Samuel Sixkiller, born in 1842 in the Cherokee Nation, which is now Adair County in Oklahoma, was the first Captain of the United States Indian Police in Muskogee. He supported the Confederacy in the Civil War and became a private in the 1st Cherokee Cavalry. At 19, he switched sides and fought for the Union with his father, 1st Lt. Red Bird Sixkiller.
In 1875, he was appointed to High Sheriff of the Cherokee Nation and Warden of the National Penitentiary. The position gave him authority of the Cherokee Nation and he became a Deputy US Marshall. In 1880, he became the first Captain of the United States Indian Police in Muskogee.
In 1886, he was murdered by two men on Christmas Eve. In March 1887, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill that made assault against an Indian policeman a federal offense.
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