April 12, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, for Art Burton, the story of Bass Reeves seemed almost too good to be true. After all, how could somebody who history essentially forgot have such a strong lore? Art decided to dive in headfirst determined to shed some light on the man who was the first black deputy US marshal west of the Mississippi River.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next a story from Professor Art T. Burton on
bass Reeves, the first black Deputy US Marshall west of
the Mississippi River, and quite possibly the basis of Django
(00:30):
from Django Unchained or The Lone Ranger. Art is the
author of Black Gun, Silver Star, The Life of Frontier
Marshall bass Reeves, and has dedicated his life to the
academic study of African Americans in the West Take It Away.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Art at first became aware of Western culture around the
age of four years old. My mother was from Arcadia, Oklahoma,
and uh, the family lived in the country outside of Arcadia.
(01:11):
And at the first memory of around the age of four,
I can remember visiting relatives and my uncle trying to
break a horse that was in a pasture, and I
thought at the time, this is like uh, Western films
I've seen on TV people were riding bucking horses. That
(01:34):
that was one of my first memory and originally as
a young man, I thought it was very strange because
you didn't see African Americans in movies and television shows
who were cowboys. But in Oklahoma, there were quite a
few African Americans that were involved in ranching, owning horses,
(01:55):
and there was a segregated black rodeo so that traveled
between Oklahoma and Texas and Louisiana, And there were quite
a few rodeos in Oklahoma back at that time when
I was a little boy, And actually I had a
couple of cousins near my age, a little bit older,
(02:16):
who used to do trick riding in rodeos, and they
would do all types of jumps and the flips and
all types of things on the horses.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And later one of them.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Became a bare back rider in the rodeos and won
several rodeo first prize. So quite a few of my
family owned livestock. They owned cattle. I remember sometimes going
to Oklahoma and they'd have to put medicine in the
cattle's eyes so they wouldn't get sick, or doing different
(02:48):
things branding the cattle.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
So I used to do all that, and I would.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Come back home, cause I lived in the suburbs of
Chicago and tell my friends about it, and they thought
I was not telling the truth about my ventures when
I went to Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
But that was.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
That was like the first introduction to the African American
aspect of Western.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Culture in the United States.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Now, I was always bothered better fact that the African
Americans were not depicted in movies and television shows talking
about the Western Frontier.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
And I didn't really know.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
The the history at that particular time, but it looked
like there was a big disconnect somewhere. So I went
to high school my last two years. I went to
high school in Oklahoma, and it wasn't until I went
to college and I've seen.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
A book called The Black West.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It was a picture book that started to filling in
some chapters and some information on the Wild West. I
made a few trips back to visit family and didn't
do any research, but I do remember on one occasion
my grandparents, I was visiting them at their home and
(04:16):
I was watching a movie on wad Earth and I
asked my grandfather if he had remembered seeing any African
Americans who were deputy as marshals during the frontier days,
cause my grandparents came to Oklahoma in eighteen ninety when
it was Oklahoma Territory. And my grandfather stated that, uh,
(04:42):
he had remember seeing some black deputius marshals ride through Arcadia.
He didn't know who they were, and I remember asking him,
was any of them like wad Earth And he said, no,
they weren't like wid Earth far as he could know
what that type of celebrity. And then he asked my
(05:03):
grandmother what was the name of that black deputy over
in Muskogee, And they both had said he had quite
a reputation during the frontier days, and they couldn't think
of his name, and then my grandmother said, Bass Reeves.
(05:25):
That discussion I had with my grandparents didn't come back
to me til many years later, till eighty five when
I went to Oklahoma for a family reunion and I
was hanging out with a cousin, one of my favorite cousins.
His name was Jabbari Parks, and he had a college roommate,
(05:47):
and his roommate stated that he was from Reeves's edition
in Muskogee and it was named for a black lawman
named Bass Reeves. Now, I had at that time, I
had been writing UH a column here in Chicago on
blues and jazz, and UH A lot of my interests
(06:09):
at that time.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Was music history, because I'm a.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Musician, they've been playing jazz music all my adult life.
And j I thought that it would be very interesting
to UH write a article about the Bass Reeves cause
I had never heard of a part of a town
being named for a black lawman.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And so I told my cousins.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
To find everybody they could find who knew anything about
Bass Raives, get their phone numbers, and I would talk
to 'em.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
And so I talked to UH quite a few people.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
That my cousins had got phone numbers, and the UH
people said that Dassue Reeves would arrest Jesse James, he'd
arrest Billy the Kidd, He'd arrest this about anybody of
fame that's real to know. And I thought that was
very strange. It didn't make sense to me now because
(07:07):
I was saying, well, if he had been that good
a lawman, yeah, everybody would have known about it.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And you've been listening to Professor Art Burton tell the
story of Bass Reeves, the first black deputy US Marshall
west of the Mississippi River. When we come back, more
of this story here on Our American Stories. Lie Hibibe
(07:35):
here the host of our American Stories. Every day on
this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
give a lot. Go to Alamerican Stories dot com and
(07:58):
give And we continue with our American Stories and Professor
Art T. Burton on legendary black lawman Bass Reeves. When
we last left off, Art's curiosity had been peaud after
(08:20):
his cousin's roommate told him that he had lived in
Reeves's Addition in Muscogee, Oklahoma. Art thought it was strange
that an area in the town would be named after
a black lawman, so he decided to do some research.
Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
In regards to Reeves's Addition, which was in Muscovie. I
contacted the Northeastern State University Library and then I got
a packet, and the packet is stated that reeves Edition
was named for a white banker who was also a
(09:03):
developer in Moscogi. And uh, you know that that just
brought to an end aspect of Reeves's Edition being named
for Bass Reeves, who lived in the Scoge the last
ten years of his life and died in Moscogia. So
I was about ready to give up, and then I
(09:25):
remembered there was a man I had read about. His
name was Stuart mister Stewart, and he had lived in Waukegan, Illinois,
had been a barber, and he had moved to Denver,
Colorado to start a Black West museum. And he had
a small little museum in the basement of a radio
(09:48):
black radio station in Denver.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
So I called him up on the phone and I
s asked him.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
What did he know about bass? And he stated he
didn't know too much about bass. But there's two older gentlemen,
he said, from Oklahoma, and he said that's all they
talk about. And he said one man is Reverend Haskell's
shoe boot. And Reverend Haskell shoe Boot said that Bass
(10:19):
would walk the streets in Muskogee with a sad kick
who would care satchel full of pistols, and if somebody
called his name, he was always quick to put his
back up against the wall before he turned around and
seeing who was calling his name, very cautious, so that
(10:40):
that's not a pretty interesting from what he was telling me.
