1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000
Downloaded from
YTS.MX

2
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000
Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

3
00:01:40,266 --> 00:01:42,633
From the dawn of the
New World's exploration,

4
00:01:43,133 --> 00:01:46,000
people of different
ethnicities and nationalities

5
00:01:46,066 --> 00:01:48,866
helped shape a wild
frontier into the country

6
00:01:48,866 --> 00:01:51,866
we now know as the
United States of America.

7
00:01:52,700 --> 00:01:56,500
Among these explorers were
pioneers of African descent.

8
00:01:58,066 --> 00:02:00,600
One striking testament to this fact

9
00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:02,633
came from the Pueblo Indians

10
00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:04,466
who reportedly remarked,

11
00:02:04,700 --> 00:02:08,200
'The first White man our people
saw was a Black man.'

12
00:02:09,333 --> 00:02:11,866
This Black man was Estevanico,

13
00:02:12,133 --> 00:02:16,033
an African Spanish slave from
the west coast of Morocco,

14
00:02:16,300 --> 00:02:18,333
who journeyed to the New World

15
00:02:18,333 --> 00:02:21,200
alongside 400 other explorers.

16
00:02:22,533 --> 00:02:27,166
The party landed off the
coast of Florida in 1528

17
00:02:27,166 --> 00:02:29,466
and after a series of disasters,

18
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:31,766
marooned off the coast of Texas,

19
00:02:31,900 --> 00:02:33,566
only Estevanico,

20
00:02:33,566 --> 00:02:36,366
his master, and two companions survived.

21
00:02:37,066 --> 00:02:39,400
They were discovered by Native Americans

22
00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:41,766
who enslaved them for seven years

23
00:02:41,766 --> 00:02:44,400
before the small party freed themselves

24
00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,266
and continued west
across Texas and Mexico,

25
00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,666
spreading stories of
the Seven Cities of Gold.

26
00:02:54,466 --> 00:02:56,600
Disguised as a medicine man,

27
00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:59,133
capable of performing minor surgeries

28
00:02:59,133 --> 00:03:01,466
and quick to learn the local language,

29
00:03:01,900 --> 00:03:05,966
Estevanico continued his
exploration of the New World

30
00:03:05,966 --> 00:03:12,133
until he was reportedly killed by
the Zunis of New Mexico in 1539.

31
00:03:14,533 --> 00:03:20,033
As Europeans continued to push
westward into the interior of America,

32
00:03:20,100 --> 00:03:23,000
Blacks were increasingly
joining their expeditions.

33
00:03:23,566 --> 00:03:26,433
Our society is about four centuries old,

34
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,033
for three of those four centuries,

35
00:03:30,333 --> 00:03:32,166
we had a westward movement.

36
00:03:32,166 --> 00:03:34,333
There was a frontier in South Carolina,

37
00:03:34,333 --> 00:03:37,933
there was a frontier, you could
go west in Massachusetts

38
00:03:37,933 --> 00:03:39,566
and all of these other places.

39
00:03:39,566 --> 00:03:42,433
- One thing about the American
West is that it's wide open.

40
00:03:42,733 --> 00:03:44,866
At least it was a lot more
wide open back then

41
00:03:44,866 --> 00:03:45,966
than it is now

42
00:03:45,966 --> 00:03:47,566
and whenever you have wide open spaces,

43
00:03:47,566 --> 00:03:48,800
you have young men

44
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:50,366
who are going to have adventures.

45
00:03:50,466 --> 00:03:52,766
Somebody's going to want
to go out there and find

46
00:03:52,766 --> 00:03:54,466
what's on the other side of the mountain.

47
00:03:54,666 --> 00:03:56,800
Black men were no exception.

48
00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,900
When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

49
00:04:01,900 --> 00:04:03,466
commanded the first official expedition

50
00:04:03,466 --> 00:04:07,100
to explore the continent in 1804,

51
00:04:07,100 --> 00:04:08,200
a Black man,

52
00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:10,633
William Clark's slave York,

53
00:04:10,733 --> 00:04:11,866
accompanied them.

54
00:04:14,733 --> 00:04:21,500
Black frontiersman James Pearson Beckworth
was born April 26, 1798

55
00:04:21,500 --> 00:04:25,066
in Frederick County, Virginia to
Sir Jennings Beckwith,

56
00:04:25,166 --> 00:04:28,200
a White planter, and one of his Black slaves.

57
00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,366
Jennings Beckwith eventually
settled in Missouri,

58
00:04:32,566 --> 00:04:34,900
where he taught his son to trap animals,

59
00:04:34,900 --> 00:04:37,700
hunt, and trade with Native Americans.

60
00:04:39,900 --> 00:04:43,866
James Beckworth was freed
by his father in 1826.

61
00:04:44,300 --> 00:04:47,100
He would go on to become
a famous fur trapper

62
00:04:47,100 --> 00:04:49,400
who worked closely with the Crow Indians.

63
00:04:49,933 --> 00:04:51,200
According to Beckworth,

64
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:53,233
he became a chief of the Crow.

65
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:55,766
Much of what we know about Beckworth

66
00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,000
and his relationship with the Crow
comes from Beckworth.

67
00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:01,733
So, we'll take with a grain of salt

68
00:05:01,733 --> 00:05:05,000
that he actually was an
Indian chief with the Crows,

69
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,866
there's no doubt that he lived among them

70
00:05:06,866 --> 00:05:09,933
and that he spoke their language,
and he served as a guide,

71
00:05:09,933 --> 00:05:13,100
and in the carrying out of
his life as a mountain man

72
00:05:13,100 --> 00:05:16,066
that he had a lot of
relationships with them.

73
00:05:18,066 --> 00:05:21,033
When Beckworth died in 1867,

74
00:05:21,100 --> 00:05:23,866
his body was placed on a burial scaffold

75
00:05:23,866 --> 00:05:25,400
with his feet facing east

76
00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,200
in the tradition of the Crow.

77
00:05:32,633 --> 00:05:35,566
Edward Rose was another Black fur trapper

78
00:05:35,566 --> 00:05:38,066
who worked closely with the Crow Indians.

79
00:05:39,333 --> 00:05:42,600
He was killed with
Hugh Glass and Hilain Menard

80
00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:46,866
by Arikara Indians in the winter of 1833,

81
00:05:46,866 --> 00:05:50,566
when they were attacked crossing
the frozen Yellowstone River

82
00:05:50,566 --> 00:05:56,466
en route to Fort Union on behalf
of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company.

83
00:05:59,166 --> 00:06:01,933
Sanders Jackson and Jacob Dodson

84
00:06:01,933 --> 00:06:03,900
were free Black men who accompanied

85
00:06:03,900 --> 00:06:08,900
John C. Fremont on his
expedition to California in 1848.

86
00:06:09,700 --> 00:06:12,266
Dodson would go on to accompany Fremont

87
00:06:12,266 --> 00:06:14,700
and Kit Carson on three more trips.

88
00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:23,366
In California, named by the Spanish after
the mythical Black queen Calafia,

89
00:06:23,666 --> 00:06:26,433
Blacks were among the
first to settle Los Angeles.

90
00:06:29,633 --> 00:06:34,500
Bridget Mason was born into slavery
in Mississippi in 1818.

91
00:06:34,900 --> 00:06:37,533
She was taken from her parents as a child

92
00:06:37,533 --> 00:06:39,266
and sold at least twice

93
00:06:39,300 --> 00:06:41,533
gaining skills in agriculture and medicine

94
00:06:41,533 --> 00:06:43,000
on each plantation.

95
00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:49,866
Bridget obtained her freedom in 1856,

96
00:06:49,866 --> 00:06:51,266
settled in Los Angeles

97
00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:54,033
and worked as a midwife and nurse.

98
00:06:54,766 --> 00:06:58,000
She eventually saved enough
money to purchase land

99
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,233
in what is now the heart
of downtown Los Angeles.

100
00:07:04,866 --> 00:07:06,866
Haunted by the threat of slavery,

101
00:07:06,866 --> 00:07:09,033
and facing severe prejudice,

102
00:07:09,266 --> 00:07:12,233
free Blacks ventured into uncharted lands,

103
00:07:12,300 --> 00:07:16,200
withstood adversities, and
spread stories of promise,

104
00:07:16,300 --> 00:07:19,000
leaving their mark on the American West.

105
00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:24,533
- The roles that Blacks played
in the development of

106
00:07:24,533 --> 00:07:27,133
the American West were
the same roles as

107
00:07:27,133 --> 00:07:29,766
other people played in the
development of the American West.

108
00:07:30,266 --> 00:07:31,166
In many cases,

109
00:07:31,166 --> 00:07:32,600
they were leaders,

110
00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:33,766
though few in number,

111
00:07:33,766 --> 00:07:35,166
they did homestead,

112
00:07:35,466 --> 00:07:36,700
they were doctors,

113
00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:38,033
they were dentists,

114
00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:40,600
they led civic organizations,

115
00:07:40,666 --> 00:07:43,166
they were postmasters and postmistresses.

116
00:07:44,433 --> 00:07:46,166
Not only were Black people

117
00:07:47,866 --> 00:07:50,666
involved in every aspect of the development

118
00:07:50,666 --> 00:07:52,966
of the American West that you can think of,

119
00:07:52,966 --> 00:07:56,166
I haven't been able to find
an area that they haven't.

120
00:07:56,466 --> 00:07:58,400
Not only were they involved in those areas,

121
00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:01,500
not only were they there in larger numbers

122
00:08:01,500 --> 00:08:03,966
than we generally expect,

123
00:08:04,500 --> 00:08:07,400
not only did they add their creative juices

124
00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:08,900
to the general

125
00:08:09,166 --> 00:08:11,900
development of what we
call the American West

126
00:08:11,900 --> 00:08:14,500
and American society in general.

127
00:08:15,733 --> 00:08:18,400
The most important thing
that I took away was

128
00:08:19,300 --> 00:08:20,866
they were there.

129
00:08:21,500 --> 00:08:23,600
And that's the important thing.

130
00:08:24,333 --> 00:08:25,500
They were there.

131
00:08:26,300 --> 00:08:29,766
And we did a terribly good job
of whitewashing them out

132
00:08:29,766 --> 00:08:32,300
of our history and our society.

133
00:08:48,066 --> 00:08:50,966
The foundation for Black progress in the West

134
00:08:50,966 --> 00:08:54,633
had already been established
by trailblazing pioneers

135
00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:59,000
when Bass Reeves's story began
here in Crawford County,

136
00:08:59,133 --> 00:09:02,566
a region along the untamed
frontier of Arkansas

137
00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,900
enveloped by the
Ozark Mountains to the north

138
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:07,866
and expansive farmland,

139
00:09:07,966 --> 00:09:12,966
wooded ridges, and lakes in the south.
In 1836,

140
00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,500
Arkansas was admitted to the
union as a slave state;

141
00:09:17,266 --> 00:09:18,600
two years later,

142
00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:20,766
in July 1838,

143
00:09:20,966 --> 00:09:22,800
Bass Reeves was born.

144
00:09:24,466 --> 00:09:25,800
Bass, his mother

145
00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:27,033
Paralee Steward,

146
00:09:27,100 --> 00:09:28,633
and his sister Jane

147
00:09:28,700 --> 00:09:29,866
lived as slaves

148
00:09:29,866 --> 00:09:32,666
under the ownership
of William Steele Reeves.

149
00:09:34,066 --> 00:09:35,933
William Reeves was born

150
00:09:35,933 --> 00:09:40,733
on March 9, 1794
in Pendleton, South Carolina

151
00:09:40,733 --> 00:09:44,700
to a family of immigrants who
had migrated from Dorset, England.

152
00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:50,400
In his youth, he became the ward
of an uncle and moved to Tennessee.

153
00:09:52,266 --> 00:09:53,833
At the age of eighteen,

154
00:09:53,900 --> 00:09:56,700
William fought in the War of 1812

155
00:09:56,766 --> 00:10:00,000
and he would go on to fight
in the Creek Indian War.

156
00:10:00,566 --> 00:10:02,366
As did many before him,

157
00:10:02,366 --> 00:10:06,033
he used his military service to
launch himself into politics,

158
00:10:06,666 --> 00:10:07,966
serving in the Tennessee

159
00:10:07,966 --> 00:10:10,300
and Arkansas state legislatures.

160
00:10:13,766 --> 00:10:16,400
Bass's life on William Reeves's farm

161
00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:19,766
was unexceptional for a Black boy
born in a slave state

162
00:10:19,766 --> 00:10:21,433
in the mid-1800s.

163
00:10:22,866 --> 00:10:25,200
It was a time of great change,

164
00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:28,600
in a place that was on the
front line of a geographical

165
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:30,266
and cultural shift.

166
00:10:32,100 --> 00:10:36,600
In 1836, the same year that
Arkansas became a state,

167
00:10:36,733 --> 00:10:38,066
the Texas Army

168
00:10:38,066 --> 00:10:40,166
under the command of Sam Houston

169
00:10:40,166 --> 00:10:42,433
won a hard fought war of independence

170
00:10:42,566 --> 00:10:45,400
against the forces of Mexico's Santa Anna

171
00:10:45,700 --> 00:10:47,866
establishing the Republic of Texas.

172
00:10:48,866 --> 00:10:50,233
After independence,

173
00:10:50,533 --> 00:10:53,300
many White Americans, like William Reeves,

174
00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:56,300
saw Texas as a new land of opportunity

175
00:10:56,333 --> 00:10:58,833
and migrated there in great numbers

176
00:10:58,900 --> 00:11:00,500
bringing slave labor with them.

177
00:11:04,166 --> 00:11:07,100
Slavery had existed among the political elite

178
00:11:07,100 --> 00:11:11,800
before Texas gained independence
from Mexico in 1836.

179
00:11:12,333 --> 00:11:15,033
Unlike other western states
admitted to the Union,

180
00:11:15,266 --> 00:11:17,166
Texas embraced slavery;

181
00:11:17,666 --> 00:11:20,166
the state's economy depended on it.

182
00:11:30,866 --> 00:11:34,633
In 1846, when Bass was 8-years-old,

183
00:11:34,700 --> 00:11:37,200
William Reeves packed up thirty wagons,

184
00:11:37,366 --> 00:11:39,833
his family and six slaves,

185
00:11:39,833 --> 00:11:42,100
including Bass and his family,

186
00:11:42,100 --> 00:11:46,500
and moved to the Preston District of
Grayson County in northern Texas,

187
00:11:46,500 --> 00:11:49,100
just across the border from the Chickasaw

188
00:11:49,100 --> 00:11:52,100
and Choctaw nations in Indian Territory.

189
00:11:54,700 --> 00:11:56,600
In the early 1850s,

190
00:11:56,900 --> 00:12:00,400
Texas's population of Black
slaves had skyrocketed

191
00:12:00,466 --> 00:12:02,533
with many Black male slaves

192
00:12:02,533 --> 00:12:04,466
also serving as cattle herders.

193
00:12:05,566 --> 00:12:08,633
In fact, in the mid-1800s,

194
00:12:08,766 --> 00:12:11,466
Texas was home to more Black cowboys

195
00:12:11,466 --> 00:12:14,000
than cowboys of any other ethnicity.

196
00:12:14,933 --> 00:12:17,166
By the end of the 19th century,

197
00:12:17,266 --> 00:12:20,733
this way of life gave rise
to famous Black cowboys

198
00:12:20,733 --> 00:12:22,100
such as Nat Love,

199
00:12:22,333 --> 00:12:24,733
Ned Huddleston, a.k.a. Isom Dart,

200
00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:26,500
and Bill Pickett.

201
00:12:27,866 --> 00:12:32,900
By 1860, there were 182,000 Black slaves

202
00:12:32,933 --> 00:12:36,633
and only 355 free Blacks in Texas.

203
00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:42,700
As Bass grew into a young man in Texas,

204
00:12:42,766 --> 00:12:45,233
he began to take on more responsibility.

205
00:12:45,866 --> 00:12:47,366
He cared for horses,

206
00:12:47,366 --> 00:12:50,866
mules, and other livestock
belonging to William Reeves.

207
00:12:51,266 --> 00:12:53,166
He wanted to learn a trade,

208
00:12:53,166 --> 00:12:55,466
so he became a blacksmith's apprentice.

209
00:12:58,533 --> 00:13:00,200
After the move to Texas,

210
00:13:00,500 --> 00:13:02,866
William was joined by his fifth son,

211
00:13:02,966 --> 00:13:06,566
20-year-old George Robertson Reeves
and his family.

212
00:13:06,900 --> 00:13:09,100
Bass soon caught George's attention

213
00:13:09,133 --> 00:13:12,100
and he was chosen to become
his personal body servant.

214
00:13:12,900 --> 00:13:15,633
Bass served in multiple roles for George,

215
00:13:15,866 --> 00:13:16,866
including butler,

216
00:13:17,066 --> 00:13:19,066
valet, and coachman.

217
00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:20,900
Given his new status,

218
00:13:21,166 --> 00:13:22,166
Bass reportedly

219
00:13:22,166 --> 00:13:25,000
asked him for permission
to learn to read and write.

220
00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:26,566
George refused,

221
00:13:26,766 --> 00:13:29,766
but allowed him to learn how to use a firearm

222
00:13:29,766 --> 00:13:32,266
and take part in local shooting competitions

223
00:13:32,533 --> 00:13:35,866
with any monetary winnings
going to George for the privilege.

224
00:13:38,466 --> 00:13:40,700
George's rapid rise in Texas

225
00:13:40,733 --> 00:13:43,633
enabled Bass to be immersed in White society,

226
00:13:44,066 --> 00:13:47,400
specifically within state government
and law enforcement.

227
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,066
In 1848, George

228
00:13:50,133 --> 00:13:55,166
assumed the role of tax collector for
Grayson County, serving for two years.

229
00:13:55,500 --> 00:13:59,633
He later became the sheriff
of Grayson County in 1850,

230
00:13:59,766 --> 00:14:02,766
holding the position until 1854.

231
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:07,833
The following year saw him elected
to the Texas House of Representatives,

232
00:14:07,933 --> 00:14:11,966
where he remained as a legislator
until the onset of the Civil War.

233
00:14:11,966 --> 00:14:15,500
- What was quite common in
Southern society was for

234
00:14:15,566 --> 00:14:17,766
men to learn to be a gentleman.

235
00:14:18,133 --> 00:14:21,300
And I think that Bass being
a body servant to George

236
00:14:21,300 --> 00:14:24,766
taught him the ins and outs
of how to conduct himself,

237
00:14:24,766 --> 00:14:26,166
how to talk to people,

238
00:14:26,166 --> 00:14:31,333
and how to judge people
in terms of who they were,

239
00:14:31,333 --> 00:14:33,066
and how he should treat them.

240
00:14:33,066 --> 00:14:35,400
And so, I'm sure he had those mannerisms

241
00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:38,166
that he learned as a body servant.

242
00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,533
For at least fifteen years,

243
00:14:41,533 --> 00:14:44,833
from the age of eight
until the age of twenty-three,

244
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,600
Bass served as George's right hand,

245
00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:49,233
always at his side,

246
00:14:49,266 --> 00:14:51,366
quietly observing and learning.

247
00:14:52,500 --> 00:14:55,900
Bass took advantage of his
time in servitude to George

248
00:14:55,900 --> 00:14:57,566
to learn social skills

249
00:14:57,566 --> 00:14:59,866
and the inner workings of law enforcement

250
00:14:59,866 --> 00:15:02,400
that would acquit him well later in life.

251
00:15:13,766 --> 00:15:18,300
- In 1861, less than a month
after Confederate soldiers

252
00:15:18,300 --> 00:15:21,600
fired on Fort Sumter and
tore the Union asunder,

253
00:15:21,766 --> 00:15:25,633
George Reeves gathered like-minded
Confederate sympathizers

254
00:15:25,700 --> 00:15:28,533
and joined
the Eleventh Texas Calvary Regiment

255
00:15:28,533 --> 00:15:30,300
under Colonel William Young

256
00:15:30,300 --> 00:15:31,366
and with him,

257
00:15:31,366 --> 00:15:34,300
he brought a reluctant Bass Reeves to war.

258
00:15:37,766 --> 00:15:43,566
Decades later, in 1901, Bass gave an interview
to a Muskogee, Oklahoma newspaper.

259
00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:47,200
In it, he recalled
participating in the Civil War

260
00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:49,000
on the side of the Confederacy

261
00:15:49,100 --> 00:15:52,266
and how it had been forced
upon him by George Reeves.

262
00:15:54,666 --> 00:15:57,166
One of the first things early in the war

263
00:15:57,166 --> 00:15:59,133
that the Eleventh Texas Cavalry Regiment did

264
00:15:59,133 --> 00:16:01,100
was go into the Indian Territory

265
00:16:01,100 --> 00:16:03,466
and engaged the Native Americans

266
00:16:03,466 --> 00:16:05,700
who were trying to get out of the Indian Territory

267
00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:07,266
because they favored the Union.

268
00:16:07,266 --> 00:16:11,666
And the Eleventh Texas Cavalry
Regiment was engaged in those battles.

269
00:16:17,466 --> 00:16:19,766
Allegedly, in camp one night,

270
00:16:19,866 --> 00:16:22,966
Bass and George got into
a fight over a card game

271
00:16:22,966 --> 00:16:25,500
during which Bass
knocked George unconscious.

