The REAL ‘Lone Ranger’ Was An African American Lawman Who Lived With Native American Indians
Posted by PBSpot Admin 25 October 2013
The real “Lone Ranger,†it turns out, was an African American man
named Bass Reeves, who the legend was based upon. Perhaps not
surprisingly, many aspects of his life were written out of the story,
including his ethnicity. The basics remained the same: a lawman
hunting bad guys, accompanied by a Native American, riding on a white
horse, and with a silver trademark.
Historians of the American West have also, until recently, ignored the
fact that this man was African American, a free black man who headed
West to find himself less subject to the racist structure of the
established Eastern and Southern states.
While historians have largely overlooked Reeves, there have been a few
notable works on him. Vaunda Michaux Nelson’s book, Bad News for
Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, won
the 2010 Coretta Scott King Award for best author. Arthur Burton
released an overview of the man’s life a few years ago. Black Gun,
Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves
recounts that Reeves was born into a life of slavery in 1838. His
slave-keeper brought him along as another personal servant when he
went off to fight with the Confederate Army, during the Civil War.
Reeves took the chaos that ensued during the war to escape for
freedom, after beating his “master†within an inch of his life, or
according to some sources, to death. Perhaps the most intriguing thing
about this escape was that Reeves only beat his enslaver after the
latter lost sorely at a game of cards with Reeves and attacked him.
After successfully defending himself from this attack, he knew that
there was no way he would be allowed to live if he stuck around.
Reeves fled to the then Indian Territory of today’s Oklahoma and lived
harmoniously among the Seminole and Creek Nations of Native American
Indians.
After the Civil War finally concluded, he married and eventually
fathered ten children, making his living as a Deputy U.S. Marshall in
Arkansas and the Indian Territory. If this surprises you, it should,
as Reeves was the first African American to ever hold such a position.
Burton explains that it was at this point that the Lone Ranger story
comes in to play. Reeves was described as a “master of disguisesâ€. He
used these disguises to track down wanted criminals, even adopting
similar ways of dressing and mannerisms to meet and fit in with the
fugitives, in order to identify them.
Reeves kept and gave out silver coins as a personal trademark of
sorts, just like the Lone Ranger’s silver bullets. Of course, the
recent Disney adaptation of the Lone Ranger devised a clever and
meaningful explanation for the silver bullets in the classic tales.
For the new Lone Ranger, the purposes was to not wantonly expend
ammunition and in so doing devalue human life. But in the original
series, there was never an explanation given, as this was simply
something originally adapted from Reeves’ personal life and
trademarking of himself. For Reeves, it had a very different meaning,
he would give out the valuable coins to ingratiate himself to the
people wherever he found himself working, collecting bounties. In this
way, a visit from the real “Lone Ranger†meant only good fortune for
the town: a criminal off the street and perhaps a lucky silver coin.
Like the Lone Ranger, Reeves was also expert crack shot with a gun.
According to legend, shooting competitions had an informal ban on
allowing him to enter. Like the Lone Ranger, Reeves rode a white horse
almost throughout almost all of his career, at one point riding a
light grey one as well.
Like the famed Lone Ranger legend Reeves had his own close friend like
Tonto. Reeves’ companion was a Native American posse man and tracker
who he often rode with, when he was out capturing bad guys. In all,
there were close to 3000 of such criminals they apprehended, making
them a legendary duo in many regions.
The final proof that this legend of Bass Reeves directly inspired into
the story of the Lone Ranger can be found in the fact that a large
number of those criminals were sent to federal prison in Detroit. The
Lone Ranger radio show originated and was broadcast to the public in
1933 on WXYZ in Detroit where the legend of Reeves was famous only two
years earlier.
Of course, WXYZ and the later TV and movie adaptions weren’t about to
make the Lone Ranger an African American who began his career by
beating a slave-keeper to death. But now you know. Spread the word and
let people know the real legend of the Lone Ranger.
(Article by Micah Naziri)
