Bass
Reeves , was the man who the legend of the Lone Ranger was written
about ... Not surprisingly, was written out, or purposely overlooked in
histories of the
West, by historians,
until recently, and who was the subject of a long overdue book written a
few years years ago by Art Burton, titled Black Gun, Silver Star: The
Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves.
Naturally born a slave in 1838, Reeves’ master brought him along as his
personal servant when he went off to fight with the Confederate Army,
during the Civil War. And seeing an opportunity when it presented
itself, Reeves escaped for freedom after, reportedly, beating up his
master following an argument over a card game.
Reeves fled to the then Indian Territory (which later became the state
of Oklahoma) and lived among the Seminole and Creek Indians. After the
war, he married and eventually fathered ten children.
He became a Deputy U.S. Marshall working in Arkansas and the Indian
Territory (the first black one ever) when the existing U.S. Marshall,
James Fagan, who himself was a former Confederate Army officer, needed
deputies to establish law and order in the region, and had heard about
Reeves, who knew the area well and could speak several Indian languages.
Fagan made him a deputy.
So where does the Lone Ranger connection come in? Well, according to
Burton, like the Ranger, Reeves was a master of disguises which he would
use to track down wanted outlaws, and even adopting their clothes and
mannerisms to blend in with them.
According to Burton, Reeves also gave out silver coins as a sort of
personal trademark, which is not too dissimilar from the Lone Ranger who
uses silver bullets.
Also, like the Lone Ranger, Reeves was an expert crack shot; So good, in
fact, that he was barred from participating in shooting contests being
that he had an unfair advantage. And Reeves always rode a white or grey
horse like the Ranger.
Also Reeves had his own Tonto of sorts – an Indian posse man and tracker
he often rode with, when he was out capturing bad guys (close to 3000
in all, during his years as a marshal, 14 of them he killed).
But Burton also draws the connection between Reeves and the Lone Ranger
with the fact that many of the outlaws Reeves captured were sent to a
federal prison in Detroit. And by some strange coincidence, The Lone
Ranger was first introduced to the public in 1933 on a weekly radio show
broadcast from WXYZ in Detroit.
Perhaps the stories about Reeves told by those convicts in that Detroit
prison, circulated around for years and eventually reached the ears of
the creators of The Lone Ranger, who used them as the inspiration for
their fictional creation.
Sadly, Reeves’ years as a deputy came to an end in 1907 when the
territory became the state of Oklahoma and the state, strictly following
the Southern states segregationist Jim Crow laws, took away his badge
and he retired. He died three years later in 1910, to be totally
forgotten… until recently.
And that’s the story of American history isn’t it? Just barely scratch
the surface and you’ll always find a black man underneath.
Fascinating right? Don’t act like we never taught y’all nothing
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