Stray Shots
The original Stray Shots was first published on June 15, 1890, by Post Chaplain Charles Pierce as editor. Annual subscription rate for 52 issues was a modest 50 cents. In the masthead, Pierce noted that Sunday services consisted of Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. and Prayer, praise, & sermon were at 8:00 p.m., and all were invited and “every seat free.”
The first issue asked, “…the cooperation of all, regardless of the question of rank.” The columns of personals were as free to privates as to officers. The second and third pages were for local news items. The editor wrote that, “Short items and many of them will be our motto.”
Many times the post chaplain was called upon to be the school teacher. Pierce was given approval by the Secretary of War, Redfield Proctor, to teach “…illustrated lectures in U.S. History…” It is intended that the present version of Stray Shots will provide an opportunity to post materials that promote the learning of history.
Post Cemetery
The present Post Cemetery at Fort Supply was established in September 1871 because the 1869 post cemetery near the Beaver River had washed away in a flood. The new cemetery, on higher ground, was used by the Army for soldiers and civilians until the post closed in 1894.
In January 1895, soldier’s remains were removed to the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, an official practice upon the closing of posts. One row of headstones, non-military personnel, marks the only identifiable graves from the military period.
During the period 1895-1913, area residents were buried in the old fort’s cemetery. The Western State Hospital interred patients there until 1964. There are about 970 patients in the main plot and in an additional section to the west.
On November 27, 2000, the Cheyenne tribe re-buried the remains of a man known to archaeologists as “Sandman.” His remains were discovered in 1972. He is believed to have died between 1835 and 1845.
Historic Headstone Information
Toch-e-me-ah
Wife of Ben Clarke
Died Oct. 5, 1875
Age 22 years
Alex Mitchell
Died June 17, 1877
Aged 22 years
James Quinlan
Died June 12, 1877
Aged 32 yrs. Q.M.
Pat McLoughlin
Born County Roscommon
Ireland, March 17, 1878
Aged 36 years
Bad Face
Co. B Indian Scouts
“Sandman”
Cheyenne
Original Burial
Estimated 1830-1840
Reburial Nov. 27, 2000
Company B, Cheyenne Indian Scouts
Sheridan’s Scouts
In the early 1880s, cattlemen from Kansas and Texas had leased large areas of the Indian reservation lands in Indian Territory for grazing. The agent for the Cheyenne and Arapaho and some tribal members believed that the money from the leases would benefit their people economically. However, by mid 1885, agitation by an anti-leasing faction, an agent’s incompetence, and the desperation of reservation life threatened to spark a general uprising. General Philip Sheridan and Army troops were sent by President Grover Cleveland to assess and gain control of the situation. Sheridan determined that both the cattlemen and the agent should go. It was apparent that there were never enough regular soldiers to adequately patrol the region to keep the peace. Because there were never enough regular soldiers to patrol the large western Indian Territory reservations effectively, he devised a plan to organized three companies of scouts composed of native men. They would help keep the peace while earning an income. American Indians had long been engaged by the military to act as scouts and guides, most often during periods when the Army actively campaigned against other hostile tribes. During the relatively peaceful1880s, Cheyenne men enlisted for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most important was that the old ways, although suppressed, were still a potent influence. Many of these men were veteran warriors that had fought both red and white enemies. The new units provided a way to demonstrate the virtues held in traditional esteem and required for status in a warrior culture.
On July 20, 1885, Indians, former warriors, gathered at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency at Darlington across the North Canadian River from Fort Reno. Approximately 120 men were enlisted as scouts for a six month duration of service. Three units were formed of forty men each with Company B stationed at Fort Supply. Companies A and C were at Fort Reno and Fort Elliott in the Texas Panhandle, respectively. The units were to see service as cavalry attached to a particular post but not affiliated with a certain regiment at that post.
Peace Keepers
The primary function of the Company B scouts was to patrol the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation and the Cherokee Outlet to the north in which Fort Supply was located. They reported intrusions by non-Indian trespassers intent on cutting timber, selling whiskey, or the theft of Indian livestock. Along the Western or Texas Trail, the scouts were detailed to keep the great cattle herds up from Texas on the trail moving north toward the Kansas border. As part of their duties, the native horsemen carried dispatches, hunted game, chased deserters, and if they spoke English, served as interpreters. Around the posts, the men of Company B, as well as the other two scout units, helped the regular soldiers in the garrison with the more mundane tasks in the daily post routines. They stood guard duty, drilled as soldiers did, cut firewood, and even assisted in training horses.
Captain Jesse Lee, an Army officer as well as a Cheyenne and Arapaho agent, stated in his 1886 report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that, “The enlistment of Indian scouts,…by the military authorities was a wise step. They render good service because disciplined, and instead of being termed ‘dog soldiers’ for the tribes, they are soldiers of the government.” Dog Soldiers were an honored and powerful Cheyenne warrior society responsible for policing the tribe in the old days.
