While searching for some information regarding Mike's question about the Protective and Detective Association I came upon the following website (which I had not seen before):

http://www.rootsweb.com/~okcraig/history/people/lawmen.htm

The website does mention a Cherokee National Stockman's Protective and Detective Association (sort of a forerunner of the AHTA) founded in 1881. It also cites an article in the Vinita Journal in February, 1914, claiming that Poncho Villa's real name was George Goldsby and that he was the half brother of Cherokee Bill. Does anyone know if this is true?

--meursault

Crawford Goldsby was born at Fort Concho, Texas, on February 8, 1876. He was the son of George and Ellen Goldsby. His father, George Goldsby, was a First Sergeant in Troop "D", Tenth Cavalry, U.S. Army. He was half Mexican, 1/4 Sioux Indian and 1/4 white, a person who in those days was called a mixed-blood or a "colored person". Crawford's mother, Ellen (Beck) Goldsby, was 1/2 Negro, 1/4 Cherokee, and 1/4 white. She was the daughter of a "Freedman".

In early 1916, the newspapers of Oklahoma carried stories claiming that Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary and later notorious bandit was in fact Geroge Goldsby from Vinita, Oklahoma. The following article appeared in the Nowata Star:

"General Villa, Mexican Insurrecto, Frequenter of Nowata in Early Days"

General Pancho Villa, 'the conqueror on horseback', notorious Mexican rebel leader and today a predominating figure of the western world because of his order excepting William Benton, an English subject, at Juarez recently. He is actually a Cherokee Freedman, an old time resident of Vinita and in bygone days, a frequenter of the country about Nowata, according to a story that has just been published in the Vinita Leader.

According to the Leader, many people in Vinita remember the rebel general whose name is George Goldsby. It has frequently been said that Villa is an African half-breed and that his name is Goldsby. Villa's son, Luther Goldsby, according to the Vinita paper, died in Muskogee 18 months ago. The boy was a half brother of Cherokee Bill, the notorious murderer of pioneer days.

Of Villa, the Vinita paper says: "George Goldsby, which is the famous Mexican's real name, was for several years a resident of this country, then the Indian Territory, and his home was here in Vinita. He was at that time considered to be part Negro and as far as can be remembered, he led a careful life.

He drifted about the country and spent the greater part of his time in the hills near Nowata, when he was not in the city. He spent several years in the service of the American Army in troop "D" of Maryland and after his discharge from the service, returned here where he married a Negro woman. The woman was, at the time, cooking for Tom Knight, father of Morris and Henry Knight of this city. From this marriage was born a son who remained in this city up to three years ago. While in Vinita, the later part of the time, Luther Goldsby, son of General Villa, was a porter at the Cuban Hotel.

He left Vinita three years ago going to California. On his return from California, he made his residence in Muskogee where he died 18 months ago. Luther Goldsby was a half brother to the infamous Cherokee Bill on his mother's side. Cherokee Bill was captured in the hills near Nowata by Negro law officers and later hanged at Fort Smith, Ark. The capture of the famous outlaw was made on the Verdigris River at Goosecreek bend, a Negro settlement east of Nowata.

The maiden name of the mother of Luther Goldsby and wife of General Villa, alias George Goldsby, is unknown here now, (It was Beck) but the facts in the case of Pancho Villa, his being here, his marriage to a Vinita negress, his service in the American Army, and his entrance to Mexico now stand as verified facts. George Goldsby, or General Villa, as he now chooses to call himself, is remembered by many of the old-time residents of this city. They remember him and his picture shows him to be the type of man who could pass for a Mexican.

From an enlisted soldier in the United States Army to the generalship of a force that bids fair in conquering all of Mexico is a long step. General Villa now stands as a unique figure in that revolution swept country and is a marvel of the modern world in generalship. At the time of his flight from this country into Mexico, he enlisted in the regular Mexican Army and later became a bandit and the most famous bandit that Mexico has ever known. The training that he received in the American service stood him in good stead and he always has shown rare cunning and good generalship.

He is not a Mexican al all but an American White-Negro. During his days of outlawry, he gathered about him a small band of insurrectionists and bandits and spent the time plundering the country in the wake of the other armies in the early stages of the first revolution; and, though lacking arms and ammunition, he has carried everything before him.

George Goldsby is remembered here as a man tall of stature, strong featured, part Indian, quiet and as one of grim determination. He was well known to a few of the old settlers and they say that his existence here was peaceful and not marked by any great show of energy or viciousness. He kept pretty much to himself, keeping in obscurity the commanding influence he was capable of mustering. His figure was calm and commanding and his step had the quick, determined, intellectual air with it that would cause comment every place.

He returned here after his service in the army in the early 1880's and his record in the army proves his nature to be wild, reckless and daring. He was a good soldier and gained during his service, that which has brought him into the eyes of the entire world, the art of generalship. Two years after his marriage here, he got into trouble along the Texas border and was forced to flee into Mexico, where he soon entered the precarious army and bandit life. His only connections to this country are believed to be dead, they being the son, Luther Goldsby, Cherokee Bill, Clarence Goldsby, and the mother and wife. The Negro woman was last heard of at her home neat Ft. Gibson several years after Goldsby's flight into Mexico, but has been reported dead since that time."

