XPost: talk.politics.guns, talk.politics.misc, soc.culture.israwl
https://ethicsalarms.com/2023/12/23/why-hasnt-everybody-already-learned-about-bass-reeves/
Why Hasn’t Everybody Already Learned About Bass Reeves?
DECEMBER 23, 2023 / JACK MARSHALL
Nothing says Christmas like a late 19th century black Deputy Federal
Marshal in the Indian Territory. As I watched the Paramount+ video
series “Lawmen: Bass Reeves.” I was struck by what an inspiring and unifying this remarkable man’s story would be for school children, and wondered not only why it isn’t taught today, but why it wasn’t taught
while I was in school. Not only hadn’t I heard of Reeves before last
night, I assumed the film was just another race- or gender-flipped
Western, like “Django Unchained or The Hateful Eight.” It’s an amazing story, and a true one.
Bass Reeves (1838–1910) was born as a slave in Arkansas, then lived in
Lamar and Grayson counties, Texas, where he belonged to Col. George R.
Reeves, who later become the Speaker of the House in the Texas
legislature. Reeves escaped north into the Indian Territory (now
Oklahoma), where he had dealings with the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole
tribes, learning enough of their languages to be useful to him later. He
fought with the Union Indian Home Guard Regiments during the Civil War,
then settled in Arkansas as a farmer. To make extra money, Reeves served
as a guide, scout and tracker for the deputy U.S. marshals who worked in
the Indian Territory (like Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit”!) out of “Hanging Judge” Parker’s federal court at Fort Smith. Judge Parker commissioned Reeves as the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River.
He worked for thirty-two years as a deputy marshal in the Indian
Territory, arresting an estimated 3,000 lawbreakers and shooting 14 of
them dead in self defense. (It helped considerably that he was 6’2,” remarkably strong, and a dead shot with pistol or rifle.) Reeves was
never wounded himself, though his hat was shot off a few times (they
show this in the series). Reeves demonstrated his integrity when he
brought his own son in for murder once a warrant was issued.
When Bass Reeves died on January 12, 1910, the “Muskogee Phoenix,” published his obituary, saying in tribute, “In the history of the early
days of Eastern Oklahoma the name of Bass Reeves has a place in the
front rank among those who cleansed out the old Indian Territory of
outlaws and desperadoes. No story of the conflict of government’s
officers with those outlaws, which ended only a few years ago with the
rapid filling up of the territory with people, can be complete without
mention of the Negro who died yesterday. During that time he was sent to
arrest some of the most desperate characters that ever infested Indian Territory and endangered life and peace in its borders. And he got his
man as often as any of the deputies.”
Did Reeves suffer from the racism and discrimination of the times?
Certainly he did, but through perseverance, determination, experience
and the accumulation of skills to supplement his natural ability, he was
not only able to succeed, but to be a positive force in society and the
nation. Reeves even was tried for murder at one point for killing a
cook, and the evidence was sufficient to keep him in jail for months
awaiting trial. Ultimately his old patron, Judge Parker, found him innocent. Yes, in 1885 a black man could be found not guilty of murder
by a white judge who was influenced by The King’s Pass.
Rather than teaching African-American students that the nation they live
in is hostile to them and systemically rigged to undermine them, how
much more useful and inspiring it would by children of all races and ethnicities to learn the lessons from lives like this man. His story
definitely includes the obstacles he faced because of his race as well
as chapters in our nation’s struggle to overcome the legacy of slavery.
But his life is a testament to individual autonomy and the unique
opportunities the United States offers to all of its citizens.
***
Note: WordPress’s AI bot suggests that I tag this post “Keanu Reeves.”
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)