So I asked him did he have any phone numbers
for the two gentlemen that lived in Demmer and talked
about Bass and he said no, he actually hadn't seen
them in a couple of years. So I took the
name I w Reverend Haskell shoe Boot, and I.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Dialed the operator in Denver.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I knew it was a long shot because most of
the time older people are living with relatives or they're
living in senior homes. And I died up the operator though,
and the operator said, yes, they had a listing for
a Reverend Haskell shoe Boob. And I dialed the number
and a lady answered the phone and I told her
(11:27):
I wanted to speak to Reverend shoe Boot.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
She said just a minute, and.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Reverend shoe Boot came to the phone and he talked,
uh with a uh.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Or like a hoarse whisper of a voice, how you doing?
Yes like that? And I told Reverend shoe Boot I
was trying to get.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Some information on Bass Reeves and he laughed, And to
this day I don't know why he laughed.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Maybe he was kind of overjoyed as somebody was trying
to give national dass Reeves. But he went on to
say that bass Reeves could out fight out rope, outride
out shoot.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
He basically he was.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Saying bass Reeves could out do anything that anybody could do.
And you know, it's I felt it was nice that
he felt so strong about mister Reeves, but it was
nothing I could do with that, you know, in terms
of me writing a article, cause that's initially what I
wanted to do, was just write an article about bass Reeves.
(12:32):
And then, uh, I guess he figured I wasn't impressed
enough of what he was saying, and he said, I'll
tell you something I've seen with my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I'll tell you something I seen with my own eyes.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And he stated that he used to drive the hack right,
and I had just stopped him and ask him what
was a hack, and he said a hack was.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
A one horse carriage. He got a little laugh out
at also, but he say he drove the hack for
butt let Better.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And but let Better was the principal lawman in Muscoge
after the turn of the century. And he said that
they went after an outlaw, and I guess he musta
did something really bad because they were trying to kill him.
And he said, but letbetter had a posse, and the
(13:23):
posse was shooting at this outlaw and they were not
able to hit the outlaw. They were expending a large
amount of ammunition that was basically ammunition from that beetter's stock.
And so he said, bout the middle of the day,
cause they came out early in the day, they were
not making any progress, and I guess the outlaw had
(13:46):
a real good uh hiding place. And he told somebody
in the posse to go back to Muscoge and get
dass right, and soh Shoe Boo said that by the
end of the day, he said, the sun was starting
to set. He said, bass Reeves came on the scene
(14:10):
and said that the posse had quit shooting at this
outlaw by this time, and the outlaw, evidently with it,
you know, being toward the end of the day, felt
that he was gonna make a run for it. And
he said the outlaw jumped up. And when he said
the outlaw jumped up, I watched so many Western movies.
(14:32):
I was thinking that he was gonna jump up on
his horse. And he said, his outlaw jumped up and
started running across the field and the posse started shooting
at him and were missing. And he said, but Ler
bella hollowed at the top of his voice, get him Bass,
(14:53):
and he said Bass. Reee said, very coolly and calmly,
I will break his neck. And he said, Bass took
this Winchester rifle and with one shot at a quarter
of a mile, broke this man's neck. When he told
(15:15):
me that, shivers kind of went up and down my spine.
I know a little bit about shooting, and a quarter
mile is two city blocks.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
To shoot a.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Moving target, it's very hard, and to call a shot
on a moving target is almost phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And so I got mad cause I I would.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Say, here, I am just trying to get some information
on Bass, Readson. This man's gonna tell me the biggest
lie I've.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Heard in my life. So I was I was a
little heat. I thank thing for the story.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I hung up the conversation, and I used to walk
a mile from the train station downtown Chicago to my
office every day, and I was thinking about this conversation
with shoe Boot all week long, and so by the
middle of the week I started thinking Shoeboo told me
(16:10):
he was ninety eight years old. And most time people
would they tell you a lie, they gonna get something
out of the lie.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
There's nothing shoe Boot was to get out of a life.
It was a lie.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And then I started thinking, if it's true, it's one
of the most phenomenal stories I've heard in my life,
and became more and more impressed with the fact that
if he's telling the truth, this needs to be researched.
And so I became possessed by the end of that
week to find out everything I could on Bass Rigs.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
And you've been listening to Professor R. T. Burton discussing
his soon to be obsession and developing obsession with Lorman
bass Reeves. And it was in preliminary research for a
mere article that the obsession was born. When we come back,
more of this remarkable story, not only about an historian's
(17:09):
pursuit of a person's story he didn't know, but more importantly,
the story of bass Reeves. That story continues here on
our American story, and we continue with our American stories
(18:11):
and Professor Art T. Burton on legendary black wrman bass Reeves.
When we last left off, Art had dove headfirst into
researching bass in order to write a column about him
for a newspaper in Chicago. All the stories he heard
about Bass seemed extraordinary, almost well, too large in life
(18:31):
to believe. But as he looked into Bass, it became
clear that he was indeed a superstar of law enforcement.
Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Bass Ries was born in Arkansas as an enslaved person
in eighteen thirty eight near Van Buren, Arkansas, and he
was enslaved to a family of Reeves. William Steele Reeves
was the patriarch of the family and when Bass was
nine years old, they moved to Texas and they lived.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
There UH the rest of their life. The family did,
and William I.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Guess had appointed Bass to become the body servant to
his son, George Reeves, who was a county sheriff and
he was a legislator in the Texas UH legislature and
the vass As a young man, got quite good with
a rifle, and the oral stories from the family states
(19:40):
that George Reeves would make money on Bass in turkey shoots.
He would put him into competition and he would make
money on the fact that nobody could outshoot Bass.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Reeves.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So he did that, but he went with with George,
I guess, doing all his work as a county chaff.
