33

all over Indian territory. Then,

9:36

the press reported that Ned ran a

9:38

crime ring that was like the Cherokee

9:40

Mafia with Ned as the godfather. The

9:43

supposed network ran a huge illegal

9:45

whiskey operation and became associated with

9:48

every violent act in the territory.

9:51

But probably the toughest part was that

9:53

there were some facts in the wider

9:55

story. Ned had a

9:57

really big extended family, and some of his

10:00

relatives were relatives became genuine criminals. The

10:03

truth of their exploits were added to

10:05

the fiction of Ned's and they were

10:07

all mashed up into one story. And

10:09

in December 1891, two more mysterious

10:12

murders were added to the tally and

10:15

they started the chain reaction that led to

10:17

the explosive finale in 1892. Here

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12:00

The farmer walked past the property of a neighbor

12:02

and found a deputy U.S. marshal

12:04

named Josiah Poorboy lying dead in

12:06

the road. Poorboy,

12:08

who was Cherokee, had been shot in

12:10

the back of the head execution style.

12:14

Close by was the body of Thomas

12:16

Whitehead, a government detective who was just

12:18

23 years old. He

12:20

had been working with Deputy Poorboy

12:22

to investigate the illegal whiskey operation

12:24

that was allegedly run by the,

12:27

quote, Ned Christie gang. Information

12:29

about the whiskey operation was allegedly

12:31

given to the lawman by a

12:33

known killer from Alabama. Therefore,

12:36

one newspaper reported that Poorboy and

12:38

Whitehead had been intentionally lured into

12:41

a death trap and murdered by

12:43

the Ned Christie gang. Technically,

12:46

it wasn't true, but it was

12:48

an example of how easily the story could become

12:50

muddied. It was later discovered

12:52

that the double homicide was committed by a 16

12:55

year old named Waco

12:57

Hampton, who was one of Ned's

12:59

nephews. Hampton was found

13:01

guilty of the murders, but due to his

13:03

age, he was sent to a youth reformatory

13:06

from which he later escaped. Another

13:11

Christie relative whom federal lawmen kept

13:13

an eye on was Ned's teenage

13:15

cousin, Little Arch. Nearly

13:18

three years ago, he was the boy who

13:20

had been shot by one of the lawmen

13:22

during Heck Thomas' raid. The

13:24

injury and the event had left him with a pretty

13:26

big chip on his shoulder. Then

13:29

a man named William A. Dare

13:31

accused Little Arch and his father,

13:33

Thomas, of attempted murder. A

13:36

Dare had been shot three times and he

13:38

believed the father and son were the shooters.

13:41

Thomas was identified in the press as

13:43

a member of Ned Christie's mob, and

13:45

it was another violent act that was

13:47

attributed to the Christie gang. But

13:50

the A Dare example was in more of

13:52

a gray area. William A.

13:54

Dare had been married to Ned's wife, Nancy.

