b'So Was He, Bass Reeves officer, nevertheless had worked with Bass Reeves, admired and vouched for him) hired 200 U.S. deputy marshals, men of steely courage, (for the most part), principled, experienced scouts and crack shots, and a grim, bearded, cold-blooded German immigrant named George Maledon as his hangman. Maledon did his job well and seemingly with no pangs of conscience even if initially the steel-spine Judge Parker had his own:"A total of 91 defendants were tried by Parker in the first session of his court, which lasted eight weeks. Of the accused 18 were charged with murder and 15 were convicted. Eight received long prison terms, one was killed trying to escape, and the remaining six were condemned to the gallows. In pronouncing their death sentences, Judge Parker bowed his head."I do not desire to hang you men," he said in a low voice. "It is the law." Then, unaccountably, he wept" (Ibid). The tears would soon cease, but the fierce sense of justice would never leave Judge Parker.For 21 years, Judge Parker sternly but fairly dispensed law, justice and an abiding concern for Native American rights until as the Territory inched towards statehood, old racist mores took hold and a future administration chose to dismiss Parker, and doing so would also seal the fate of Bass Reeves as a lawman. But we anticipate things. What should be noted here, before the two big men - Parker and Reeves met and established a solid working relationship - and friendship based on mutual trust and respect - is a summary of the record - and the legacy of Isaac Parker."During his twenty-one years on the bench, Judge Parker gained a national reputation for his efforts to bring law and order to a lawless frontier. During this time about 13,500 cases were docketed in his courtroom varying from the theft of government timber to murder. About 9,500 defendants were convicted, and eighty-eight died on the scaffold that stood nearby. Mute testimony to the rigors of Parker\'s task is afforded by the record that sixty-five of his deputy marshals were slain in the line of duty" (National Park Service, introduction by Ray Allen Billington, Soldier and Brave, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, Evanston, London, 1963, pp. 115-116).But Bass Reeves was not one of those deputies killed in the line of duty. He survived and thrived as a lawman under Judge Parker for the next 21 years, and a further 11 years after Parker was dismissed.BASS REEVES,DEPUTY U.S.MARSHAL - HIS GREATEST "HITS"Reeves was working at his Arkansas farm when Judge Parker heard of Reeves\'s knowledge of Indian languages and customs, so essential in a Territory still largely settled by the tribes. He and Marshal Fagan also knew of his work as a scout and a tracker for local lawmen, and his reputation as a crack shot. It was certainly a "no brainer" for Judge Parker to seek out the services of the Black farmer, and Parker almost immediately offered him the badge of a deputy U.S. marshal. Reeves trusted Judge Parker, and almost immediately accepted the position when offered - even in the face of opposition from Belle Starr his family, though at least one member of his own family criticized him for working for and risking his life for a white judge when there was so much unjust treatment of Blacks in the territory. Reeves turned to the individual and calmly responded, "Maybe the law ain\'t perfect, but it\'s the only one we got, and without it, we got nuthin" (Fisher and O\'Reilly, p.122).Reeves went to work almost immediately since the Territory was indeed infested with outlaws. This was at least a decade before even the Daltons and Belle Starr surfaced and began their nefarious dealings. The outlaws that Deputy Reeves went searching for were among the worst of the lot - rapists, those who committed violent assaults against continued on page 46ArizonaRealCountry.com March 2021 45'