But anyway, when the Civil War came around, George became
a colonel in the eleven.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Texas Cavalry Regiment.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
They served in the Indian Territory and Missouri in Arkansas
early in the war. It was at that time that
Bass supposedly got into Uh an argument where George reeves
over a card game and Bass knocked him out.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And for a slave to.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Hit his master in Texas law, it was punishable by death,
and so Bass then waged around to see what the
outcome of that would be, and he went deep into
the Indian Territory and hooked up with Seminole and Creek Indians,
and from what I can understand, the family history says
(20:49):
that he had some interaction with Apathia Holo, who was
the Creek chief.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That was UH aligned with the Union forces.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And so the best that I gathers that he most
likely served with Union Indians in the Indian Territory during
the Civil War against the Confederates and UH. The Indian
Territory was pretty much like Vietnam. It was total guerrilla
warfare for the most part. It was the place in
(21:19):
the United States that suffered more than anywhere on a
percentage basis. There was more loss of life, property, and
livestock in the Indian Territory anywhere in the United States
during the Civil War quite bloody, and so Bass evidently
came through that. And then after that war he served
as a scout and a guide for the Deputy's marshals
(21:43):
who were working out of Federal Court at.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Van Burant, Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And he was the first African American to build a
home within the city limit. And uh, there were a
lot of Confederate veterans that lived in that area too,
as it was kind of interesting, but you were looking
at the reconstruction and Republicans held sway. The Van Burrant
(22:08):
Court around eighteen seventy two moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas,
which was a former military base that the US Army
discarded and the US Marshal's Office and the Federal Jurisdiction
took over the property and it was both used as
a jail and a court. Bass was given a commission
(22:32):
as a Deputy's marshal in seventy five. He was not
the first African American deputy western Misisispi River. It was
probably a half a dozen or more African Americans that
preceded Bass. There was one that I know for sure
named Bonum Calbert, who was a former United States Colored
(22:56):
Soldier during the Civil War and served seven years with
the ten Calf Buffalo Soldiers.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
He became a deputy's marshal in.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Eighteen seventy two, so he preceded Bass for about three years.
And there are stories about black deputies I've.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Seen as early as eighteen sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
But Bass got a commission in seventy five and he
worked up til Oklahoma statehood in nineteen o seven, and
they said he had served on the seven US Marshal
and he did a yeoman's job in terms of what
he had to do. There was quite a few crimes
such as murder, horse theF cattle, theft, rape, robbery. There
(23:40):
was issues with train robbery and stagecoach robbery. People still
in lumber any type of crime were a a non
Indian committee crimes against Indians that failed under the US
Marshal's jurisdiction and uh Fort Smith Quarter originally had jurisdiction
over seventy five thousand square miles, which is pretty much
(24:03):
the whole state of Oklahoma, and so the deputis marshals
had a route where they would leave Fort Smith head west,
cross the Missouri Kansas Texas railroad tracks sixty miles from
Fort Smith, and the railroad tracks were called the deadline.
And gently if you were going west, you couldn't pick
(24:24):
up prisoners before you got to the deadline. You could
pick 'em up on your way back to Fort Smith.
They would head west to Fort Seal, which is in
far West Indian Territory, and then they would go north
to Fort Reno, and sometimes you'd even go north uh
(24:44):
they head toward Kansas, and then you would make a
loop back to Fort Smith at least four.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Hundred miles around trip or more.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
And it would take a month or two months to
make this trip. And you'd have open warrants where you
could find people with committee crimes, or you would have
warrants where you were given names of individuals that to
be apprehended. And he he would handle as many as
thirty warrants at a time, and he was illiterate.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
You know, Bass being illiterate.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
How he did that, he would have an individual read
the warrant to him and he would memorize the name
and what the warrant was for. And then those thirty
two years never did he bring back the wrong person
because he was illiterate, so he had total recall. And
he got so good with warrants that the federal officers
(25:39):
at Fort Smith started giving him subpoenas for people they
wanted to come and testify and trial. And you know,
I guess he he evidently then was one of the
best deputies in terms of you known, with subpoenas and warrants.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
And this man couldn't read.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I mean, you know, it's it's absolutely phenomenal, cause he
would come back to Forwartsmith on many occasions with anywhere
from a dozen to seventeen prisoners on a regular basis.
They were singing songs about bass graves during his career,
and this was white people, Black people, and Indians were
(26:16):
singing songs about this man's abilities to catch criminals. And
you they said, once he got on your trio, he
was gonna catch you unless you got completely out of
the territory and go to Texas or New Mexico or
Kansas or something for him not to catch you, because
they said, once he zeroed in on who he wanted
to go after he would he would definitely, you know,
(26:39):
find you probably the greatest man hunter of that era.
And he worked in disguise on many occasions to catch criminals.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And you've been listening to Professor R. T. Burton tell
the story of bass Reeves, the first black deputy US
Marshall West of the Mississippi River, who we thought in
the beginning was just a little too large for life itself.
But in the end, the stories kept piling up. When
we come back, more of those stories of bass Reeves
(27:12):
here on our American story and we continue with our
(27:38):
American stories and Professor R. T. Burton on legendary black
woman Bass Reeves. When we last left off, Professor Burton
was telling us about how bass Reeves, born a slave,
fled his bondage after knocking out his master during the
Civil War. He fled to the Indian Territory, where he
became the first black deputy US Mark West of the
(28:01):
Mississippi River. Despite being illiterate, he traveled four hundred miles
round trip to execute warrence and subpoenas. He also worked
in disguise. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
What he had to do.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Now, the stories that came back about Bass in terms
of his abilities and what he had to do.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Many times he was working disguise. I stayed early. One
time he dressed as a tramp.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Shot holes in his hat. He found an old hat
and he found those some more broken hands to put on.
And he looked slovenly like an outlaw. And there was
two boys that had a couple of thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Reward on him.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And he went and found where they lived, walked in
and they weren't home, but their mother was in told
her that he was an outlaw and he was on
the run, and she told him that she had a
couple of boys that was also on the other side
of the off and maybe they could hook up and
do something together, and maybe they could have a discussion
(29:04):
once they came home, and Bass told her.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
They thought that was a good idea.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And so when they came back home that evening, they
made a pack to commit some crimes together ate and
went to sleep, and while they was sleep, Bass slipped
the handcuffs on him, and in the morning he kicked
him up and told him, let's go you under arrest,
And the mother was so upset. I think she followed
him for two or three miles cursing at him, but
(29:30):
he arrested those boys and got the.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Reward for him.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Another time, he found out some gemmen who had robbed
the UH store owned by Brown, who was chief in
the Semino nation. He had a trading post and it
was robbed, and.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Bass found out where the outlaws.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Were hiding out, and he decided to get a yoke
of oxen to pull a wagon. He drove the wagon
to approximately where the outlaws were stand and it was
kind of a in hidden type of area, but he
found out where they were and drove the wagon into
uh a ditch and then he started holling for somebody
(30:13):
to come out and give him a hand. He was
wagon was stuck, and so these outlaws wanted him to
get on his way because they didn't want any type
of you know, knowledge about people knowing where they were.
