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.
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Note: WordPress’s AI bot suggests that I tag this post “Keanu Reeves.”
Ethics Alarms 
As a western history buff and retired lawman, I was already familiar with Bass Reeves and first read a biography about him some thirty years ago. Many articles have been written about him in Old West-themed magazines. If I remember correctly, the son was charged with killing his own wife. Bass’s shooting of a posse’s cook was apparently a negligent discharge as he was cleaning his revolver.
Most all the deputy marshals like Reeves who rode out into Indian Territory for Judge Parker were a hardy and brave lot who lived amazing, colorful lives. I look forward to seeing this series soon.
How about ethics hero status to the makers of the show for keeping woke out of it and keeping it from being a “let’s scold whitey” tv series.
We love the show.
There are many reasons why people don’t know about Bass Reeves.
The biggest reason is because schools only really provide an overview of history. They cannot go into detail about every single person of note so they focus on the major players.
But history hasn’t been traditionally taught in ways that inspire students to want to learn more about it. I was fortunate enough to have an 8th grade social studies teacher who was also a Civil War reenactor. He dressed up as Daniel Webster and made us talk to him about topics that would have been acceptable for Webster’s time (A girl asked him if he knew anything about Motley Crue and he quipped, “You certainly look like a motley crew to me!”). When describing the Boston Massacre, he dressed up like a redcoat, went over the mob violence and then fired a real musket in class.
Unfortunately, most students come away thinking of history as mere dry facts and date memorization. Teaching history gets pushed off on the coaches who have other, more important things on their minds.
So students that aren’t motivated to learn history certainly aren’t going to search out books and other materials to supplement what they learned – or, more likely, didn’t learn – at school.
One would think that adding Bass Reeves to textbooks for diversity purposes would be a no-brainer. Either the book writers and teachers don’t know about him either, they know and haven’t gotten around to it or they know and don’t want to glamorize an Old West lawman with a gun.
I bet this is what most have heard about him:
https://www.history.com/news/bass-reeves-real-lone-ranger-a-black-man
While it sounds like this is a “debunked myth,” accusations of racial white-washing are what first introduced him to me.
-Jut
Who wrote that thing, and why would history print it? At the end it says, “Although there is no concrete evidence that the real legend inspired the creation of one of fiction’s most well-known cowboys, “Bass Reeves is the closest real person to resemble the fictional Lone Ranger on the American western frontier of the nineteenth century,” Burton writes in “Black Gun, Silver Star.” the entry ends. Let’s see: Reeves was never a Texas Ranger, he was black, his identity was well known, and he did not usually wear a mask. How does he “resemble the Lone Ranger” at all? In the current series, Reeves has an Indian sidekick named Billy Crow. Now THAT would be a Lone Ranger link, but it apparently is a device made up by the series writers.
“Billy Crow can be seen as a representative of these Native Americans who helped Bass Reeves catch outlaws and build his remarkable legacy. In the series, Billy quickly forms a connection with Bass by making it clear that he wants to part ways with the world of crime. Bass acknowledges Billy’s honesty and they become a duo fighting crime on the frontier. Billy’s arc and companionship with Bass pay homage to the several Native Americans who should have been an integral part of the “legend of Bass Reeves.”
Oh. It sounds like the Bass Reeves writers threw in a strong Lone Ranger element by giving Reeves his own Tonto. Perfect mythology feedback: some hack decides that the Lone Ranger is a whitewashed Bass Reeves with no evidence whatsoever, it gets picked up as part of the Bass Reeves narrative, and then TV portrays Reeves as having links to the fictional character that he didn’t have. This takes “Print the legend” a whole step further. “….Native Americans who should have been an integral part of the “legend of Bass Reeves”??? What does that even mean?
Can’t tell you.
All I can say is this is why I have heard of Reeves before.
Speculation about whitewashing is apparently what made him interesting enough for someone to write about. (I found it interesting, regardless.)
-Jut
Edward Bouchet was the first black man to receive a Ph.D. in the US, the first one to receive a Ph.D. in physics in possibly the world, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Ct as valedictorian in 1870. He was ‘scouted’ by one of the trustees of a Quaker school dedicated to educating black Americans after the Civil War. The man was the heir to a shipping fortune and bankrolled Bouchet’s education. Bouchet earned his Ph.D. in 1876 from Yale. under the direction of the first American to earn a Ph.D. in physics. In the intervening 15 years, only 4 Ph.D.’s in physics had been awarded in the US, making Bouchet the 6th in the country.
After graduation, Bouchet taught chemistry and physics at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. This was a Quaker college, awarding bachelor’s degrees. Bouchet taught there until the Washington and DuBois debates about college v. technical school for black youth. He was forced out, basically by Booker T. Washington.
From there he was the director of academics at a normal school in Virginia (St. Paul’s College currently) and then was principal of a high school in Gallipolis, OH.
There are a lot of these ordinary -remarkable examples of actual black accomplishment after the Civil War. The only reason these aren’t the ones told during Black History month is that they require research and they typically aren’t ground-breaking. However, the do show the ability of blacks in the US after the Civil War to accomplish things in the US,