272
00:16:27,466 --> 00:16:30,000
After the fight, fearing certain death,

273
00:16:30,300 --> 00:16:34,200
Bass fled into the foreboding
terrain of Indian Territory.

274
00:16:38,966 --> 00:16:41,166
Land was allocated specifically

275
00:16:41,166 --> 00:16:44,800
for the use of Native Americans in 1763

276
00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:48,500
when King George III
issued a royal proclamation

277
00:16:48,500 --> 00:16:50,000
in which the British limited

278
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:51,600
the settlement of Europeans

279
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,233
to lands east of the Appalachian Mountains.

280
00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:58,566
When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783,

281
00:16:58,566 --> 00:17:01,166
and America established its independence

282
00:17:01,266 --> 00:17:03,800
the proclamation was ignored by settlers

283
00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:07,700
who continued to expand
westwards into Native lands.

284
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:11,500
Native American tribes

285
00:17:11,500 --> 00:17:14,400
had long-standing agreements
with the British government

286
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:18,300
and very little interactions with
European-American colonists.

287
00:17:18,933 --> 00:17:23,100
The influx of American settlers
after the Revolutionary War

288
00:17:23,300 --> 00:17:27,366
intensified the armed conflict between
Native Americans and colonists

289
00:17:27,366 --> 00:17:32,766
that had been going on since the time of
early European settlement in the 17th century.

290
00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,300
These conflicts became known as the Indian Wars.

291
00:17:38,433 --> 00:17:42,100
In 1830, spurred by White settlers who sought

292
00:17:42,100 --> 00:17:45,033
access to fertile lands east of the Mississippi,

293
00:17:45,500 --> 00:17:49,366
Andrew Jackson signed into
law the Indian Removal Act,

294
00:17:49,500 --> 00:17:52,266
which forced upwards of 60,000 Native

295
00:17:52,366 --> 00:17:55,366
Americans off their lands
and into government

296
00:17:55,366 --> 00:17:59,100
designated territory that spanned
present day Oklahoma,

297
00:17:59,100 --> 00:18:02,466
Kansas, Nebraska, and
parts of Iowa.

298
00:18:03,500 --> 00:18:07,400
The Indian Territory was set aside for the Native

299
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,566
Americans initially that came
out of the southeast,

300
00:18:10,700 --> 00:18:16,633
so we talking about Florida, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee,

301
00:18:17,133 --> 00:18:18,133
North Carolina.

302
00:18:18,133 --> 00:18:21,066
And those Indians were the Cherokee,

303
00:18:21,133 --> 00:18:22,133
the Choctaw,

304
00:18:22,133 --> 00:18:22,700
the Chickasaw,

305
00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:24,266
the Creek, and the Seminole.

306
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:31,000
- These tribes were known
as the Five Civilized Tribes

307
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,566
due to their adoption of European customs

308
00:18:33,566 --> 00:18:35,200
and societal structures.

309
00:18:35,766 --> 00:18:37,466
The forced relocation,

310
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:40,100
known infamously as the Trail of Tears,

311
00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:42,166
was marked by hardship,

312
00:18:42,333 --> 00:18:43,900
suffering, and death.

313
00:18:44,533 --> 00:18:46,066
The Indian Territory,

314
00:18:46,266 --> 00:18:48,833
often unfamiliar and inhospitable,

315
00:18:48,866 --> 00:18:51,400
proposed a major challenge to the tribes.

316
00:18:52,100 --> 00:18:53,600
Despite these adversities,

317
00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,200
they integrated their cultural traditions

318
00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,266
into the new environment.

319
00:19:02,766 --> 00:19:03,866
In a complex

320
00:19:03,866 --> 00:19:06,866
and often overlooked
chapter of American history,

321
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,466
the enslavement of Blacks was prevalent

322
00:19:09,466 --> 00:19:11,466
among the Five Civilized Tribes.

323
00:19:14,766 --> 00:19:19,466
- They had plantations in the South before
they were moved to the Indian Territory

324
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:23,766
and mainly they embraced
chattel slavery.

325
00:19:23,766 --> 00:19:26,733
And so, when they were forced to
go to the Indian Territory

326
00:19:26,733 --> 00:19:32,166
they took their African American slaves
with them to the Indian Territory.

327
00:19:37,433 --> 00:19:43,066
- Enslaved Blacks in the Indian Territory
worked in fields, homes, and businesses,

328
00:19:43,566 --> 00:19:46,800
their lives bearing a haunting
resemblance to slaves

329
00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:48,933
on the plantations of the Deep South.

330
00:19:54,166 --> 00:19:56,200
Native American slaveholders

331
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,833
such as Principal Chief
of the Cherokee Nation John Ross

332
00:19:59,866 --> 00:20:02,166
Seminole Chief John Jumper,

333
00:20:02,300 --> 00:20:03,766
and Cherokee Chief,

334
00:20:03,766 --> 00:20:06,633
later Confederate general, Stand Watie

335
00:20:06,933 --> 00:20:10,466
exemplify the close ties
between the Native American

336
00:20:10,500 --> 00:20:12,700
leadership of the Five Civilized Tribes

337
00:20:12,700 --> 00:20:15,766
and the slave-holding planter
class of the South.

338
00:20:19,966 --> 00:20:24,266
Born in 1800, Choctaw Chief
Greenwood LeFlore

339
00:20:24,266 --> 00:20:28,866
was the son of a high-ranking Choctaw
mother and a French fur trader.

340
00:20:29,133 --> 00:20:33,300
He was a prominent antebellum figure
among the Mississippi planter elite.

341
00:20:35,666 --> 00:20:39,333
On his vast estates,
over 400 enslaved Africans

342
00:20:39,333 --> 00:20:41,233
lived and toiled in bondage.

343
00:20:41,966 --> 00:20:46,266
In 1830, LeFlore signed the treaty
of Dancing Rabbit Creek,

344
00:20:46,533 --> 00:20:48,033
a momentous act that would

345
00:20:48,066 --> 00:20:51,300
dispossess the Choctaw of
their ancestral homelands,

346
00:20:51,300 --> 00:20:54,066
propelling many on the Trail of Tears.

347
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:58,533
As the Choctaw were forced off their lands

348
00:20:58,533 --> 00:21:01,000
to face an uncertain future in the West,

349
00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:05,233
LeFlore remained in Mississippi
at his plantation Malmaison.

350
00:21:07,533 --> 00:21:10,066
He sided with the Union against succession

351
00:21:10,100 --> 00:21:14,166
and died a few months
after the war ended in 1865.

352
00:21:14,300 --> 00:21:16,700
He was buried on his Mississippi estate,

353
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,433
his body wrapped in the American flag.

354
00:21:27,700 --> 00:21:29,600
The Indian Territory was a

355
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,166
significant battleground
during the Civil War,

356
00:21:32,333 --> 00:21:35,366
with pivotal clashes like
the Battle of Pea Ridge

357
00:21:35,366 --> 00:21:37,166
and the Battle of Honey Springs

358
00:21:37,266 --> 00:21:39,433
underscoring the region's importance.

359
00:21:40,333 --> 00:21:42,366
Tribal allegiances were split;

360
00:21:42,766 --> 00:21:45,233
some tribes aligned
with the Confederacy

361
00:21:45,266 --> 00:21:48,800
because of their economic and
slavery ties to the South,

362
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:51,233
while others sided with the Union.

363
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,700
This internal conflict and external warfare

364
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:56,966
led to widespread devastation,

365
00:21:57,133 --> 00:21:58,533
resulting in deaths,

366
00:21:58,533 --> 00:21:59,566
displacement,

367
00:21:59,566 --> 00:22:02,100
and profound social upheaval.

368
00:22:06,133 --> 00:22:08,300
The particulars of Bass's short

369
00:22:08,300 --> 00:22:10,300
stint in the war are unknown,

370
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,566
as are his movements in the Territory

371
00:22:12,566 --> 00:22:15,066
between the years 1862

372
00:22:15,066 --> 00:22:18,566
until he reappears on record in 1870.

373
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:20,433
In his memoirs,

374
00:22:20,566 --> 00:22:23,033
George Reeves did not mention Bass,

375
00:22:23,166 --> 00:22:24,900
nor were slaves who accompanied

376
00:22:24,900 --> 00:22:28,000
their Confederate owners
mentioned in official records.

377
00:22:30,266 --> 00:22:32,233
It's quite probable that Bass

378
00:22:32,333 --> 00:22:34,733
was fighting with the Creeks and Seminoles

379
00:22:34,733 --> 00:22:35,833
who were fighting

380
00:22:35,900 --> 00:22:38,600
the Confederate Indians in Indian Territory.

381
00:22:42,266 --> 00:22:44,333
The aftermath of the Civil War

382
00:22:44,333 --> 00:22:47,400
saw the abolition of slavery
in the Indian Territory

383
00:22:47,533 --> 00:22:49,766
and the restructuring of tribal governments

384
00:22:49,766 --> 00:22:52,166
under new treaties with the U.S. government.

385
00:22:53,066 --> 00:22:54,100
These treaties

386
00:22:54,100 --> 00:22:56,866
required the tribes to emancipate their slaves

387
00:22:56,866 --> 00:22:59,400
and offer them full tribal citizenship,

388
00:22:59,733 --> 00:23:02,433
leading to the formation
within the tribal nations

389
00:23:02,466 --> 00:23:05,033
of unique communities of 'Freedmen',

390
00:23:05,100 --> 00:23:07,066
the former slaves of the tribes.

391
00:23:12,666 --> 00:23:14,300
By the end of the war,

392
00:23:14,466 --> 00:23:16,600
Bass had learned to speak Muskogee,

393
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,966
the language of the Creeks and Seminoles

394
00:23:18,966 --> 00:23:20,766
and was conversant in the languages

395
00:23:20,766 --> 00:23:22,100
of the other tribes.

396
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:24,366
He mastered firearms,

397
00:23:24,566 --> 00:23:27,066
learning to fire both pistol and rifle

398
00:23:27,066 --> 00:23:29,100
near-perfect with either hand.

399
00:23:30,100 --> 00:23:33,466
He had become very familiar
with the Indian Territory,

400
00:23:33,900 --> 00:23:34,933
possibly working

401
00:23:34,933 --> 00:23:37,500
as a scout and guide for deputy marshals.

402
00:23:38,066 --> 00:23:40,033
Bass was not yet a lawman,

403
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,100
but the skills he now possessed

404
00:23:42,100 --> 00:23:44,600
made him more than qualified for the job.

405
00:23:56,233 --> 00:23:57,766
After the Civil War,

406
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:00,066
the movement westward gained momentum

407
00:24:00,066 --> 00:24:01,800
and as the settlers came,

408
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,666
new, lawless towns were established.

409
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,233
In the thirty years following the Civil War,

410
00:24:08,300 --> 00:24:12,533
over one million new farms
were established in the West

411
00:24:12,533 --> 00:24:15,000
and a great deal of it was
due to the Homestead Act

412
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:16,700
and through other government acts

413
00:24:16,700 --> 00:24:20,100
which made it easy to acquire federal land.

414
00:24:20,100 --> 00:24:22,200
So, the farmers are headed that way.

415
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,733
If the farmers are gonna
be out there in numbers,

416
00:24:24,733 --> 00:24:26,266
then the merchants in the town,

417
00:24:26,266 --> 00:24:28,800
see, farmers weren't the only pioneers,

418
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,866
the mountain men weren't the only pioneers,

419
00:24:31,866 --> 00:24:33,966
the cowboys weren't the only pioneers,

420
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,533
there were urban pioneers as well.

421
00:24:36,533 --> 00:24:37,900
And urban pioneers

422
00:24:37,900 --> 00:24:40,333
were the men who wanted
to get in on the adventure,

423
00:24:40,333 --> 00:24:41,266
but their talent

424
00:24:41,266 --> 00:24:43,100
perhaps was as merchants.

425
00:24:43,733 --> 00:24:44,733
And they would come into

426
00:24:44,733 --> 00:24:45,766
these new places

427
00:24:45,766 --> 00:24:48,166
and they'd open the first general store,

428
00:24:48,166 --> 00:24:50,266
the first blacksmith shop,

429
00:24:50,266 --> 00:24:52,100
the first little hotel,

430
00:24:52,700 --> 00:24:54,466
and other things.

431
00:24:54,466 --> 00:24:55,133
And all of a sudden,

432
00:24:55,133 --> 00:24:56,633
a town takes shape.

433
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,566
A preacher might be an urban pioneer

434
00:24:59,566 --> 00:25:01,900
and he would come in and open the first church.

435
00:25:02,133 --> 00:25:04,366
Certainly that applied to school teachers.

436
00:25:05,766 --> 00:25:07,400
A professor or a school

437
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,266
marm would come in and open the first school.

438
00:25:10,266 --> 00:25:10,866
And all of a sudden,

439
00:25:10,866 --> 00:25:13,333
you got a school, and a couple of stores,

440
00:25:13,333 --> 00:25:15,533
and a blacksmith shop, and a church,

441
00:25:15,533 --> 00:25:17,700
and all of that, you've got a little town growing

442
00:25:18,100 --> 00:25:21,933
and serving the farmers
and the ranchers of the area.

443
00:25:24,466 --> 00:25:29,166
- By 1870, Bass had returned
from the Indian Territory

444
00:25:29,166 --> 00:25:30,900
to the county of his birth.

445
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:33,566
He put down roots in Van Buren,

446
00:25:33,566 --> 00:25:34,466
Crawford County,

447
00:25:34,466 --> 00:25:37,400
Arkansas and brought his wife Jennie,

448
00:25:37,466 --> 00:25:38,700
their four children -

449
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:40,400
Sarah, age six,

450
00:25:40,466 --> 00:25:42,233
Robert, age four,

451
00:25:42,366 --> 00:25:44,066
Harriet, age two,

452
00:25:44,466 --> 00:25:46,366
and George, age six months

453
00:25:46,366 --> 00:25:48,633
as well as his mother and sister.

454
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,866
Bass Reeves is just so dynamic

455
00:25:51,866 --> 00:25:53,900
in that he was born a slave,

456
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,466
he freed himself from his slavery,

457
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:02,766
escaped, became a self-made person in many

458
00:26:02,766 --> 00:26:04,566
many ways,

459
00:26:04,566 --> 00:26:06,900
having by several accounts

460
00:26:07,066 --> 00:26:08,100
lived among

461
00:26:08,133 --> 00:26:10,700
several different tribes in Indian Territory,

462
00:26:10,700 --> 00:26:11,600
learned their languages,

463
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:13,433
learned their abilities, and their skills

464
00:26:13,700 --> 00:26:16,766
and then after the war was over,

465
00:26:16,966 --> 00:26:21,100
went and found the woman who

466
00:26:21,100 --> 00:26:22,200
was to be his wife,

467
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,133
came back to the Fort Smith area,

468
00:26:24,133 --> 00:26:25,400
lived in Van Buren,

469
00:26:25,500 --> 00:26:26,866
established a successful,

470
00:26:26,866 --> 00:26:27,566
by all accounts,

471
00:26:27,566 --> 00:26:29,066
a successful farm,

472
00:26:29,166 --> 00:26:31,666
raised horses and was known for doing that.

473
00:26:31,666 --> 00:26:33,366
Van Buren was where the federal court

474
00:26:33,366 --> 00:26:35,100
was for the Indian Territory,

475
00:26:35,333 --> 00:26:37,666
so, it was a very important location.

476
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,766
And so for Bass then to work with the Deputy

477
00:26:40,766 --> 00:26:43,033
U.S. Marshals for the Van Buren court

478
00:26:43,100 --> 00:26:45,900
it had attraction for him to settle there.

479
00:26:48,233 --> 00:26:53,033
- What began as a land claim on
the Arkansas River in 1849,

480
00:26:53,333 --> 00:26:55,466
Van Buren became a bustling port

481
00:26:55,466 --> 00:26:57,666
and hub of trade along the river

482
00:26:57,866 --> 00:27:00,300
and the crucial launching point for the hopeful

483
00:27:00,300 --> 00:27:03,166
prospectors of the 1849 Gold Rush.

484
00:27:06,100 --> 00:27:09,066
Situated on the border of Indian Territory,

485
00:27:09,300 --> 00:27:11,500
the town was a hive of activity,

486
00:27:11,966 --> 00:27:15,700
its pulse driven by the
ceaseless flow of river traffic,

487
00:27:15,933 --> 00:27:18,566
the rhythmic chugging of railroad commerce,

488
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:20,700
and a robust mercantile trade

489
00:27:20,700 --> 00:27:21,866
that stood

490
00:27:21,866 --> 00:27:24,900
as the lynchpin of Van
Buren's thriving economy.

491
00:27:29,733 --> 00:27:32,300
On October 9, 1850,

492
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,066
the residents of Van Buren

493
00:27:34,066 --> 00:27:35,866
petitioned to have the federal court

494
00:27:35,866 --> 00:27:37,300
seated in their city.

495
00:27:41,666 --> 00:27:44,466
On March 3, 1851,

496
00:27:44,466 --> 00:27:46,300
the Western District of Arkansas

497
00:27:46,333 --> 00:27:48,566
federal court was established there.

498
00:27:48,966 --> 00:27:51,166
For the first ten years of the court,

499
00:27:51,466 --> 00:27:55,000
Judge Daniel Ringo brought
law and order to the area,

500
00:27:55,466 --> 00:28:00,233
sentencing White, Native, and Black men
to prison or the gallows.

501
00:28:00,966 --> 00:28:03,100
He resigned in 1860

502
00:28:03,100 --> 00:28:05,333
and there is no record of a federal court

503
00:28:05,333 --> 00:28:08,633
operating out of Van Buren
for the next ten years.

504
00:28:08,900 --> 00:28:11,966
On March 3, 1871,

505
00:28:11,966 --> 00:28:15,200
the court was moved
from Van Buren to Fort Smith.

506
00:28:17,066 --> 00:28:20,400
Fort Smith was one of the largest towns,

507
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:21,933
I mean it was the largest town

508
00:28:21,933 --> 00:28:24,000
second to Little Rock in Arkansas.

509
00:28:24,066 --> 00:28:27,100
And it was on the border of the Indian Territory

510
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:29,466
and had been a critical military

511
00:28:29,500 --> 00:28:31,800
base previous to the Civil War.

512
00:28:31,900 --> 00:28:35,333
And so it was in a prime location
for the government

513
00:28:35,333 --> 00:28:37,600
to deal with the Five Civilized Tribes.

514
00:28:38,266 --> 00:28:41,266
Located five miles southwest of Van Buren,

515
00:28:41,533 --> 00:28:44,866
Fort Smith was named after
General Thomas Adam Smith,

516
00:28:45,166 --> 00:28:46,966
a slave-holding Georgian

517
00:28:46,966 --> 00:28:51,766
who commanded the United States Army
Rifle Regiment in 1817.

518
00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:54,066
It was established as a military

519
00:28:54,133 --> 00:28:57,033
post by the U.S. government that same year.

520
00:29:01,866 --> 00:29:03,466
After the officers' quarters

521
00:29:03,466 --> 00:29:06,166
were destroyed by fire in 1870,

522
00:29:06,366 --> 00:29:09,300
the U.S. government considered
selling the land.

523
00:29:10,900 --> 00:29:15,466
Instead, the federal court was
moved there in 1871.

524
00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:19,166
The city was a busy riverside community

525
00:29:19,166 --> 00:29:22,000
with a large population of outlaws who found

526
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,233
entertainment in the brothels and saloons
that lined its dirt streets.

527
00:29:30,500 --> 00:29:33,500
The Fort Smith Court was
no ordinary federal court,

528
00:29:33,566 --> 00:29:36,900
and the Indian Territory was
no ordinary jurisdiction.

529
00:29:37,333 --> 00:29:42,366
At 74,000 square miles of
unmapped trails, hideouts,

530
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,600
deserts, and vast
untamed wilderness,

531
00:29:45,666 --> 00:29:48,766
the Western District of Arkansas
was at that time

532
00:29:48,766 --> 00:29:50,833
the largest in U.S. history.

533
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:55,400
There was no extradition treaties

534
00:29:55,533 --> 00:29:56,933
with surrounding states,

535
00:29:56,933 --> 00:29:59,266
with Kansas, or Arkansas, or Texas,

536
00:29:59,466 --> 00:30:01,766
so if an outlaw came into the Indian Territory

537
00:30:01,766 --> 00:30:04,200
he wouldn't worry about being extradited

538
00:30:04,300 --> 00:30:07,066
if he was located per se,

539
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:10,666
you could be extradited if
you were known to be squatting,

540
00:30:10,666 --> 00:30:13,133
but you wouldn't be arrested for that.

541
00:30:13,133 --> 00:30:14,566
So, you know

542
00:30:14,700 --> 00:30:16,100
it became a

543
00:30:16,100 --> 00:30:18,000
great place to hide out.

544
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,366
As time went on though,

545
00:30:20,366 --> 00:30:21,666
crimes were committed.

546
00:30:21,666 --> 00:30:23,900
The major crime for the Deputy

547
00:30:23,900 --> 00:30:26,166
U.S. Marshals was bootleg whiskey,

548
00:30:26,166 --> 00:30:28,533
whiskey was illegal in the Indian Territory.