And so they came out and as they pulled his
wagon up out of the ditch, he pulled a gun
out of his overalls and told him they were under arrest,
and Uh took them in.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
He did those type of things. Uh. He was also
very strong.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Bass was six feet too, one hundred and ninety pounds
and there was one story told in the Chickasaw Nation
that Bass came across some cowboys and they had about.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Six ropes on a steer that was.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Caught in the mud, and they were trying to pull
it out, and they weren't getting it anywhere. And Bass
watched him for a while, and so after watching him
for a while, Basque got off his horse, took all
his clothes off, jumped in the mud with the steer,
and took all the ropes off the steer, and pushed
(31:12):
and pulled the steer out of the mud using his strength.
And the cowboys were amazed. They said Basque got on
his horse on without a reason and putting his clothes
back on, but he rode off and saying, you know
those dumb cowboys, or something to that effect. He could
also shoot very good. His his shooting was remarkable, they say.
(31:33):
One time he came upon six wolves pulling down uh
a steer on the prairie, and he shot all six
of the wolves from the back of his horse, and
their bulls scattered in all directions. And they said that
he only had to shoot two of the wolves twice,
but he killed all six of 'em from the back
(31:53):
of his horse, which was pretty good shooting on running wolves,
and he his weapon of choice was a Winchester rifle.
He would carry two to three pistols on him also,
and he was ambidextrous with left hand or right hand.
So this guy was like, you know, the Michael Jordan
of UH law enforcement. If you got in a gunfight
(32:15):
with Bass where he was almost ten amount to commit suicide.
If you tried to run, he would catch you. If
you tried to hag, he would find you. And a
lot of times people if they found out Bass had
the warrant, they'd turn themselves in. Uh Bell Starr who
was the most famous female outlaw from the Indian Territory.
Several movies been made about her life. It was said
(32:35):
that she and Bass was good friends. Well, Bass got
a warrant for her rest around eighteen eighty six, and
Uh she turned herself in. It was the only time
she was known to walk in the road into Fort Smouth,
arkansaust and surrendered herself and she was found not to
be guilty or for that particular time. But that was
the one time Bass had the warrant for her arrest.
(32:58):
Her arrested lawmann that went bad he did that on
a few occasions, and then there were some outlaws he
arrested that came back out of prison and became lawman.
And in nineteen oh two Benny, one of his sons,
he had problems with his wife, and then eventually during
(33:18):
the altercation when Benny caught her with another man, Benny
shot and killed his wife. Bass found out about it
and told the marshall to give me the warrant, and
he went and arrested Benny for capital murder. Benny was
convicted and was sent to the Leavenworth Federal Prison in
Kansas for life, but he only actually served I think
(33:41):
was eleven years and he got out. And actually the
preacher that baptizing got behind in the arrears for his church,
and the congregation gave him permission to sell boot leg
whiskey to make some money for the church, and Bass
arrested him put him in jail for selling boot leg whiskey.
He liked to tell jokes, he liked to laugh. Once
(34:03):
he got to know somebody, he never forgot him. But
he had a flip side, like if you're an outlaw.
He was the worst person you ever want to meet
in your life, you know, he's But on the other side,
they said he was very kind and very gentle and
was a total, you know, good person to be around.
And so he had that duality about it.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
You know. The thing that gets me is that he.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Had no fear, and that's scary to me in itself,
for you not to fear anything that walks on the
face of the earth. So he had a different nindset
because most people are scared of something. Dance would probably
be a hero for law enforcement today. Dads worked for
(34:46):
the Fort Smith Court up till eighteen ninety three and
for the Eastern District of Texas until ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
In ninety seven he transferred to.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
The Muskoge Federal Court, so he worked up till statehood
November sixteenth, nineteen oh seven. His career was legendary in
terms of the status. There was uh newspaper stories on
his police work in Texas Kansas, and the newspapers always
(35:18):
stated that Bass had never been wounded. Even at the
time his death, newspapers were saying he had never been shot.
But he did walk with a cane late in his career,
and some people stated that it was due to him
being shot. And I think there was at least one
newspaper article that stated that he was walking with the
cane due to a bullet.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Wound he had received earlier.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
There was approximately four or five saloon towns just to
the west of the Seminole Nation and the Creek Nation.
All of them was real bad, but one was notorious.
And supposedly Bass was in the one of these saloons
and he got into an argument with a young Texas cowboy.
(36:01):
Cowboy called him out, and supposedly Basque got shot in
the lad but Bass killed the cowboy.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Now this has never been written about in newspapers.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It is in some books that were oral books that
were you know, recorded from people's remembrances, so it's quite
possible there the the newspapers also stated that he had
killed fourteen men in line of duty, and at the
time his death, I found at least three of four
newspaper city he killed over twenty men in the line
(36:31):
of duty. It in nineteen oh two he was interviewed
by the newspapers and he stated he had arrested over
three thousand men and women who broke federal law. So
by the time he retired in nineteen oh seven, it
was probably upwards of four thousand people he had arrested
for breaking the law. For me, for me, bass Reads
(36:52):
is the greatest frontier hero in the United States history.
I taught American history, later America, early American history, and
I don't know of any frontier hero in US history
that even comes close to bass Reeves, being that he
had to walk the fine line between white, red and
(37:12):
black populations in Indian Territory and.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
What that all entailed.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
During the fact that the majority of Deputy's marshalls killed
in the land of duty were killed in the Indian Territory.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
It's very, very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
He walked into Valley Death every day for thirty two years.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
And came out alive.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
He is, without a doubt, unless somebody can show me
something different, the greatest frontier hero in American history.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And a great job on the production by Monty. A
special thanks to Professor R. T. Burton his book Black Gun,
Silver Star The Wife of Frontier Marshall bass Reeves. Go
to a local bookstore and buy it or purchase the
book wherever you get your books. He could outfight, outright,
out rope, outshoot anybody. He killed twenty men in the
(38:04):
line of duty. And arrested over four thousand. The story
of Bars Reeves here on our American Story
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next a story from Professor Art T. Burton on
bass Reeves, the first black Deputy US Marshall west of
the Mississippi River, and quite possibly the basis of Django
(00:30):
from Django Unchained or The Lone Ranger. Art is the
author of Black Gun, Silver Star, The Life of Frontier
Marshall bass Reeves, and has dedicated his life to the
academic study of African Americans in the West Take It Away.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Art at first became aware of Western culture around the
age of four years old. My mother was from Arcadia, Oklahoma,
and uh, the family lived in the country outside of Arcadia.
