[music] [military drill] Company A! Buffalo Soldiers!
Fall in!
THE BUILDINGS HERE AT FORT McKAVETT ARE QUIET,
LONG DESERTED.
BUT ONCE THIS WAS A BUSTLING OUTPOST,
PART OF A HUGE MILITARY EXPERIMENT,
AN EXPERIMENT THAT WAS EXPECTED TO FAIL.
INSTEAD, IT PRODUCED SOME OF THE FIERCEST FIGHTERS
IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY.
THE TIME WAS THE 1860s.
THE WESTERN FRONTIER WAS STEEPED IN TURMOIL.
THE SETTLERS THROUGHOUT THIS AREA WERE UNPROTECTED.
TORMENTED BY OUTLAWS, THIEVES, AND HOSTILE INDIANS,
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
FORMED 6 REGIMENTS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN TROOPS
KNOWN AS THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS.
[singing] It's troops in line for the buffalo, get a movin', get a movin',
the squadron massed when the bugle blows, movin' into line.
Goin' to fight all day, goin' to fight all night.
We got our money on the buffalo, somebody bet on the fight.
Fire! [cannon shot]
[gunshots]
FOR OVER 100 YEARS
THE LEGACY OF THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS WAS LOST
IN A BAFFLING HISTORICAL VOID.
BUT TODAY
THESE MEN ARE FINALLY GETTING THEIR DUE RECOGNITION
THE TRUE STORY OF THE 9th AND THE 10th CAVALRY
HAS BEEN EMBRACED BY BOTH SCHOLARS AND AN EAGER PUBLIC.
[music]
The Indian feared him because of his bravery and how he fought.
The reason they gave, they called him the Buffalo Soldier
because of the texture of his hair,
and the dark, fierce eyes.
The buffalo had the dark brown eyes and showed no fear.
And the black man fought with such ferocity
and showed no fear.
That's why the Indian gave him this name
because he feared and respected the buffalo
and he learned to fear and respect the black soldier as well.
75% of the soldiers that settled this area
were Buffalo Soldiers.
The only white men that were with them
were the commanding officers.
75%!
Almost all of the forts were manned and built by Buffalo Soldiers.
They see on TV, they see all the modern portrays
of things and they see white cavalry men coming in
and doing these things.
But what they don't realize is that the white cavalry men did come,
but after the Buffalo Soldier had paved the way for him,
built the forts for him,
built the houses, made the bridges,
did the roads, did the work.
And now it's so important
so that their families will understand the hardships
that these men went through
and the pride that goes with it.
[drums playing in military style]
The reason I joined
was for a steady income.
Why, I made a whole $13 a month!
[laughter]
That ain't funny. That's more money than I'd ever had!
KEN POLLARD DISCOVERED THE LEGACY OF THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS
IN THE LATE 1980s.
SINCE THEN, HE'S TRAVELED THROUGHOUT TEXAS
SHARING THAT KNOWLEDGE WITH KIDS.
[begin singing] I was once a captured slave.
Now I'm just a black man who came to be.
I was a hard-riding hero
for the 9th Cavalry.
Tell me how
did they survive
in this new land?
I am a Buffalo Soldier. [end singing]
- How you doing, trooper? - Fine.
[laughter]
That's our summer uniform, by the way.
No wonder it's hot. [kids laugh]
Well it's also the winter uniform.
At attention, trooper!
I'm doing it! I got on-- you want the pants, too?
[laughter] No!
I found out about the Buffalo Soldiers by accident.
I, uh,
happened to walk into Fort Griffin
and I asked that manager why he had all these pictures on his wall.
The pictures were of black folks.
And that's when he started telling me about the Buffalo Soldiers.
And this is, like, 5 years ago.
So I was not aware of them either.
[laughter]
Why is there a #9 on your hat?
That stands for ninth, 9th Cavalry.
How old are you and how old are the horses?
Well, I am, um..
um...
40-something.
Y'all stay in school and stay on them grades.
[kids] Okay, we will. [Pollard] Alright.
[music]
What we are doing is taking the legacy of the Buffalo Soldier
into the cities and into the schools.
And we feel that sharing this story,
that we can instill some pride and resolve in them.
These are the Seminole Indian Scouts.
They were the best.
Let me tell you, between the 1860s
and 1890s during the Indian Wars period,
they fought 24 battles
and they never lost a man.
They were that good. They never lost a man.
It was 200 Buffalo Soldiers against 900 Kickapoos,
Comancheros and Mescaleros.
900 against 200 Buffalo Soldiers.
And we won in 3 hours.
[boy] Well, how come this ain't in our social studies book
'cause I take Texas History?
But much of our history did not get into the history books.
I think a lot of people feel left out.
I remember I used to feel left out
until they came to my school and stuff. And then I knew.
Because they didn't teach us nothing in school but that we were slaves.
That's all they taught us.
They didn't teach us that we were heroes or nothing.
Everytime you went to school in history,
all you heard about was slaves this and slaves that.
You didn't hear about no black heroes.
[Pollard] Having the Buffalo Soldiers as heroes when I was growing up
would have been great.
[door closes]
My family comes from just north of Waco
and my relatives and kinfolk are cowboys, man.
But we didn't have any black cowboys or soldiers to really look up to.
For me, to have
the black heroes there when I was growing up,
that would have been instilled in me that sense of pride.
I'm finding out late. But if I had grown up with that,
I could have had, you know, they would have been my heroes.
[music]
From slavery to glory
I picked cotton,
farmed,
and could not read or write.
I am a soldier now.
I have an eagle on my button,
U.S. on my buckle
and I can carry a gun
and fight for my country.
The question I pose to you today
is what are we fighting for today?
When we kill each other in gang wars,
what are we fighting for?
The Buffalo Soldiers fought not only the Indians and outlaws
but racism and prejudice.
We had a job to do
and we done it.
[music]
Firing positions, move!
Ready.
Aim.
Fire!
[gunshot]
IT SEEMS IRONIC
THAT 130 YEARS AFTER THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS
MADE THEIR QUIET MARK IN HISTORY,
THEIR GREATEST VICTORY MAY BE IN THE PRESENT
FOUGHT NOT WITH BULLETS
BUT WITH A LEGACY OF HONOR,
COURAGE,
AND INTEGRITY.