- [Tanja] When you think about Black History,
Arizona isn't at the top of the list of places
that you would associate with that particular history,
but you should.
The sheer history that's contained at Fort Huachuca
is enough to keep you occupied for years
and years and years and years.
- [Michael] Well, what it is, is an awful lot of fun
talking to somebody like yourself,
who understands the history
and can fill in the little gaps in our conversation,
and every time I talk to someone I learn something new.
I think that's one of the reasons
I wanted to come to Huachuca.
- [Andre] I said to my family at the time,
that there was no way that I was going to remain here
in the state of Arizona.
Well I was born almost 30 years ago,
and to be honest with you,
I cannot think of a better place that I would rather live
than right here in Sierra Vista.
- [Michael] Plus the richness of our history
that we are discovering, it seems just so vast.
- [Charles] Talkin' to other soldiers on this installation,
and even black personnel, I asked them the question,
what do you know about the Buffalo Soldiers?
Have you ever heard of the Buffalo Soldiers?
And I get a resounding No.
Well I have talked to several of the old timers.
So that prompted me to do a lot of research
into who these men were, called the Buffalo Soldiers.
- [Tanja] Fort Huachuca is significant,
we like to call ourselves
the real home of the Buffalo Soldiers
simply because all four
of the historic Buffalo Soldier units
were stationed here at one point in their history.
The remoteness of the location had something to do with it,
perhaps, living in a town that had black soldiers
wasn't appealing to some communities.
They kind of pushed 'em out here,
and then they took on duties in the West.
- [Charles] I know the history of the Buffalo Soldier now,
the 9th and 10th Cavalry, their accomplishments
and helping to settle the West.
They were former slaves
because, after the Civil War ended in 1865,
1866 is when Congress authorized the Army
to enlist black men in the regular peacetime army.
For the first time,
this was probably the only paycheck
these men had ever received.
We try to tell the story of the Buffalo Soldier
as honestly and as correctly as we possibly can.
- Tell them as accurately as we can
while at the same time being sensitive
to the plight of the Native Americans,
and to the best of our ability not glorifying or glamorizing
the life of the Buffalo Soldier, because it wasn't.
There was nothing glorious about it.
- Can you imagine what they had to endure,
you know, back in 1866?
Not very much different than slavery,
but look at the accomplishments we've achieved since 1866.
I think they wanted to prove too
that America was as much their country as anyone else's.
- [Michael] Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Huachuca,
and in 1916, 17, 18 period,
and all the way through the Mexican Revolutionary War period
at the same time, were the Border Patrol,
and they weren't being treated very well
for protecting America against foreign invasion.
- [Charles] During my research I found
that if you want to know anything about black Americans,
look for the negative things.
You'll find very little
to do with blacks on a positive basis.
- [Michael] Black History is a shaming process,
the way we teach it
and the way we convey it to other people.
Whenever you start talking to an eight year old child
about the fact that everybody he's gonna hear about
in his past or her past was a slave,
they immediately feel inferior.
But if you begin talking about stories that are true,
about people who were courageous, had fortitude,
had bravery, and they were free,
it changes the consciousness of that child from that day on.
My momma always told me, if you're not nervous,
then you don't care to succeed.
So I feel like I'm taking flight here.
Ladies, gentlemen, welcome to Tucson!
We'll be moving this way.
(hand bell rings)
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye!
Welcome, black pilots.
Today we want to show you 500 years of history
from an Afrocentric point of view,
because we have been here for a long time.
It's an amazing history that is often not told
in our textbooks or to our children,
because we were a free people.
I am Dr. Michael Engs.
With me is my business partner, Andre Newman.
Well I've lived here in Tucson,
coming from Virginia as a veteran, for 40 years now.
I realized that there were a lot of people
who were representing the Buffalo Soldiers very adequately,
and I thought why don't I go back further
and see what I can find?
And what I found is 500 years of history.
- [Andre] This is Estevan Park,
this park is named after the first non native
to travel through the south west,
he was actually a black man, a Moor, his name was Estevan.
Folks play rugby, soccer, football here
but not too much is known about this park otherwise.
Coming to the south west,
I felt like an outsider or a transplant.
I didn't know that there was history
of my people in this area, and when I realized
just how deep the history was,
just how interesting some of these figures were and are,
I just became fascinated.
I am honored to have you all here
because we are going to share information
on the life and times of the first non native
to ever travel through the south west,
who happened to be a black man, believe it or not.
[Barbea] Today the story that we're gonna do
is about a woman named Maria Feliciana Arballo.
She was a mulatta libre, a free black woman,
and this woman helped settle the state
that we know as California.
- [Michael] This stop we're talking
about Francisco Javier Marcos,
one of the soldiers who would have come here.
From my whole high school and college career,
I worked for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
dressed in costume, playing a character
as if I was in the 1700s.
Now I'm basically dressed in the same costume
playing a role that's somewhat different.
The history we have in Arizona
really emerged from the diaspora of African peoples
from central and southern Mexico,
not from the east coast of Virginia and the 13 colonies.
If you look at history as being broad,
then you have to think any experience
that affects your way of thinking
is a part of your history.
So just because things happen in Mexico in 1519
doesn't mean I can't claim them
as part of my understanding
of why I am the person I am today.
- If it wasn't for the Buffalo Soldiers,
we wouldn't be standing here in Arizona,
in the south west, period.
(Spanish guitar)
- [Danny] Wow, this is very enlightening,
and I'm going to go back and share it with my family.
As a matter of fact I have Buffalo Soldiers paintings
hanging in my house because I served in the military,
I took a likening of the Buffalo Soldier
but I still knew very little about it up until today.
- [Floyd] Most of us know the history
of the Tuskegee Airmen, you know,
that inspires as pilots.
However, prior to the Tuskegee Airmen
there were people that made history,
that brought them to be where they are.
- [Barbea] Imagine what her thoughts were or would be
about the accomplishments of her descendants.
- It just makes you feel good
to be a member of the human race.
You know, we see the good, the bad and the ugly
on the path that we've traveled,
the more details we know like this.
- You're all gonna hold hands here.
- [John] It fills out your knowledge base.
It makes you a happier, prouder human being, I'd say.
- [Michael] Read stories like I have that make us proud.
We deserve that.
We deserve a history that gives us stature
and we have that history
buried here in the south west, within these walls.