(01:11):
And at the first memory of around the age of four,
I can remember visiting relatives and my uncle trying to
break a horse that was in a pasture, and I
thought at the time, this is like uh, Western films
I've seen on TV people were riding bucking horses. That
(01:34):
that was one of my first memory and originally as
a young man, I thought it was very strange because
you didn't see African Americans in movies and television shows
who were cowboys. But in Oklahoma, there were quite a
few African Americans that were involved in ranching, owning horses,
(01:55):
and there was a segregated black rodeo so that traveled
between Oklahoma and Texas and Louisiana, And there were quite
a few rodeos in Oklahoma back at that time when
I was a little boy, And actually I had a
couple of cousins near my age, a little bit older,
(02:16):
who used to do trick riding in rodeos, and they
would do all types of jumps and the flips and
all types of things on the horses.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
And later one of them.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Became a bare back rider in the rodeos and won
several rodeo first prize. So quite a few of my
family owned livestock. They owned cattle. I remember sometimes going
to Oklahoma and they'd have to put medicine in the
cattle's eyes so they wouldn't get sick, or doing different
(02:48):
things branding the cattle.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
So I used to do all that, and I would.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Come back home, cause I lived in the suburbs of
Chicago and tell my friends about it, and they thought
I was not telling the truth about my ventures when
I went to Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
But that was.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
That was like the first introduction to the African American
aspect of Western.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Culture in the United States.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Now, I was always bothered better fact that the African
Americans were not depicted in movies and television shows talking
about the Western Frontier.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
And I didn't really know.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
The the history at that particular time, but it looked
like there was a big disconnect somewhere. So I went
to high school my last two years. I went to
high school in Oklahoma, and it wasn't until I went
to college and I've seen.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
A book called The Black West.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It was a picture book that started to filling in
some chapters and some information on the Wild West. I
made a few trips back to visit family and didn't
do any research, but I do remember on one occasion
my grandparents, I was visiting them at their home and
(04:16):
I was watching a movie on wad Earth and I
asked my grandfather if he had remembered seeing any African
Americans who were deputy as marshals during the frontier days,
cause my grandparents came to Oklahoma in eighteen ninety when
it was Oklahoma Territory. And my grandfather stated that, uh,
(04:42):
he had remember seeing some black deputius marshals ride through Arcadia.
He didn't know who they were, and I remember asking him,
was any of them like wad Earth And he said, no,
they weren't like wid Earth far as he could know
what that type of celebrity. And then he asked my
(05:03):
grandmother what was the name of that black deputy over
in Muskogee, And they both had said he had quite
a reputation during the frontier days, and they couldn't think
of his name, and then my grandmother said, Bass Reeves.
(05:25):
That discussion I had with my grandparents didn't come back
to me til many years later, till eighty five when
I went to Oklahoma for a family reunion and I
was hanging out with a cousin, one of my favorite cousins.
His name was Jabbari Parks, and he had a college roommate,
(05:47):
and his roommate stated that he was from Reeves's edition
in Muskogee and it was named for a black lawman
named Bass Reeves. Now, I had at that time, I
had been writing UH a column here in Chicago on
blues and jazz, and UH A lot of my interests
(06:09):
at that time.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Was music history, because I'm a.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Musician, they've been playing jazz music all my adult life.
And j I thought that it would be very interesting
to UH write a article about the Bass Reeves cause
I had never heard of a part of a town
being named for a black lawman.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And so I told my cousins.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
To find everybody they could find who knew anything about
Bass Raives, get their phone numbers, and I would talk
to 'em.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
And so I talked to UH quite a few people.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
That my cousins had got phone numbers, and the UH
people said that Dassue Reeves would arrest Jesse James, he'd
arrest Billy the Kidd, He'd arrest this about anybody of
fame that's real to know. And I thought that was
very strange. It didn't make sense to me now because
(07:07):
I was saying, well, if he had been that good
a lawman, yeah, everybody would have known about it.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And you've been listening to Professor Art Burton tell the
story of Bass Reeves, the first black deputy US Marshall
west of the Mississippi River. When we come back, more
of this story here on Our American Stories. Lie Hibibe
(07:35):
here the host of our American Stories. Every day on
this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.
But we truly can't do the show without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, go to
Ouramericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
give a lot. Go to Alamerican Stories dot com and
(07:58):
give And we continue with our American Stories and Professor
Art T. Burton on legendary black lawman Bass Reeves. When
we last left off, Art's curiosity had been peaud after
(08:20):
his cousin's roommate told him that he had lived in
Reeves's Addition in Muscogee, Oklahoma. Art thought it was strange
that an area in the town would be named after
a black lawman, so he decided to do some research.
Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
In regards to Reeves's Addition, which was in Muscovie. I
contacted the Northeastern State University Library and then I got
a packet, and the packet is stated that reeves Edition
was named for a white banker who was also a
(09:03):
developer in Moscogi. And uh, you know that that just
brought to an end aspect of Reeves's Edition being named
for Bass Reeves, who lived in the Scoge the last
ten years of his life and died in Moscogia. So
I was about ready to give up, and then I
(09:25):
remembered there was a man I had read about. His
name was Stuart mister Stewart, and he had lived in Waukegan, Illinois,
had been a barber, and he had moved to Denver,
Colorado to start a Black West museum. And he had
a small little museum in the basement of a radio
(09:48):
black radio station in Denver.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
So I called him up on the phone and I
s asked him.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
What did he know about bass? And he stated he
didn't know too much about bass. But there's two older gentlemen,
he said, from Oklahoma, and he said that's all they
talk about. And he said one man is Reverend Haskell's
shoe boot. And Reverend Haskell shoe Boot said that Bass
(10:19):
would walk the streets in Muskogee with a sad kick
who would care satchel full of pistols, and if somebody
called his name, he was always quick to put his
back up against the wall before he turned around and
seeing who was calling his name, very cautious, so that
(10:40):
that's not a pretty interesting from what he was telling me.
