b'So Was He, Bass ReevesThe Real Lone Ranger?PART 1 By Alan RockmanT he evidence, such as it is,family subsequently moved to Texas, and at an early at best is fairly speculativeage, the young slave was turned over to Reeves\' son and at worst repudiated.George, himself a prosperous man who was elected The trouble with writingsheriff in Grayson, Texas. Bass Reeves never learned to even a short story about Bassread or write but his mother had read the Bible to him, Reeves is all of the things thatand later in life, Reeves could cite chapter and verse of are unknown about him. Forthe holy book.example, we do know he was an ex-slave. We do know that his career as a lawman, for better or for worse,Far more important to this story, and something quite dovetailed with that of the famed "Hanging Judge"amazing considering that Reeves was a slave, was that Isaac C. Parker, operating out of Fort Smith, Arkansashe became quite proficient at the skill of firearms use at with jurisdiction over 74,000 square miles of Indianan early age and was quite well regarded as a crack shot. Territory. It is indeed known that Bass Reeves\' rise andHis master, who was also the tax collector of his district, fall as a Deputy U.S. Marshal coincided with the risewas quite appreciative that his slave could help him in and fall of the hanging judge. Yes, he was respected byhis duties. That is until the Civil War started (Fisher, a few of his contemporaries and held in abject fear byDavid, and O\'Reilly, Bill, The Real West, Henry Holt and a few of his adversaries including the "Bandit Queen"Company, New York, 2015, p. 120).herself, Belle Starr.While ReevesAs in so many other aspects of Reeves\' life that were was assignedfairly unknown, how he became a free man is open to to track downspeculation. In later years, Reeves himself insisted that some quitehe fought as a Black Confederate soldier alongside his notoriousmaster, who was then a colonel in the 11th Texas Cavalry, hombres likeat the crucial battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and earned his emancipation in that manner. Starr and theHowever, that scenario seems both unreal and unrealistic. Bass ReevesCherokee Chief NedMore recent history suggests that Reeves and his master, Christie, it isColonel Reeves got into a campfire argument during aTHE HANGING JUDGE -not knowncard game, with Reeves rising and striking his masterISAAC C. PARKERwhether ordown. As a slave striking a white man would usuallyParker had already established a solid reputation as a not he wasresult in a severe beating, striking his master who waspolitician even before accepting the position of a federal assigned toalso a Confederate officer was tantamount to a deathjudge for the Fort Smith jurisdiction from President Ned Christie track downsentence, and if this was indeed the case, then the storyGrant. He was the city attorney for St. Joseph, Missouri the Daltons, orof Reeves fleeing, running across the prairies, plains,at the time of the Pony Express, an elector in 1860 subsequentlyhills, and forests of Texas until he reached the Red Riverfor one Abraham Lincoln, and a two-term Missouri the Doolin-Daltons. It also seems apparent that thein Union-occupied Indian Territory was indeed theCongressman. Yes, he was a very successful politician, Oklahoma "Royal Guardsmen" - Big Bill Tilghman, truthful one. Either way, by the time he was 26 Bassbut he was also scrupulous, honest, strict but fair and a Heck Thomas, Chris Madsen- and Frank Canton - whoReeves was a free man, working as a farmer, marriedchampion of Native American rights, essential to this did go after those gangs either never worked with Reeveswith children, a resident of the then racially transparentposition in a territory where the Native Americans often or preferred not to cite him, perhaps because of racialIndian Territory beyond the Red River. Reeves learnedreceived the short stick or the stick itself instead of the prejudices of the times. Both Canton and Thomas werelanguages from local Indian tribes as well as theirjust law. While in Congress he was such a champion of Southerners, Heck Thomas himself an ex-Confederatefrontier skills that would serve him well in the comingIndian rights that his fellow Congressmen referred to him soldier. Still, both Tilghman and Madsen were northern- decades (Ibid. Souter, Gerry, and Souter, Janet, Guns ofas "the Indians\' best friend" (Editors of Time-Life Books, bred men, Madsen himself an ex-U.S. Cavalrymen. Outlaws, Crestline Books, New York, 2017, p.90). Gunfighters of the Old West, New York, 1996, p. 145).Prejudices aside, Reeves worked out of Muskogee in theWorking with the local sheriff in what was essentiallyWhat was even more unusual is that Judge Parker openly eastern part of the Indian Territory, quite close to thean extremely lawless Territory; Bass Reeves earned asought a job that so many others had failed at or were so Arkansas border, while Ingalls, nearly 120 miles to thesolid reputation as a scout, tracker, interpreter, andcorrupt that they had to be removed.Parker was imbued west and a good several days ride away from Muskogeeshooter. He knew the lay of the land as (he put it)with a sense of right from wrong from an early age. He was where Tilghman, Thomas, Madsen, and Canton"a cook knows her kitchen" (Fisher and O\'Reilly, p.strongly felt that the people of the Territory, regardless of worked out of while searching for the Doolin-Daltons. So120) and was thus invaluable to law enforcement incolor deserved full justice but he had no illusions of what while the other marshals got their fair share of mentionthe rugged outlaw sanctuary of eastern Oklahomahe was getting himself and his wife into. When they first in the history books, Bass Reeves despite his own veryespecially when one man came to administer justice toviewed Fort Smith with its numerous saloons, unpaved successful record faded into obscurity until more recentthat wild, woolly and very unpredictable region of thestreets, and dirty, unkempt populace, his wife turned to times. Still, there is no denying that Bass Reeves was oneUnited States just beyond the Mississippi and the Red.him and said, "We have made a grave mistake, Isaac." heck of a lawman. A unique heck of a lawman. The man was Judge Isaac C. Parker who came to FortBut the big man turned to her and responded, "No Mary, Smith in 1875. His rise would coincide with the risewe are faced with a great task. These people need us. We EARLY LIFE of Bass Reeves as a lawman, as sadly his decline andmust not fail them" (Ibid, p. 149).The imposing 6\'2, 200 pound - all muscle - Reeves wasfall would also accelerate the decline and fall of Bass born into slavery in 1838 at the mansion of WilliamReeves\' own fortunes. To assist him in his task Parker and U.S. Marshal James Reeves in Crawford County, Arkansas. The ReevesFagan, (who, ironically was a former Confederate 44 March 2021'