549
00:30:31,500 --> 00:30:35,266
In 1875, Congress appointed Isaac C. Parker

550
00:30:35,266 --> 00:30:38,466
as the new judge of the Fort Smith court.

551
00:30:39,366 --> 00:30:40,800
A former lawyer,

552
00:30:40,933 --> 00:30:44,266
veteran, and congressman, 35-year-old Parker

553
00:30:44,266 --> 00:30:45,700
was a Republican

554
00:30:45,700 --> 00:30:48,000
who had resigned from the Democratic Party

555
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,366
when he became increasingly
dismayed by their tolerance

556
00:30:51,366 --> 00:30:53,066
and passion for slavery.

557
00:30:54,100 --> 00:30:56,300
Shortly after Parker switched parties,

558
00:30:56,500 --> 00:30:57,900
President Ulysses S. Grant

559
00:30:57,900 --> 00:31:00,733
requested that he be
appointed to the Western

560
00:31:00,733 --> 00:31:02,033
District as a judge.

561
00:31:03,666 --> 00:31:05,000
As his bailiff,

562
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,566
a position that kept order in the courtroom,

563
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,600
escorted juries and assisted presiding judges,

564
00:31:10,700 --> 00:31:14,400
Isaac Parker hired a Black man
named George S. Winston.

565
00:31:15,700 --> 00:31:17,300
Daniel P. Upham,

566
00:31:17,366 --> 00:31:19,666
a former officer of the Union army

567
00:31:19,666 --> 00:31:21,066
who had led the Arkansas

568
00:31:21,066 --> 00:31:23,233
militia to crush the Ku Klux Klan,

569
00:31:23,366 --> 00:31:26,866
was appointed as the U.S. Marshal
of Judge Parker's court,

570
00:31:26,966 --> 00:31:27,900
and together

571
00:31:27,900 --> 00:31:31,000
they hired upwards of fifty Deputy U.S. Marshals

572
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,100
to enforce the laws throughout
the Indian Territory

573
00:31:34,266 --> 00:31:35,600
and Western Arkansas.

574
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:44,600
In the untamed landscapes of the Old West,

575
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:46,033
law was scarce.

576
00:31:46,166 --> 00:31:49,433
And yet, order was essential to the settlers,

577
00:31:49,533 --> 00:31:51,233
miners, ranchers,

578
00:31:51,266 --> 00:31:54,866
and entrepreneurs forging
their lives on the frontier.

579
00:31:55,733 --> 00:31:59,066
The embodiment of that order
often came on horseback,

580
00:31:59,266 --> 00:32:01,166
badge gleaming in the sun,

581
00:32:01,266 --> 00:32:04,466
riding under the authority
of the federal government.

582
00:32:07,633 --> 00:32:08,900
The U.S. Marshal,

583
00:32:09,100 --> 00:32:12,766
a figure cloak in equal parts fear and respect,

584
00:32:12,766 --> 00:32:16,233
held a position of great power
and grave responsibility.

585
00:32:17,466 --> 00:32:19,400
Appointed by the president himself,

586
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,333
each marshal was charged with enforcing federal

587
00:32:22,333 --> 00:32:25,366
laws throughout a specific district within a state.

588
00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:27,466
Their duties were manifold--

589
00:32:27,866 --> 00:32:29,600
protecting the federal judiciary,

590
00:32:29,933 --> 00:32:31,800
apprehending federal fugitives,

591
00:32:32,100 --> 00:32:33,700
managing seized assets,

592
00:32:34,100 --> 00:32:35,500
transporting prisoners,

593
00:32:35,933 --> 00:32:36,966
quelling riots,

594
00:32:36,966 --> 00:32:38,566
and keeping the peace.

595
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,666
Yet, the vastness of the Old West

596
00:32:41,666 --> 00:32:43,700
demanded more boots on the ground,

597
00:32:43,700 --> 00:32:45,500
more eyes on the horizon.

598
00:32:45,966 --> 00:32:48,066
When Judge Parker first came on,

599
00:32:48,066 --> 00:32:50,933
he needed the kind of deputy

600
00:32:50,933 --> 00:32:52,633
that he knew he could trust,

601
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,833
and one he knew that could track.

602
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,533
Deputy U.S. Marshals were often locals

603
00:33:01,533 --> 00:33:03,366
who knew the lay of the land.

604
00:33:03,766 --> 00:33:06,100
Sharing many of the same responsibilities

605
00:33:06,100 --> 00:33:07,266
as their appointers,

606
00:33:07,533 --> 00:33:08,400
deputies brought

607
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,700
law enforcement to the furthest
reaches of the territories.

608
00:33:12,166 --> 00:33:14,800
They were the badge and the gun in towns

609
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,100
where the marshal's name was just a whisper

610
00:33:17,100 --> 00:33:18,166
on the wind.

611
00:33:23,300 --> 00:33:26,500
Though the distinction may
seem trivial to us now,

612
00:33:26,566 --> 00:33:27,900
in the Old West,

613
00:33:27,933 --> 00:33:29,966
the roles of the U.S. Marshal,

614
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:31,633
the Deputy U.S. Marshal,

615
00:33:31,666 --> 00:33:34,933
and their possemen were integral
to the establishment

616
00:33:34,933 --> 00:33:37,300
and preservation of law and order.

617
00:33:38,666 --> 00:33:41,000
Their efforts contributed significantly to

618
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,200
transforming the American West

619
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,966
into a region synonymous with opportunity.

620
00:33:46,533 --> 00:33:49,100
Through their endeavors to uphold the law

621
00:33:49,100 --> 00:33:51,066
and bring outlaws to justice,

622
00:33:51,333 --> 00:33:54,666
they played a key role in
establishing communities

623
00:33:54,666 --> 00:33:56,000
and infrastructure

624
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,633
in a land that was rich with
potential and diversity.

625
00:34:01,166 --> 00:34:02,566
Deputy marshals,

626
00:34:02,700 --> 00:34:04,133
Deputy U.S. Marshals

627
00:34:04,133 --> 00:34:08,666
and possemen hung out around
the federal courthouses

628
00:34:09,300 --> 00:34:12,166
hoping to get a job,

629
00:34:12,166 --> 00:34:13,766
a warrant to serve,

630
00:34:13,766 --> 00:34:16,166
or a posse to serve in,

631
00:34:16,166 --> 00:34:17,266
or whatever.

632
00:34:17,300 --> 00:34:17,933
Furthermore,

633
00:34:17,933 --> 00:34:20,200
they were allowed to split rewards

634
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:22,533
and so they would go after the bad guys

635
00:34:22,533 --> 00:34:23,733
who had rewards out.

636
00:34:23,733 --> 00:34:26,100
If there was a guy with $100 on his head

637
00:34:26,100 --> 00:34:27,800
or $500 on his head

638
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:29,100
well then boy you could

639
00:34:29,133 --> 00:34:31,000
imagine that there would be U.S.

640
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,566
Deputy Marshals and possemen after him,

641
00:34:33,733 --> 00:34:35,966
but rarely a U.S. Marshal

642
00:34:35,966 --> 00:34:38,666
because his job was administrative.

643
00:34:42,033 --> 00:34:43,666
The job was dangerous

644
00:34:43,666 --> 00:34:46,300
and required no small amount of bravery

645
00:34:46,366 --> 00:34:48,566
because the outlaws of the Territory

646
00:34:48,766 --> 00:34:50,733
knew every trail and hideout

647
00:34:50,733 --> 00:34:53,400
and was almost certain to resist arrest

648
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,366
for the penalty for doing so

649
00:34:55,366 --> 00:34:58,200
was only one additional year of confinement.

650
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,600
These outlaws were no mere minor offenders,

651
00:35:01,900 --> 00:35:03,566
most of them were murderers,

652
00:35:03,733 --> 00:35:04,833
cattle rustlers,

653
00:35:04,866 --> 00:35:06,233
or horse thieves

654
00:35:06,266 --> 00:35:08,833
and the sentence for these crimes was death.

655
00:35:09,266 --> 00:35:11,366
But, the marshals and their deputies'

656
00:35:11,366 --> 00:35:13,300
jurisdiction had limitations.

657
00:35:13,300 --> 00:35:14,733
The federal government

658
00:35:14,733 --> 00:35:19,000
had no control over what
the Native Americans did

659
00:35:19,300 --> 00:35:22,866
except if there were crimes
committed against White men

660
00:35:22,866 --> 00:35:26,200
or Black men who were not
citizens of Indian nations

661
00:35:27,133 --> 00:35:28,300
or vice versa,

662
00:35:28,300 --> 00:35:30,800
then the U.S. government came in

663
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:32,800
and those cases were adjudicated

664
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:34,366
at the Fort Smith court.

665
00:35:34,666 --> 00:35:36,700
And so deputy marshals initially

666
00:35:36,700 --> 00:35:40,366
who had to work out of the Fort Smith court

667
00:35:40,366 --> 00:35:42,366
would have to leave Fort Smith

668
00:35:42,366 --> 00:35:44,700
and they would have to
go into the Indian Territory

669
00:35:44,733 --> 00:35:46,800
all the way west to Fort Sill,

670
00:35:47,266 --> 00:35:50,100
Fort Reno, and sometimes
to Fort Supply,

671
00:35:50,266 --> 00:35:52,800
and come back to Fort Smith,

672
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,666
it was like a round trip of over 500 miles.

673
00:35:56,966 --> 00:35:59,200
And they would have warrants
for certain characters

674
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:00,766
or they were given open warrants

675
00:36:00,766 --> 00:36:02,566
where they could talk to the people

676
00:36:02,566 --> 00:36:03,666
that lived in the Territory

677
00:36:03,666 --> 00:36:05,566
and found out who committed crimes.

678
00:36:05,766 --> 00:36:09,200
Now the Indians couldn't
arrest these non-citizens,

679
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:12,133
but they could hold them
for the Deputy U.S. Marshals

680
00:36:12,133 --> 00:36:14,000
and that happened on many occasions

681
00:36:14,066 --> 00:36:16,466
where they would hold felons for the Deputy

682
00:36:16,466 --> 00:36:18,166
U.S. Marshals to come and pick up.

683
00:36:21,366 --> 00:36:24,266
- Judge Parker's reputation
did not aid the deputies

684
00:36:24,266 --> 00:36:25,766
he sent into the field,

685
00:36:25,933 --> 00:36:29,466
for he quickly earned the
moniker of "Hanging Judge".

686
00:36:30,466 --> 00:36:31,966
Over the course of his career,

687
00:36:31,966 --> 00:36:35,300
Parker would send seventy-nine
convicts to the gallows.

688
00:36:36,266 --> 00:36:37,966
Parker's court was synonymous

689
00:36:37,966 --> 00:36:41,000
with the harshest punishment
permissible under the law.

690
00:36:44,466 --> 00:36:46,466
This only made the danger

691
00:36:46,466 --> 00:36:48,866
more pronounced for Deputy U.S. Marshals.

692
00:36:49,666 --> 00:36:52,166
Determined to avoid a
date with the hallowed,

693
00:36:52,333 --> 00:36:55,900
outlaws in the Indian Territory
and western Arkansas

694
00:36:56,133 --> 00:36:57,700
who were desperate to escape

695
00:36:57,700 --> 00:36:59,900
the near-certainty of
death that awaited them

696
00:36:59,900 --> 00:37:00,900
in the courtroom,

697
00:37:01,066 --> 00:37:03,400
would murder as many as 100 deputies

698
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,366
in cold blood.

699
00:37:06,366 --> 00:37:10,133
In no other territory or state in U.S. history

700
00:37:10,133 --> 00:37:14,200
were more Deputy U.S. Marshals
killed in the line of duty

701
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,000
than in the Indian Territory.

702
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:20,300
- To be succinct, it would
be a fifty-mile radius

703
00:37:20,300 --> 00:37:22,166
of the town of Muskogee

704
00:37:22,266 --> 00:37:23,900
where the majority of Deputy

705
00:37:23,900 --> 00:37:26,366
U.S. Marshals were killed
in the Indian Territory.

706
00:37:26,566 --> 00:37:28,400
So, it was very dangerous.

707
00:37:28,466 --> 00:37:33,333
Today, lawmen can get on
their radio and call for backup,

708
00:37:33,333 --> 00:37:34,466
in the Indian Territory,

709
00:37:34,466 --> 00:37:36,166
you couldn't call for backup.

710
00:37:36,333 --> 00:37:38,566
You were out there on your own initiative

711
00:37:38,566 --> 00:37:41,166
in terms of how you could stay alive

712
00:37:41,166 --> 00:37:44,700
and you and your posse had to do that

713
00:37:44,700 --> 00:37:46,433
and then you know

714
00:37:46,733 --> 00:37:48,066
do the job of

715
00:37:48,066 --> 00:37:50,133
arresting those people you were looking for,

716
00:37:50,133 --> 00:37:52,666
and then getting back to Fort Smith safely.

717
00:37:52,733 --> 00:37:53,666
It was a very,

718
00:37:53,666 --> 00:37:55,433
very dangerous job.

719
00:37:56,333 --> 00:37:59,966
- Bass Reeves took up his
commission as Deputy U.S. Marshal

720
00:37:59,966 --> 00:38:03,166
on May 28, 1875.

721
00:38:03,466 --> 00:38:07,033
- Judge Isaac Parker is
in control at Fort Smith, Arkansas

722
00:38:07,033 --> 00:38:09,566
in the Western District of Arkansas

723
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:12,866
and it means he's
in charge of the U.S. Marshals,

724
00:38:13,533 --> 00:38:18,566
and one of the first hires
he makes is Bass Reeves.

725
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:20,400
Not exactly sure why

726
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,000
except this man had
already built up a reputation

727
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,000
for honesty,

728
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:25,233
for discipline,

729
00:38:25,466 --> 00:38:26,466
he was a big man,

730
00:38:26,466 --> 00:38:27,833
he was 6 foot 2,

731
00:38:27,866 --> 00:38:30,900
this was in an era where
most people were 5 foot 8,

732
00:38:30,900 --> 00:38:32,833
so he is big,

733
00:38:32,933 --> 00:38:34,366
he's strong.

734
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,466
Supposedly, he was
ambidextrous and

735
00:38:37,466 --> 00:38:38,966
a crack shot,

736
00:38:39,333 --> 00:38:42,133
this was the kind of man
that Judge Parker wanted.

737
00:38:42,133 --> 00:38:44,300
And the fact that he was Black

738
00:38:44,366 --> 00:38:46,766
which probably, probably

739
00:38:46,766 --> 00:38:50,033
would have kept him from
getting a number of positions,

740
00:38:50,500 --> 00:38:54,266
this made him even more
attractive to Judge Parker.

741
00:38:54,900 --> 00:38:57,633
He wanted people of color

742
00:38:57,733 --> 00:38:59,866
to be in the U.S. Marshals Service

743
00:38:59,866 --> 00:39:02,700
because there were people of color

744
00:39:02,700 --> 00:39:04,166
in the Indian Territory,

745
00:39:04,366 --> 00:39:06,200
there were people there

746
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,800
who would not be able
to relate to a White officer,

747
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:13,033
but they might be able
to relate to a Black man.

748
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,733
Even some of the Indians
would better be able to relate

749
00:39:16,733 --> 00:39:19,600
to a Black man than
they could to a White.

750
00:39:22,566 --> 00:39:23,533
While by far

751
00:39:23,533 --> 00:39:26,800
the most famous Black Deputy
U.S. Marshal in history,

752
00:39:27,166 --> 00:39:29,200
Bass Reeves was not the first.

753
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:34,233
In 1867, eight years before Bass
received his commission,

754
00:39:34,666 --> 00:39:37,666
the ‘Indian Pioneer Papers’
published a story

755
00:39:37,666 --> 00:39:40,766
in which a Black man
known as "Negro Smith"

756
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:44,200
led a posse to pursue a
murderous stagecoach robber

757
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,566
near Atoka in the Choctaw Nation.

758
00:39:47,266 --> 00:39:50,100
And there was at least
one other Black Deputy U.S. Marshal

759
00:39:50,100 --> 00:39:52,033
commissioned before Bass.

760
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:53,533
Bynum Colbert

761
00:39:53,533 --> 00:39:57,566
who was a Civil War veteran and a former

762
00:39:57,566 --> 00:40:00,000
Buffalo Soldier in the Tenth Calvary Regiment,

763
00:40:00,266 --> 00:40:03,133
he got a commission in 1872

764
00:40:03,133 --> 00:40:05,000
three years before Bass Reeves.

765
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:08,400
Colbert served up until 1895

766
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:10,533
and so he served for a long time

767
00:40:10,533 --> 00:40:12,000
and was a very good lawman.

768
00:40:13,566 --> 00:40:17,500
- Bass led a distinct class of
Black Deputy U.S. Marshals.

769
00:40:19,766 --> 00:40:22,633
Bob Fortune was born in Bowling Green, Virginia

770
00:40:22,633 --> 00:40:25,733
on June 15, 1865

771
00:40:25,733 --> 00:40:29,600
and served as Deputy U.S. Marshal from 1895

772
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:32,266
until his resignation in 1907.

773
00:40:33,100 --> 00:40:36,400
- He often rode with fellow
Black Deputy U.S. Marshals

774
00:40:36,466 --> 00:40:38,566
Neely Factor and Zeke Miller.

775
00:40:40,900 --> 00:40:43,733
Grant Johnson's parents
had been held in slavery

776
00:40:43,733 --> 00:40:45,233
by Native Americans.

777
00:40:45,366 --> 00:40:50,766
He served as Deputy U.S.
Marshal from 1888 until 1906.

778
00:40:50,900 --> 00:40:53,300
He and Bass were lifelong friends.

779
00:40:56,466 --> 00:40:58,366
There was also John Garrett

780
00:40:58,366 --> 00:41:01,466
who became one of the
many Deputy U.S. Marshals

781
00:41:01,466 --> 00:41:03,666
who lost their lives in The Territory.

782
00:41:04,366 --> 00:41:07,466
He was shot three times
by the Rufus Buck Gang

783
00:41:07,466 --> 00:41:11,633
in an ambush on July 30, 1895.

784
00:41:12,066 --> 00:41:14,466
Before Garrett died of his injuries,

785
00:41:14,500 --> 00:41:18,233
he identified the man who
fired the shots as Rufus Buck.

786
00:41:18,933 --> 00:41:20,333
The gang was captured

787
00:41:20,333 --> 00:41:23,233
and sentenced twice to
death by Judge Parker.

788
00:41:23,666 --> 00:41:26,366
They were all hanged for
John Garrett's murder

789
00:41:26,366 --> 00:41:29,366
on July 1, 1896.

790
00:41:31,866 --> 00:41:33,933
These Black Deputy U.S. Marshals

791
00:41:33,933 --> 00:41:37,500
were members of a cohort of
former slaves turned lawmen

792
00:41:37,566 --> 00:41:39,300
and they were met with resistance

793
00:41:39,466 --> 00:41:40,600
as Bass found out

794
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:42,233
shortly after his commission.

795
00:41:44,566 --> 00:41:47,000
In July 1875,

796
00:41:47,133 --> 00:41:49,500
after only two months on the job,

797
00:41:49,766 --> 00:41:52,900
Bass was arrested for
assault with intent to kill.

798
00:41:53,300 --> 00:41:54,800
No details of the case

799
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:58,466
known as "The State of
Arkansas v. Bass Reeves"

800
00:41:58,466 --> 00:41:59,633
have survived.

801
00:42:00,300 --> 00:42:03,600
The "Van Buren Press" reported
that a jury found Bass

802
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,000
not guilty in September of that year.

803
00:42:06,733 --> 00:42:08,633
Whatever the details of the incident,

804
00:42:08,933 --> 00:42:12,466
neither Judge Parker nor his
U.S. Marshal Daniel P. Upham

805
00:42:12,466 --> 00:42:15,100
could find cause to dismiss Bass.

806
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:19,066
And so, his career as a
Deputy U.S. Marshal began.

807
00:42:28,700 --> 00:42:30,700
In the wake of the Civil War,

808
00:42:30,766 --> 00:42:31,900
the Reconstruction era

809
00:42:31,900 --> 00:42:35,233
marked a pivotal period
in the nation's history,

810
00:42:35,666 --> 00:42:38,066
characterized by efforts to rebuild

811
00:42:38,066 --> 00:42:40,166
and redefine the United States.

812
00:42:40,333 --> 00:42:42,300
Fueled by this mandate,

813
00:42:42,333 --> 00:42:45,466
on March 17, 1877,

814
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,833
two years after Bass Reeves
began his commission

815
00:42:48,933 --> 00:42:51,366
as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in Arkansas,

816
00:42:51,700 --> 00:42:53,600
in a groundbreaking move,

817
00:42:53,666 --> 00:42:55,166
President Rutherford B. Hayes

818
00:42:55,166 --> 00:42:57,500
appointed Frederick Douglass

819
00:42:57,500 --> 00:43:01,433
as the first Black U.S. Marshal
for Washington D.C..

820
00:43:02,466 --> 00:43:05,400
This significant decision
by the federal government

821
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,733
not only symbolized a commitment
to integrating Blacks

822
00:43:08,733 --> 00:43:11,000
into prominent positions of authority,

823
00:43:11,300 --> 00:43:14,633
but also set a precedent for
future appointments.

