of Oklahoma City. The Fourth Cavalry arrested them, took them to Fort Reno, then escorted them back to Kansas. Payne was furious, as public law (specifically the Posse Comitatus Act) prohibited the military from interfering in civil matters. Payne and his party were freed, which effectively denied them access to federal and state courts. Anxious to prove his case in court, Payne and a larger group returned to Ewing in July 1879. The Army again arrested the party, escorted them back to Kansas, and freed them. This time, however, Payne was charged under the Indian Intercourse Act and brought to trial in Fort Smith, Arkansas in March 1881. Judge Isaac Parker ruled against Payne and fined him the maximum amount of US$1,000, but since Payne had no money and no property, the fine could not be collected. The ruling settled nothing about the public lands, however, and Payne continued his activities unabated. He organized and led several more expeditions into the territory, even forming a newspaper called the Oklahoma War Chief, the first in the Cherokee Outlet, which he published in several sites along the Kansas-Indian Territory border. During one of his last ventures, Payne insisted on a public trial, so he and his group were hauled several hundred miles to Fort Smith. The trip began at Fort Reno and proceed to Fort Sill, Henrietta, Texas, Texarkana, Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas and then finally to Fort Smith. During another trip in July 1884, the army seized his Oklahoma War Chief press, burned his buildings, and took Payne and his group through the Cherokee Nation after their arrest. The party was paraded through the streets of Tahlequah, past the Indian people who hated him for his attempts to seize part of their lands. Public sentiment grew so great over his mistreatment at the hands of the military that the government finally granted his trial. Payne was turned over to the United States District Court for the District of Kansas at Topeka. In the fall term, Judge Cassius G. Foster quashed the indictments and ruled that settling on the Unassigned Lands was not a criminal offense. Boomers celebrated, but the government refused to accept the decision. Between expeditions, Payne often spoke to crowds of admirers and recruited more Boomers. The day after such an address in Wellington, Kansas on November 27, 1884, Payne collapsed and died of heart failure. His funeral filled