So I asked him did he have any phone numbers
for the two gentlemen that lived in Demmer and talked
about Bass and he said no, he actually hadn't seen
them in a couple of years. So I took the
name I w Reverend Haskell shoe Boot, and I.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Dialed the operator in Denver.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I knew it was a long shot because most of
the time older people are living with relatives or they're
living in senior homes. And I died up the operator though,
and the operator said, yes, they had a listing for
a Reverend Haskell shoe Boob. And I dialed the number
and a lady answered the phone and I told her
(11:27):
I wanted to speak to Reverend shoe Boot.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
She said just a minute, and.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Reverend shoe Boot came to the phone and he talked,
uh with a uh.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Or like a hoarse whisper of a voice, how you doing?
Yes like that? And I told Reverend shoe Boot I
was trying to get.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Some information on Bass Reeves and he laughed, And to
this day I don't know why he laughed.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Maybe he was kind of overjoyed as somebody was trying
to give national dass Reeves. But he went on to
say that bass Reeves could out fight out rope, outride
out shoot.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
He basically he was.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Saying bass Reeves could out do anything that anybody could do.
And you know, it's I felt it was nice that
he felt so strong about mister Reeves, but it was
nothing I could do with that, you know, in terms
of me writing a article, cause that's initially what I
wanted to do, was just write an article about bass Reeves.
(12:32):
And then, uh, I guess he figured I wasn't impressed
enough of what he was saying, and he said, I'll
tell you something I've seen with my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I'll tell you something I seen with my own eyes.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And he stated that he used to drive the hack right,
and I had just stopped him and ask him what
was a hack, and he said a hack was.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
A one horse carriage. He got a little laugh out
at also, but he say he drove the hack for
butt let Better.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And but let Better was the principal lawman in Muscoge
after the turn of the century. And he said that
they went after an outlaw, and I guess he musta
did something really bad because they were trying to kill him.
And he said, but letbetter had a posse, and the
(13:23):
posse was shooting at this outlaw and they were not
able to hit the outlaw. They were expending a large
amount of ammunition that was basically ammunition from that beetter's stock.
And so he said, bout the middle of the day,
cause they came out early in the day, they were
not making any progress, and I guess the outlaw had
(13:46):
a real good uh hiding place. And he told somebody
in the posse to go back to Muscoge and get
dass right, and soh Shoe Boo said that by the
end of the day, he said, the sun was starting
to set. He said, bass Reeves came on the scene
(14:10):
and said that the posse had quit shooting at this
outlaw by this time, and the outlaw, evidently with it,
you know, being toward the end of the day, felt
that he was gonna make a run for it. And
he said the outlaw jumped up. And when he said
the outlaw jumped up, I watched so many Western movies.
(14:32):
I was thinking that he was gonna jump up on
his horse. And he said, his outlaw jumped up and
started running across the field and the posse started shooting
at him and were missing. And he said, but Ler
bella hollowed at the top of his voice, get him Bass,
(14:53):
and he said Bass. Reee said, very coolly and calmly,
I will break his neck. And he said, Bass took
this Winchester rifle and with one shot at a quarter
of a mile, broke this man's neck. When he told
(15:15):
me that, shivers kind of went up and down my spine.
I know a little bit about shooting, and a quarter
mile is two city blocks.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
To shoot a.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Moving target, it's very hard, and to call a shot
on a moving target is almost phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And so I got mad cause I I would.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Say, here, I am just trying to get some information
on Bass, Readson. This man's gonna tell me the biggest
lie I've.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Heard in my life. So I was I was a
little heat. I thank thing for the story.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I hung up the conversation, and I used to walk
a mile from the train station downtown Chicago to my
office every day, and I was thinking about this conversation
with shoe Boot all week long, and so by the
middle of the week I started thinking Shoeboo told me
(16:10):
he was ninety eight years old. And most time people
would they tell you a lie, they gonna get something
out of the lie.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
There's nothing shoe Boot was to get out of a life.
It was a lie.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And then I started thinking, if it's true, it's one
of the most phenomenal stories I've heard in my life,
and became more and more impressed with the fact that
if he's telling the truth, this needs to be researched.
And so I became possessed by the end of that
week to find out everything I could on Bass Rigs.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
And you've been listening to Professor R. T. Burton discussing
his soon to be obsession and developing obsession with Lorman
bass Reeves. And it was in preliminary research for a
mere article that the obsession was born. When we come back,
more of this remarkable story, not only about an historian's
(17:09):
pursuit of a person's story he didn't know, but more importantly,
the story of bass Reeves. That story continues here on
our American story, and we continue with our American stories
(18:11):
and Professor Art T. Burton on legendary black wrman bass Reeves.
When we last left off, Art had dove headfirst into
researching bass in order to write a column about him
for a newspaper in Chicago. All the stories he heard
about Bass seemed extraordinary, almost well, too large in life
(18:31):
to believe. But as he looked into Bass, it became
clear that he was indeed a superstar of law enforcement.
Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Bass Ries was born in Arkansas as an enslaved person
in eighteen thirty eight near Van Buren, Arkansas, and he
was enslaved to a family of Reeves. William Steele Reeves
was the patriarch of the family and when Bass was
nine years old, they moved to Texas and they lived.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
There UH the rest of their life. The family did,
and William I.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Guess had appointed Bass to become the body servant to
his son, George Reeves, who was a county sheriff and
he was a legislator in the Texas UH legislature and
the vass As a young man, got quite good with
a rifle, and the oral stories from the family states
(19:40):
that George Reeves would make money on Bass in turkey shoots.
He would put him into competition and he would make
money on the fact that nobody could outshoot Bass.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Reeves.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So he did that, but he went with with George,
I guess, doing all his work as a county chaff.
