He fought in the American Civil War serving as a captain in the Confederate First Regiment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles and later as a lieutenant colonel in the First Choctaw Battalion.

[1] After the war he was a successful Choctaw farmer and rancher who married Jane Austin McCurtain in 1865.

He who served in the Senate of the Choctaw Nation for many years and who served as the president of the senate from 1870 to 1880 when Principal Chief Isaac Garvin died.

[2][3] After Garvin's death, he was appointed principal chief and served in that position until 1884.

[2] During his tenure he was known as a progressive chief and for building the first permanent capital for the Choctaw Nation.