The United States Indian Police (USIP) were organized in 1880 by John Q. Tufts

John Q. Tufts

John Quincy Adams Tufts was an American Republican politician from Iowa and California.The son of Servetus Tufts and Emily , John Q. was born near Aurora, Indiana or Wilton, Maine , Tufts moved to Muscatine County, Iowa, with his parents in 1852...

 the Indian Commissioner in Muskogee

Muskogee, Oklahoma

Muskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....

, Indian Territory

Indian Territory

The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

, to police the Five Civilized Tribes

Five Civilized Tribes

The Five Civilized Tribes were the five Native American nations—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—that were considered civilized by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal period because they adopted many of the colonists' customs and had generally good...

. The USIP recruited many of their police officers from the ranks of the existing Indian Lighthorsemen

Lighthorse (American Indian police)

Lighthorse was the name given by the Five Civilized Tribes of the United States to their mounted police force. The Lighthorse were generally organized into companies and assigned to different districts. Perhaps the most famous were the Cherokee Lighthorsemen which had their origins in Georgia...

. Unlike the Lighthorse who were under the direction of the individual tribe, the USIP was under the direction of the Indian agent

Indian agent

In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.-Indian agents:*Leander Clark was agent for the Sac and Fox in Iowa beginning in 1866....

 assigned to the Union Agency. Many of the US Indian police officers were given Deputy US Marshal commissions that allowed them to cross juridictional boundaries and also to arrest non-Indians.

In 1886 two Indians killed Sam Sixkiller

Sam Sixkiller

Sam Sixkiller was a prominent Native American leader during the American Civil War and the postbellum period.-Biography:...

 who was the popular Captain of the US Indian Police and a Deputy US Marshal commissioned by the Judicial District of Western Arkansas. After the killers escaped indictment by the tribes, Congress passed a law (24 Stat., 463.) giving the United States district courts jurisdiction over any Indian who committed a crime against a federally appointed Indian police officer or United States deputy marshal.

Other Indian police

There were basically two other types of police officers on the reservations:

• Indian tribal police
  Indian tribal police
  Indian tribal police are peace officers hired by those Native American tribes which have a constitutional government on Reservations, as opposed to hereditary chiefs...
  
  .

  Several Indian tribes replaced hereditary chiefs with constitutional governments. These tribes hired police officers under a number of different titles—sheriffs, constables, regulators, lighthorsemen, etc.—to enforce tribal laws.

• Indian agency police
  Indian agency police
  Indian agency police were policemen hired by the Indian agent during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, assigned to a Native American tribe. Many tribes had no recognizable governments and therefore no tribal laws. On these reservations, the Indian Agent hired tribal members to effect law and...
  
  .

  Many tribes had no recognizable governments and therefore no tribal laws. On these reservations, the Indian agent assigned to the tribe hired Indian police from among tribal members to effect law and order according to Federal, agency, and treaty rules. These were considered federally appointed police officers. The Indian police that killed Sitting Bull

  Sitting Bull

  Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...

  
  were of this kind.