But anyway, when the Civil War came around, George became
a colonel in the eleven.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Texas Cavalry Regiment.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
They served in the Indian Territory and Missouri in Arkansas
early in the war. It was at that time that
Bass supposedly got into Uh an argument where George reeves
over a card game and Bass knocked him out.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And for a slave to.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Hit his master in Texas law, it was punishable by death,
and so Bass then waged around to see what the
outcome of that would be, and he went deep into
the Indian Territory and hooked up with Seminole and Creek Indians,
and from what I can understand, the family history says
(20:49):
that he had some interaction with Apathia Holo, who was
the Creek chief.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That was UH aligned with the Union forces.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And so the best that I gathers that he most
likely served with Union Indians in the Indian Territory during
the Civil War against the Confederates and UH. The Indian
Territory was pretty much like Vietnam. It was total guerrilla
warfare for the most part. It was the place in
(21:19):
the United States that suffered more than anywhere on a
percentage basis. There was more loss of life, property, and
livestock in the Indian Territory anywhere in the United States
during the Civil War quite bloody, and so Bass evidently
came through that. And then after that war he served
as a scout and a guide for the Deputy's marshals
(21:43):
who were working out of Federal Court at.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Van Burant, Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And he was the first African American to build a
home within the city limit. And uh, there were a
lot of Confederate veterans that lived in that area too,
as it was kind of interesting, but you were looking
at the reconstruction and Republicans held sway. The Van Burrant
(22:08):
Court around eighteen seventy two moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas,
which was a former military base that the US Army
discarded and the US Marshal's Office and the Federal Jurisdiction
took over the property and it was both used as
a jail and a court. Bass was given a commission
(22:32):
as a Deputy's marshal in seventy five. He was not
the first African American deputy western Misisispi River. It was
probably a half a dozen or more African Americans that
preceded Bass. There was one that I know for sure
named Bonum Calbert, who was a former United States Colored
(22:56):
Soldier during the Civil War and served seven years with
the ten Calf Buffalo Soldiers.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
He became a deputy's marshal in.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Eighteen seventy two, so he preceded Bass for about three years.
And there are stories about black deputies I've.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Seen as early as eighteen sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
But Bass got a commission in seventy five and he
worked up til Oklahoma statehood in nineteen o seven, and
they said he had served on the seven US Marshal
and he did a yeoman's job in terms of what
he had to do. There was quite a few crimes
such as murder, horse theF cattle, theft, rape, robbery. There
(23:40):
was issues with train robbery and stagecoach robbery. People still
in lumber any type of crime were a a non
Indian committee crimes against Indians that failed under the US
Marshal's jurisdiction and uh Fort Smith Quarter originally had jurisdiction
over seventy five thousand square miles, which is pretty much
(24:03):
the whole state of Oklahoma, and so the deputis marshals
had a route where they would leave Fort Smith head west,
cross the Missouri Kansas Texas railroad tracks sixty miles from
Fort Smith, and the railroad tracks were called the deadline.
And gently if you were going west, you couldn't pick
(24:24):
up prisoners before you got to the deadline. You could
pick 'em up on your way back to Fort Smith.
They would head west to Fort Seal, which is in
far West Indian Territory, and then they would go north
to Fort Reno, and sometimes you'd even go north uh
(24:44):
they head toward Kansas, and then you would make a
loop back to Fort Smith at least four.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Hundred miles around trip or more.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
And it would take a month or two months to
make this trip. And you'd have open warrants where you
could find people with committee crimes, or you would have
warrants where you were given names of individuals that to
be apprehended. And he he would handle as many as
thirty warrants at a time, and he was illiterate.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
You know, Bass being illiterate.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
How he did that, he would have an individual read
the warrant to him and he would memorize the name
and what the warrant was for. And then those thirty
two years never did he bring back the wrong person
because he was illiterate, so he had total recall. And
he got so good with warrants that the federal officers
(25:39):
at Fort Smith started giving him subpoenas for people they
wanted to come and testify and trial. And you know,
I guess he he evidently then was one of the
best deputies in terms of you known, with subpoenas and warrants.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
And this man couldn't read.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I mean, you know, it's it's absolutely phenomenal, cause he
would come back to Forwartsmith on many occasions with anywhere
from a dozen to seventeen prisoners on a regular basis.
They were singing songs about bass graves during his career,
and this was white people, Black people, and Indians were
(26:16):
singing songs about this man's abilities to catch criminals. And
you they said, once he got on your trio, he
was gonna catch you unless you got completely out of
the territory and go to Texas or New Mexico or
Kansas or something for him not to catch you, because
they said, once he zeroed in on who he wanted
to go after he would he would definitely, you know,
(26:39):
find you probably the greatest man hunter of that era.
And he worked in disguise on many occasions to catch criminals.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And you've been listening to Professor R. T. Burton tell
the story of bass Reeves, the first black deputy US
Marshall West of the Mississippi River, who we thought in
the beginning was just a little too large for life itself.
But in the end, the stories kept piling up. When
we come back, more of those stories of bass Reeves
(27:12):
here on our American story and we continue with our
(27:38):
American stories and Professor R. T. Burton on legendary black
woman Bass Reeves. When we last left off, Professor Burton
was telling us about how bass Reeves, born a slave,
fled his bondage after knocking out his master during the
Civil War. He fled to the Indian Territory, where he
became the first black deputy US Mark West of the
(28:01):
Mississippi River. Despite being illiterate, he traveled four hundred miles
round trip to execute warrence and subpoenas. He also worked
in disguise. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
What he had to do.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Now, the stories that came back about Bass in terms
of his abilities and what he had to do.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Many times he was working disguise. I stayed early. One
time he dressed as a tramp.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Shot holes in his hat. He found an old hat
and he found those some more broken hands to put on.
And he looked slovenly like an outlaw. And there was
two boys that had a couple of thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Reward on him.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And he went and found where they lived, walked in
and they weren't home, but their mother was in told
her that he was an outlaw and he was on
the run, and she told him that she had a
couple of boys that was also on the other side
of the off and maybe they could hook up and
do something together, and maybe they could have a discussion
(29:04):
once they came home, and Bass told her.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
They thought that was a good idea.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And so when they came back home that evening, they
made a pack to commit some crimes together ate and
went to sleep, and while they was sleep, Bass slipped
the handcuffs on him, and in the morning he kicked
him up and told him, let's go you under arrest,
And the mother was so upset. I think she followed
him for two or three miles cursing at him, but
(29:30):
he arrested those boys and got the.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Reward for him.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Another time, he found out some gemmen who had robbed
the UH store owned by Brown, who was chief in
the Semino nation. He had a trading post and it
was robbed, and.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Bass found out where the outlaws.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Were hiding out, and he decided to get a yoke
of oxen to pull a wagon. He drove the wagon
to approximately where the outlaws were stand and it was
kind of a in hidden type of area, but he
found out where they were and drove the wagon into
uh a ditch and then he started holling for somebody
(30:13):
to come out and give him a hand. He was
wagon was stuck, and so these outlaws wanted him to
get on his way because they didn't want any type
of you know, knowledge about people knowing where they were.
