Ne-de Wa-de ‘Ned’ Christie

Ned Christie was a Cherokee man.

Biography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Christie

Ned Christie (December 14, 1852 – November 3, 1892), also known as NeDe WaDe (ᏁᏕᏩᏕ), was a Cherokee statesman. Christie was a member of the executive council in the Cherokee Nation senate, and served as one of three advisers to Principal Chief Dennis Bushyhead. A member of the Keetoowah Society, Christie supported Cherokee sovereignty and tried to resist white encroachment.

In 1887, he was accused of killing a United States Marshal in ambush. Christie sought bail in order to prove his innocence, but was refused. He is notable for having evaded and held off for five years United States lawmen seeking his capture, in what was later called Ned Christie's War. He was declared an outlaw, with a reward on his head, and the case was sensationalized by newspapers. He was eventually killed by lawmen. A 1918 report by an eyewitness to the marshal's murder said that Christie had been wrongfully accused. He became a folk hero among the Cherokee.

Family

• Father Smith Wa-de Wa-ki-gu Christie, Union Chief
• Mother Lydia Ska-ya-ht-ta Christie (born Thrower)

Wives

1. Nannie Dick, m abt 1871 (or 5th wife)
2. Peggy Tucker, m abt 1875
3. Nance Greece, m abt 1888
4. Jennie Scraper, m abt 1877

Family notes

Many accounts show Arch ‘Little Arch’, ‘Walkabout’ Wolfe to be a son of Ne-de Wa-de ‘Ned’ Christie’s cousin Betsy Young. It appears that he actually was the grandson of the elder Arch ‘Big Arch’ Christie, (Big Arch) Watt's brother, making him a cousin, once removed, of Ned's. (Ned's first cousin).

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7763264/ned-christie

Native American Folk Figure. He was a blacksmith, gunsmith, and in 1885, was elected a representative of National Council from the Going Snake District of Cherokee Nation. Two years later, he became embroiled in what would become the fight of his life. It began on May 4, 1887 with the murder of Deputy Daniel Maples in the Cherokee Nation. His companion John Parris, was arrested for the murder, but Parris told the authorities that Ned had fired the gun that killed the Deputy. He was now a wanted man, with a reward for his capture, dead or alive, for a crime he swore he did not commit. For the next five years he was searched out as a Cherokee rouge, killer outlaw. Scores of posse-men were unable to apprehend him although he never left his home. He continued to stand up for the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation and vowed to never speak English again. In November 1892, a posse attempted to bring in a cannon to blow him out of his house. Being unsuccessful as the home was high above a creek, the deputies resorted to dynamiting the house. The dynamite prompted him to run from the house in front of the officers, only to be shot to death. In the early 1900's, a witness came forward and Ned Christie was cleared of any alleged involvement in the shooting. Even though Cherokee People regard him as a martyr and patriot, history continues to refer him as a notorious criminal, gang leader and murderer.

Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith

Photograph of US Deputy Marshals posing with the corpse of Ned Christie in November 1892. (1) Paden Tolbert (2) Capt. G.S. White (3) Coon Ratteree (4) Enoch Mills (5) deceased Ned Christie (6) Thomas Johnson (7) Charles Copeland (8) Heck Bruner
White's force surrounded the Christie fort on the morning of November 3, 1892. In addition to Christie, others at the fort included his wife Nancy, her son Albert, Ned's daughter, Mary; his granddaughter, Charlotte; nephew Little Arch Wolf, and Charles Hair, a 12-year-old Cherokee.[9][1] After the first exchange of rifle fire, the marshals allowed the women to leave, and held them elsewhere.[1]
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The posse of lawmen killed Christie in their attack. The lawmen loaded a double charge of powder into the cannon for more power, but the next shot blew up the barrel. They pushed a wagon load of dynamite against one wall of the fort and detonated it. The explosion destroyed part of the fort and set the rest afire. Christie was fatally shot as he escaped the burning ruins.[1]

They tied his body to a door for transport by train to Fayetteville, Arkansas. There the lawmen were photographed with Christie's body as a trophy, as was common in those times. They transported the body by train to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to claim their reward from the US court. More people had their pictures taken next to Christie's body.[10] The Cook photography studio took a photo to reproduce and sell as postcards.