824
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,100
- Douglass was the... he was a
fascinating individual,

825
00:43:20,100 --> 00:43:21,466
as you well know,

826
00:43:21,466 --> 00:43:23,100
we called him the

827
00:43:23,133 --> 00:43:24,933
person of the 19th century,

828
00:43:24,933 --> 00:43:26,100
he was the man in

829
00:43:26,100 --> 00:43:27,700
in the spotlight

830
00:43:27,900 --> 00:43:32,733
and he had wanted to become
a cabinet person

831
00:43:32,733 --> 00:43:35,766
in one of the presidential appointments,

832
00:43:35,766 --> 00:43:37,466
but he never got that.

833
00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:43,466
Douglass was officially the
first Black CEO in law enforcement.

834
00:43:43,933 --> 00:43:46,500
His nomination was opposed

835
00:43:46,900 --> 00:43:48,100
and there were crazy

836
00:43:48,100 --> 00:43:50,766
reasons for why his
nomination was opposed:

837
00:43:50,766 --> 00:43:53,433
number one, he was going
to Africanize the courts,

838
00:43:53,900 --> 00:43:55,366
he was going to get all the jurors,

839
00:43:55,366 --> 00:43:56,766
all the jurors going to be Black

840
00:43:56,766 --> 00:43:58,500
all the bailiffs were going to be Black.

841
00:43:58,500 --> 00:44:02,466
So, with Douglass that opposition was there.

842
00:44:05,100 --> 00:44:07,966
Although Frederick Douglass and Bass Reeves

843
00:44:07,966 --> 00:44:10,000
likely never crossed paths,

844
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:11,666
Douglass's appointment

845
00:44:11,666 --> 00:44:14,400
was a fleeting beacon of progressive change

846
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:15,466
and an indication

847
00:44:15,466 --> 00:44:18,866
of the evolving roles of Black
men in law enforcement

848
00:44:18,866 --> 00:44:20,166
during Reconstruction.

849
00:44:21,100 --> 00:44:23,933
However, the federal
government's mandate of

850
00:44:23,933 --> 00:44:25,633
transformation and integration

851
00:44:25,666 --> 00:44:29,700
after the Civil War came to
a close that same year

852
00:44:29,700 --> 00:44:32,633
with the compromise of 1877,

853
00:44:32,900 --> 00:44:35,166
which effectively ended Reconstruction

854
00:44:35,366 --> 00:44:38,100
by withdrawing federal troops from the South

855
00:44:38,100 --> 00:44:40,800
and marking a shift in the
nation's approach to civil

856
00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:43,033
rights and racial equality.

857
00:44:43,533 --> 00:44:46,233
Despite the official
end of Reconstruction,

858
00:44:46,500 --> 00:44:47,866
in the Old West,

859
00:44:48,100 --> 00:44:51,733
Black men would continue to
serve as Deputy U.S. Marshals

860
00:44:51,733 --> 00:44:53,433
for another two decades,

861
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:55,800
a testament to their efficacy

862
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:58,033
and the loyalty of their colleagues.

863
00:45:08,900 --> 00:45:11,566
The first several years of Bass's career

864
00:45:11,566 --> 00:45:13,466
served as a period of training

865
00:45:13,466 --> 00:45:16,000
as he learned the ins and outs of the job.

866
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,600
In June 1877,

867
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:19,500
he was serving

868
00:45:19,500 --> 00:45:22,500
as a posseman for Deputy
U.S. Marshal Robert J. Topping

869
00:45:22,500 --> 00:45:26,066
when they arrested a man
who had stolen oxen,

870
00:45:26,133 --> 00:45:29,300
and again with Deputy
U.S. Marshal James H. Mershon

871
00:45:29,300 --> 00:45:31,133
in 1880

872
00:45:31,133 --> 00:45:34,166
when they arrested two
men for selling illegal whiskey

873
00:45:34,166 --> 00:45:35,800
in the Indian Territory.

874
00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:41,166
In December 1878,

875
00:45:41,300 --> 00:45:44,000
Bass served as a guard
during the execution

876
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,800
of James Diggs and John Postoak.

877
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:49,333
He also acted as a guard

878
00:45:49,333 --> 00:45:53,500
alongside other Deputy U.S.
Marshals and George Maledon,

879
00:45:53,500 --> 00:45:55,366
Judge Parker's executioner,

880
00:45:55,466 --> 00:45:57,533
during the transportation of prisoners

881
00:45:57,533 --> 00:45:59,400
from Fort Smith federal jail

882
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:02,100
to the House of Corrections
in Detroit, Michigan.

883
00:46:05,700 --> 00:46:08,066
Bass did quite well financially.

884
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:13,100
A Deputy U.S. Marshal could
expect to earn $500 in salary.

885
00:46:13,466 --> 00:46:14,433
In addition,

886
00:46:14,500 --> 00:46:17,166
he would earn approximately 75%

887
00:46:17,166 --> 00:46:19,900
of the bounty on the
prisoners he returned to court,

888
00:46:19,900 --> 00:46:22,500
the other quarter went
to the marshal himself.

889
00:46:25,300 --> 00:46:27,666
It's a testament to Bass's drive,

890
00:46:27,766 --> 00:46:28,666
determination,

891
00:46:28,733 --> 00:46:31,533
and intense commitment
to delivering outlaws

892
00:46:31,533 --> 00:46:35,400
that he earned around
$3,000 to $4,000 a year,

893
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:37,966
which made him one of the
top grossing deputies

894
00:46:37,966 --> 00:46:39,966
at Fort Smith.

895
00:46:43,900 --> 00:46:46,633
He built an eight-room
cottage in Van Buren,

896
00:46:46,933 --> 00:46:49,500
across the street from
the Crawford County Treasurer,

897
00:46:49,500 --> 00:46:51,833
a White man named August J. Ward.

898
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:56,266
He would regularly
receive guests in his home

899
00:46:56,266 --> 00:46:58,933
such as attorneys William H. H. Clayton,

900
00:46:58,933 --> 00:47:00,033
a prosecutor,

901
00:47:00,133 --> 00:47:01,300
and William M. Craves,

902
00:47:01,300 --> 00:47:03,166
a public defender

903
00:47:03,166 --> 00:47:05,933
who would take the train from
Fort Smith to Van Buren

904
00:47:05,933 --> 00:47:08,433
to discuss cases with Bass over dinner.

905
00:47:09,700 --> 00:47:12,433
As Bass became more experienced,

906
00:47:12,533 --> 00:47:14,966
he would pursue more dangerous criminals,

907
00:47:15,166 --> 00:47:17,000
oftentimes on his own

908
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:20,166
and other times with
other Deputy U.S. Marshals

909
00:47:20,166 --> 00:47:23,100
or with his eldest sons forming his crew.

910
00:47:23,566 --> 00:47:25,966
He would have to hire a cook,

911
00:47:25,966 --> 00:47:27,633
he would have to hire a guard,

912
00:47:27,700 --> 00:47:29,266
and at least one posseman.

913
00:47:29,266 --> 00:47:30,300
Most times, Bass

914
00:47:30,300 --> 00:47:31,766
did not hire many possemen,

915
00:47:31,766 --> 00:47:33,966
you could hire four or five if you wanted to,

916
00:47:33,966 --> 00:47:36,333
but Bass generally just took one with him

917
00:47:36,333 --> 00:47:38,866
and you have one wagon or two wagons.

918
00:47:40,500 --> 00:47:43,166
Preparations to enter the Indian Territory

919
00:47:43,266 --> 00:47:46,000
in pursuit of criminals could take days

920
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:47,566
and sometimes weeks

921
00:47:47,566 --> 00:47:51,033
and once the Deputy U.S. Marshals
eventually set off,

922
00:47:51,100 --> 00:47:52,966
there were further considerations.

923
00:47:54,966 --> 00:47:55,966
The Deadline,

924
00:47:55,966 --> 00:47:58,633
a term commonly used in the Old West,

925
00:47:58,900 --> 00:48:00,866
referred to a designated boundary

926
00:48:00,866 --> 00:48:04,300
beyond which U.S. Marshals
had limited jurisdiction.

927
00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:08,566
For Deputy U.S. Marshals
working out of Fort Smith,

928
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:11,666
the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad tracks

929
00:48:11,666 --> 00:48:15,166
located approximately
sixty miles west of Fort Smith,

930
00:48:15,300 --> 00:48:17,233
was considered their Deadline.

931
00:48:17,966 --> 00:48:21,933
The MKT tracks served as a
geographical reference point

932
00:48:21,933 --> 00:48:23,500
and a symbolic division

933
00:48:23,700 --> 00:48:26,633
between the territory
under federal jurisdiction

934
00:48:26,700 --> 00:48:28,366
and the Indian Territory,

935
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:30,466
which had its own legal system.

936
00:48:31,666 --> 00:48:34,400
Although their jurisdiction typically

937
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:36,466
ended at the MKT tracks,

938
00:48:36,766 --> 00:48:38,333
Deputy U.S. Marshals would

939
00:48:38,333 --> 00:48:39,133
on occasion

940
00:48:39,133 --> 00:48:42,000
cross the Deadline in pursuit of outlaws

941
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,800
or to assist local native law enforcement.

942
00:48:45,066 --> 00:48:48,500
- You could be on that trip
for one to two months.

943
00:48:48,733 --> 00:48:50,366
Many times it was two months

944
00:48:50,366 --> 00:48:50,866
depending on

945
00:48:50,866 --> 00:48:53,400
if the water was high and
the creeks and the rivers.

946
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:55,933
And so it will be a long
time to be away from home,

947
00:48:55,933 --> 00:48:57,566
to be away from your family.

948
00:48:58,666 --> 00:49:00,600
Bass quickly proved his skill

949
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:02,500
in bringing criminals to justice.

950
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:05,100
He certainly had a reputation of

951
00:49:05,100 --> 00:49:08,133
going out with several warrants in his pocket

952
00:49:08,133 --> 00:49:11,700
and coming back with multiple people in tow.

953
00:49:12,366 --> 00:49:13,800
That's how good he was,

954
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:16,366
not just I'll go out and get one guy,

955
00:49:16,366 --> 00:49:19,600
I'll go out and get several
people at the same time.

956
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:20,900
Bass was illiterate,

957
00:49:21,300 --> 00:49:22,200
he could not read and write.

958
00:49:24,266 --> 00:49:26,433
He would memorize the warrants

959
00:49:26,766 --> 00:49:28,666
and take them into the

960
00:49:28,766 --> 00:49:31,466
Indian Territory and serve the warrants.

961
00:49:31,700 --> 00:49:33,600
He had no idea specifically

962
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:34,700
what was on those warrants,

963
00:49:34,700 --> 00:49:37,166
but before he went out,

964
00:49:37,166 --> 00:49:38,600
he would have somebody

965
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:41,266
sometimes it was somebody
in his own family,

966
00:49:41,466 --> 00:49:43,166
read those warrants to him,

967
00:49:43,166 --> 00:49:44,766
he would memorize them,

968
00:49:44,766 --> 00:49:47,400
including descriptions of the person,

969
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:49,133
what they were wanted for,

970
00:49:49,133 --> 00:49:52,166
where they were believed
to be at the time,

971
00:49:52,266 --> 00:49:54,133
and he'd go out and do the job.

972
00:49:54,133 --> 00:49:56,733
And he did it so, so well.

973
00:49:56,733 --> 00:50:00,233
- He got so good at handling
the warrants that he had,

974
00:50:00,266 --> 00:50:02,366
the federal court started giving him

975
00:50:02,500 --> 00:50:04,266
subpoenas to handle out

976
00:50:04,300 --> 00:50:06,266
for people to appear in court

977
00:50:06,466 --> 00:50:07,833
and so he would

978
00:50:08,066 --> 00:50:09,400
not only have his warrants,

979
00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:11,566
he'd have subpoenas to handle

980
00:50:11,566 --> 00:50:12,500
to bring back.

981
00:50:12,500 --> 00:50:14,333
And he would have to find the person

982
00:50:14,333 --> 00:50:16,000
and tell them that they had to appear,

983
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:17,466
you know appear in court

984
00:50:17,466 --> 00:50:18,633
to give testimony.

985
00:50:18,866 --> 00:50:20,766
And he did all of that

986
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:22,400
without being able to read and write,

987
00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:23,700
and did it well.

988
00:50:24,366 --> 00:50:25,933
The legend of Bass Reeves

989
00:50:25,933 --> 00:50:29,500
is not merely built on his being
a Black Deputy Marshal,

990
00:50:29,766 --> 00:50:31,766
he also displayed a supreme

991
00:50:31,766 --> 00:50:33,666
command of law enforcement tactics

992
00:50:33,866 --> 00:50:35,600
decades ahead of their time.

993
00:50:35,933 --> 00:50:38,800
His intelligence and perception as a lawman

994
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:39,833
were as legendary

995
00:50:39,933 --> 00:50:41,466
as his gun-fighting abilities.

996
00:50:44,066 --> 00:50:46,766
During his years among
the Native Americans,

997
00:50:47,066 --> 00:50:50,233
Bass had mastered the arts
of deception and disguise.

998
00:50:51,366 --> 00:50:54,966
Instead of riding his prize
steeds in Indian Territory,

999
00:50:55,133 --> 00:50:58,600
he would instead ride
plain-colored, slower horses

1000
00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:00,900
so as to blend in to
his surroundings

1001
00:51:00,933 --> 00:51:03,233
and hide his identity as a lawman.

1002
00:51:04,466 --> 00:51:07,000
Donning disguises would become a regular

1003
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:09,166
component of Bass's crime-fighting skills

1004
00:51:09,166 --> 00:51:10,866
over the course of his career.

1005
00:51:11,700 --> 00:51:12,766
These tactics,

1006
00:51:12,766 --> 00:51:14,700
precursors of undercover work

1007
00:51:14,700 --> 00:51:16,533
that local and federal police

1008
00:51:16,533 --> 00:51:18,366
would use throughout the next century,

1009
00:51:18,566 --> 00:51:20,466
would cement Bass's legacy

1010
00:51:20,466 --> 00:51:22,400
not just as a federal lawman,

1011
00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:24,166
but as a master detective.

1012
00:51:24,533 --> 00:51:28,500
He was able to take on personas

1013
00:51:28,533 --> 00:51:31,600
in order to help lull people into thinking

1014
00:51:32,100 --> 00:51:33,866
he was somebody else

1015
00:51:33,933 --> 00:51:36,200
right before he would slap the cuffs on them.

1016
00:51:36,300 --> 00:51:39,800
He was able to out-think
the people he was with,

1017
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:41,666
but then in many ways,

1018
00:51:41,666 --> 00:51:43,366
and I think part of it was the times.

1019
00:51:43,366 --> 00:51:46,233
Just being the period
following the Civil War,

1020
00:51:46,266 --> 00:51:48,100
as a Black man in this part of the country,

1021
00:51:48,100 --> 00:51:50,233
he could walk around virtually unseen

1022
00:51:50,933 --> 00:51:52,700
because he was just another Black man

1023
00:51:52,700 --> 00:51:54,033
in this part of the country

1024
00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:58,300
and he could get to places
where no White deputy

1025
00:51:58,300 --> 00:52:00,366
was ever going to be able to find them.

1026
00:52:00,700 --> 00:52:03,466
Bass was a skilled and decisive gunman.

1027
00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:06,200
Throughout his three decades of service,

1028
00:52:06,366 --> 00:52:07,766
he would deal swift

1029
00:52:07,766 --> 00:52:09,700
frontier justice to outlaws

1030
00:52:09,700 --> 00:52:12,633
who thought it was wise
to fight their capture

1031
00:52:12,733 --> 00:52:15,866
rather than give up and
face Judge Parker's court.

1032
00:52:15,900 --> 00:52:17,333
He gained a reputation

1033
00:52:17,333 --> 00:52:19,966
throughout his time in
the Marshals Service,

1034
00:52:19,966 --> 00:52:22,533
in fact, throughout his time

1035
00:52:22,533 --> 00:52:23,466
of being a lawman,

1036
00:52:23,466 --> 00:52:27,500
and he basically was a lawman
for the rest of his life,

1037
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:31,066
of being about the best that there was.

1038
00:52:31,500 --> 00:52:33,100
He had some tough assignments.

1039
00:52:33,866 --> 00:52:35,000
We know that

1040
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:36,400
at least it's reported

1041
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:38,033
that he killed 14 men.

1042
00:52:38,766 --> 00:52:41,533
- While Bass was involved in
a number of shootings

1043
00:52:41,533 --> 00:52:43,366
that left his opponents dead,

1044
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:45,266
he knew that cold-blooded

1045
00:52:45,266 --> 00:52:47,233
executions would not be tolerated.

1046
00:52:47,733 --> 00:52:50,366
Judge Parker would just as
soon charge a deputy

1047
00:52:50,366 --> 00:52:53,666
with unjustified murder as
he would any outlaw.

1048
00:52:55,033 --> 00:52:57,000
Despite his many talents,

1049
00:52:57,066 --> 00:52:58,366
his steadfastness,

1050
00:52:58,366 --> 00:52:59,466
his loyalty,

1051
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:01,966
Bass would constantly face criticism

1052
00:53:01,966 --> 00:53:04,566
in the courts of law and public opinion

1053
00:53:04,566 --> 00:53:06,700
and in the press.

1054
00:53:07,833 --> 00:53:10,200
The "Fort Smith Weekly Elevator" noted,

1055
00:53:10,666 --> 00:53:11,933
'It seems that Bass

1056
00:53:11,933 --> 00:53:14,266
has had a habit of
letting a prisoner escape

1057
00:53:14,266 --> 00:53:16,866
when more could be made
than by holding him'.

1058
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:19,666
An accusation that had no merit.

1059
00:53:20,666 --> 00:53:24,033
Bass was often falsely
portrayed as a lazy,

1060
00:53:24,066 --> 00:53:25,466
blood-hungry murderer

1061
00:53:25,466 --> 00:53:27,333
who would rather kill his charges

1062
00:53:27,333 --> 00:53:28,700
than bring them to court.

1063
00:53:29,333 --> 00:53:31,200
He was not a man of violence,

1064
00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:33,166
he never had that reputation.

1065
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:35,666
But certainly, when you
were in the territories,

1066
00:53:35,933 --> 00:53:38,400
some of the people there
were not going to give up.

1067
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:39,700
They were going to fight,

1068
00:53:39,700 --> 00:53:42,400
because perhaps they
faced the death penalty,

1069
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:43,566
or even worse

1070
00:53:43,566 --> 00:53:44,466
for some of them,

1071
00:53:44,466 --> 00:53:46,500
they faced going
to prison for years

1072
00:53:46,500 --> 00:53:48,600
and they couldn't stand
the thought of that.

1073
00:53:48,766 --> 00:53:49,866
They would fight,

1074
00:53:50,266 --> 00:53:52,566
he was the wrong man to fight with.

1075
00:53:59,766 --> 00:54:02,566
On April 9, 1884,

1076
00:54:02,666 --> 00:54:05,833
bound for Fort Smith with
five prisoners in tow,

1077
00:54:06,133 --> 00:54:07,500
Bass and his posse,

1078
00:54:07,533 --> 00:54:09,933
which included his nephew John Brady

1079
00:54:09,933 --> 00:54:12,966
who was driving the team
of horses, and a cook,

1080
00:54:12,966 --> 00:54:15,000
a Black man named William Leach,

1081
00:54:15,133 --> 00:54:17,100
made camp near Cherokee town

1082
00:54:17,100 --> 00:54:19,666
in the Chickasaw Nation
of Indian Territory.

1083
00:54:21,100 --> 00:54:24,800
A heated argument broke out
between Bass and William Leach.

1084
00:54:25,733 --> 00:54:27,600
Later that night in camp,

1085
00:54:27,800 --> 00:54:29,466
according to Bass's testimony,

1086
00:54:29,733 --> 00:54:31,966
he was changing the bullets in his rifle

1087
00:54:31,966 --> 00:54:33,766
when he accidentally shot Leach.

1088
00:54:35,533 --> 00:54:37,100
He reportedly sought a doctor,

1089
00:54:37,100 --> 00:54:40,200
but could not find one in
time to save Leach's life.

1090
00:54:42,666 --> 00:54:46,266
Despite his involvement in
the deaths of numerous outlaws,

1091
00:54:46,566 --> 00:54:48,600
it was this accidental shooting

1092
00:54:48,600 --> 00:54:51,366
that would overshadow
much of Bass's career.

1093
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,900
The reluctance of his
fellow Deputy U.S. Marshals

1094
00:54:54,966 --> 00:54:57,400
and Judge Parker to pursue charges

1095
00:54:57,400 --> 00:55:00,066
is evident in the fact that
it would be three years

1096
00:55:00,066 --> 00:55:02,466
before he faced trial
for Leach's death.

1097
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:07,800
Temporarily free from prosecution,

1098
00:55:08,100 --> 00:55:11,733
Bass carried on with his
duties as a Deputy U.S. Marshal

1099
00:55:11,733 --> 00:55:13,666
and turned his attention to the capture

1100
00:55:13,666 --> 00:55:15,433
and arrest of Jim Webb,

1101
00:55:15,466 --> 00:55:16,900
a Texan cowboy

1102
00:55:16,900 --> 00:55:19,100
who had drifted into
the Chickasaw Nation

1103
00:55:19,100 --> 00:55:22,400
in Indian Territory in 1883.

