LOOKING BACK

A True Pre-Oklahoma Hero

Tough and authentic, legendary U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves helped tame lawlessness in Indian Territory

BY MELISSA MERCER HOWELL

IN THE 240-YEAR HISTORY of the U.S. Marshals Service, a little over 200 federal marshals, deputy marshals, special deputy marshals and marshals guards have been killed in the line of duty. In Indian Territory alone, 120 were killed.

While many federal peace officers made a name for themselves in Indian Territory, few, if any, were as suited to the job as Bass Reeves.

Far more violent than other notorious Old West locales such as Tombstone, Deadwood or Dodge City, Indian Territory — the eastern half of modern-day Oklahoma and home to the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole nations — presented a special challenge for law enforcement. It was a haven for infamous outlaws and petty criminals alike.

Its 75,000 square miles fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. court for Western Arkansas at Fort Smith, the largest federal court in U.S. history.

In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant tapped Isaac C. Parker, a congressman from Missouri who became known as the “hanging judge,” to oversee the court and establish a tighter rule of law. One of his first actions was to appoint former slave Bass Reeves as a U.S. Marshal. He is believed to be the first Black U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi.

Originally from Texas, Reeves crossed the border into Indian Territory to escape slavery. He became acquainted with the Cherokee, Creek and Seminole, according to Oklahoma Historical Society records. After the Civil War, he left Indian Territory for Arkansas where he farmed and occasionally accompanied marshals into Indian Territory as a scout.

Reeves was known as an expert with a pistol and rifle, stood about six foot, two inches, weighed 180 pounds and was said to have superhuman strength, wrote historian Arthur T. Burton in his book Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves.

He was known for his ability to catch outlaws that other deputies couldn’t, often wearing a disguise and using advanced detective techniques, Burton wrote. And while he shot and killed 15 to 20 men in self-defense and survived numerous assassination attempts, Reeves was never wounded — even though his hat and his belt were shot off on separate occasions.

In his 32 years as a marshal, he detained and transported back to Fort Smith more than 3,000 men and women for whom he had received a writ of arrest. When Reeves received a writ for the capture of notorious outlaw Belle Starr, she turned herself in before he could arrest her. It was the one and only time she willingly presented herself to law enforcement.

Reeves served the Western District of Arkansas until 1907 when Oklahoma became a state. At 68, he left Fort Smith for Muskogee, where he joined the police force. He died in 1910 of nephritis.

Reeves was married, widowed and remarried; he had 11 children. One of his descendants, his great nephew Paul L. Brady, became the first Black man appointed as a federal administrative law judge in 1972. He also is the great-great-great grandfather to National Hockey League player Ryan Reaves.