Photograph of US Deputy Marshals posing with the corpse of Ned Christie in November 1892. (1) Paden Tolbert (2) Capt. G.S. White (3) Coon Ratteree (4) Enoch Mills (5) deceased Ned Christie (6) Thomas Johnson (7) Charles Copeland (8) Heck Bruner

Source: United States Marshals Sevice - http://www.whitsett-wall.com/Fort_Smith/Lawmen.HTM''

Christie's body was finally released by authorities to his family. They returned with it to Wauhillau for burial.[11] The body was interred at his father's Watt Christie Cemetery in Wauhillau. Its location is marked by a tombstone.[4]

The government's pressure on the Cherokee continued. After the raid, Christie's nephew Arch Wolfe and the youth Charles Hair were each charged and convicted of assault and intent to kill a lawman. Because of his age, Hair was sentenced to three years in the State Reformatory in Illinois. It was far from his people. Wolfe was held for years in penal institutions. He was finally committed to the Canton Indian Insane Asylum in South Dakota, which opened in 1903 and was often used to house Indians considered troublemakers.[12] Wolfe died there in 1912. Run by officials with no background in psychiatric care,[12] the asylum had refused to allow Wolfe any contact with his family or to give them information about him.[9]

In 1918, Dick Humphreys, a freedman, gave an interview to the Daily Oklahoman in which he said he had been an eyewitness to the shooting of Marshal Maples. He said that Bud Trainer shot the lawman, not Christie. Humphreys had not volunteered his information earlier because he feared retaliation by Trainer. [c]

Christie's name was cleared at last, years after he was brutally killed.[10] The Keetoowah leader had opposed allowing railroad development, allotment in Indian Territory, and statehood for the area, as he resisted encroachment by European Americans. Some researchers believe that his opposition to the powerful men promoting development there may have contributed to his being falsely accused of Maples' murder and pursued as an outlaw.[6]

Legacy and honors

Today Christie is honored by a plaque at the Cherokee Court House in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the oldest public building in the state. The memorial reads that he was "assassinated by U. S. Marshals in 1892." The Fort Smith National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service, also has material recognizing Christie's death as an assassination.[5]

Many articles about Christie were published in newspapers and western magazines, in addition to dime novels; most at the time sensationalized his life.

Christie has also been the subject of late 20th-century novels, such as Larry McMurtry and Diane Ossana's Zeke and Ned (1997) and Robert J. Conley's Ned Christie's War (1991). The latter Cherokee author had a particular interest in trying to portray Christie's struggles.

In the 21st century, Christie has been the subject of carefully researched histories, including Devon A. Mihesuah's biography Ned Christie. The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero (2018), published by University of Oklahoma Press. It provides more information about the context of Christie's times and his political stands. He Was a Brave Man: The Story of an Indian Patriot (2010) was written by Lisa LaRue, Cherokee Keetoowah historian. Christie's great-great-nephew, Roy J. Hamilton, also wrote and self-published a history, titled Ned Christie: Cherokee Warrior.[2]

Notes

• a. Nannie Dick's burial registry at the Christie Cemetery says that she lived from about 1848 until April 1882, and that she was his father Watt Christie's fifth wife.[4]
• b. Selling whiskey in Indian Territory was a Federal crime; this region was under the jurisdiction of the United States Court of the Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith.
• c. Bud Trainer was killed in Vinita in 1896 by a group of four men. They were thought to have argued over a whiskey deal that had gone bad.[1]

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Grave of Ned Christie at Christie Cemetery Wauhilla, OK.

Gravesite Details July 21, 2023 Ned's tombstone was broken in half laying on the ground

