When Samuel Sixkiller was eighteen years old he supported the Confederacy in the Civil War . He was a private in the 1st Cherokee Cavalry . When Samuel was nineteen years old he decided to switch his allegiance and fight for the Union alongside his father 1st Lt. Red Bird Sixkiller . By 1875 Samuel was appointed to the positions of High Sheriff of the Cherokee Nation and Warden of the National Penitentiary ( See Indian Police ) . By holding this position Samuel Sixkiller became the authority of the Cherokee Nation and upheld peace within the tribes . Also at the time he was a Deputy United States Marshal . This was valuable to the government because he would be able chase fugitives onto tribal land . On February 12 , 1880 Samuel became the very first Captain of the United States Indian Police in Muskogee ( Indian Territory ) . By holding this position Sixkiller was in command of forty men . One of the duties he had was patrolling Muskogee . Historians say that this town was one of the craziest in all of the " Wild West " . There were more murders within a fifty-mile radius of Muskogee than anywhere west of the Mississippi river . In addition to being a Captain he was also a Special Agent for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad . Since the train went through the area where Sixkiller patrolled it made sense that he worked as a special agent for the railroad . Sixkiller 's main problems were the whiskey bootleggers , cattle thieves , murders , rapists , timber thieves , land squatters , train robbers , card sharks , and prostitutes servicing the railroad towns . In 1808 the Cherokee Nation embraced the idea of a police force that would protect . The force was created to protect people from robbery , horses from being stolen , as well as widows and orphans . If anyone was to resist the authority of these men they were to be killed . During this time , the Cherokee Nation was in the Southern United States . After the Trail of Tears ( Indian Removal Policy ) and the move to the West , a formal authority was created in a police force and a judicial system . The prison system was created in 1873 by an act of the Cherokee National Council . This was the only facility of its kind up until 1901 . The position of High Sheriff of the Cherokee Nation was established and filled in 1875 . It housed , sentenced , or accused prisoners from all throughout the territory
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Sam Sixkiller