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Show 1 " ..miW .lrtrSlrrJ.rt"'l?n--.,- iWTHKj. V. 4. r .tJi. .... .. . .". .. - .Mw ... . .......... . ; - . . .. .. .. - ... v . .V- - . !... The Sampler, Feb. 14, 1985 x m u mi - aw "x. rm y L w E MINERS - " . - From Coloraddlc thehM most famous Indian fighter of his generation." e Skilled with die gun, bo-wi- knife, and tomahawk, COWBOYS - More than 5,000 black cowboys rode the rough and rugged cattle trails in the spirit of 'was built upon. i''-- these men, performing the good and bad. of The story black people was ignored when historians told of. . . Davy Crockett, Billv the Kid. Bat Master- son, Sitting Bull, General turers, frontiersmen,-hpme0111, .v steaaers, missionarie.5, jsoivvuser , anq :puniuwrote in William Loren Katz diers, and cowboys in the Black his 1973 book, 'The early American West have West" ,rYet, blacks are men--. been glorified and lionized tioned in explorers' diaries, in motion pictures, televiis same The and government reports, piosion, print. as such some neers' reminiscences and true of Indians, frontier newspapers; They Chief Sitting Bull, Geronimo also appear in sketches by and Cochise. Charles Russell and Frederic But what about black Americans and other minoriRemington, and in early Even West? old in ties the photographs by professional and amateur cameramen, today, only a handful of blacks or whites know there military and civilian. Like same feats . : i were guhslinging, rough, tough black marshals and. black counterparts to Tom - , Mix, William "Billy the Kid" Bonney, Bat Masterson, Frank and Jesse James, the Dalton brothers, Will Rogers, and countless others. Yet, many blacks worked with and were friends of other Americans, v ' ':'';'-.;;- :' v.--;'.- , worked side by side with whites; but only a few became foremen or trail chiefs daughter, and became a tribal leader. The Indians " ", . Cattle Country as 'types For many years, the life- blood of the Hollywood mo-- . vie industry was westerns. But blacks were most often case in trifling, ignominious cooks, maids, butroles lers, mammies, stableboys, and other characterizations that usually portrayed them as lazy, shuffling, childish, - .. t Bat Masterson flashed on the silver screen, his real life friend, black cowboy Nat "Deadwood Dick" Love, was nowhere to be seen. Neither were any of. Thousands of blacks head- . Dick'," Love claimed to have also been a friend or acquaintance or Frank and Jesse James, psycho pathic killer William "Billy the Kid" Bonney,- - and other n white figures of the time. v Love was one of the most colorful, cowboys in the West. He earned the nickname of. "Deadwood Dick," naturally, in Deadwood, S.D., on July 4, 1876, when the other black cowboys who were to be found in Dodge City, Kan., at the pursuit of his childhood dream of becoming a 15 in , cowboy.' . Texas to the north. " " ru? One of his: greatest feats tor, traveling extensively was completing a the West. He throughout ride on the back of also carried mail between an unsaddled horse. - Love, who was fluent in Monterey and Southern Cal- Tifornia. Spanish, rode the trails until In 1850, Beckwourth dis1890, when he went to work , covered an important pass as a Pullman porter on the through the Sierra Nevadas, "iron horse." - '. r a few miles northwest of Many black cowboys were what is now Reno, Nev. He forced into other occupaled. the first wagon train of tions when the West became settlers through "Beckmore populated with whites. wourth Pass," which, along His fame faded with a mountain peak, val- Countless novels, comic- ley, and nearby town, still books, and movies have debear bis name. Indian picted famous Beckwourth became a livfighters and scouts, but Jim ing legend as a trader, scout, Beckwourth, a black man, explorer, trapper, Indian isnt one of them. A reporter fighter, and businessman. who knew Beckwourth in But he wasn't the only black 1860 described him as "the trapper who ventured deep into the wilderness seeking skins and pelts. There were also such black mountain mena s George and Stephen Bonga, Edward Rose, Peter Renne, and Allen B. Light. 12-ho- ur, 100-mi- le . : . he displayed outstanding skills . in , riding, roping, throwing, saddling and bridling an unbroken horse, and target shooting. Born a slave in Tennessee in 1854, Love migrated west to Dodge City at the age. of was also an Army scout during the Third Seminole War in Florida. He later .became a trapper and gold prospec- .' , . marshal : 'Dead-woo- d well-know- laughing- - dancing- singing buffoons. When stories of legendary they ed westward after the Emancipation Proclamation. They faced the same hardships and took the same risks as everyone else in settling and taming the West. Some ;:: renamed him "Morning Star" which was later changed to "Bloody Arm" after his participation in many battles against the Blackfeet Known as "The Famous Mulatto of the Plains" for his courage and daring on the frontier. Beckwourth Love worked the ranches of the Texas panhandle, sharpening his shooting skills and becoming expert at reading cattle brands. He and other black cowboys rode the famous Chisholm Trail, herding steers from time of Masterson's adventures. In his 1907 autobiography, "The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in bosses. Nearly one cowboy in three was either Mexican or black. : Silver.1 screen stereo- - helped shape our many fron- tiers." v independence that the country tough-minde- d of blacks in the American West The rich heritage By Master Sgt. Rudi Williams, USA American Forces Information Service White men who were trappers, explorers, adven ; Beckwourth was adopted by the Crow Indians, married a , : . : . I Lip biting finish The same obscurity that befell Beckwourth followed rodeo rider Bill Pickett, the originator of bulldogging, until he became the first black man to be elected to the. National Cowboy Hall of Fame On 1972). Pickett was the first, cowboy to master steer wrestling, or bulldogging the feat of chasing a steer on horseback, leaping out of the jim ( of y " f .If s pr saddle, and throwing the steer on its back with bare hands. Pickett took it a step ; his finale was bitfurther the cow's upper lip and ing raising his hands in the air. He took on a Spanish fighting bull in Mexico City in 1908.. v - According to Katz, Zack Miller, owner of the huge, i sprawliang 101 Ranch in Oklahoma, described Pickett as JThe greatest sweat and dirt fownand that ever lived bar none." Pickett spent 10 years tra-X- f oss the United Ing States, South America, and Great Britain with Tom Mix, 2 L 9?? rs and William Bill" Cody in Wild shows. Mix and Rogers often iveu as Pickett's assis- ' w S-Uffal- o ; FORMER SLAVE BENJAMIN - PAPM SINGLETON was one of the best known promoters of the idea that the West was a land of opportunity for ' ' black settlers. Pap led many of the 20,000 blacks to Kansas during the Exodus of 1879, and is also credited with founding Baxter Springs and Dunlap Colony. -- r |