McCurtain, Walker families had prominence in Skullyville, LeFlore County history

Both the McCurtain and Walker families have prominence in both Skullyville and LeFlore County history, but it wasn’t discovered until further research that these families had an intense feud that ended up in a murder.

Tandy Walker served as a lieutenant colonel in the Choctaw Regiment of the Confederate Army, ran the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach and was principal chief of the Choctaw Nation in Doaksville in Indian Territory.

Walker’s second wife was related to the Folsoms and McCurtains. Walker was raising a son and a daughter from the first marriage.

The Walkers and the McCurtains had not been on good terms since after the Civil War, and no one seems to know why.

The McCurtains were forbidden from the Walkers’ home. It seems Robert McCurtain had become smitten with Walker’s daughter. Walker’s son, Henderson, came outside and told McCurtain to leave. When McCurtain refused to leave, Henderson Walker shot him, and McCurtain fell to the ground dead before he could leave the property.

The Choctaw blood law stated if a person takes a life, their life if forfeited, so Tandy and Henderson Walker knew Henderson had to leave the territory or surely be killed by some of the McCurtain family members. Henderson disappeared but returned two years later.

The news of Henderson Walker’s return reached the McCurtain family immediately. Jackson and Green McCurtain met Walker on the road and shot him dead.

After this, the Walkers moved to Tamaha in present-day Haskell County.