Clay, Daniel
Tombstone Data
Name:Clay, Daniel
Born:1874
Died:1892
Age:18
Father:Henry Clay "Wa-te-ah-Kah-ah"
Mother:Martha King Clay "Tobacco Woman"
Notes:From The Story of Dannie Clay - Was he Really an Outlaw? By Velma Nieberding
Daniel, about 18. Never killed anyone, or robbed a bank. He did pistol-whipped a lawman and shoot up Miami's Main Street, Miami. Some called Dannie an outlaw, however if tribal records are reviewed it would make you wonder if he could have been classified as an outlaw. People have passed where Dannie was bushwahacked and shot in the back by two U.S. Marshals on a summer night, and have said" There is where Dannie Clay was murdered." Indians say his ghost still wanders down the street where once he wheeled his fine horse to a dead run and shot out the kerosene lights in the town's three saloons. Guy Jennison, a chief of the Ottawas, believe Dannie's problems began when he came to town on a drinking sprees. A marshal, grabbed his arm and yelled, "You're under arrest." The young Indian twisted out of the marshal's grasp, grabbed his gun and pistol-whipped him. Then he mounted his horse and went to the reservation, where the town law could not touch. Another marshal, out of Fort Smith, had an idea. He asked two United States deputies who had been hanging around the Cherokee town of Vinita watching for a band of outlaws, to come to Miami and help him catch Dannie Clay. They decided to get somebody to spy on Dannie, find out when he would come into town and lay a trap for him. Even tho there was no price on his head.
Meanwhile, Dannie, told his sweetheart that he was going to leave the Territory and go to Kansas until the law quit looking for him. The young couple made a date to meet and get married, but Dannie was betrayed. While still on the reservation, on a summer night, marshals hiding in the grass, shot him with their Winchesters. The marshals never knew where the crowd came from, but the marshals were told to put Dannie in a wagon and take him to a doctor, but it was too late. They buried him in an unmarked grave in the Ottawa tribe cemetery. Note: See complete, and much more interesting story, of Daniel Clay by Velma Nieberding
"Shot in the back by Marshals"
Cemetery:Ottawa County Indian Cemetery — Miami, Ottawa County, OK
Book: Ottawa County Indian Cemetery — S J Mahurin