Shortly after the delegation selected by the foregoing council had
proceeded to Washington in the interest of the adoption of the scheme
proposed, another epidemic of murder and outrage broke out in the
nation. On the 23d of March, Agent McKissick reported to the Indian
Department the murder of Stand, a prominent member of the Ross party,
by Wheeler Faught, at the instigation of the "Starr boys," who were
somewhat noted leaders of the Treaty party. This murder was committed
in revenge for the killing of James Starr and others during the
outbreak of the preceding November. It was followed[492] by the
murder of Cornsilk, another of Ross's adherents, by these same "Starr
boys," and six days later the spirit of retaliation led to the killing
of Turner, a member of the Treaty party. On the 25th of the same
month[493] Ellis, Dick, and Billy Starr were wounded by a band of
Ross's Cherokee police, who chased them across the line of Arkansas
in the attempt to arrest them for trial before the Cherokee tribunals
for the murder of Too-noo-wee two days before. General Arbuckle took
them under his protection, and refused to deliver them up for trial to
the Cherokee authorities until the latter should take proper steps to
punish the murderers of James Starr. Subsequently Baldridge and Sides,
of the Ross party, were murdered by Jim and Tom Starr, in revenge for
which the light horse police company of the Ross government murdered
Billy Ryder, of the Treaty party.[494]
In this manner the excitement was maintained and the outrages
multiplied until, on the 28th of August, Agent McKissick reported
that since the 1st of November preceding there had been an aggregate
of thirty-three murders committed in the Cherokee Nation, nearly all
of which were of a political character. The feeling of alarm became
so widespread that General Arbuckle was constrained to increase the
military force on the frontier by two companies.