Were there really any black cowboys?

Gene Hall
Contributer

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32).
“Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar winning Western, Django Unchained, is one of relatively few Hollywood films depicting a black cowboy. In reality, there were many, some of whose stories were borrowed for films starring non-colored actors.”
This is the very first statement in an article prepared by Sarfraz Manzoor for BBC magazine.
As a young boy growing up in rural America, my image, as well as that of most of my peers, of a cowboy is a gun-toting, boot-wearing, white man. Men like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, or those fellows on television shows such as Bonanza, Rifleman, and Wild Wild West.
During my tenure as an Adjunct Professor teaching college kids at Valdosta State University, Tallahassee Community College, and currently at Florida A&M University, I survey my classes and invariably find that only a few of them raise their hands when asked how much they know about black cowboys. In many instances, some of them even believed that there was no such thing as a black cowboy. Television and movies historically have painstakingly omitted black men from this role of valor, honor and exploration. That misconception has become their reality.
An overwhelming majority of historians and other researchers confirm that the Hollywood portrayal of the Wild West is a whitewashed version of the reality. It is thought that, on some western trails, about a quarter of all cowboys were black. As a result of my own research, I discovered that the term ‘cowboy’ itself initially refers to Negroes since during past decades, we could not be referred to as ‘cowmen’. Nonetheless, like my aforementioned college pupils, most people, including high school graduates, those who are deemed magna cum laude, and summa cum laude are grossly unaware of the role black cowboys played in harnessing United States territories west of the Mississippi river.
So, in an effort to shed more light on the historical plight of black cowboys and frontiers men, I have highlighted just a few in this article. Among them are:
James Beckwourth (1798 – 1867) was a fur trapper, mountain man, professional gambler, Indian agent, and author. Born into slavery in Virginia, he was of mixed-race origins. His mother was an African slave woman, while his dad was Sir Jennings Beckwith, a descendant of Irish and English nobility. Ironically, he was given his freedom, according to Colorado Virtual Library.org, by his white father and apprenticed to a blacksmith so that he could learn a trade. Records confirm that he lived with the Crow Indians for many years. He had a black wife, several Indian wives, and a host of biracial children. What is he most famous for? Well, Beckwourth Pass, of course. As some folk know, it is a trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Traditionally, it has been used as a trail in which hundreds of thousands of settlers followed to find their homesteads in Nevada and California during the gold rush. The literature shows that the Western Pacific Railroad used it to cross the aforementioned mountains. Remarkably, Beckwourth and his partners built a trading post out west. This place eventually became Pueblo, Colorado. The 2015 film The Revenant partially chronicles his life. In addition, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp to commemorate his adventurous life.

Bose Ikard (1843 – 1929) Information that I was able to gather from a website called blackpast.org asserts that Bose was also born a slave; in Summerville, Miss. As was a common practice in those days, Ikard’s father Dr. Milton Ikard was white and was his slave master. His mother was a Negro woman named ‘King’. According to more recent literature, the family members, both slave and free, sojourned to western Texas, and settled on the Comanche-Kiowa Native American frontier.
Ikard subsequently was manumitted (gained his freedom) following the Civil War.
Based on the publication Truewest…history of the American Frontier, Ikard is a forgotten Old West character – and shouldn’t be. After the Civil War (some of us call it the War Between the States), Ikard went to work for ranchers Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight. The latter gentlemen were the pioneers who created the famous Goodnight-Loving cattle driving trail. After conducting further research, I found out at that time many folks were coming to Texas since it had just got independence from Mexico. The new territorial legislature was issuing land grants to get people to settle the area. Ikard served as personal servant to Mr. Goodnight. Based on information I gathered from Doss Heritage and Culture Center Museum Affairs Director Amanda Edwards, upon learning of his death, Goodnight ordered a grave marker from funeral directors for Ikard that read:
“Served with me four years on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, never shirked a duty or disobeyed an order. Rode with me in many stampedes, participated in three engagements with Comanches, splendid behavior.”

Bass Reeves (1838-1910) Is the Lone Ranger based on Bass Reeves? That’s the title of an article by Thad Morgan at history.com. When I was a young lad, me, my siblings, and friends would watch television and get excited about the Long Ranger TV show.
At that time, there were very few black folks on TV so needless to say, there were none on the Lone Ranger show. Ironically, a writer named Burton postulates that although there is no concrete evidence that the real legend inspired the creation of one of fiction’s most well-known cowboys, Bass Reeves, a colored man is the closest real person to resemble the fictional Lone Ranger on the American frontier.
In a nutshell, Reeves was a real-life African American cowboy who several historians surmise inspired the TV show Lone Ranger. Legend says that in 1838 – nearly a century before the Lone Ranger was introduced to the rest of us – Bass Reeves was born a slave in the Arkansas household of William Reeves, a white planter. During the Civil War William Reeves forced Bass to fight for the Confederacy. This is when Bass escaped to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). This area was once ruled by five Native American tribes - Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw – who were forced to migrate as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The area became lawless.
U.S. Marshal James Fagan recruited Bass, a newly freedman since ratification of the 13th Amendment to help bring law and order to Indian Territory. Upon taking the job, he became the first black deputy Marshall west of the Mississippi River. Could he really do his job? Manuscripts indicate Bass arrested more than 3,000 people and killed 14 outlaws, all without sustaining a single gunshot wound. This is further confirmed by Art Burton in his book Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshall Bass Reeves.
In summary, I am no longer a little boy watching TV with my siblings and friends, but I certainly want other little boys and girls to know that they can have any career they want…including being a cowboy. Smithsonianmag.com confirms my suspicion that black cowboys were trailblazers. Nate Love, John Ware, and Bill Pickett were Negro cowboys who set the standard. Matter of fact, the late great Bill Pickett invented the popular sport of bulldogging, also known as steer wrestling. Pickett was the very first person of African descent to be inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame. I recommend to anyone yearning to learn more about black cowboys to see video: African American Cowboy – The Forgotten Man of the West. This is the history that Hollywood somehow leaves out.