During the American Civil War he served under his brother Jackson McCurtain in the Confederate First Regiment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles.

After the war he moved to Sans Bois in present-day Haskell County.

He became one of the wealthiest ranchers in the Choctaw Nation.

[1] From 1884 to 1886 he served as the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation.

[2] He died on November 11, 1890, at Skullyville, Indian Territory.