13:58

William and Nancy had been married for less

14:00

than two years and they'd had a daughter

14:02

who died as an infant. After

14:05

that tragic episode, Nancy saw no reason

14:07

to stay in an unhappy marriage, so

14:09

she got a divorce. Sometime

14:12

later, she married Ned Christie. So,

14:15

jealousy could have been the reason

14:17

why William accused Ned's relatives of

14:19

attempted murder. But

14:22

it's also possible that it was a member of

14:24

Ned's extended family who did the shooting. It

14:26

can't be ruled out, but there's just no proof

14:29

either way. And the

14:31

love triangle aspect was good fodder for the

14:33

press. They happily reported

14:35

that Nancy was Ned's fifth wife,

14:38

which was meant to make him look bad. But

14:40

his four previous wives had all died. He

14:43

hadn't cast them aside for a new one, even

14:45

as some writers tried to paint him as the

14:47

Cherokee version of Henry VIII. But

14:50

if there was a silver lining in the press coverage,

14:53

it was that the nonsense seemed to

14:55

be reaching its saturation point. A

14:58

newspaper called the Tahlequah Telephone, which

15:00

had white owners, finally wrote, "...rumor

15:03

after rumor are only contradicted by

15:05

the previous one." The

15:08

two big Cherokee newspapers wrote little, if

15:10

anything, about Ned. Maybe

15:13

they recognized the absurdity of a lot of what

15:15

had been written, or maybe they had

15:17

bigger issues to cover. Two

15:19

years earlier, a few months before

15:21

Deputy Dan Maples had been killed, America

15:24

witnessed a seminal event. April

15:27

22, 1889

15:30

was the first official land rush in Indian

15:32

Territory. Lands that

15:34

formally belonged to the creek and the Seminole

15:36

were opened for white settlers. The

15:39

land rush, or land run as it's also

15:41

called, was the first of five

15:43

that happened in the territory over the next six

15:46

years. In

15:48

1890, in the middle of the Ned-Christie saga,

15:51

Indian Territory was officially

15:53

reorganized as Oklahoma Territory,

15:55

and the events became known as Oklahoma

15:58

Lowndrons. in

16:00

1893 was the one that Ned Christie and

16:03

others had feared since the introduction of the

16:05

Dawes Act six years earlier. That

16:08

one opens Cherokee land to white

16:10

settlement. But by then Ned's

16:12

story would be done. In

16:20

the Cherokee Nation, Ned Christie

16:22

still had lots of supporters and they

16:24

wanted to clear his name. But

16:26

short of Ned turning himself in to

16:28

face judgment in court, there wasn't much

16:31

of substance they could do. And

16:33

at the same time, they watched the

16:35

other three men who had been indicted

16:37

with Ned wreaking havoc on the territory.

16:40

While Ned isolated himself on his farm,

16:43

Charlie Bobtail, John Paris, and

16:45

Bub Trainor seemed to

16:47

prove that they were more justifiable suspects

16:50

in the murder of deputy US Marshal

16:52

Dan Maples. Maples

16:54

and two other deputies had been

16:56

sent to the Cherokee capital to

16:58

investigate illegal whiskey sellers. Someone

17:01

had fired three or four shots from

17:03

ambush and killed Maples. Bobtail,

17:06

Paris, and Trainor were three of

17:08

the top six suspects aside from

17:10

Ned Christie. At the

17:12

grand jury hearing after the murder, the

17:14

six men, though mostly Bobtail, accused

17:17

Ned of the crime. Eventually,

17:19

the three suspects who were indicted were

17:22

released and were free to go about

17:24

their business while Ned remained

17:26

under suspicion and was a constant target

17:28

of the US Marshals. In

17:31

the roughly five years since all that happened,

17:34

those three suspects showed why they were suspects

17:36

to begin with. In

17:41

October of 1887, six

17:44

months after the murder of Maples, Bub

17:47

Trainor and a few friends went into a

17:49

store, looked the clerk's keys

17:51

at gunpoint and threw him out. For

17:54

the next three days, the men

17:56

lingered inside, eating and drinking whatever

17:58

they liked. The

18:00

third day, they got drunk and got

18:02

bored and set the store on fire.

18:05

The store was connected to a house that

18:07

happened to be occupied. As

18:09

the women and children in the house ran

18:11

outside to escape the flames, Bub

18:14

and his buddies laughed and took pot

18:16

shots at them. Trainer

18:19

was tried for the crime and found not

18:21

guilty. The verdict wasn't

18:23

much of a surprise because Trainer's father

18:25

was a well-liked white man from Boston

18:27

who had married a Cherokee woman. After

18:31

the incident, Trainer got back into

18:33

the whiskey distribution business. The

18:35

same business he was in when

18:37

Deputy Maples went to Tahlequah to

18:39

investigate illegal whiskey distribution. Bub

18:43

Trainer was indicted two more times

18:45

for selling illegal whiskey, but there

18:47

was no record of him ever serving time. John

18:51

Parris had walked a similar path since

18:53

being released as a serious suspect. He

18:56

was also arrested for distributing whiskey, but he

18:58

was not as fortunate as his friend Bub.

19:02

Parris spent a year in the Arkansas State Prison

19:04

for his crime. After

19:06

his release, he never returned to Indian

19:09

territory and he was never seen again.

19:12

And then there was Charlie Bobtail. He

19:15

had been in the whiskey business with his buddies

19:17

Parris and Trainer back when Deputy Maples

19:19

and his partners came to town. After

19:22

Maples' murder, the bootleggers had accused

19:24

Ned Christie of the crime. But

19:27

a couple years later, there were allegations

19:29

that Charlie Bobtail and Bub Trainer said

19:31

it was their former partner John Parris

19:33

who pulled the trigger. Now,

19:36

none of the three are truly trustworthy,

19:39

but if they changed their story, it begged

19:41

the question as to why. There

19:43

were no good answers to the question, but

19:46

it actually led to a new theory. As

19:49

there was so much confusion and finger pointing

19:51

in the wake of the Maples' murder, Some

19:54

have floated the idea that Judge Parker

19:56

may not have summoned Ned Christie to

19:58

Fort Smith to arrest it. Or

20:00

charge him with the murder. Maybe

20:02

Parker wanted Ned to testify as

20:04

illegitimate witness about what he may

20:06

or may not have seen that

20:08

night. Maybe this whole thing was

20:10

even more tragic than everyone thought.

