𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗜𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗢𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗼 𝗛𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲

Osage County, OK— Two defendants have entered guilty pleas in Osage County District Court in connection with the April 12, 2025, shooting at the Osage Casino Hotel in Tulsa.

The shooting occurred during the early morning hours of April 12, 2025, when the Osage Nation Police Department and the Osage County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of gunfire at the Osage Casino Hotel, located at 951 W. 36th Street North in Tulsa. The case was investigated jointly by both agencies.

Malik Nakai Sampson waived his right to a jury trial and entered a guilty plea. The court found Sampson guilty on Counts 1 and 2 and sentenced him to 20 years in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, with the sentences ordered to run concurrently and with credit for time served. Sampson was also ordered to pay court costs, incarceration costs, a $250 Victims Compensation Assessment (VCA), and a $500 fine on each count.

Marquaveon Da’Shawn Goff also waived his right to a jury trial and entered a guilty plea. As part of the plea agreement, Count 1 was amended to Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon. Goff was sentenced to 20 years in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, with the sentence to run concurrently, and was ordered to pay court costs, incarceration costs, a $250 VCA, and a $500 fine.

Both defendants were convicted of 85% crimes, meaning they must serve at least 85% of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole.

Sampson and Goff were arrested within days of the shooting because of a comprehensive joint investigation by the Osage County Sheriff’s Office and the Osage Nation Police Department.

“This case reflects the strong cooperation between the Osage County Sheriff’s Office and the Osage Nation Police Department in working together to hold those responsible for violent crimes accountable.”

The Osage County Sheriff’s Office also recognizes First Assistant District Attorney Brett Mize and the Osage County District Attorney’s Office for their work in successfully prosecuting this case.

This is now a conviction.

-Sheriff Bart Perrier … See MoreSee Less

𝗚𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 — 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝘁

In the quiet hours before dawn on Friday, June 27, 1902, word spread quickly through Pawhuska that a man had been shot dead the night before at the home of Judge Samuel Worcester S.W. Pettit. The scene had been set for anything but tragedy, an ice cream social and summer dance two miles east of town, music drifting through open windows, the Pettit home alive with neighbors, friends, and the rhythm of a community gathering. But by midnight, celebration had given way to gunfire.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴

Among the guests was George E. Dickey, a 24-year-old Osage man whose life already carried the weight of controversy. A graduate of the Carlisle Indian School and a former soldier, Dickey had been drinking heavily. As the night wore on, he and Judge Pettit’s son, John, began causing a disturbance inside the house.

Pettit, a man known for strict order—especially under his own roof—put an end to it. He ordered both young men to leave. That should have ended the matter. It did not. Dickey returned, anger sharpened by alcohol, this time armed. According to witness accounts, he opened fire toward Pettit. One bullet struck the judge in the abdomen, causing a non-fatal wound. Before Dickey could fire again, Pettit’s sons, Andrew and George, rushed him and forced him back outside. What happened next remains contested.

Moments later, Pettit himself went outside. Words were exchanged—whether threats, curses, or warnings are unknown. Pettit raised his weapon and fired. Dickey was struck four times. How Dickey moved from the porch to a point roughly 100 yards away remains unclear. Witness accounts differ. What is certain is that George Dickey died that night.

To some in the community, the shooting was justified—an act of self-defense by a wounded man protecting his home. To others, it was unnecessary, the fatal result of a volatile confrontation fueled by alcohol and pride.

After the shooting, Pettit left Pawhuska and traveled to Cleveland, Oklahoma. He was later arrested in Pawnee by U.S. Marshal Wiley Haynes, released on a $7,500 bond, and eventually stood trial. A jury acquitted him.

𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘆’𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁

George Dickey’s death closed a life already marked by instability. After the Spanish-American War, he enlisted in the U.S. military but later deserted. He was captured by Sam Hartzell, marshal at Elgin, Kansas, and sentenced to the federal penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth.

After serving his sentence, Dickey returned to the Osage Reservation. The events at the Pettit home would become the final chapter of his life—written in gunfire on a summer night.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲: 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 “𝗦.𝗪.” 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘁

To understand the man at the center of the killing, one must look far beyond that June evening. Samuel Worcester Pettit was born in 1845 into both Osage and Cherokee lineage—an uncommon intersection of two nations long divided by history and conflict. He was an original Osage allottee, listed as S.W. Pettit, Roll No. 1777, Allotment No. 1661. By birth, Pettit could have claimed citizenship in either nation. He chose the Osage, honoring the bloodline that came through his mother.

During the Civil War, Pettit served three years in the Confederate Army with a Cherokee regiment, fighting largely in Indian Territory. The war hardened him. In the years that followed, he became widely read, widely traveled, and intensely opinionated—a man shaped by conflict and authority.

His leadership eventually carried him into Osage tribal politics, where he was elected Supreme Judge. Pettit ruled with confidence and intensity, earning a reputation as a man “always ready to take a hand in a scrap”—a phrase that captured both his willingness to argue and his readiness for physical confrontation.
Friends later described him as honorable, but quick-tempered—especially when alcohol entered the picture. The events of 1902 would cement that reputation.

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮 “𝗠𝗶-𝗧𝘀𝗶-𝗞𝗲” 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘁 — 𝗔 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹

Much of Pettit’s resilience—and perhaps his contradictions—can be traced to his Osage mother, Maria “Mi-Tsi-Ke” James Pettit.

Born around 1810, Maria’s earliest years unfolded amid violent conflict between the Osage and Cherokee over hunting grounds. At approximately two years old, she was captured during a raid led by Cherokee warriors under Chief Blackcoat.

Initially adopted and treated kindly, her fate took a darker turn when a white man convinced the chief to let him and his wife take the child. His intent was not adoption but profit—he planned to sell her into slavery in New Orleans.

The plan unraveled when his boasts reached the wrong ears. Word spread, and Arkansas Territory Governor James Miller ordered the child’s immediate rescue. She was taken to Dwight Mission, a Presbyterian mission school near present-day Marble City. There, a teacher named Mrs. Stetson gave her the name Maria James.
Maria was educated, later becoming a teacher at the mission herself—an extraordinary achievement for a Native woman of the era. She married William Pettit, a Cherokee man, and together they had two children: Samuel Worcester and Julia.

After her husband’s death, Maria returned to Dwight Mission to ensure her children were educated, raising them in an environment of discipline, faith, and learning. In 1884—more than sixty years after her capture—she was reunited with surviving members of her Osage family. She moved to Pawhuska, reconnecting with the culture taken from her childhood. She died on August 9, 1887, and is buried in the Pawhuska City Cemetery.

Dwight Mission superintendent John M. Robe later wrote:

“𝘐𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.”

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲’𝘀 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀

Following the Dickey shooting, Pettit remained a prominent—if often debated—figure in Osage County. He later moved to Hominy during its early development and invested in the town’s growth, continuing to exert influence on civic life.

On September 25, 1919, while visiting Oklahoma City to see Woodrow Wilson, Pettit suffered sudden heart failure in his hotel room on Broadway. He was 74 years old. His body was returned to Pawhuska for burial.

𝗔 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆

The events of June 26, 1902, cannot be understood without the lives behind them. Judge Samuel Worcester Pettit was shaped by two nations, by war, by tribal authority, and by personal pride. His mother, Maria “Mi-Tsi-Ke” James Pettit, endured capture, displacement, and cultural loss—yet became an educator and a bridge between worlds.

Together, their stories reflect the broader story of Indian Territory itself: conflict and survival, justice and violence, honor and consequence—and how all of it can converge in a single night that forever alters a community. … See MoreSee Less