The botched execution of Silan Lewis. The sheriff missed shooting him in the heart and is then seen here trying to smother Lewis to death. The photo was widely circulated and led to the end of allowing Native American tribes to perform their own executions. Nov 4, 1894

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Silan Lewis, a Choctaw convicted of murder, chose his executioner—childhood friend Lyman Pursely. In Wilburton, Indian Territory, on November 4, 1894, Lewis was blindfolded and kneeling on the ground, with two men holding his arms, when Sheriff Pursely fired his Winchester. The lawman missed the heart, though, and Lewis lived for three minutes as the sheriff smothered his old friend to death. This photo of the bungled execution created a controversy among U.S. senators and likely influenced the 1898 passage of the Curtis Act, which abolished tribal courts, like the one in Wilburton, and conferred full jurisdiction to federal courts. Lewis ended up the last man executed by Choctaw Nation.

– Courtesy Library of Congress