1104
00:55:25,300 --> 00:55:29,200
Jim Webb was the foreman
of the McLeish-Washington Ranch.

1105
00:55:29,333 --> 00:55:30,766
When a neighboring farmer,

1106
00:55:30,766 --> 00:55:31,866
a Black minister,

1107
00:55:31,966 --> 00:55:34,666
accidentally burned off
a portion of the ranch,

1108
00:55:34,866 --> 00:55:36,666
Webb shot and killed him.

1109
00:55:37,166 --> 00:55:38,666
Bass was given the warrant

1110
00:55:38,666 --> 00:55:41,266
and Webb was arrested
and released on bond,

1111
00:55:41,500 --> 00:55:43,633
but failed to show up for trial.

1112
00:55:43,933 --> 00:55:45,966
Bass was sent after him again.

1113
00:55:46,366 --> 00:55:48,066
He found him at Bywater Store,

1114
00:55:48,066 --> 00:55:51,500
which was a stagecoach stop
in the Chickasaw Nation

1115
00:55:51,733 --> 00:55:54,966
and they got into a running gunfight.

1116
00:55:55,066 --> 00:55:59,466
Webb, while trying to run away from

1117
00:55:59,466 --> 00:56:01,600
Bass, was shooting at him with his rifle.

1118
00:56:01,733 --> 00:56:04,100
He cut the brim of Bass's hat,

1119
00:56:04,100 --> 00:56:05,966
he cut a button off his coat,

1120
00:56:06,133 --> 00:56:09,266
he shot his reigns where
Bass couldn't hold his horse.

1121
00:56:09,266 --> 00:56:11,466
And so Bass had to get off
his horse and in doing so,

1122
00:56:11,466 --> 00:56:13,033
he grabbed his rifle.

1123
00:56:13,333 --> 00:56:15,166
According to D.C. Gideon,

1124
00:56:15,166 --> 00:56:17,166
an author writing at the time,

1125
00:56:17,333 --> 00:56:19,966
Bass fired the first shot
from his Winchester,

1126
00:56:19,966 --> 00:56:21,033
hitting Webb.

1127
00:56:21,066 --> 00:56:23,700
And before the outlaw's
body hit the ground,

1128
00:56:23,866 --> 00:56:26,500
Bass hit him with a second
shot from his rifle.

1129
00:56:27,100 --> 00:56:29,900
When Bass and his posse
approached the dying Webb,

1130
00:56:30,066 --> 00:56:32,066
his last words were for Bass,

1131
00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:33,200
telling him:

1132
00:56:33,333 --> 00:56:35,000
'You are a brave man.

1133
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:37,066
I want you to accept my revolver

1134
00:56:37,066 --> 00:56:38,566
and scabbard as a present

1135
00:56:38,566 --> 00:56:40,233
and you must accept them.

1136
00:56:40,466 --> 00:56:42,066
Take it, for with it

1137
00:56:42,066 --> 00:56:43,833
I have killed eleven men,

1138
00:56:44,166 --> 00:56:46,166
four of them in Indian Territory

1139
00:56:46,300 --> 00:56:49,100
and I expected you to make the twelfth.'

1140
00:56:50,500 --> 00:56:56,233
Bass accepted the gift.
In an interview he gave in 1901,

1141
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:57,666
Bass recalled:

1142
00:56:57,766 --> 00:57:00,800
'The bravest man I ever saw was Jim Webb,

1143
00:57:00,866 --> 00:57:03,733
a Mexican that I killed in 1884

1144
00:57:03,733 --> 00:57:05,366
near Sacred Heart Mission.

1145
00:57:05,533 --> 00:57:06,866
He was a murderer,

1146
00:57:06,933 --> 00:57:09,266
I got in between him and his horse.

1147
00:57:09,866 --> 00:57:12,900
He stepped out into the
open 500 yards away

1148
00:57:12,900 --> 00:57:15,033
and commenced shooting with his Winchester.

1149
00:57:15,300 --> 00:57:18,400
He was 500 yards away from
me when I killed him.'

1150
00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:22,133
That was one of Bass's greatest gunfights

1151
00:57:22,133 --> 00:57:23,866
especially at that distance, because

1152
00:57:23,866 --> 00:57:26,066
500 yards is a quarter mile

1153
00:57:26,300 --> 00:57:28,366
and so,

1154
00:57:28,566 --> 00:57:30,766
it was quite a feat to
shoot somebody at that

1155
00:57:30,766 --> 00:57:32,466
distance and hit them.

1156
00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:36,033
But Bass was very good
with a rifle and pistol.

1157
00:57:39,533 --> 00:57:41,300
Bass came into conflict

1158
00:57:41,300 --> 00:57:44,866
with the law again in October 1884,

1159
00:57:44,900 --> 00:57:47,466
when he was temporarily
relieved of his duties

1160
00:57:47,466 --> 00:57:51,133
as a deputy by the U.S.
Marshal’s Office in Fort Smith

1161
00:57:51,133 --> 00:57:54,333
while charges of accepting
bribes were being investigated.

1162
00:57:58,566 --> 00:57:59,966
After two months,

1163
00:57:59,966 --> 00:58:01,700
Marshal Thom Bowles determined

1164
00:58:01,700 --> 00:58:04,366
that there was not enough
evidence to prove his guilt

1165
00:58:04,366 --> 00:58:07,900
and he was reinstated by Christmas 1884.

1166
00:58:11,366 --> 00:58:12,866
Bass continued tracking

1167
00:58:12,866 --> 00:58:15,900
and bringing in outlaws
in the Indian Territory

1168
00:58:15,933 --> 00:58:18,033
throughout 1885.

1169
00:58:18,566 --> 00:58:19,933
The following year,

1170
00:58:19,933 --> 00:58:23,066
he made a surprising
friendship with Belle Starr,

1171
00:58:23,066 --> 00:58:24,366
the infamous outlaw

1172
00:58:24,366 --> 00:58:26,266
whom he set out to serve with a warrant

1173
00:58:26,266 --> 00:58:28,166
for horse theft.

1174
00:58:28,333 --> 00:58:29,900
At first glance,

1175
00:58:30,133 --> 00:58:31,466
serving Belle Starr,

1176
00:58:31,466 --> 00:58:33,200
a daughter of the Confederacy,

1177
00:58:33,200 --> 00:58:34,800
with a warrant for her arrest

1178
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,700
was an especially difficult
and dangerous assignment

1179
00:58:37,700 --> 00:58:39,800
for a Black Deputy U.S. Marshal.

1180
00:58:40,533 --> 00:58:43,500
- Belle Starr was one of the
most famous characters

1181
00:58:43,500 --> 00:58:45,033
of the Indian Territory

1182
00:58:45,166 --> 00:58:47,933
and she was known to give aid

1183
00:58:47,933 --> 00:58:51,100
to outlaws and sometimes
be engaged herself

1184
00:58:51,100 --> 00:58:52,466
in stealing horses.

1185
00:58:52,733 --> 00:58:56,300
She was a former Confederate sympathizer.

1186
00:58:56,300 --> 00:58:58,500
She was fond of Bass Reeves.

1187
00:58:58,500 --> 00:59:02,833
She said that she found him
to be courageous and brave

1188
00:59:03,000 --> 00:59:05,066
and he was a man of his word,

1189
00:59:05,066 --> 00:59:07,000
so they had a friendship.

1190
00:59:07,366 --> 00:59:09,600
And actually, in 1886,

1191
00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:11,833
Bass got the warrant for her arrest.

1192
00:59:11,966 --> 00:59:13,466
He didn't arrest her,

1193
00:59:13,533 --> 00:59:16,233
but allowed her to turn herself in.

1194
00:59:16,533 --> 00:59:18,766
- This unlikely friendship
between Bass Reeves

1195
00:59:18,766 --> 00:59:20,300
and Belle Starr,

1196
00:59:20,300 --> 00:59:22,600
a Black former slave turned lawman

1197
00:59:22,600 --> 00:59:24,666
and a White Confederate sympathizer-

1198
00:59:24,666 --> 00:59:25,766
turned-outlaw,

1199
00:59:26,100 --> 00:59:28,500
highlights the complexity
of the Old West.

1200
00:59:29,100 --> 00:59:32,433
In a time of stark racial
and social divides,

1201
00:59:32,733 --> 00:59:34,466
Belle Starr's respect for him

1202
00:59:34,466 --> 00:59:36,500
is a testament to Bass's fair

1203
00:59:36,500 --> 00:59:39,200
and impartial approach
to upholding justice,

1204
00:59:39,333 --> 00:59:43,000
and to the multifaceted
reality of life on the frontier.

1205
00:59:52,233 --> 00:59:55,600
On January 21, 1886,

1206
00:59:55,800 --> 00:59:58,600
Bass experienced the
reach of the law up close

1207
00:59:58,600 --> 00:59:59,766
when he was arrested

1208
00:59:59,766 --> 01:00:02,066
and charged with the murder of his cook

1209
01:00:02,066 --> 01:00:03,166
William Leach.

1210
01:00:03,733 --> 01:00:05,400
Given no special treatment,

1211
01:00:05,466 --> 01:00:07,866
he was placed in the Fort Smith jail.

1212
01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:11,666
- The Democrats had taken
power in Washington,

1213
01:00:11,666 --> 01:00:12,766
we had a new,

1214
01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:19,233
a new federal prosecutor

1215
01:00:20,100 --> 01:00:23,333
and they really kind of
wanted to get rid of all the

1216
01:00:23,333 --> 01:00:26,266
vestiges of Reconstruction

1217
01:00:26,266 --> 01:00:30,300
and these Black deputy marshals
and other appointees

1218
01:00:30,700 --> 01:00:32,066
were certainly that.

1219
01:00:32,966 --> 01:00:37,366
- The U.S. Marshal for Fort Smith
in 1886 was John Carroll,

1220
01:00:37,466 --> 01:00:39,866
one of only two former
Confederate soldiers

1221
01:00:39,866 --> 01:00:42,666
who held the post during Bass's tenure.

1222
01:00:44,833 --> 01:00:47,433
The press was not on Bass's side.

1223
01:00:47,733 --> 01:00:49,900
When reporting on Bass's arrest,

1224
01:00:49,900 --> 01:00:55,100
the January 22, 1886 edition
of the "Arkansas Gazette",

1225
01:00:55,200 --> 01:00:58,033
published in the capital
city of Little Rock reads:

1226
01:00:58,533 --> 01:00:59,733
'Reeves has been constantly

1227
01:00:59,733 --> 01:01:02,266
on the Marshals' force
here for several years,

1228
01:01:02,366 --> 01:01:05,000
and notwithstanding rumors
reached here frequently

1229
01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:07,166
that he was in league with
some of the worst cutthroats

1230
01:01:07,166 --> 01:01:09,200
and outlaws in the Indian country,

1231
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:12,266
he managed to cover up his
tracks so effectually

1232
01:01:12,266 --> 01:01:13,966
as to retain his commission

1233
01:01:14,066 --> 01:01:16,166
until the recent Marshal took charge,

1234
01:01:16,166 --> 01:01:17,633
when he was removed.'

1235
01:01:18,800 --> 01:01:20,666
The reporting against Bass

1236
01:01:20,700 --> 01:01:22,600
continued in his hometown press.

1237
01:01:22,800 --> 01:01:25,933
In the January 23, 1886

1238
01:01:25,933 --> 01:01:27,700
edition of the "Van Buren Press",

1239
01:01:27,933 --> 01:01:29,266
the paper reads:

1240
01:01:29,866 --> 01:01:32,166
'Bass Reeves has a reputation
throughout western

1241
01:01:32,166 --> 01:01:36,300
Arkansas and the Indian Territory
that no man need envy.

1242
01:01:36,733 --> 01:01:39,300
It is said that when he was
riding as deputy,

1243
01:01:39,333 --> 01:01:42,600
he was in the habit of holding
"kangaroo court" in camp

1244
01:01:42,600 --> 01:01:45,466
and extorting small sums
of money from prisoners

1245
01:01:45,500 --> 01:01:47,133
by fining them for small

1246
01:01:47,133 --> 01:01:48,433
imaginary offenses

1247
01:01:48,533 --> 01:01:51,266
and would use the money to buy tobacco, etc.'

1248
01:01:54,500 --> 01:01:56,633
Although faced with these charges,

1249
01:01:56,900 --> 01:01:59,466
Bass was never proven guilty of bribery.

1250
01:01:59,966 --> 01:02:02,966
The extent of the bias
that the "Van Buren Press"

1251
01:02:02,966 --> 01:02:05,333
held against him was underscored when

1252
01:02:05,333 --> 01:02:06,600
in the paper was printed

1253
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:08,366
a dangerous accusation

1254
01:02:08,533 --> 01:02:11,200
that could have led to a
horrific death by lynching

1255
01:02:11,200 --> 01:02:13,800
for any Black man in the 19th century.

1256
01:02:13,933 --> 01:02:17,400
The "Van Buren Press" reads:

1257
01:02:17,733 --> 01:02:20,466
'It was charged at one time
he made an insulting

1258
01:02:20,466 --> 01:02:22,833
proposal to a White
woman in the Territory

1259
01:02:23,066 --> 01:02:26,166
and his conduct was investigated
by the grand jury

1260
01:02:26,166 --> 01:02:28,166
and his dismissal was the force

1261
01:02:28,166 --> 01:02:29,700
recommended by that body,

1262
01:02:29,733 --> 01:02:31,066
but for some reason

1263
01:02:31,066 --> 01:02:32,500
he was not dismissed

1264
01:02:32,500 --> 01:02:34,633
but let to go on making history,

1265
01:02:34,700 --> 01:02:37,066
all of which will come
to light in due time.'

1266
01:02:38,066 --> 01:02:39,533
None of these allegations

1267
01:02:39,533 --> 01:02:41,800
against Bass were ever substantiated

1268
01:02:41,933 --> 01:02:44,666
nor was he ever found
guilty of these charges.

1269
01:02:46,633 --> 01:02:47,966
What is undisputed

1270
01:02:47,966 --> 01:02:50,600
is that Bass shot and
killed William Leach.

1271
01:02:51,733 --> 01:02:53,933
Having spent five months in jail,

1272
01:02:53,933 --> 01:02:58,900
he was bailed out on
$3,000 bond in June 1886.

1273
01:02:59,100 --> 01:03:00,200
Four months later,

1274
01:03:00,200 --> 01:03:01,633
the trial began.

1275
01:03:02,466 --> 01:03:05,633
Judge Isaac Parker presided over the trial

1276
01:03:05,666 --> 01:03:09,200
and Bass had the best defense
attorneys in Fort Smith:

1277
01:03:10,500 --> 01:03:11,900
William H.H. Clayton,

1278
01:03:11,900 --> 01:03:14,100
William M. Cravens, and
Thomas Markham.

1279
01:03:14,566 --> 01:03:18,166
Any relief that Bass may
have felt with Judge Parker

1280
01:03:18,166 --> 01:03:21,166
presiding would almost
certainly have been tempered

1281
01:03:21,166 --> 01:03:24,466
by Parker's reputation as
the "Hanging Judge".

1282
01:03:27,500 --> 01:03:31,066
- He was acquitted, after
a week-long trial

1283
01:03:32,566 --> 01:03:34,100
and went back to work.

1284
01:03:34,100 --> 01:03:39,033
And I think that is what
sets him apart in my mind.

1285
01:03:40,100 --> 01:03:43,233
Instead of saying, well take
this job and shove it.

1286
01:03:44,200 --> 01:03:46,966
That he pinned his badge
back on and his pistol

1287
01:03:46,966 --> 01:03:49,200
and he got on his
horse and he took

1288
01:03:49,266 --> 01:03:50,366
a handful of warrants

1289
01:03:50,366 --> 01:03:54,900
after having spent some five
months in the federal jail,

1290
01:03:55,133 --> 01:03:56,600
it was not pleasant,

1291
01:03:57,333 --> 01:04:00,566
and go back to work.

1292
01:04:00,666 --> 01:04:02,900
He lost his farm in Van Buren,

1293
01:04:02,900 --> 01:04:04,433
he lost his

1294
01:04:04,533 --> 01:04:07,666
ability to take care of his family
here in the area.

1295
01:04:07,666 --> 01:04:08,766
He'd gotten into debt,

1296
01:04:08,766 --> 01:04:11,566
was living in a rented
home in Fort Smith.

1297
01:04:13,166 --> 01:04:14,366
Even though Bass

1298
01:04:14,366 --> 01:04:17,566
had more than two decades
of work left ahead of him,

1299
01:04:17,766 --> 01:04:20,166
he would never financially recover.

1300
01:04:29,733 --> 01:04:34,233
- By 1888 Bass was recommissioned
as a Deputy U.S. Marshal.

1301
01:04:34,466 --> 01:04:37,266
It was a time of change
in the Indian Territory.

1302
01:04:38,500 --> 01:04:41,666
The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

1303
01:04:41,800 --> 01:04:44,400
divided the Indian Territory into plots,

1304
01:04:44,766 --> 01:04:47,233
allowing settlers to claim surplus lands.

1305
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:52,566
In 1889, Congress opened the
western part of The Territory

1306
01:04:52,566 --> 01:04:55,100
for settlement by White and Black settlers.

1307
01:04:57,966 --> 01:05:00,666
On May 2, 1890,

1308
01:05:01,466 --> 01:05:04,766
Congress approved an act that
created The Territory of Oklahoma,

1309
01:05:04,933 --> 01:05:08,466
which comprised all areas
formerly known as the Indian Territory

1310
01:05:08,466 --> 01:05:11,800
that were not occupied
by the Five Civilized Tribes.

1311
01:05:16,133 --> 01:05:18,700
The creation of The Territory of Oklahoma

1312
01:05:18,766 --> 01:05:21,800
led to the rapid establishment
of new towns,

1313
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:22,966
such as Guthrie,

1314
01:05:23,000 --> 01:05:26,233
resulting in the emergence
of a new class of criminals.

1315
01:05:28,900 --> 01:05:31,433
Indian Territory did not have saloons

1316
01:05:31,800 --> 01:05:33,900
and so whiskey was illegal.

1317
01:05:33,900 --> 01:05:35,233
The Oklahoma Territory,

1318
01:05:35,700 --> 01:05:37,000
whiskey was legal,

1319
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:38,300
so they had saloons.

1320
01:05:38,700 --> 01:05:41,300
And so, what some enterprising
people did,

1321
01:05:41,300 --> 01:05:44,100
they decided that since it
was such a great attraction

1322
01:05:44,100 --> 01:05:45,000
for many of these people

1323
01:05:45,000 --> 01:05:46,633
that lived in the Indian Territory,

1324
01:05:46,666 --> 01:05:49,066
they would set up saloons on the border.

1325
01:05:49,666 --> 01:05:52,766
- These "whiskey towns" were
populated by gamblers,

1326
01:05:53,000 --> 01:05:54,966
bootleggers, murderers,

1327
01:05:54,966 --> 01:05:58,033
and many other outlaws
on the run from the law.

1328
01:05:58,333 --> 01:06:02,000
In fact, the term "bootlegging"
entered the lexicon

1329
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:04,000
from the drovers and cowboys

1330
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:06,300
who would conceal whiskey in their boots

1331
01:06:06,300 --> 01:06:09,800
to sneak into the dry
Indian Territory nearby.

1332
01:06:10,366 --> 01:06:11,000
Whiskey towns

1333
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:14,600
would similarly be the origin
of "last chance" saloons,

1334
01:06:14,700 --> 01:06:16,533
as in the last chance to get liquor

1335
01:06:16,533 --> 01:06:18,666
before entering Indian Territory.

1336
01:06:18,766 --> 01:06:21,533
- The Corner was the most
dangerous of all of them

1337
01:06:21,533 --> 01:06:22,800
there were so many gunfights

1338
01:06:22,800 --> 01:06:23,500
they said that

1339
01:06:23,500 --> 01:06:26,700
gun shells were on the
ground like pebbles or stones.

1340
01:06:26,733 --> 01:06:28,366
They were really bad places.

1341
01:06:28,866 --> 01:06:31,600
And so those saloons
were saloons that Bass

1342
01:06:31,600 --> 01:06:34,900
had to go into on occasion
and deal with customers

1343
01:06:34,900 --> 01:06:36,100
that were really, really

1344
01:06:36,100 --> 01:06:37,433
rough guys.

1345
01:06:39,233 --> 01:06:41,500
But Bass was one of the few Deputy

1346
01:06:41,500 --> 01:06:42,866
U.S. Marshals who are noted to go

1347
01:06:42,866 --> 01:06:45,000
into these notorious saloons.

1348
01:06:46,333 --> 01:06:48,166
While people of all ethnicities

1349
01:06:48,166 --> 01:06:51,466
sought the chance for a new
life in these western lands,

1350
01:06:51,666 --> 01:06:54,500
there was a prominent
migration of Black settlers.

1351
01:06:55,366 --> 01:06:58,100
Among the new inhabitants
of Oklahoma Territory

1352
01:06:58,333 --> 01:07:00,166
were 10,000 Blacks

1353
01:07:00,266 --> 01:07:03,300
coming primarily from southern states.

