Buffalo Soldier

One homeowner said, Sure, you can buy my house, but you have to take the ghost along with it.

And he is reportedly a Buffalo soldier from those Civil War battles.

He apparently doesn't cause any problems.

He just shows up a lot.

Texas losses included one killed and one wounded.

In 1880, Apaches killed seven black soldiers known as Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th United States Cavalry who were defending settlers from attacks in Hudspeth County.

That's right, Apaches, American Indians.

Pocahontas relatives.

This past week, President Donald Trump signed the Chiricahua National Park Act into law.

A hidden gem, according to the National Park Service in Wilcox, Arizona, rising between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, protecting a rich cultural history tied to Apache indigenous people, the Buffalo Soldiers, and ranchers.

And there's a wide range of wildlife within the towering rock formations and mountain landscapes formed by a volcanic eruption nearly 27 million years ago.

So what does constitute a national park here in the U.S.? Well, two things according to the National Park Service.

Fort Garland.

There's an exhibit of the Buffalo Soldiers, and you see how them, and they were kind of used...

The Buffalo Soldiers were kind of...

In a way, earlier on, they were used to chase down natives as well, and kind of like being put in this position.

And so there's a museum for that, as well as for...

This doesn't, this doesn't, this doesn't feel right.

And so you, you hear these soldiers, these different soldiers recollections of that.

And you learn more about the Buffalo soldiers and their relations with like the, the Native Americans and whatnot, and these Black soldiers that got some soldiers, they got cool with the Natives as well.

And then in my career, you know, I was the announcer for the home football games and we would travel and I covered the team for the student newspaper and ended up making a career out of it.

So they were gracious enough to honor me as a Buffalo Soldier recipient.

And so as a supporter of the athletic program, so I was completely honored to receive that award and spend the time with family and some of my friends from, you know, 30, 40 years ago.

Man, D-Leg, congratulations, man.

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the Army's first black general.

His son led which famous unit? A, the Buffalo Soldiers, B, the Harlem Hellfighters, C, the Tuskegee Airmen, Or D, the Navajo Code Talkers?

Has to be the Tuskegee Airmen.

Those are the most famous ones, right? I would think so, too.

What was the last book you read, and how does it connect with your work, your purpose, uh, or your focus in life right now?

So the book I'm, well, I'm on the last couple of pages of at the moment, is Buffalo Soldier by Tanya Landman.

It's quite a dark book that tells a story of a courageous Black American slave girl whose first experiences of freedom is utterly tragic.

She disguises herself as a man and joins the US Army in the Civil War.

So it's fiction, but is it partly based on somebody?

Yeah.

It's, I think she, she was researching her other book and then sort of went into researching, she got sort of sidetracked into researching the Civil War and, and particularly this one group, um, who were known as the Buffalo Soldiers, who were freed American, um, freed slaves.

And she f- came across someone who had, a woman who had disguised herself as a man, and she was just, like, hooked on that story and thought, "I'm gonna write a book about this." So, um, so it's based on truth, but not, you know, it's a, it's a fiction book, so.

But I felt like there was a everyday kind of practice sense of soul that I really wanted to capture in this book.

No, a- a- as you were talking, I was thinking about, um, [lip smacks] this song by Bob Marley about the Buffalo Soldiers.

And though his music is not described as being soul music, I can see the, the, the through line between what you're saying about the music of Motown and the music in the reggae and, and, and that soul, that feeling.

Mm-hmm.

Pershing did not flinch.

He enforced discipline, demanded order, and refused to compromise.

In the 1890s, he was assigned to command a regiment of Buffalo Soldiers, African American troops of the Tenth Cavalry.

In a deeply segregated army, it was a significant and controversial post.

His respect for their service earned him the nickname Black Jack, a moniker originally used as a racial slur by his white peers.

A time when the uniform of a Black soldier was still a contradiction to many.

A symbol worn proudly by men who were allowed to die for their country, but rarely allowed to lead within it.

He enlisted during the Spanish-American War and served with the Buffalo Soldiers, the famed African American regiments who had fought Native American tribes on the Western frontier and earned respect in blood, not ink.