The Army and Navy Journal, recognized as the official publication of the two million forces of Uncle Sam, in the issue of February 28, takes cognizance's of the "Villa Controversy" and prints a half column claiming that Pancho Villa, the Mexican rebel, is none other than George Goldsby, the Negro-Indian who was a one-time resident of Ft. Gibson and spent much time in Muskogee.

The Army and Navy Journal states:

"Two men, both former soldiers, and whose reputations for veracity are unquestioned, absolutely assert that this is the fact. They state that they talked to Villa in Mexico three weeks ago and exchanged reminiscences of the times when both men served in the Tenth (colored) Cavalry. W. A. Haynes, messenger in the Quartermaster office at the Presidio of San Francisco and a former member of Troop "D", Tenth Cavalry absolutely recognizes from his picture as being George Goldsby, first sergeant in Troop "D" in 1882, when he left the service and went to Mexico. His testimony is further collaborated by Fred Scott who was a non-commissioned officer in the Tenth."

"More About The Villa Oklahomans Recognize"

The first wife of Pancho Villa, the Mexican rebel leader, who beyond all doubt, it seems, is a Cherokee Freedman, and who only a few years ago lived about Muskogee and Vinita, is living in Fort Gibson only a few miles from Muskogee under the name of Mrs. Ellen Lynch.

She has married twice since Villa deserted her and since that time Villa has also married twice, once to a white woman in the Osage Nation and lately to a beautiful American shop girl whom he kidnapped along the border and compelled to wed him a rifle point.

Mrs. Lynch, now well along in years, was interviewed at her home in Fort Gibson yesterday for the Phoenix by J. S. Holden, Editor of the Fort Gibson New Era.

It has been some time since since she heard from her first husband but she says the Phoenix representative information which tended to establish the fact that Villa is none other than George Goldsby, who a few years ago, was wont to loiter in Muskogee and who possesses a misture of white, Negro, and Indian blood is correct. Important among the clews (sic) gave the Phoenix are two photographs. One of them was taken by a traveling photographer in Texas before he crossed the International Line into Mexico and turned bandit. He wore the uniform of a first sergeant in the American Army. It is known that the Muskogee and Vinita George Goldsby joined the United States army and rose to the rank of first sergeant. It is also known that Villa, who W. A. Hayes, an attache of the Quartermaster's office at Presidio, declares that his right name is George Goldsby, who was a first sergeant in the American Army. Further information is given in the fact that Villa says he enlisted in the same troop in the State of Maryland as Goldsby's friends here say he did. Photographs of Villa and Goldsby bear a marked resemblance. Mrs. Lynch, yesterday, was positive Villa is her first husband."

Is it true, or just rumor? You, the reader must decide.

(SOURCE: "The Outlaws of Cooweescoowee" (District of the Cherokee Nation) by Curt Johnson (2004 pp. 82, 94-97).

This story is completely false. Cherokee Bill's father was interviewed around 1913 when he was trying to get his army pension. He stated about the fact that he was part Mexican and Souix Indian. The main reason he lied was because he was married to a white woman. George Goldsby was originally from Selma, Alabama. He was a mulatto. During the Civil War he served as a teamster for the Confederate Army. At the Battle of Gettysburg he went over to the Union side and served with a Pennsylvania Cavalry regiment for the remainder of the war. After the war he enlisted in the 10th U.S. Cavalry, which was made up of African Americans. Goldsby attained the rank of sergeant major. I hope we can lay all the myths about Cherokee Bill to rest in the near future.

Doroteo Arango (aka Pancho Villa), son of Augustin Arango and Micaela Arambula, was born on June 5, 1878, at the Hacienda de Rio Grande, San Juan del Rio, State of Durango, Mexico.

Pancho Villa was assassinated at Parral (Chihuahua, MX) on July 20, 1923, by Salas Barraza and his men - a secret fraternity, the requirements for membership being that some female member of the member's family must have been mistreated by Villa. The object of this fraternity was the assassination of Villa, according to Barraza.

(Source: "Pancho Villa: Intimate Recollections By People Who Knew Him" edited by Jessie Peterson and Thelma Cox Knoles (Hastings House Publishers, NY 1977) )

I checked out Friedrich's Katz's recent and massive (1000+ pages) biography on Villa and the story about the Cherokee Bill connection is not even mentioned. Villa did attract a group of American mercenaries/soldiers-of-fortune, some of them very interesting characters (eg Sam Drebben, the "Fighting Jew"), but most of them seemed to be Texans. One person with Oklahoma roots who claimed to have served with Villa was Tom Mix, the Western silent movie star, who before his film career worked as a cowboy on the 101 ranch and in 1904 served as the sheriff of Dewey, Oklahoma. The story goes that Mix was captured by federal troops and was stood against a wall facing a firing squad when Villa's forces dramatically rescued him. Almost certainly this story is Hollywood hype.

--meursault