1354
01:07:03,333 --> 01:07:05,966
Oklahoma and the Indian Territories

1355
01:07:06,166 --> 01:07:09,600
became home to over thirty
Black towns and settlements,

1356
01:07:09,733 --> 01:07:12,800
the highest concentration
in the U.S. at that time.

1357
01:07:13,166 --> 01:07:14,500
Tullahassee,

1358
01:07:14,500 --> 01:07:15,866
the oldest Black town,

1359
01:07:15,966 --> 01:07:19,066
housed a manual labor
school for Creek freedmen

1360
01:07:19,066 --> 01:07:22,033
and later became home
to Flipper Davis College,

1361
01:07:22,066 --> 01:07:25,333
the state's only private
institution for Black students

1362
01:07:25,333 --> 01:07:27,166
in the early 20th century.

1363
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:31,666
Boley, the largest Black town,

1364
01:07:31,866 --> 01:07:34,333
boasted a thriving business
district and bank.

1365
01:07:35,100 --> 01:07:39,100
Booker T. Washington referred to
Boley as the most enterprising

1366
01:07:39,100 --> 01:07:42,566
and fascinating Negro
town in the United States.

1367
01:07:45,266 --> 01:07:48,166
Langston was established by
Edward P. McCabe,

1368
01:07:48,266 --> 01:07:51,100
the highest elected
Black official in the West.

1369
01:07:51,766 --> 01:07:52,866
Langston eventually

1370
01:07:52,866 --> 01:07:55,200
became the home of
Langston University,

1371
01:07:55,366 --> 01:07:58,466
the sole historically
Black college in Oklahoma.

1372
01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:00,566
McCabe advocated

1373
01:08:00,566 --> 01:08:03,000
for more Black towns
in the Territories,

1374
01:08:03,733 --> 01:08:06,600
envisioning Oklahoma as a
predominantly Black state

1375
01:08:06,600 --> 01:08:08,300
with himself as its governor.

1376
01:08:10,333 --> 01:08:13,100
Despite facing intense
threats and opposition

1377
01:08:13,100 --> 01:08:15,666
from armed White
cowboys and ranchers,

1378
01:08:15,933 --> 01:08:19,666
McCabe rose to become
Deputy Auditor of Oklahoma

1379
01:08:19,666 --> 01:08:23,400
Territory from 1897 to 1907

1380
01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:25,500
before passing away in poverty.

1381
01:08:26,500 --> 01:08:29,866
Although his dreams for
Oklahoma did not materialize,

1382
01:08:30,266 --> 01:08:32,700
Black settlers continued to play a

1383
01:08:32,700 --> 01:08:34,700
significant role in the region's future.

1384
01:08:40,966 --> 01:08:42,500
The year 1890

1385
01:08:42,500 --> 01:08:45,433
found Bass still working
in the Indian Territory,

1386
01:08:45,566 --> 01:08:46,966
and it would be his most

1387
01:08:46,966 --> 01:08:47,866
productive year

1388
01:08:47,866 --> 01:08:51,500
since the end of his murder
trial in 1887.

1389
01:08:54,533 --> 01:08:58,000
One of the first outlaws
he pursued was Tosalonah,

1390
01:08:58,133 --> 01:08:59,500
known as "Greenleaf",

1391
01:08:59,500 --> 01:09:00,900
a Seminole Indian

1392
01:09:00,900 --> 01:09:03,466
who had been on the run
for nearly two decades.

1393
01:09:04,166 --> 01:09:06,900
Greenleaf was believed to
have murdered three Whites

1394
01:09:06,900 --> 01:09:08,166
and four Indians,

1395
01:09:08,366 --> 01:09:11,400
with one of his victims
being a federal postal worker,

1396
01:09:11,500 --> 01:09:14,666
as well as armed robbery
and whiskey smuggling.

1397
01:09:15,966 --> 01:09:18,266
Bass set off into Seminole territory

1398
01:09:18,366 --> 01:09:20,566
in search of the infamous outlaw.

1399
01:09:21,066 --> 01:09:23,166
While numerous lawmen of the time

1400
01:09:23,166 --> 01:09:24,800
had been sent to capture him,

1401
01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:26,700
they were all unsuccessful.

1402
01:09:27,400 --> 01:09:28,966
Fortune, however,

1403
01:09:29,133 --> 01:09:30,100
favored Bass

1404
01:09:30,100 --> 01:09:31,700
for he happened to be nearby

1405
01:09:31,900 --> 01:09:33,733
when Greenleaf smuggled whiskey

1406
01:09:33,733 --> 01:09:36,566
into the Indian Territory
for the last time.

1407
01:09:37,100 --> 01:09:40,100
Bass ascertained where he was living

1408
01:09:40,533 --> 01:09:43,566
and decided that the safest thing to do

1409
01:09:43,566 --> 01:09:45,666
was to try to catch him
early in the morning

1410
01:09:45,666 --> 01:09:47,100
before he woke up.

1411
01:09:47,200 --> 01:09:49,066
So, Bass had his posse

1412
01:09:49,400 --> 01:09:52,100
charge the cabin early in the morning,

1413
01:09:52,533 --> 01:09:53,700
jumped in on Greenleaf

1414
01:09:53,700 --> 01:09:56,066
and they arrested him before he realized

1415
01:09:56,066 --> 01:09:57,066
what was going on.

1416
01:09:58,800 --> 01:09:59,966
In June,

1417
01:10:00,066 --> 01:10:02,866
Greenleaf was convicted of
the lesser charge of selling

1418
01:10:02,866 --> 01:10:06,566
whiskey in Indian Territory and fined $100.

1419
01:10:07,066 --> 01:10:09,066
He was put on the train to the Detroit

1420
01:10:09,066 --> 01:10:10,200
House of Corrections,

1421
01:10:10,466 --> 01:10:12,400
sentenced to serve 18 months.

1422
01:10:14,200 --> 01:10:15,200
There was not enough

1423
01:10:15,200 --> 01:10:17,700
evidence to convict him
of the murder charge.

1424
01:10:26,533 --> 01:10:29,566
- Bass was no stranger to
the prejudices of people

1425
01:10:29,566 --> 01:10:30,933
unaccustomed to seeing

1426
01:10:30,933 --> 01:10:34,000
Black men wield the authority
of the federal government.

1427
01:10:36,966 --> 01:10:38,033
From his youth,

1428
01:10:38,200 --> 01:10:40,466
Bass would have remembered
how the Fugitive

1429
01:10:40,466 --> 01:10:44,600
Slave Act of 1850 had
obligated U.S. Marshals

1430
01:10:44,600 --> 01:10:45,766
and their deputies

1431
01:10:45,766 --> 01:10:48,666
to return escaped slaves to their owners,

1432
01:10:48,800 --> 01:10:51,300
irrespective of whether or
not the fugitives

1433
01:10:51,300 --> 01:10:53,100
had made it to a free state.

1434
01:10:55,400 --> 01:10:58,700
While racism had made
Bass's job more difficult,

1435
01:10:58,866 --> 01:11:01,966
it had not prevented him from
becoming one of the most

1436
01:11:01,966 --> 01:11:06,066
successful and effective
Deputy U.S. Marshals in the West.

1437
01:11:06,300 --> 01:11:08,566
But, times were changing

1438
01:11:08,566 --> 01:11:09,466
and the gains

1439
01:11:09,466 --> 01:11:12,766
made by Blacks after the
Civil War were under threat.

1440
01:11:13,866 --> 01:11:16,033
From 1890 onwards,

1441
01:11:16,366 --> 01:11:18,866
race would increasingly
become a daily

1442
01:11:18,866 --> 01:11:21,633
concern to Bass in the
performance of his duties.

1443
01:11:22,333 --> 01:11:24,066
And surviving evidence

1444
01:11:24,100 --> 01:11:27,133
suggests that the new pressures
of the changing world

1445
01:11:27,133 --> 01:11:29,766
and the uncertainty of
his future with the federal

1446
01:11:29,766 --> 01:11:31,466
government were getting to him.

1447
01:11:35,100 --> 01:11:37,200
In May 1891,

1448
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:39,166
he brought in two White men--

1449
01:11:39,366 --> 01:11:41,900
William McDaniel and Ben Card--

1450
01:11:42,066 --> 01:11:43,900
for the murder of John Irvin,

1451
01:11:43,900 --> 01:11:46,200
a Black man.

1452
01:11:46,200 --> 01:11:48,866
Bass did not have
warrants for their arrest.

1453
01:11:50,566 --> 01:11:52,000
For two months,

1454
01:11:52,100 --> 01:11:54,500
Bass rode the men around in his wagon.

1455
01:11:55,433 --> 01:11:57,300
When he returned to Fort Smith,

1456
01:11:57,466 --> 01:12:00,266
Bass had to let the men go without charge.

1457
01:12:00,533 --> 01:12:03,400
He was likely reprimanded
for making the arrests

1458
01:12:03,400 --> 01:12:06,666
without a writ or enough
evidence to support one.

1459
01:12:08,500 --> 01:12:11,633
Perhaps finding strength
in numbers shortly thereafter,

1460
01:12:11,733 --> 01:12:14,166
Bass formed a small posse with his friend

1461
01:12:14,166 --> 01:12:17,633
and fellow Black Deputy U.S.
Marshal Grant Johnson.

1462
01:12:19,833 --> 01:12:21,900
In May 1893,

1463
01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:23,733
George Crump was appointed

1464
01:12:23,733 --> 01:12:26,833
as the new U.S. Marshal
for the Fort Smith court.

1465
01:12:27,600 --> 01:12:30,700
Crump was a former Confederate
soldier and a Democrat.

1466
01:12:32,133 --> 01:12:34,933
Bass's career at Fort Smith
would come to an end

1467
01:12:34,933 --> 01:12:36,300
a few months later.

1468
01:12:38,666 --> 01:12:40,866
Crump's veteran status and political

1469
01:12:40,866 --> 01:12:44,166
leanings were not the cause
of Bass leaving Fort Smith,

1470
01:12:44,666 --> 01:12:47,666
the former Confederate kept
on other Black deputies

1471
01:12:47,666 --> 01:12:49,000
such as Rufus Cannon,

1472
01:12:49,133 --> 01:12:50,100
Grant Johnson,

1473
01:12:50,133 --> 01:12:51,600
and Bynum Colbert.

1474
01:12:56,133 --> 01:12:58,166
Bass's departure from Fort Smith

1475
01:12:58,166 --> 01:12:59,800
was for personal reasons.

1476
01:13:00,166 --> 01:13:02,466
In July 1893,

1477
01:13:02,600 --> 01:13:04,766
two months after Crump's appointment,

1478
01:13:05,300 --> 01:13:06,500
Bass's eldest son

1479
01:13:06,500 --> 01:13:08,400
Robert was killed while at work

1480
01:13:08,400 --> 01:13:11,566
coupling cars as a brakeman
for the Central Arkansas &

1481
01:13:11,566 --> 01:13:12,966
Houston Railway.

1482
01:13:13,933 --> 01:13:17,066
He left behind a wife and two children.

1483
01:13:18,200 --> 01:13:19,366
In his youth,

1484
01:13:19,500 --> 01:13:22,166
Robert had occasionally
served as a posseman

1485
01:13:22,166 --> 01:13:24,633
while out hunting outlaws with his father.

1486
01:13:27,733 --> 01:13:29,233
Bass sought distance.

1487
01:13:30,800 --> 01:13:32,800
Now 45-years-old,

1488
01:13:32,800 --> 01:13:34,100
he was transferred to the

1489
01:13:34,100 --> 01:13:37,166
Eastern District of Texas court
in Paris, Texas.

1490
01:13:37,966 --> 01:13:39,466
He had had an enduring

1491
01:13:39,466 --> 01:13:41,933
friendly relationship with
Judge Isaac Parker

1492
01:13:41,933 --> 01:13:44,200
that extended to the Reeves family.

1493
01:13:44,766 --> 01:13:46,766
After Bass left Fort Smith,

1494
01:13:46,766 --> 01:13:47,866
his son Newland

1495
01:13:47,866 --> 01:13:50,566
was listed in the Fort Smith
Business Directory

1496
01:13:50,566 --> 01:13:53,666
as working for and living
with Judge Parker

1497
01:13:53,666 --> 01:13:57,433
for the years 1894 and 1895.

1498
01:13:59,166 --> 01:14:02,633
Bass's grief for the loss
of his firstborn son

1499
01:14:02,733 --> 01:14:04,600
seems to have been substantial

1500
01:14:04,700 --> 01:14:07,400
and appears to have put
a strain on his marriage.

1501
01:14:07,866 --> 01:14:10,966
When he took up his new
position for the Texas court,

1502
01:14:10,966 --> 01:14:12,066
he left his wife

1503
01:14:12,066 --> 01:14:14,066
Jennie and his children behind.

1504
01:14:25,200 --> 01:14:28,700
- In the Senate Report of the
First Session of the 48th Congress

1505
01:14:28,700 --> 01:14:32,166
on May 26, 1884,

1506
01:14:32,500 --> 01:14:35,033
bill H.R. 6074

1507
01:14:35,033 --> 01:14:37,933
reassigned the county of
Lamar, and others

1508
01:14:37,933 --> 01:14:40,266
along with part of the Indian Territory,

1509
01:14:40,366 --> 01:14:42,800
from the Northern Judicial
District of Texas

1510
01:14:42,800 --> 01:14:44,233
to the Eastern District.

1511
01:14:44,666 --> 01:14:45,966
It further determined

1512
01:14:46,000 --> 01:14:48,700
that the terms of the
circuit and district courts

1513
01:14:48,733 --> 01:14:51,700
would be held twice yearly
in the town of Paris,

1514
01:14:51,700 --> 01:14:53,266
Lamar County, Texas.

1515
01:14:56,033 --> 01:15:00,566
Paris was founded in 1844 by
the merchant George W. Wright.

1516
01:15:01,633 --> 01:15:03,900
After the residents of Lamar County

1517
01:15:03,900 --> 01:15:06,266
voted to have Paris as the county seat,

1518
01:15:06,533 --> 01:15:10,666
Wright donated 50 acres of
land to found the town.

1519
01:15:11,000 --> 01:15:12,233
It was incorporated by the

1520
01:15:12,233 --> 01:15:17,566
Congress of the Republic of
Texas on February 3, 1845.

1521
01:15:17,966 --> 01:15:20,566
A railroad hub with numerous restaurants,

1522
01:15:20,566 --> 01:15:21,900
hotels, and churches,

1523
01:15:21,900 --> 01:15:23,800
Paris was prosperous.

1524
01:15:27,633 --> 01:15:31,466
In 1893, the year that Bass
was assigned to the

1525
01:15:31,466 --> 01:15:33,200
Eastern District of Texas,

1526
01:15:33,600 --> 01:15:36,666
Paris was the scene of a
horrific act of violence

1527
01:15:36,700 --> 01:15:40,233
that would give birth
to the phrase "Spectacle Lynching".

1528
01:15:40,800 --> 01:15:42,000
A Black man,

1529
01:15:42,066 --> 01:15:43,166
Henry Smith,

1530
01:15:43,266 --> 01:15:46,100
was accused of the brutal
murder of Myrtle Vance,

1531
01:15:46,566 --> 01:15:49,766
the 4-year-old daughter
of Deputy Henry Vance,

1532
01:15:49,900 --> 01:15:51,300
a local lawman.

1533
01:15:52,733 --> 01:15:54,233
Some days before,

1534
01:15:54,466 --> 01:15:57,433
Vance and Smith had been
involved in an altercation

1535
01:15:57,500 --> 01:15:59,300
after Vance was sent to arrest

1536
01:15:59,300 --> 01:16:01,466
Smith for drunk and disorderly conduct.

1537
01:16:02,800 --> 01:16:04,633
On the day of her disappearance,

1538
01:16:05,133 --> 01:16:07,266
Smith had been seen with the little girl.

1539
01:16:07,733 --> 01:16:09,300
When questioned by his wife

1540
01:16:09,300 --> 01:16:11,100
on the whereabouts of the child,

1541
01:16:11,633 --> 01:16:13,300
Smith fled Paris.

1542
01:16:14,566 --> 01:16:15,900
A few days later,

1543
01:16:15,900 --> 01:16:18,800
he was tracked down and
returned to the town

1544
01:16:18,800 --> 01:16:21,666
where he was lynched by fire
in front of a crowd of thousands.

1545
01:16:24,533 --> 01:16:27,200
Racial tensions in the town
were high when Bass

1546
01:16:27,200 --> 01:16:29,233
began his service for the Eastern District.

1547
01:16:38,666 --> 01:16:41,566
Under U.S. Marshal J. Shelby Williams,

1548
01:16:42,000 --> 01:16:45,366
Bass was tasked to patrol the
dangerous saloon towns

1549
01:16:45,366 --> 01:16:48,466
of Potawatomie County in Indian Territory

1550
01:16:48,800 --> 01:16:52,800
and he took up residence
120 miles north of Paris

1551
01:16:52,800 --> 01:16:54,366
in the town of Calvin

1552
01:16:54,933 --> 01:16:58,500
situated along the Canadian River
in the Choctaw Nation.

1553
01:16:59,333 --> 01:17:00,400
Historically,

1554
01:17:00,400 --> 01:17:01,766
the Paris, Texas court

1555
01:17:01,766 --> 01:17:05,700
was in charge of the Chickasaw
and Choctaw Nation

1556
01:17:05,800 --> 01:17:10,666
by 1890, so the jurisdiction
of the Fort Smith court

1557
01:17:10,666 --> 01:17:13,100
was being cut down in size.

1558
01:17:14,400 --> 01:17:16,333
The records of the Eastern Judicial

1559
01:17:16,333 --> 01:17:20,100
District of Texas were destroyed
in a fire in 1916,

1560
01:17:20,466 --> 01:17:22,800
therefore little is known
of Bass's activities

1561
01:17:22,800 --> 01:17:24,300
during his time there.

1562
01:17:24,733 --> 01:17:27,700
At least one account of
Bass's work in Texas

1563
01:17:27,900 --> 01:17:29,800
survives outside court records.

1564
01:17:30,366 --> 01:17:33,700
A Texas pioneer named J. B. Sparks wrote,

1565
01:17:34,133 --> 01:17:35,966
'Bass Reeves was a Negro,

1566
01:17:35,966 --> 01:17:39,200
but he was a U.S. Marshal
and made a brave officer.

1567
01:17:39,466 --> 01:17:42,100
He was sent to get two outlaws near Atwood.

1568
01:17:42,266 --> 01:17:44,033
He caught and arrested them

1569
01:17:44,066 --> 01:17:44,966
and that night

1570
01:17:44,966 --> 01:17:46,566
he went to Frank Casey's home

1571
01:17:46,566 --> 01:17:48,466
and had them fix beds in the yard

1572
01:17:48,466 --> 01:17:51,300
so he could sleep with both
prisoners handcuffed to him.'

1573
01:17:54,200 --> 01:17:55,266
The years away

1574
01:17:55,266 --> 01:17:57,766
would bring more personal
tragedies for Bass

1575
01:17:57,766 --> 01:18:00,166
as his family fell apart in his absence.

1576
01:18:00,700 --> 01:18:03,000
In June 1895,

1577
01:18:03,066 --> 01:18:04,700
his sons Newland and Edgar

1578
01:18:04,700 --> 01:18:08,200
were arrested and sentenced
to several years in prison.

1579
01:18:08,733 --> 01:18:09,800
Edgar was eventually

1580
01:18:09,800 --> 01:18:11,666
pardoned by the governor of Arkansas

1581
01:18:11,866 --> 01:18:14,666
in exchange for his testimony
against his brother.

1582
01:18:15,266 --> 01:18:17,700
The arrest and conviction of his sons

1583
01:18:17,700 --> 01:18:19,866
was a great disappointment to Bass,

1584
01:18:20,066 --> 01:18:23,100
but he continued his service
to the federal court.

1585
01:18:31,100 --> 01:18:34,100
On March 19, 1896

1586
01:18:34,400 --> 01:18:38,500
Bass's estranged wife Jennie
died in Fort Smith

1587
01:18:38,500 --> 01:18:40,833
following a two year battle with cancer.

1588
01:18:41,100 --> 01:18:43,200
She was 56-years-old.

1589
01:18:45,400 --> 01:18:46,700
A few months later,

1590
01:18:46,700 --> 01:18:49,700
on May 18, 1896,

1591
01:18:49,800 --> 01:18:52,733
the U.S. Supreme Court heard
the case of Homer

1592
01:18:52,733 --> 01:18:54,266
Plessy v. Ferguson,

1593
01:18:54,500 --> 01:18:57,066
a direct challenge to segregation laws.

1594
01:18:57,600 --> 01:18:59,733
The court ruled that separate facilities

1595
01:18:59,733 --> 01:19:02,100
for Blacks and Whites were constitutional

1596
01:19:02,133 --> 01:19:04,666
as long as the facilities were 'equal'.

1597
01:19:05,100 --> 01:19:08,066
This snowballed and quickly
extended to restaurants,

1598
01:19:08,066 --> 01:19:09,666
bathrooms, schools,

1599
01:19:09,666 --> 01:19:12,566
theaters, and other facets of public life.

