Bass Reeves (July 1838-12 January 1910) was an African-American lawman of the Wild West who was the first Black Deputy US Marshal west of the Mississippi River. Working mostly in Arkansas and the Indian Territory from 1875 to 1907, he made more than 3,000 arrests of dangerous criminals, killing 14 of them in self-defense.
Biography[]
Bass Reeves was born into slavery in Crawford County, Arkansas in July 1838, and he was raised in Sherman, Grayson County, Texas and kept in bondage under George R. Reeves. When his master joined the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, he took Reeves with him, but Reeves managed to escape and flee to the Indian Territory, where he was taken in by Sam Sixkiller and lived among the Cherokee, Creeks, and Seminoles. After slavery was abolished in 1865, Reeves moved to Arkansas and farmed near Van Buren. He served as a posseman for Deputy US Marshal Chris Franks until 1875, when he rescued the life of Judge Isaac Charles Parker, who was nearly shot by the Muscogee outlaw Rufus Buck; Reeves killed five of Buck's men and wounded and spared Buck. In gratitude, Parker intended to make Reeves a Deputy US Marshal, but Franks and other townspeople protested, as Reeves was illiterate, inexperienced, and, most importantly to them, Black. However, Reeves was given a chance to prove himself when he volunteered to capture the dangerous outlaw Bob Dozier, and, with the help of the former outlaw Charlie Storm and the wounded posseman Tom Pinkerton, he was able to track Dozier down to Spanish Fort, Texas, where he killed Dozier. Along the way, however, Dozier's men killed Sixkiller while Reeves and his friends stayed with Sixkiller in Muskogee, agonizing Reeves. On Reeves and Storm's triumphant return to Fort Smith with Dozier's body, Judge Parker officially appointed Reeves a US Marshal, and he was directed to hire 200 deputies. Reeves served as a deputy U.S. marshal for the Western District of Arkansas (including the Indian Territory), and, in 1893, he transferred to the Eastern District of Texas in Paris, Texas. In 1897, he transferred to Muskogee in Oklahoma, and he served as a peace officer for 32 years. By the time of his retirement in 1907, Reeves had made 3,000 arrests and killed 14 men in self-defense. He died in 1910.