Christie was a member of the executive council in the Cherokee Nation senate, and served as one of three advisers to Principal Chief Dennis Bushyhead.

A member of the Keetoowah Society, Christie supported Cherokee sovereignty and tried to resist white encroachment.

He is notable for having evaded and held off for five years United States lawmen seeking his capture, in what was later called Ned Christie's War.

Christie was born in 1852 at Wauhillau (located at 35°51′20″N 94°46′27″W / 35.85550°N 94.77426°W / 35.85550; -94.77426), Goingsnake District, Cherokee Nation, in what is the present-day state of Oklahoma.

He was the son of Watt and Lydia (Thrower) Christie, who survived the Trail of Tears and removal from the American Southeast to Indian Territory.

Concerned about trying to protect Cherokee national sovereignty, Christie strongly opposed giving the federal government land to construct railroads through their territory.

In addition, whites were encroaching on Cherokee and other Native American lands in Indian Territory as squatters and beginning to press the federal government to establish a state in this area.

His father, Watt, and grandfather (Lacy Christie), were chiefs of their ceremonial ground, where sacred rituals were performed, near the family home at Wauhillau (present-day Adair County, Oklahoma).

[1] According to a 2018 biography by Devon A. Mihesuah, newspapermen and dime novel writers played up these elements of his life in Wild West lore to create sensational accounts and sell their writings, particularly in the period when he evaded federal marshals.

After spending the day unsuccessfully seeking Trainer, Maples and posse member George Jefferson started back to their camp near Spring Branch Creek, outside Tahlequah.

Fearing a trial before white people in a U.S. court, Christie fortified his home to resist arrest.

[1] He learned that he had been indicted by a grand jury of the United States Court of the Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith for Maples' murder and that Judge Isaac C. Parker had sent more marshals to arrest him.

But he also worked to rehabilitate offenders, reform the criminal justice system, and advocate the rights of the Indian nations in the territory.

Yoes assigned his top deputy, Heck Thomas, to lead the effort to bring in Christie.

Believing that Christie had been killed, Heck and the posse left the scene to get medical attention for Isbell.

In addition to Christie, others at the fort included his wife Nancy, her son Albert, Ned's daughter, Mary; his granddaughter, Charlotte; nephew Little Arch Wolf, and Charles Hair, a 12-year-old Cherokee.

After the raid, Christie's nephew Arch Wolfe and the youth Charles Hair were each charged and convicted of assault and intent to kill a lawman.

Run by officials with no background in psychiatric care,[12] the asylum had refused to allow Wolfe any contact with his family or to give them information about him.

[9] In 1918, Dick Humphreys, a freedman, gave an interview to the Daily Oklahoman in which he said he had been an eyewitness to the shooting of Marshal Maples.

[10] The Keetoowah leader had opposed allowing railroad development, allotment in Indian Territory, and statehood for the area, as he resisted encroachment by European Americans.

Some researchers believe that his opposition to the powerful men promoting development there may have contributed to his being falsely accused of Maples' murder and pursued as an outlaw.

[6] Today Christie is honored by a plaque at the Cherokee Court House in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the oldest public building in the state.

[5] Many articles about Christie were published in newspapers and western magazines, in addition to dime novels; most at the time sensationalized his life.

He Was a Brave Man: The Story of an Indian Patriot (2010) was written by Lisa LaRue, Cherokee Keetoowah historian.