1600
01:19:12,900 --> 01:19:16,800
After Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896,

1601
01:19:16,800 --> 01:19:18,200
and it was a

1602
01:19:19,333 --> 01:19:21,833
the racism came to a new crest

1603
01:19:22,400 --> 01:19:25,100
in a separate, but equal
kind of phase.

1604
01:19:25,333 --> 01:19:28,733
The restrictions against
deputies who were Black

1605
01:19:28,733 --> 01:19:30,400
began to kick in.

1606
01:19:32,100 --> 01:19:33,733
It is probable that Bass

1607
01:19:33,733 --> 01:19:36,366
felt some sense of betrayal
at this ruling.

1608
01:19:36,700 --> 01:19:37,800
The very government

1609
01:19:37,800 --> 01:19:40,600
he had been in service to
for the past two decades

1610
01:19:40,766 --> 01:19:42,966
had determined that
while he was a man

1611
01:19:42,966 --> 01:19:45,266
deserving of equal facilities as Whites,

1612
01:19:45,400 --> 01:19:46,900
he was not deserving of

1613
01:19:46,900 --> 01:19:49,300
access to the same facilities as Whites.

1614
01:19:50,100 --> 01:19:52,700
Bass had cleared the
saloons of outlaws,

1615
01:19:52,900 --> 01:19:55,600
yet was now told he
could not drink there.

1616
01:19:57,933 --> 01:19:59,800
The federal government had embarked

1617
01:19:59,800 --> 01:20:03,000
upon an ambitious quest
to ensure frontier justice

1618
01:20:03,000 --> 01:20:05,266
was dispensed by men of all races.

1619
01:20:06,233 --> 01:20:08,166
Bass exemplified this effort.

1620
01:20:08,266 --> 01:20:11,000
Yet, no one could halt
the nation's move

1621
01:20:11,000 --> 01:20:12,266
towards segregation

1622
01:20:12,266 --> 01:20:14,066
sanctioned by the Supreme Court.

1623
01:20:18,266 --> 01:20:21,233
On September 1, 1896,

1624
01:20:21,533 --> 01:20:22,566
Judge Isaac C. Parker's

1625
01:20:22,566 --> 01:20:26,066
court at Fort Smith officially
came to a close.

1626
01:20:27,700 --> 01:20:28,833
Two months later,

1627
01:20:29,000 --> 01:20:29,966
Judge Parker,

1628
01:20:29,966 --> 01:20:33,000
who had presided over
a fair and just court

1629
01:20:33,000 --> 01:20:35,233
and whom Bass considered a friend,

1630
01:20:35,600 --> 01:20:39,400
died after a long illness
at the age of fifty-eight.

1631
01:20:46,433 --> 01:20:49,000
Bass's career was in flux once again

1632
01:20:49,000 --> 01:20:51,400
when in September 1897,

1633
01:20:51,500 --> 01:20:54,300
President William McKinley
appointed Leo E. Bennett

1634
01:20:54,300 --> 01:20:56,700
as U.S. Marshal for the Northern

1635
01:20:56,700 --> 01:20:58,466
District of the Indian Territory.

1636
01:20:58,600 --> 01:21:02,100
In '97 he was transferred to the

1637
01:21:02,100 --> 01:21:03,366
Muskogee court

1638
01:21:03,766 --> 01:21:05,533
because at that time

1639
01:21:05,533 --> 01:21:08,500
they had opened up three
courts in Indian Territory:

1640
01:21:08,766 --> 01:21:10,066
one was at Ardmore,

1641
01:21:10,066 --> 01:21:11,300
one was at McCallister,

1642
01:21:11,300 --> 01:21:13,633
and the other one
was at Muskogee.

1643
01:21:13,866 --> 01:21:16,266
Marshal Bennett commissioned
Bass and his friend

1644
01:21:16,266 --> 01:21:17,300
Grant Johnson

1645
01:21:17,300 --> 01:21:19,066
as Deputy U.S. Marshals

1646
01:21:19,133 --> 01:21:21,466
assigned to the federal
court in Muskogee.

1647
01:21:22,200 --> 01:21:24,166
They would primarily
work in the Creek

1648
01:21:24,166 --> 01:21:27,800
and Cherokee nations under
Judge John Robert Thomas.

1649
01:21:28,166 --> 01:21:31,200
This was the last federal
court that Bass would serve.

1650
01:21:33,366 --> 01:21:35,366
Bass and Grant joined an impressive

1651
01:21:35,366 --> 01:21:37,766
group of seasoned Deputy U.S. Marshals

1652
01:21:37,866 --> 01:21:40,366
working for Bennett out
of the Muskogee court.

1653
01:21:43,333 --> 01:21:47,300
By 1898, an increasing
number of White settlers

1654
01:21:47,300 --> 01:21:49,633
were streaming into the
Indian Territory,

1655
01:21:50,166 --> 01:21:52,700
bringing with them the
prejudices of the era.

1656
01:21:52,900 --> 01:21:54,766
This led to racial violence.

1657
01:21:56,466 --> 01:21:58,800
Two of the most horrific events

1658
01:21:58,800 --> 01:22:01,266
occurred in early 1898

1659
01:22:01,300 --> 01:22:03,966
in the Northern District
of the Indian Territory.

1660
01:22:05,633 --> 01:22:07,000
The first incident,

1661
01:22:07,000 --> 01:22:08,866
known as the Seminole Burnings,

1662
01:22:09,166 --> 01:22:12,066
occurred in January 1898.

1663
01:22:12,333 --> 01:22:14,900
A White woman and her
young infant were found

1664
01:22:14,900 --> 01:22:16,766
dead in the Seminole Nation,

1665
01:22:16,766 --> 01:22:19,366
with murder the suspected cause.

1666
01:22:20,800 --> 01:22:23,800
Instead of waiting for the
law to deliver justice,

1667
01:22:24,000 --> 01:22:25,233
two young Native

1668
01:22:25,366 --> 01:22:28,466
Americans were erroneously
identified as the culprits.

1669
01:22:28,900 --> 01:22:30,700
They were lynched by fire.

1670
01:22:31,400 --> 01:22:32,400
The perpetrators,

1671
01:22:32,400 --> 01:22:33,700
all White men,

1672
01:22:33,800 --> 01:22:36,100
were apprehended and put on trial.

1673
01:22:36,800 --> 01:22:39,133
Six of the men were convicted by a jury

1674
01:22:39,133 --> 01:22:40,266
composed of White,

1675
01:22:40,300 --> 01:22:42,700
Black, and Native American men,

1676
01:22:43,066 --> 01:22:45,900
making the case the first
successful prosecution

1677
01:22:45,900 --> 01:22:48,566
and conviction for lynching
in the southwest.

1678
01:22:52,900 --> 01:22:55,600
Later that spring, in the same area,

1679
01:22:55,666 --> 01:22:58,866
another act of mob violence
claimed three lives,

1680
01:22:58,866 --> 01:23:01,166
when a Black man and a White woman

1681
01:23:01,166 --> 01:23:02,666
who were living as common law

1682
01:23:02,666 --> 01:23:05,933
husband and wife, were attacked
by a mob and killed.

1683
01:23:06,666 --> 01:23:09,366
The crime was known as the Wybark Tragedy.

1684
01:23:09,666 --> 01:23:11,300
Because of Bass's work,

1685
01:23:11,466 --> 01:23:15,166
several men were arrested as suspects.
However,

1686
01:23:15,600 --> 01:23:18,266
despite the efforts of the
District Attorney's office,

1687
01:23:18,400 --> 01:23:20,700
no one was ever convicted
of the murders.

1688
01:23:30,366 --> 01:23:32,233
In May 1898,

1689
01:23:32,400 --> 01:23:35,700
Bass was assigned to work
inside the city of Muskogee

1690
01:23:35,733 --> 01:23:38,700
with a mandate to assist in
curbing the vice that was

1691
01:23:38,700 --> 01:23:41,433
overflowing from the
gambling dens and brothels.

1692
01:23:42,100 --> 01:23:43,966
The days of hunting down outlaws

1693
01:23:43,966 --> 01:23:46,000
and riding his magnificent horses

1694
01:23:46,000 --> 01:23:48,800
across the prairie for weeks
or months at a time

1695
01:23:48,800 --> 01:23:50,166
were now gone.

1696
01:23:50,500 --> 01:23:52,366
Bass was 60-years-old,

1697
01:23:52,666 --> 01:23:54,900
and he more commonly
used a one-horse carriage

1698
01:23:54,900 --> 01:23:56,166
or walked a beat

1699
01:23:56,166 --> 01:23:58,166
than he spent time in the saddle.

1700
01:23:58,966 --> 01:24:01,466
The one constant from
his days in the field

1701
01:24:01,466 --> 01:24:03,866
was his dedication to
catching criminals.

1702
01:24:06,933 --> 01:24:09,600
On May 27, 1902,

1703
01:24:09,600 --> 01:24:12,266
the U.S. Congress divided the Northern

1704
01:24:12,266 --> 01:24:14,966
District of Indian Territory into two,

1705
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:16,700
creating a Western District.

1706
01:24:17,366 --> 01:24:18,500
The Western District

1707
01:24:18,500 --> 01:24:21,400
was comprised of the Creek
and Seminole nations

1708
01:24:21,466 --> 01:24:23,400
and headquartered in Muskogee.

1709
01:24:23,933 --> 01:24:26,166
Bass, along with Grant Johnson,

1710
01:24:26,333 --> 01:24:29,166
were the only two Black Deputy
U.S. Marshals

1711
01:24:29,166 --> 01:24:31,666
assigned to the new district.

1712
01:24:33,566 --> 01:24:35,166
By the 1890s,

1713
01:24:35,266 --> 01:24:38,166
the Indian and Oklahoma
Territory population

1714
01:24:38,533 --> 01:24:40,366
exceeded 200,000

1715
01:24:40,400 --> 01:24:43,866
a leap from 60,000 in 1875.

1716
01:24:46,133 --> 01:24:50,766
In 1893, Congress allowed
negotiations for Native land,

1717
01:24:50,766 --> 01:24:54,966
and the 1898 Curtis Act
applied federal law to all,

1718
01:24:54,966 --> 01:24:57,166
signaling the Territory's decline.

1719
01:24:58,400 --> 01:25:00,800
Allotments distributed for
U.S. settlement

1720
01:25:00,800 --> 01:25:04,633
ended Native sovereignty and
sped up Oklahoma's statehood.

1721
01:25:07,700 --> 01:25:09,800
Incorporated in 1898,

1722
01:25:09,800 --> 01:25:13,433
Muskogee's voters included
1,088 Blacks,

1723
01:25:13,500 --> 01:25:17,300
74 Whites, and 406 Native Americans.

1724
01:25:17,800 --> 01:25:20,933
The population of Muskogee
continued to skyrocket

1725
01:25:20,933 --> 01:25:26,300
from 4,300 in 1900 to 15,000 by 1906,

1726
01:25:26,500 --> 01:25:28,066
but despite their numbers,

1727
01:25:28,066 --> 01:25:30,300
Blacks' voices remained secondary

1728
01:25:30,300 --> 01:25:32,400
in politics.

1729
01:25:34,300 --> 01:25:35,700
Blacks, Whites,

1730
01:25:35,700 --> 01:25:38,900
and Native Americans lived
together in relative peace,

1731
01:25:38,933 --> 01:25:40,800
without segregated communities.

1732
01:25:41,000 --> 01:25:43,566
In fact, at the turn of the century,

1733
01:25:43,700 --> 01:25:46,966
Muskogee had one of the most
progressive Black business

1734
01:25:46,966 --> 01:25:49,666
communities in not
just the Indian Territory,

1735
01:25:49,666 --> 01:25:51,766
but the entire United States.

1736
01:25:54,500 --> 01:25:57,433
- This was a time of personal
contentment for Bass

1737
01:25:57,500 --> 01:25:59,833
and a second chance
at marital happiness.

1738
01:26:00,266 --> 01:26:02,333
In January 1900,

1739
01:26:02,333 --> 01:26:04,500
he married Winnie J. Sumner,

1740
01:26:04,533 --> 01:26:06,100
a former Cherokee slave

1741
01:26:06,100 --> 01:26:08,466
with two children from
a previous marriage.

1742
01:26:11,733 --> 01:26:14,666
Being newly married
did not slow Bass down.

1743
01:26:14,800 --> 01:26:17,266
On May 8, 1900,

1744
01:26:17,300 --> 01:26:20,000
he arrested Lee Peters
for the theft of five

1745
01:26:20,000 --> 01:26:21,500
hogs and one sow,

1746
01:26:21,700 --> 01:26:23,300
valued at sixty dollars.

1747
01:26:23,966 --> 01:26:25,533
Peters was convicted

1748
01:26:25,533 --> 01:26:28,333
and sentenced to serve
one year and one day

1749
01:26:28,333 --> 01:26:31,433
at the penitentiary at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

1750
01:26:35,200 --> 01:26:36,566
The following year

1751
01:26:36,566 --> 01:26:39,300
Bass would suffer the
loss of yet another son

1752
01:26:39,300 --> 01:26:40,433
when his youngest,

1753
01:26:40,533 --> 01:26:41,966
Bass Reeves Jr.

1754
01:26:42,000 --> 01:26:45,666
died of pneumonia in Muskogee
at the age of fourteen.

1755
01:26:46,600 --> 01:26:49,366
Bass had suffered the
loss of three children

1756
01:26:49,366 --> 01:26:51,966
and witnessed two more
sons sent to prison,

1757
01:26:52,266 --> 01:26:54,600
tragedies that would test
the resolve of the

1758
01:26:54,600 --> 01:26:55,800
strongest men.

1759
01:26:58,533 --> 01:27:02,000
But, it was the arrest
of his son Benjamin

1760
01:27:02,000 --> 01:27:04,233
a year later in 1902

1761
01:27:04,233 --> 01:27:06,966
that would stand as testament
to his unwavering

1762
01:27:06,966 --> 01:27:10,300
commitment to the law and
his strength of character.

1763
01:27:12,066 --> 01:27:13,966
In his confession,

1764
01:27:14,400 --> 01:27:16,700
Benjamin Reeves details the circumstances

1765
01:27:16,733 --> 01:27:18,300
of the crime he committed:

1766
01:27:20,633 --> 01:27:22,300
'On the morning of June 7,

1767
01:27:22,300 --> 01:27:24,866
1902 about 11:00am,

1768
01:27:25,100 --> 01:27:28,666
I called upon my wife at her
cousin's house in Muskogee

1769
01:27:28,866 --> 01:27:30,966
asked her if it was true
she was having

1770
01:27:30,966 --> 01:27:33,866
or did have improper
relations with John Wadley,

1771
01:27:34,000 --> 01:27:35,700
she answered me that she thought

1772
01:27:35,700 --> 01:27:38,766
more of his little finger than
she did of my whole body.

1773
01:27:39,000 --> 01:27:40,966
By constant worry over her actions

1774
01:27:40,966 --> 01:27:42,533
and the breaking up of my home

1775
01:27:42,533 --> 01:27:44,200
and receiving such an answer,

1776
01:27:44,366 --> 01:27:46,466
I lost all control and shot her.'

1777
01:27:50,400 --> 01:27:52,833
Further down the page beside the question

1778
01:27:52,900 --> 01:27:55,166
'Where and by whom were you arrested?'

1779
01:27:55,733 --> 01:27:59,366
Benjamin Reeves wrote:
'Muskogee by Bass Reeves,

1780
01:27:59,400 --> 01:28:01,433
my father who was Deputy Marshal.'

1781
01:28:06,466 --> 01:28:08,966
Reportedly, shortly after the murder,

1782
01:28:09,066 --> 01:28:11,666
as word began to spread
throughout the town,

1783
01:28:11,966 --> 01:28:12,733
Bass walked

1784
01:28:12,733 --> 01:28:15,300
into Marshal Bennett's office
and said simply,

1785
01:28:15,766 --> 01:28:16,866
'Give me the writ'.

1786
01:28:20,033 --> 01:28:22,433
Bass took up the warrant himself,

1787
01:28:22,466 --> 01:28:23,700
he was humiliated,

1788
01:28:23,800 --> 01:28:25,866
a member of his own
family doing this,

1789
01:28:25,966 --> 01:28:27,766
humiliated beyond belief.

1790
01:28:27,766 --> 01:28:28,400
But, he said

1791
01:28:28,400 --> 01:28:30,700
this is my responsibility
and I'll do it

1792
01:28:30,700 --> 01:28:33,100
and how many men
would do that?

1793
01:28:33,100 --> 01:28:34,133
Would have the guts,

1794
01:28:34,133 --> 01:28:35,233
the fortitude,

1795
01:28:35,500 --> 01:28:39,533
whatever to go out and arrest
their own son for first

1796
01:28:39,533 --> 01:28:40,166
degree murder?

1797
01:28:40,166 --> 01:28:41,566
And that was what he did.

1798
01:28:41,566 --> 01:28:43,500
Bass went to the home

1799
01:28:44,200 --> 01:28:46,533
in the northern section of Muskogee

1800
01:28:46,533 --> 01:28:47,866
where he knew Benny was

1801
01:28:47,866 --> 01:28:50,800
was at and told Benny to
give yourself up,

1802
01:28:50,800 --> 01:28:52,600
I don't want to have to shoot you,

1803
01:28:53,200 --> 01:28:54,166
just come out.

1804
01:28:54,166 --> 01:28:57,366
And the people that were following Bass

1805
01:28:57,366 --> 01:28:59,100
when he went up to the house told Benny

1806
01:28:59,333 --> 01:29:02,366
don't do anything stupid or
Bass will kill you.

1807
01:29:02,366 --> 01:29:03,566
He brought him in

1808
01:29:03,600 --> 01:29:05,800
and he made sure that
he was taken care of,

1809
01:29:05,800 --> 01:29:09,966
but he also allowed the
judicial system to play out

1810
01:29:09,966 --> 01:29:12,066
as it was going to do.

1811
01:29:12,300 --> 01:29:13,766
His son broke the law,

1812
01:29:14,100 --> 01:29:15,033
he had to pay.

1813
01:29:17,733 --> 01:29:21,200
- Bass handed over his son
to Marshal Bennett for trial.

1814
01:29:21,966 --> 01:29:26,833
Benjamin was found guilty
on January 22, 1903,

1815
01:29:27,000 --> 01:29:28,766
sentenced to life in prison

1816
01:29:28,766 --> 01:29:31,533
and transferred to the federal
prison at Leavenworth

1817
01:29:31,533 --> 01:29:32,433
in February.

1818
01:29:37,600 --> 01:29:40,600
In Leavenworth, Benjamin
was a model prisoner.

1819
01:29:40,766 --> 01:29:43,600
On November 13, 1914

1820
01:29:43,733 --> 01:29:46,233
having served eleven
years of his sentence,

1821
01:29:46,333 --> 01:29:48,833
he was pardoned and
released from custody.

1822
01:29:53,200 --> 01:29:55,500
Despite the heavy burden
that the arrest and

1823
01:29:55,500 --> 01:29:58,533
conviction of his son must
have placed on the 64-year-old

1824
01:29:58,533 --> 01:30:00,466
lawman, Bass

1825
01:30:00,466 --> 01:30:03,166
continued his duties
as Deputy U.S. Marshal,

1826
01:30:03,366 --> 01:30:05,366
serving the community of Muskogee.

1827
01:30:06,100 --> 01:30:07,000
He was chasing

1828
01:30:07,000 --> 01:30:09,866
outlaws with the vigor
of a man half his age

1829
01:30:09,900 --> 01:30:11,500
and in line with the times,

1830
01:30:11,566 --> 01:30:13,166
his arrests were now generally

1831
01:30:13,166 --> 01:30:14,666
limited to Black criminals.

1832
01:30:15,466 --> 01:30:16,933
On November 11,

1833
01:30:16,933 --> 01:30:18,800
he arrested Jameson Brown

1834
01:30:18,800 --> 01:30:21,466
who was wanted for larceny
in the Creek Nation.

1835
01:30:22,100 --> 01:30:24,233
Brown stole a horse, saddle,

1836
01:30:24,333 --> 01:30:28,400
bridle, and blanket valued at $117.

1837
01:30:28,666 --> 01:30:31,300
He was convicted and
sentenced to five years

1838
01:30:31,300 --> 01:30:32,200
in Leavenworth.

1839
01:30:32,933 --> 01:30:34,500
He arrested Dick Lucky,

1840
01:30:34,566 --> 01:30:36,266
a resident of the Creek Nation,

1841
01:30:36,266 --> 01:30:38,500
on March 11, 1904

1842
01:30:38,500 --> 01:30:40,900
for selling cattle that he did not own.

1843
01:30:41,266 --> 01:30:42,900
Lucky was sentenced to sixteen

1844
01:30:42,900 --> 01:30:45,100
months of confinement at Leavenworth.

1845
01:30:45,200 --> 01:30:46,166
Later that year,

1846
01:30:46,166 --> 01:30:48,000
Bass arrested J.A. Tatnull

1847
01:30:48,000 --> 01:30:51,266
for burglary and larceny in Muskogee.

1848
01:30:51,533 --> 01:30:54,900
Tatnull was accused of
stealing twenty pairs of shoes,

1849
01:30:54,900 --> 01:30:57,133
twelve hats, and one pair of pants

1850
01:30:57,133 --> 01:30:59,666
for a total of $94 worth of goods

1851
01:30:59,666 --> 01:31:02,200
from the Barbee and Company
department store.