20:18

This episode is bad. Parent applies.

20:29

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Parker must have known about need

21:15

christie been his reputation as a

21:17

respected and trustworthy charity statement. Parker.

21:20

Had never met him because Ned had never

21:22

been in Parker's Court. So it

21:25

is within the realm of possibility that

21:27

Parker some and Ned only because he

21:29

thought Ned was trustworthy. But.

21:31

Ned assumed he was being told to

21:33

surrender and he would be railroaded for

21:35

the cream. When. Ned didn't

21:37

show up. Judge Parker and the

21:40

grand jury took it as an indication of

21:42

guilt. If this scenario was

21:44

true that it's possible that the whole

21:46

sad story was just a misunderstanding. Even.

21:50

Now, one hundred, thirty years later, Historians

21:52

and scholars can't agree on how

21:54

and why Ned Christie story unfolded

21:57

the way it did. But.

22:00

By eighteen ninety Two as the

22:02

land runs in Oklahoma where increasing.

22:04

The. Reasons why Ned Christie story unfolded

22:06

the way it did had become

22:08

irrelevant. Ned. Was the

22:11

only target/suspect in the murder of

22:13

Deputy Us Marshal Dan Maples. And.

22:16

The marshals. We're never gonna stop pursuing

22:18

him. The.

22:22

Raids against Ned Christie's property resumed

22:25

in June of Eighteen Ninety Two.

22:28

To Deputy Us Marshals Milo Creek

22:30

More and Joe Biden tried to

22:32

capture Ned at his home. There.

22:35

Were always several people in the cabin. They.

22:37

Were mostly women and children, but there

22:39

were usually a couple with guns ned

22:41

plus two or three others. Ned's.

22:44

Nephew Arts Wolf, who was known

22:46

as Little Arch was often their.

22:49

Three. Years earlier he was the boy who had

22:51

been shot in the chest by member of Had

22:53

Thomas policy. Now the boy

22:55

was a teenager who was in on the

22:57

accent. When. Deputies creek more

22:59

and bowed and approach the cabin on

23:01

June second. They. Quickly realized they

23:03

couldn't assault the position with just two

23:06

men. Accounts make it

23:08

seem like the deputies exchanged gunfire with

23:10

whoever was in the cabin, but the

23:12

details are slim. Either

23:14

way, the deputies were described as

23:17

feeling outmatched. Which. They certainly

23:19

would have been when faced with

23:21

a fortified defensive position that had

23:23

multiple defenders inside. They

23:26

retreated and live to fight another day.

23:29

For. Deputy Creek More that day arrives

23:31

Three months later in September of Eighty

23:33

Ninety Two. By. That time.

23:36

Five. And a half years had passed

23:38

since Deputy Dan Maples had been murdered

23:40

and Ned Christie had gone into hiding.

23:43

The. Other potential suspects in the murder

23:45

were long gone, and the sole focus

23:47

had been on Christie longer than anyone

23:49

could have dreamed. judge

23:51

parker and us marshal yo were

23:53

feeling the heat from political officials

23:55

to both finish the murdered taste

23:57

and bring on now notorious out

24:00

to justice. They had

24:02

sent multiple posses of various sizes against

24:04

Ned for more than five years and

24:06

they had received no results. And

24:09

it wasn't like Ned had fled the territory and

24:11

they were trying to track him through the wilderness

24:13

of the most remote parts of the country. He

24:16

wasn't moving from hiding spot to hiding spot.

24:19

He was right where he had always been at his

24:21

home. On

24:24

September 12, 1892, Deputy

24:27

Creekmore tried again. He

24:29

approached Ned's cabin with a posse of six

24:31

to eight men. As

24:33

with the other attempts, they had an arrest

24:36

warrant from Judge Parker and orders

24:38

from Marshal Yost. It

24:40

was early morning and there were six people in

24:42

the cabin who were eating breakfast. Ned,

24:45

Ned's wife Nancy, a stepson and

24:47

a daughter, and two cousins,

24:50

Colonel Arch Wolf and Charles Hare.

