The situation was also complicated by the fact that Zeke was a Keetoowah, and the Becks were not. The Keetoowah Society stood for preservation of tribal tradition; the term means full-blood, old-time Cherokee, or something similar. The Keetoowahs believed deeply in preservation of the old ways against encroachment by white men, who were now settling in large numbers on Cherokee land in Indian Territory. The Keetoowahs generally had supported Cherokee Chief John Ross in defending the Union. And the Keetoowahs stuck together, swearing, among other things, not to testify against each other. The Keetoowahs also stood for Cherokee separateness and Cherokee sovereignty. They believed the Cherokee Nation ought to have control over its own lands and its own affairs, and especially objected to the trial of Cherokees for crimes committed against whites. When the U.S. District Court at Fort Smith later asserted its right to try Zeke Proctor, the Keetoowahs would oppose that assertion and rally tightly around the accused.

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Exactly what kind of man Zeke Proctor was is hard to say today. A reliable man who knew him described Zeke, who was born on July 4, 1831, in Georgia, as’stoic…reserved…rather tall and straight as an arrow.’ He was husky, about 5 feet 7, and his straight black hair hung down below shoulder level. He favored a broad-brimmed black hat, and often appeared in a fancy beaded buckskin vest. ‘He had keen black eyes which could look with stern reproval from their depths, or with a smile that would illuminate his whole face,’ one contemporary noted.

Clearly an imposing figure, Proctor was often called a bad Indian, a gunfighter and a general wastrel, but nobody knows now just how much of that reputation was really deserved. Some of his contemporaries described Zeke as intelligent and peaceful, a man who loved children and got along with people who got along with him. He spoke English, as well as his native Cherokee.

Like so many other men of his time, Proctor was superstitious. When a thunderstorm threatened, he would split a chunk of firewood with his ax, then point both log and ax toward the storm, a practice supposed to divide and detour the thunder and lightning. He also was careful to leave milk for the fairies outside his barn each night. One tale pretty well illustrates the ‘good man-bad man’ image that followed Proctor most of his life. It seems that Zeke, full of booze, was riding past a house in which a young girl was playing the piano. Charmed, Zeke halted and listened. When the music stopped, he rushed into the house, put his pistols on the piano, and said simply, ‘Play!’ He got the rest of his concert.

Proctor himself told his grandson that he had killed repeatedly, and admitted that at least one shooting was just plain murder. It happened, he said, when he met a young Indian near the Illinois River. The youngster was carrying a jug of white lightning, and Proctor asked him for a drink. The boy refused, and Proctor, thirsty and displeased, simply shot him, took his jug and buried him.

Other old-timers in the Cherokee Nation remembered Proctor as an ‘outlaw,’ or at least wild and unpredictable, especially when full of prime coffin varnish. One pioneer recalled that Proctor and other ‘wanted men’ loafed on the streets of Tahlequah until they got word that marshals were in the area, a warning passed from the Arkansas border by a kind of gunshot telegraph. At least in his youth, Proctor did indeed have a distinct fondness for strong spirits and roistering, and for shooting up saloons in Cincinnati, Ark., his favorite watering hole. He apparently kept his welcome warm in Cincinnati by returning to pay the damages after the fog of booze had worn away.

Proctor family legend relates that Zeke killed a pair of brothers called Jaybird early in his life. His own son later said that Zeke killed as many as 25 men over the years, including several deputy U.S. marshals, and was acquitted of murder on 16 occasions. Another old-timer put Zeke’s tally at 21 corpses and attributed Zeke’s longevity in part to wearing a steel breastplate under his clothing.

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