1852
01:31:02,666 --> 01:31:03,600
He pled guilty

1853
01:31:03,600 --> 01:31:06,200
and was sentenced to four years
at Leavenworth.

1854
01:31:09,500 --> 01:31:14,200
The year 1905 found Bass
as active as he ever was.

1855
01:31:14,266 --> 01:31:16,933
On March 4, 1905

1856
01:31:16,933 --> 01:31:18,900
he arrested Alfred Barnett

1857
01:31:18,900 --> 01:31:21,166
for trying to kill Edward King,

1858
01:31:21,500 --> 01:31:23,866
shooting him several times with his pistol.

1859
01:31:24,500 --> 01:31:29,466
Barnett was convicted by a jury on May 28, 1906

1860
01:31:29,500 --> 01:31:32,166
and sentenced to eighteen
months of hard labor

1861
01:31:32,166 --> 01:31:33,333
at Leavenworth.

1862
01:31:36,700 --> 01:31:39,566
Bass remained a target of
would-be assassins.

1863
01:31:40,000 --> 01:31:41,566
In 1906,

1864
01:31:41,566 --> 01:31:44,633
when he was traveling in
his buggy near Wybark,

1865
01:31:44,666 --> 01:31:46,900
site of the infamous Wybark Tragedy,

1866
01:31:47,333 --> 01:31:49,633
someone fired several shots at him.

1867
01:31:49,733 --> 01:31:51,100
Always composed,

1868
01:31:51,466 --> 01:31:54,700
Bass quickly shifted on his
seat and returned fire.

1869
01:31:54,733 --> 01:31:56,166
The assassin's shot

1870
01:31:56,166 --> 01:31:58,066
missed him by mere inches.

1871
01:32:00,666 --> 01:32:02,933
His career as a Deputy U.S. Marshal

1872
01:32:02,933 --> 01:32:05,200
would outlast that of Grant Johnson's,

1873
01:32:05,200 --> 01:32:06,833
his friend and colleague.

1874
01:32:07,200 --> 01:32:09,466
In February 1906,

1875
01:32:09,666 --> 01:32:12,766
Johnson was dismissed from
service by Marshal Bennett.

1876
01:32:13,200 --> 01:32:15,900
Johnson had been Marshal
for fifteen years,

1877
01:32:16,000 --> 01:32:18,933
but a personal dispute with
another famous marshal

1878
01:32:18,933 --> 01:32:20,233
and friend of Bass,

1879
01:32:20,566 --> 01:32:21,766
Bud Ledbetter,

1880
01:32:21,766 --> 01:32:23,600
would be Johnson's undoing.

1881
01:32:26,400 --> 01:32:27,500
Bud Ledbetter

1882
01:32:27,500 --> 01:32:29,966
had raided several drugstores
in Eufaula,

1883
01:32:29,966 --> 01:32:32,633
a city considered to be
Johnson's territory.

1884
01:32:33,333 --> 01:32:35,666
Johnson was angered by
this encroachment.

1885
01:32:35,933 --> 01:32:37,166
On the same afternoon

1886
01:32:37,166 --> 01:32:39,200
that Ledbetter carried out his raids,

1887
01:32:39,500 --> 01:32:41,633
Johnson caught a train to Muskogee,

1888
01:32:41,866 --> 01:32:43,200
Ledbetter's territory,

1889
01:32:43,200 --> 01:32:45,766
and single-handedly
arrested twelve men.

1890
01:32:48,000 --> 01:32:50,233
Johnson considered
the matter settled.

1891
01:32:50,466 --> 01:32:53,200
However, Marshal Bennett did not

1892
01:32:53,200 --> 01:32:55,433
and Johnson was relieved of his duties.

1893
01:32:56,366 --> 01:32:59,500
Though his career as a
Deputy U.S. Marshal was over,

1894
01:32:59,966 --> 01:33:02,066
Johnson remained in law enforcement,

1895
01:33:02,166 --> 01:33:05,466
serving as a Negro policeman
after Oklahoma statehood.

1896
01:33:05,933 --> 01:33:08,700
But, his law enforcement
powers were limited

1897
01:33:08,700 --> 01:33:11,700
to servicing only the Black
communities of Eufaula.

1898
01:33:15,400 --> 01:33:17,266
It was also around this time

1899
01:33:17,266 --> 01:33:21,366
in 1907 that Bass made yet
another personal arrest.

1900
01:33:22,966 --> 01:33:25,300
Bass had a minister named Hobson

1901
01:33:25,300 --> 01:33:28,066
who was selling illegal whiskey,

1902
01:33:28,066 --> 01:33:29,866
the church was in arrears

1903
01:33:29,866 --> 01:33:32,666
and the church congregation
told the minister

1904
01:33:32,733 --> 01:33:34,866
they give him approval to sell whiskey

1905
01:33:34,966 --> 01:33:38,500
to make some money to catch
up with the debts they owed.

1906
01:33:38,700 --> 01:33:40,300
Bass found out about it

1907
01:33:40,300 --> 01:33:42,166
and he arrested Reverend Hobson

1908
01:33:42,166 --> 01:33:44,533
who was the same
minister that baptized him.

1909
01:33:51,400 --> 01:33:54,333
On November 16, 1907

1910
01:33:54,333 --> 01:33:57,866
Oklahoma's territorial period
came to an end

1911
01:33:57,866 --> 01:34:00,400
and the state of Oklahoma was born.

1912
01:34:03,200 --> 01:34:04,400
On that day,

1913
01:34:04,600 --> 01:34:07,600
Bass and many of the other
Deputy U.S. Marshals

1914
01:34:07,600 --> 01:34:08,900
had their photo taken.

1915
01:34:09,400 --> 01:34:12,833
The newspapers called them
the 'First Federal Family'.

1916
01:34:12,966 --> 01:34:16,600
This was their final official
act as Deputy U.S. Marshals.

1917
01:34:19,433 --> 01:34:23,266
It is fair to say that Bass
was a legend in his time.

1918
01:34:23,700 --> 01:34:26,500
From a pool of many
Deputy U.S. Marshals,

1919
01:34:26,666 --> 01:34:29,266
it was Bass who was
chosen as the subject

1920
01:34:29,266 --> 01:34:32,700
of an article in the Oklahoma City
'Weekly Times Journal'

1921
01:34:32,700 --> 01:34:36,233
on Friday, March 8, 1907.

1922
01:34:37,866 --> 01:34:40,766
When questioned about
his career by the reporter,

1923
01:34:41,066 --> 01:34:42,466
Bass simply stated:

1924
01:34:42,700 --> 01:34:45,400
'For thirty-one years
going on thirty-two,

1925
01:34:45,400 --> 01:34:48,066
I have ridden as a
Deputy Marshal, Sir.

1926
01:34:48,100 --> 01:34:50,566
And when Marshal Bennett
goes out of office,

1927
01:34:50,600 --> 01:34:52,700
I'm going to farming for a living.'

1928
01:34:57,833 --> 01:35:00,166
Despite statehood and his age,

1929
01:35:00,300 --> 01:35:03,966
Bass hoped to continue in his
role as Deputy U.S. Marshal,

1930
01:35:04,000 --> 01:35:05,633
but it was not to be.

1931
01:35:05,966 --> 01:35:07,666
The day after statehood,

1932
01:35:07,966 --> 01:35:10,533
many of the duties of
the Deputy U.S. Marshals

1933
01:35:10,533 --> 01:35:12,533
were transferred to municipalities

1934
01:35:12,533 --> 01:35:14,666
and counties throughout Oklahoma.

1935
01:35:15,166 --> 01:35:19,366
It was the end of an era for
Bass in more ways than one.

1936
01:35:23,666 --> 01:35:25,700
Jim Crow laws of segregation

1937
01:35:25,700 --> 01:35:28,166
were named after a
popular vaudeville act

1938
01:35:28,166 --> 01:35:30,466
created by
Thomas Dartmouth Rice,

1939
01:35:30,600 --> 01:35:33,133
who had been performing
the act in blackface

1940
01:35:33,133 --> 01:35:35,233
as early as 1832.

1941
01:35:35,866 --> 01:35:37,866
They had been enacted
throughout the States

1942
01:35:37,866 --> 01:35:38,800
since the Compromise

1943
01:35:38,800 --> 01:35:41,766
of 1877 when federal troops

1944
01:35:41,866 --> 01:35:45,066
sent south to enforce the
civil rights of freed Blacks

1945
01:35:45,100 --> 01:35:47,200
were withdrawn from
the southern states

1946
01:35:47,333 --> 01:35:49,433
bringing about the
end of Reconstruction.

1947
01:35:52,666 --> 01:35:55,166
Although President Theodore Roosevelt

1948
01:35:55,166 --> 01:35:57,600
refused to sign the
Oklahoma state constitution

1949
01:35:57,600 --> 01:35:59,666
if it contained Jim Crow laws,

1950
01:36:00,066 --> 01:36:02,066
once Oklahoma became a state,

1951
01:36:02,266 --> 01:36:05,333
the first law passed by
the Oklahoma State Senate

1952
01:36:05,333 --> 01:36:07,200
was Senate Bill No. 1,

1953
01:36:07,333 --> 01:36:10,400
which made Jim Crow laws
legal across the state.

1954
01:36:13,766 --> 01:36:14,866
After statehood,

1955
01:36:15,000 --> 01:36:18,100
Black men could only
become 'Negro Police',

1956
01:36:18,133 --> 01:36:20,700
with orders to only
arrest other Blacks

1957
01:36:20,800 --> 01:36:23,233
in town with a
large Black population.

1958
01:36:27,333 --> 01:36:29,366
Bass wasn't out of work long.

1959
01:36:29,566 --> 01:36:32,900
Now over 70-year-old,
walking with a cane,

1960
01:36:33,000 --> 01:36:35,866
he was given a beat in
downtown Muskogee.

1961
01:36:42,733 --> 01:36:46,666
Bass became bedridden
during the summer of 1909.

1962
01:36:48,300 --> 01:36:52,800
In his final days, he was visited
daily by Bud Ledbetter.

1963
01:36:56,000 --> 01:37:00,666
On January 12, 1910 at
3 o'clock in the afternoon,

1964
01:37:01,133 --> 01:37:04,766
Bass Reeves died of complications
from Bright's disease.

1965
01:37:05,366 --> 01:37:07,566
He was 71-years-old.

1966
01:37:11,333 --> 01:37:14,766
- Bass Reeves was able to
go through all of that

1967
01:37:15,133 --> 01:37:16,666
and be the person that he was

1968
01:37:16,666 --> 01:37:18,433
and have the career that he had

1969
01:37:18,466 --> 01:37:21,466
in the face of blistering racism,

1970
01:37:21,600 --> 01:37:23,933
in the face of the deadliest

1971
01:37:23,933 --> 01:37:27,000
job you could take in the
United States at the time.

1972
01:37:27,066 --> 01:37:31,366
He would go and do his
job that he needed to do

1973
01:37:31,366 --> 01:37:34,133
because it was the job
that he had to do

1974
01:37:34,133 --> 01:37:35,900
as a Deputy U.S. Marshal.

1975
01:37:36,266 --> 01:37:38,833
His obituary is printed in newspapers

1976
01:37:38,933 --> 01:37:40,233
across the country,

1977
01:37:40,766 --> 01:37:41,966
it was printed in New York,

1978
01:37:41,966 --> 01:37:43,100
it was printed in Chicago,

1979
01:37:43,100 --> 01:37:44,800
it was printed in Los Angeles.

1980
01:37:45,400 --> 01:37:46,266
Bass Reeves,

1981
01:37:46,266 --> 01:37:47,600
for a short period of time,

1982
01:37:47,600 --> 01:37:50,200
was one of the best known
individuals in law enforcement.

1983
01:37:50,200 --> 01:37:51,266
He paved the way,

1984
01:37:51,266 --> 01:37:52,866
he cut that path

1985
01:37:53,333 --> 01:37:55,466
so that other deputy marshals,

1986
01:37:55,466 --> 01:37:57,566
and I've met a few other deputy marshal,

1987
01:37:57,566 --> 01:38:00,200
but during the western time

1988
01:38:00,266 --> 01:38:01,500
there's no parallel.

1989
01:38:01,500 --> 01:38:04,033
There's no parallel with him,

1990
01:38:04,133 --> 01:38:05,533
because there's nothing else

1991
01:38:05,533 --> 01:38:07,766
written out there about any other

1992
01:38:07,966 --> 01:38:10,966
person that you could
compare to Bass Reeves.

1993
01:38:10,966 --> 01:38:12,333
So, he stands alone.

1994
01:38:12,333 --> 01:38:16,066
- Bass Reeves, one of the
most remarkable lawmen,

1995
01:38:16,066 --> 01:38:19,266
I don't care if it's a
U.S. Marshal or local lawmen,

1996
01:38:19,366 --> 01:38:22,133
whatever, probably one
of the most remarkable

1997
01:38:22,133 --> 01:38:23,733
lawmen in U.S. history.

1998
01:38:28,400 --> 01:38:30,466
When reporting on Bass's funeral,

1999
01:38:30,700 --> 01:38:32,500
the "Muskogee Phoenix" eulogized

2000
01:38:32,500 --> 01:38:35,733
him in a manner that was
appreciated only by those

2001
01:38:35,733 --> 01:38:38,500
who had not lived under
slavery and oppression.

2002
01:38:39,066 --> 01:38:40,433
The paper reads:

2003
01:38:41,200 --> 01:38:42,300
'Bass Reeves,

2004
01:38:42,500 --> 01:38:44,700
Negro, was buried yesterday

2005
01:38:44,700 --> 01:38:46,166
and the funeral was attended

2006
01:38:46,166 --> 01:38:48,233
by a large number of White people.

2007
01:38:48,800 --> 01:38:49,766
Black-skinned,

2008
01:38:49,966 --> 01:38:52,266
illiterate, offspring of slaves

2009
01:38:52,266 --> 01:38:54,033
whose ancestors were savages,

2010
01:38:54,466 --> 01:38:58,300
this simple old man's life
stands white and pure

2011
01:38:58,300 --> 01:39:00,700
alongside some of our
present-day officials.

2012
01:39:01,366 --> 01:39:04,966
His simple, honest faith in
the righteousness of the law

2013
01:39:04,966 --> 01:39:07,566
would brook no disrespect
for its mandates.

2014
01:39:08,200 --> 01:39:09,500
Bass is dead.

2015
01:39:09,733 --> 01:39:11,800
He was buried with high honors,

2016
01:39:11,800 --> 01:39:13,500
and his name will be recorded

2017
01:39:13,500 --> 01:39:15,200
in the archives of the court

2018
01:39:15,200 --> 01:39:18,900
as a faithful servant of the
law and a brave officer.

2019
01:39:19,300 --> 01:39:21,666
It is fitting that, Black or White,

2020
01:39:21,733 --> 01:39:23,666
our people have the manhood to

2021
01:39:23,666 --> 01:39:26,300
recognize character and
faithfulness to duty.

2022
01:39:26,500 --> 01:39:28,000
And it is lamentable that we

2023
01:39:28,000 --> 01:39:30,366
as White people must
go to this poor,

2024
01:39:30,400 --> 01:39:33,166
simple old Negro
to learn a lesson

2025
01:39:33,166 --> 01:39:37,100
in courage, honesty, and
faithfulness to official duty.'

2026
01:39:41,566 --> 01:39:45,166
It was men like Bass and
countless other Black lawmen,

2027
01:39:45,333 --> 01:39:47,166
lawmakers, tradesmen

2028
01:39:47,166 --> 01:39:50,766
and women who represented
the promise of what America

2029
01:39:50,766 --> 01:39:53,000
could have been after the Civil War.

2030
01:39:53,300 --> 01:39:55,266
Successful former slaves

2031
01:39:55,266 --> 01:39:57,366
who had prospered during Reconstruction

2032
01:39:57,533 --> 01:40:00,166
and may have gone on to
build wealth for generations

2033
01:40:00,200 --> 01:40:02,566
to come. Instead,

2034
01:40:02,766 --> 01:40:05,066
their promise and dreams
would be crushed

2035
01:40:05,066 --> 01:40:07,100
under the oppression of Jim Crow

2036
01:40:07,100 --> 01:40:08,666
for another three generations.

2037
01:40:10,766 --> 01:40:13,900
The 1910s, 1920s rolls around

2038
01:40:13,900 --> 01:40:16,400
and outside of the Fort Smith/

2039
01:40:16,400 --> 01:40:17,866
Muskogee area

2040
01:40:18,533 --> 01:40:20,866
his name starts to
slowly get forgotten.

2041
01:40:21,400 --> 01:40:26,100
There are stories
in the '50s and '60s

2042
01:40:26,100 --> 01:40:28,300
when people start to
finally come back to

2043
01:40:28,400 --> 01:40:30,933
learning more about Bass Reeves.
Through these stories,

2044
01:40:30,933 --> 01:40:31,766
they start to find out like

2045
01:40:31,766 --> 01:40:33,400
'What do you mean
there was a Black deputy?'.

2046
01:40:33,500 --> 01:40:35,333
This was a time when

2047
01:40:35,333 --> 01:40:38,166
every movie that had
law enforcement in it,

2048
01:40:38,166 --> 01:40:39,600
Deputy U.S. Marshals

2049
01:40:39,933 --> 01:40:41,266
they were all White,

2050
01:40:41,400 --> 01:40:43,300
they all were White

2051
01:40:43,533 --> 01:40:46,033
law enforcement in
a White community

2052
01:40:46,066 --> 01:40:46,866
and occasionally

2053
01:40:46,866 --> 01:40:49,100
you might have Black
characters in the film

2054
01:40:49,100 --> 01:40:50,433
or in the TV show,

2055
01:40:50,800 --> 01:40:52,500
but they were not that position,

2056
01:40:52,500 --> 01:40:53,600
in that role. And so,

2057
01:40:53,600 --> 01:40:56,300
people were intrigued by the
character of Bass Reeves.

2058
01:40:56,366 --> 01:40:58,566
His whole life was dedicated to

2059
01:40:58,566 --> 01:40:59,833
to law enforcement.

2060
01:41:00,100 --> 01:41:02,033
And from all reports,

2061
01:41:02,600 --> 01:41:06,366
a fair and just and

2062
01:41:06,366 --> 01:41:08,933
brave man

2063
01:41:08,933 --> 01:41:11,600
enforcing the law and doing
the best that he could.

2064
01:41:11,800 --> 01:41:13,800
What more could you ask of a man?

2065
01:41:13,900 --> 01:41:15,666
In my estimation,

2066
01:41:15,666 --> 01:41:16,533
the greatest

2067
01:41:16,533 --> 01:41:18,966
frontier hero in
United States history.

2068
01:41:19,266 --> 01:41:22,033
For him to arrest over 3,000 felons,

2069
01:41:22,100 --> 01:41:23,966
over a thirty-year career,

2070
01:41:24,166 --> 01:41:28,100
kill upwards of twenty people
that he had to kill,

2071
01:41:28,100 --> 01:41:31,033
became quite proficient
with gun and rifle,

2072
01:41:31,100 --> 01:41:33,666
probably the greatest
gunfighter in the Wild West.

2073
01:41:34,000 --> 01:41:35,800
He was the real deal

2074
01:41:36,100 --> 01:41:38,866
and he lived it every
day of his life.

2075
01:41:38,866 --> 01:41:42,000
Walked in the valley of death
every day for thirty years

2076
01:41:42,000 --> 01:41:45,700
and came out.
True American hero.

2077
01:41:47,366 --> 01:41:49,100
Bass escaped slavery,

2078
01:41:49,500 --> 01:41:51,400
spent decades enforcing the law,

2079
01:41:51,400 --> 01:41:55,033
and protecting lives and
livelihoods in Indian Territory,

2080
01:41:55,666 --> 01:41:57,766
but was never able to shake the

2081
01:41:57,766 --> 01:41:59,366
racism that followed him

2082
01:41:59,366 --> 01:42:02,300
and witnessed only a
short period of progress

2083
01:42:02,366 --> 01:42:04,366
before segregation took hold.

2084
01:42:05,333 --> 01:42:06,666
He was a lawman

2085
01:42:06,666 --> 01:42:09,100
right up until days before his death.

2086
01:42:09,400 --> 01:42:11,366
He never hung up his badge,

2087
01:42:11,466 --> 01:42:12,333
he never quit

2088
01:42:12,333 --> 01:42:14,866
to take pleasure in
the ease of retirement

2089
01:42:14,866 --> 01:42:19,500
on that farm he spoke of so fondly.
In truth,

2090
01:42:19,733 --> 01:42:22,466
one can't help but doubt
that Bass would have ever

2091
01:42:22,466 --> 01:42:24,133
enjoyed a life of retirement

2092
01:42:24,133 --> 01:42:27,033
that did not involve
bringing criminals to justice.

2093
01:42:29,066 --> 01:42:31,966
And although we do not
know where Bass is buried,

2094
01:42:32,166 --> 01:42:34,900
we need not have a
grave to remember his

2095
01:42:34,933 --> 01:42:37,166
significant contribution
to bringing law,

2096
01:42:37,333 --> 01:42:40,600
order, and justice to the Old West.