The Knife at the Counter

In a hotel in the Cherokee Nation, a Cherokee man and a white man exchanged words after the white man used offensive language. The Cherokee man kicked him lightly on the leg and stepped back against a counter. The other man immediately attacked him with a knife and cut his face twice. The Cherokee man drew a pistol and shot his attacker through the body, killing him. Charged with murder in the federal frontier court, he was convicted of manslaughter. The prosecution argued that he had started the trouble and could not claim a necessity he had produced himself. The defence argued the kick was trivial and did not strip him of the right to defend himself against a knife attack.