24:53

The lawmen surrounded the cabin and

24:55

Deputy Creekmore shouted for Ned to

24:57

surrender. Ned replied

24:59

as he had in previous raids. He

25:02

opened fire, probably from one of

25:04

the gun ports that had been cut in the thick

25:06

walls of his cabin. He

25:09

shot one deputy in the foot and another

25:11

in the neck. After

25:13

the opening salvo, reports say Creekmore rode

25:15

to the nearest store where he could

25:17

send a telegram. The

25:19

message to Marshal Yost and Fort Smith read,

25:22

send deputies to Ned Christie's. We

25:24

have him surrounded, but have not

25:26

enough men. Joe Bowers

25:28

and John Fields are wounded. Fields

25:31

will die. The

25:33

marshals reply read, have wired

25:35

everywhere for deputies. You will have

25:37

lots of help tonight. Hold

25:40

the fort by all means and get him

25:42

this time. Deputies

25:50

from Fort Smith, Bentonville and

25:52

West Fork Arkansas were making their way

25:54

to Ned Christie's cabin as fast as

25:56

their horses could carry still

26:00

hold up inside and two

26:02

lawmen wounded, one seriously, all

26:05

Deputy Creekmore could do was wait

26:07

for reinforcements. After

26:09

those reinforcements arrived, they took their positions

26:12

and prepared for what promised to be

26:14

a fierce gun battle. But

26:16

Deputy Creekmore discovered they had a problem. Ned

26:19

Christie was no longer there. He

26:22

had somehow slipped away. Maybe

26:24

he really had dug an escape tunnel. Or

26:28

more likely, he used the root cellar, a

26:30

feature that would be used in the final showdown.

26:33

For now, the posse left

26:36

Ned's property, again without satisfaction.

26:39

And again, newspaper accounts of the event

26:41

made it seem bigger and more devastating

26:43

than it was. The

26:45

Omaha Herald reported that the posse consisted of

26:48

60 men and the

26:50

chief of the Cherokee Nation had added 20 men

26:52

of his own. Others

26:54

would have seen that Deputy Fields was

26:56

mortally wounded, implying he would

26:58

be yet another death attributed to Ned

27:01

Christie and the other deputy would lose

27:03

his foot. Neither happened.

27:06

Fields survived the wound to his throat

27:08

and he eventually healed. And

27:10

so did the other deputy's foot injury. And

27:13

for Ned, the latest raid seemed to

27:15

signal a shift inside him. Something

27:18

had changed. According

27:23

to those who knew him in the fall of 1892, Ned seemed to be sensing

27:25

the end was

27:28

near and his time to die was

27:30

approaching. Ned knew

27:32

the lawmen would return and there seemed to

27:35

be a clear pattern of escalation that summer

27:37

and fall. At first there

27:39

had been two deputies. Then there was

27:41

a posse of about eight. Next

27:43

time, it would probably be more. And

27:46

at some point, no amount of fortifications

27:48

would hold them back. Ned

27:51

also knew he had seriously wounded at least

27:53

one deputy during the most recent gun fight,

27:56

but he had no idea if the man had survived.

27:59

If the lawmen died. the Marshals

28:01

would return with an army and maybe

28:03

the actual US Army. Even

28:05

if the deputy survived, he had

28:07

suffered a serious wound at the hands of

28:10

Ned Christie. That was enough

28:12

for the Marshals to come in force. Ned

28:15

had made a pact with himself that he

28:17

would never be taken alive. His

28:20

main concern now was for the safety of

28:22

his family. So far they

28:24

had been spared, but that didn't mean it would

28:26

always be the case. In

28:28

his experience, federal law enforcement could

28:31

be very unpredictable. Ned

28:34

shared his foreboding vision with his wife

28:36

Nancy. He asked her to

28:38

use her kitchen knife to cut off the

28:40

long hair he had always worn with pride.

28:43

They tied the bundle of hair up with

28:45

otter string, buried it on the east

28:47

side of their house and prayed over

28:49

it. Cutting hair

28:51

is a sign of grieving for the dead

28:54

in the Cherokee tradition. Friends

28:56

and family had encouraged Ned to

28:58

flee Oklahoma territory and save his

29:00

life. Ned told them

29:02

he wanted to die on his own land, around

29:05

his own people. And before

29:07

Thanksgiving that year, the vision

29:09

would come true. Next

29:16

time on Legends of the Old West,

29:18

it's the final showdown between Ned Christie

29:20

and the US Marshals. And

29:22

then the long, slow journey to unravel

29:25

the truth about the Ned Christie story

29:27

and continue the debate about his legacy.

29:30

That's next week on Legends of the Old West.

29:42

Plus program don't have to wait week to

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Sign up now through the link

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our website blackbarrelmedia.com. Remember ships are

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just $5 per month. This

30:03

series was researched and written by Michael

30:05

Byrne. Original music by

30:07

Rob Valier. I'm your host

30:09

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enjoyed the show, please leave us

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