References

1. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7763264/ned-christie
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Christie cites
   1. Frates, Kent F. "The Atonement of Christie." This Land. August 25, 2016. Accessed July 1, 2017. < link >
   2. "Ned Christie." Cherokee Registry. Undated. (Dead link)
   3. "Review: Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero. By Devon A. Mihesuah". Great Plains Quarterly. University of Nebraska Press. 40 (1). Winter 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.< link >
   4. "Watt Christie Cemetery". Oklahoma Cemeteries. 2015. Accessed July 4, 2017. < link >
   5. "The Case of Ned Christie", Fort Smith Historic Site, National Park Service, accessed February 3, 2009 < link >
   6. Art T. Burton (2009). "Christie, Ned (1852-1892)". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society. Archived from the original on November 19, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2011. < link >
   7. Mihesuah, Devon A. (2018). Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 5.
   8. "Judge Isaac C. Parker", Fort Smith Historic Site, National Park Service, accessed February 3, 2009 < link >
   9. Mihesuah, 2018, Ned Christie, Chapter 6
   10. "The Death of Ned Christie", Fort Smith Historic Site, National Park Service, accessed February 3, 2009 < link >
   11. Larry Kraus, "Allen, US Marshal?", 2000-2001, US Ancestry, accessed February 2, 2009 (dead link)
   12. Richards, Richie (28 September 2018). "The nation's only insane asylum for Indians was in South Dakota". Native Sun News Today. Retrieved 20 May 2020. < link >
3. Further reading
   1. Hamilton, Roy J. Ned Christie: A Family Remembers, self-published, 1995 (He is Christie's great-great-nephew)
   2. Speer, Bonnie Stahlman. 1990. The Killing of Ned Christie: Cherokee Outlaw. Norman, OK: Reliance Press. (Speer owns the press that published her book and refused to make corrections brought to her attention by Christie's descendants.)[1]
   3. 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.)[1]
   4. Roy J. Hamilton (Christie's great-great-nephew), "Some Errors in Ned Christie's Life Cloud Book," Amazon customer review of Bonnie Stahlman Speer's The Killing of Ned Christie (1990/2000 edition)
4. “Family, historians share insights about Cherokee Sen. Ned Christie” Cherokee Phoenix (June 5, 2020) < link > A report states when the deputies arrived at Christie's cabin on Nov. 2, 1892, Christie was living there with his wife Nancy and their daughter Charlotte. Also at the cabin were a young boy named Arch ‘Little Arch’, ‘Walkabout’ Wolfe and a man named Ned Adair. It was Arch who first saw the posse hiding near a creek. A deputy's bullet grazed his neck while running to the cabin to warn the others. "That attack, from what I've heard, was horrible," Frogg said. During the attack, Christie sent his family out the back door, a report states. The last to leave was Arch. After his departure, Christie ran out the front with his rifle and was killed on Nov. 3, 1892.
5. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Christie-2991 cites
   1. Applications for Enrollment of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898–1914. Microfilm M1301, 468 rolls. NAI: 617283. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75. The National Archives at Washington, D.C. Card # 6753 Watt Christie.
   2. Cherokee Census, 1883. Series 7RA-07. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75. The National Archives at Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas., Going Snake District, #322-325
   3. NARA M1104. Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909. Application #5341, Annie Scott, image at Fold3 Annie Scott < Fold3 >
   4. Mihesuah, Devon. Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and a Cherokee Hero. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2018. p. 2
   5. Minhesuah, Cherokee Hero, pp. 30 and 32
   6. Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK. 1979. p. 295
   7. Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 24 July 2019), memorial page for Ned Christie (14 Dec 1852–3 Nov 1892), Find A Grave Memorial no. 7763264, citing Watt Christie Cemetery, Wauhillau, Adair County, Oklahoma, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
   8. See also: www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/Cherokee/NedChristieStory.htm
6. The life, times and adventures of Rambling Bob: NED CHRISTIE: CHEROKEE OUTLAW cont. (June 10, 2008) < link >
7. “Edward "Ned" Christie families of Cherokee Co., Oklahoma” (2002) < link >
8. Mihesuah, Devon A. Ned Christie The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK., 2018. < GoogleBooks >
9. Chamberlain, Kathleen P. Review of Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero, by Devon Abbot Mihesuah. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 122, no. 3 (2019): 355-356. http://doi:10.1353/swh.2019.0014. Why Christie was targeted and doggedly pursued to his death is a different story. For one thing, he was an outspoken member of the Cherokee National Council as a Keetoowah, or traditionalist, who resisted such threats to Cherokee sovereignty as the expansion of railroads, allotment, and the unrelenting encroachment of whites onto Cherokee land. He actively opposed the progressive political faction's rejection of traditional Cherokee culture, language, and religion and their alliance with whites on issues that undercut Indian governance. To progressives and whites, Ned Christie was a troublemaker.