And so they came out and as they pulled his
wagon up out of the ditch, he pulled a gun
out of his overalls and told him they were under arrest,
and Uh took them in.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
He did those type of things. Uh. He was also
very strong.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Bass was six feet too, one hundred and ninety pounds
and there was one story told in the Chickasaw Nation
that Bass came across some cowboys and they had about.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Six ropes on a steer that was.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Caught in the mud, and they were trying to pull
it out, and they weren't getting it anywhere. And Bass
watched him for a while, and so after watching him
for a while, Basque got off his horse, took all
his clothes off, jumped in the mud with the steer,
and took all the ropes off the steer, and pushed
(31:12):
and pulled the steer out of the mud using his strength.
And the cowboys were amazed. They said Basque got on
his horse on without a reason and putting his clothes
back on, but he rode off and saying, you know
those dumb cowboys, or something to that effect. He could
also shoot very good. His his shooting was remarkable, they say.
(31:33):
One time he came upon six wolves pulling down uh
a steer on the prairie, and he shot all six
of the wolves from the back of his horse, and
their bulls scattered in all directions. And they said that
he only had to shoot two of the wolves twice,
but he killed all six of 'em from the back
(31:53):
of his horse, which was pretty good shooting on running wolves,
and he his weapon of choice was a Winchester rifle.
He would carry two to three pistols on him also,
and he was ambidextrous with left hand or right hand.
So this guy was like, you know, the Michael Jordan
of UH law enforcement. If you got in a gunfight
(32:15):
with Bass where he was almost ten amount to commit suicide.
If you tried to run, he would catch you. If
you tried to hag, he would find you. And a
lot of times people if they found out Bass had
the warrant, they'd turn themselves in. Uh Bell Starr who
was the most famous female outlaw from the Indian Territory.
Several movies been made about her life. It was said
(32:35):
that she and Bass was good friends. Well, Bass got
a warrant for her rest around eighteen eighty six, and
Uh she turned herself in. It was the only time
she was known to walk in the road into Fort Smouth,
arkansaust and surrendered herself and she was found not to
be guilty or for that particular time. But that was
the one time Bass had the warrant for her arrest.
(32:58):
Her arrested lawmann that went bad he did that on
a few occasions, and then there were some outlaws he
arrested that came back out of prison and became lawman.
And in nineteen oh two Benny, one of his sons,
he had problems with his wife, and then eventually during
(33:18):
the altercation when Benny caught her with another man, Benny
shot and killed his wife. Bass found out about it
and told the marshall to give me the warrant, and
he went and arrested Benny for capital murder. Benny was
convicted and was sent to the Leavenworth Federal Prison in
Kansas for life, but he only actually served I think
(33:41):
was eleven years and he got out. And actually the
preacher that baptizing got behind in the arrears for his church,
and the congregation gave him permission to sell boot leg
whiskey to make some money for the church, and Bass
arrested him put him in jail for selling boot leg whiskey.
He liked to tell jokes, he liked to laugh. Once
(34:03):
he got to know somebody, he never forgot him. But
he had a flip side, like if you're an outlaw.
He was the worst person you ever want to meet
in your life, you know, he's But on the other side,
they said he was very kind and very gentle and
was a total, you know, good person to be around.
And so he had that duality about it.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
You know. The thing that gets me is that he.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Had no fear, and that's scary to me in itself,
for you not to fear anything that walks on the
face of the earth. So he had a different nindset
because most people are scared of something. Dance would probably
be a hero for law enforcement today. Dads worked for
(34:46):
the Fort Smith Court up till eighteen ninety three and
for the Eastern District of Texas until ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
In ninety seven he transferred to.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
The Muskoge Federal Court, so he worked up till statehood
November sixteenth, nineteen oh seven. His career was legendary in
terms of the status. There was uh newspaper stories on
his police work in Texas Kansas, and the newspapers always
(35:18):
stated that Bass had never been wounded. Even at the
time his death, newspapers were saying he had never been shot.
But he did walk with a cane late in his career,
and some people stated that it was due to him
being shot. And I think there was at least one
newspaper article that stated that he was walking with the
cane due to a bullet.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Wound he had received earlier.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
There was approximately four or five saloon towns just to
the west of the Seminole Nation and the Creek Nation.
All of them was real bad, but one was notorious.
And supposedly Bass was in the one of these saloons
and he got into an argument with a young Texas cowboy.
(36:01):
Cowboy called him out, and supposedly Basque got shot in
the lad but Bass killed the cowboy.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Now this has never been written about in newspapers.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It is in some books that were oral books that
were you know, recorded from people's remembrances, so it's quite
possible there the the newspapers also stated that he had
killed fourteen men in line of duty, and at the
time his death, I found at least three of four
newspaper city he killed over twenty men in the line
(36:31):
of duty. It in nineteen oh two he was interviewed
by the newspapers and he stated he had arrested over
three thousand men and women who broke federal law. So
by the time he retired in nineteen oh seven, it
was probably upwards of four thousand people he had arrested
for breaking the law. For me, for me, bass Reads
(36:52):
is the greatest frontier hero in the United States history.
I taught American history, later America, early American history, and
I don't know of any frontier hero in US history
that even comes close to bass Reeves, being that he
had to walk the fine line between white, red and
(37:12):
black populations in Indian Territory and.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
What that all entailed.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
During the fact that the majority of Deputy's marshalls killed
in the land of duty were killed in the Indian Territory.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
It's very, very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
He walked into Valley Death every day for thirty two years.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
And came out alive.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
He is, without a doubt, unless somebody can show me
something different, the greatest frontier hero in American history.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And a great job on the production by Monty. A
special thanks to Professor R. T. Burton his book Black Gun,
Silver Star The Wife of Frontier Marshall bass Reeves. Go
to a local bookstore and buy it or purchase the
book wherever you get your books. He could outfight, outright,
out rope, outshoot anybody. He killed twenty men in the
(38:04):
line of duty. And arrested over four thousand. The story
of Bars Reeves here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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