Digital illustration by Russell Cushman
U. S. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves
Western History may have neglected the story of Bass Reeves, and there are understandable reasons for it. Still, Oklahoma historians knew of him and wrote about him as much as any of the lesser known deputy marshals. And there were scores of them. He was treated like all of the rest, and since he did not make it into the famed “Three Guardians,” so often written about, his story took a back seat in most histories where Western lawmen were the subject. Most of us, when reading about him, were ignorant of his race, and just saw a name next to an event. Local historians sometimes did not make an issue of his race, since Oklahoma was the true melting pot of the West, and Black, Native American and White persons and various mixtures of the same were the norm in the Indian Territory. But as “Black History” has become more important in recent years, so has Bass Reeves. And thankfully, Oklahoma had good objective journalists and historians like C. W. “Dub” West to gather the facts before writers from all corners began to create his myth.
I know very little about Bass Reeves... and probably some of what “I know” is faulty due to the rush to bring Reeves to the fore and lionize him in recent years. Wanting to pass on his real story, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce Dub West and what he found in a Muskogee newspaper about him. Dub West was a kind, old man when I met him years ago, and he had written many little books about Oklahoma's incredible Western history. He published this article in his book Outlaws and Peace Officers in the Indian Territory, over a decade before Bass Reeves was “discovered.” Dub had the advantage of asking the questions we all want to ask when there were people alive who knew his subjects personally. And he understood the value of firsthand sources, and he was a devoted researcher and did many interviews, and he often quoted from them. Here is what Dub humbly offered his readers in 1987, random punctuation and all, lifted from an article written in 1910, about one of the great Western marshals, who happened to be Black:
BASS REEVES IS DEAD
The above headline appeared in the Muskogee “Phoenix” January 13, 1910. A subheadline was MAN OF THE OLD DAYS GONE- DEPUTY MARSHAL 32 YEARS. The tribute given to a black peace officer was unusual for the time. It was as follows:
“Bass Reeves is dead. He passed away yesterday afternoon about three o'clock, and in a short time news of his death had reached the Federal Courthouse where the announcement was received in the various offices with comments of regret and where it recalled to the officers and clerks many incidents in the early days of the United States Court here in which the old Negro deputy figured heroically.
Bass Reeves had completed 32 years of service as a deputy, when with the coming of Statehood at the age of 69, he gave up his position. For about two years then he served on the Muskogee Police Force, which position he gave up about a year ago on account of sickness, from which he never recovered. Bright's Disease and the complications of ailments together with old age, were the cause of his death.”
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 cleared out the old Indian Territory of outlaws and desperadoes. No story of the conflict of the government officers with those outlaws which ended only a few years ago with the rapid filling up of the Territory with people, can't be complete without mention of the old Negro who died yesterday.
For 32 years, beginning way back in the seventies and ending in 1907, Bass Reeves was a Deputy United States Marshal. During that time, he was sent to arrest some of the most desperate characters that ever infested Indian Territory and endangered life and peace of its borders. And he got his man as often as any of the deputies. At times he was unable to get them alive, and so in the course of his long service, he killed 14 men. But Bass Reeves always said that he never shot a man when it was not necessary for him to do so in the discharge of his duty to save his own life. He was tried for murder on one occasion, but was acquitted upon proving that he had killed the man in the discharge of his duty and was forced to do it. Reeves was an Arkansan, and in his early days, he was a slave. He entered the Federal Service as a deputy marshal long before the court was established in Indian Territory and served under the marshal at Ft. Smith. Then, when people started to come into the Indian Territory and a marshal was appointed to Muskogee, he was sent over there.
Reeves served under 7 marshals, and all of them were more than satisfied with his services. Everybody who came into contact with the Negro deputy in an official capacity had a great deal of respect for him, and at the court house in Muskogee, one can hear the stories of his devotion to duty, his unflinching courage, and his many thrilling experiences, and although he could not read or write, he always took receipts and had his accounts in good shape.
Undoubtedly the act which best typified the man, and which at least best shows his devotion to duty was the arrest of his son. A warrant for the arrest of the younger Reeves, who was charged with the murder of his wife, had been issued. Marshal Bennett had said that perhaps another deputy had better be sent to arrest him. The old Negro was in the room at the time, and with a devotion to duty equal to that of the old Roman, Brutus, whose greatest claim to fame was that the love of his son could not sway him from justice, he said, “Give me the writ,” and went out and arrested his son, brought him to court, and upon the conviction, he was sentenced to imprisonment and is still serving his sentence.
Reeves had many narrow escapes. At different times his belt was shot in two, a button shot off his coat, his hat brim shot off, and the bridle reins which he held in his hand cut by a bullet. However, in spite of all of these narrow escapes and the many conflicts in which he was engaged, Reeves was never wounded. And this, not withstanding, the fact that he said he never fired a shot until the desperado he was trying to arrest had started the shooting.
[SO BACK TO THE BLOG...] It appears that Bass Reeves was always considered an important Deputy U. S. Marshal, even in his own time. He was not neglected or overlooked by those who knew him in Oklahoma, but loved and appreciated... And even those a generation later who knew of him. But no story of a real lawman could have compared to the super-heroes created by the pulp-fiction writers of the day, who inspired the purified, romanticized depictions of Earp and Masterson, and the Texas Rangers etc.. The American Public did not care that much about history, just in gratuitous violence and the "bad guys" getting what they deserved... but that only happened consistently in the mythical West. We have to wonder, what was it or is it in the American character, which would rather be entertained by misleading fibs about real-life pimps, gamblers and hired killers, who briefly posed as lawmen, than true stories of heroism in law enforcement. Note: The picture in this article of Reeves is not from a tintype as it appears, but an "artist's concept" created with Photoshop, by me.
A sixth generation Texan, landscape painter, sculptor, photographer, writer and historian, Russell Cushman shares his passion for the music, art and history of the Brazos Valley.
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