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Old-Time Outlaws
Submitted by: Mollie Stehno
OLD-TIME OUTLAWS |
Bill Cook's Exploits Appear Childish When Compare with Henry Starr's. |
The Cherokee Advocate |
February 6, 1895 |
February 6, 1895-The Cherokee Advocate-Special Correspondence of the Globe Democrat-Guthrie, Okla. January 20-Just now, while the attention of the whole country seems to be centered on the Cook Gang of outlaws and their depredations in the Indian Territory, a few reminiscences of the old-time outlaws of that section will be interesting to everybody.
These outlaws, like the present marauders, were nearly all of mixed Indian and white blood, but so much more daring were their exploits, so much more desperate their character, that the exploits of the Cook Gang appear as mere boys' [play when compared to their deeds of outlawry.
The most notorious of these old-time outlaws was Henry Starr, long since dead. Much of the story of his life is shrouded in obscurity and other parts greatly magnified by tradition, but it is know positively that he alone killed over seventy men, fully a dozen of his victims having been felled with a single blow of his might fist. He was a Cherokee, with a tinge of Seminole blood, nearly 7 feet tall, massively built, and with an arm and fist like a sledgehammer.
He terrorized the whole Cherokee Nation for years, and so great became his power that the Cherokee Council finally entered into a regular treaty of peace with him, granting him amnesty from all past deeds if he would cease his outlawry-the only instance on record of a nation entering into a treat of peace with a single individual.
At one time $10,000 reward was offered for Starr's head and $5,000 for the head of one of his lieutenants. One day the lieutenant was killed by the accidental discharge of a gun at the outlaw camp, and Starr cut of his head, and, putting it in a sack, went to Tahlequah, the Cherokee Capital and walking boldly into the officer of the National Treasurer, covered the officer with a revolver, took the gory head from the sack, and laying it on the table compelled the officer to pay the $5000 offered for the head, then walked out, mounted his horse and escaped.
After the treaty of peace the old man lived quietly for a number of years and died a natural death.
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