A Glimpse of the Past
Company B and its kindred units are little known except for passing references in a few publications, archival materials, and a handful of images. However, a composite story from these sources reveals a unique cultural and historical experience from Oklahoma’s past. The scouts of Company B come alive through the images produced by both white and Indian contemporaries.
Photographs collected by the first Company B commanding officer, John Brereton, provide a view of Indians as soldiers. As depicted in the accompanying photographs and a scout’s drawings, the men are shown uniformed, equipped, and armed the same as regular U.S. soldiers. The image of First Sergeant Stone shows him replete in dark blue wool, five brass buttoned fatigue coat with the chevrons of his rank as the top non commissioned officer in the company. The brim on his black fatigue or campaign hat has been cut down but retains the hat cord around the crown. He wears a web ammunition belt with an “H” shaped brass buckle. The weapon in his grasp is the 45.55 Springfield carbine issued to cavalry troops.
The image of the three young Cheyenne warriors as soldiers illustrates several variations of the standard issue Army clothing. All three men have the regulation fatigue or campaign hat that appears to have the brim cut down. Big Wolf’s coat is the brown canvas duck stable coat. Corporal Darlington wears the dark blue fatigue coat with five brass buttons and the chevrons of his rank. As a concession to their cultural heritage, the three men have not been required to cut their hair in the fashion of white soldiers.
The scouts were allowed to provide their own mounts for which they were paid a monthly stipend. The photograph of the company mounted in front of the post and canvas stable shows the majority of mounts to be the smaller, painted Indian pony. The McClellan saddle and the other Army standard issue horse tack gave a military appearance to the Cheyenne war ponies. Mounted on the dark horse in front of the ranks is Lieutenant Brereton.
Enlisting as a scout had a definite economic advantage. Opportunities to earn an income for the support of a family and other dependents were scarce on the reservation. Army pay and rations were much better than the hand to mouth existence that many experienced after confinement to the reservation. The men were paid according to their rank – for example, $13 a month for a private - when the Paymaster rolled into the post. They were rationed an equal amount of food from the post’s Commissary Department. Unlike most regular soldiers, the men were allowed to have their immediate families accompany them to their post. The families put up their lodges outside the bounds of the fort. Rations were drawn for their families from the Commissary or from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency at Darlington near Fort Reno. Occasionally the men had their extended families in camp, which placed a burden on the military. The image of the scout camp shows the canvas lodges pitched on the open prairie east of the post. Two uniformed scouts and a traditionally dressed woman can be seen in camp.
Warrior Artist
One of the scouts, Squint Eyes, was an artist whose work portrayed significant periods in Plains Indian life. His traditional-style ledger art drawings show a unique perspective on Plains Indian life and an unexpected view of Indian and Army interaction. Made between 1886 and 1887 at Fort Supply, his drawings show the Cheyenne scouts hunting wild game along side Army officers and civilians. Hunting was a favorite pastime of officers and enlisted men, whether white or Indian. The scouts acted as guides but also participated in the events depicted. The art is rendered in typical Plains Indian style with the emphasis placed on culturally important details that in this instance show a quite untypical appearance. The warrior artist depicts himself and comrades dressed in their Army uniforms with the arms and accoutrements of service while performing an activity that was also basic to traditional Cheyenne life.
Similarly, the photographic image of Squint Eyes and his two female cousins shows the juxtaposition of two very different cultures. The warrior who had once fought against the Army now wears the blue uniform while the young women are dressed in traditional finery.
Scout Commanders
Indian auxiliary units were often commanded by junior grade line officers, as was the case with Company B. First Lieutenant John J. Brereton, 24th Infantry, commanded during the first years of the unit’s existence. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1877 and was assigned to field duty with Company H, 24th Infantry, one of the four African-American regiments in the Army. His brother-in-law, Lieutenant John Bullis, achieved fame as the leader of the famed Seminole-Negro Indian scouts along the Texas and Mexico border.
The photographs of the scouts of Company B were located in the Brereton collection at the United States Military Academy Library at West Point, New York. A private collection contained a notebook in which he entered comments relating to the activities of the scouts. Given were their names, family members, food rations, and clothing allowances. He also kept a listing of Cheyenne words indicating an attempt to learn their language. Brereton was one of those rare officers who went beyond the call of 19th Century duty. He attempted to bridge racial gaps and assimilate African Americans and American Indians into the white military. Brereton’s collection sheds much light on a heretofore little known aspect of Cheyenne history.
White Man’s Road
The scout units enlisted from the Southern Plains tribes in Indian Territory were the precursors to a larger assimilation experiment undertaken by the Army. In early 1891, the Army ordered that Troop L from each of eight cavalry regiments and Company I of those Infantry regiments in the West were to be reorganized as all Indian units. The intent was to mold Indian warriors into disciplined American soldiers and speed integration into the dominant society. Recruiting was attempted all over the west among many tribes with varying success. The experiment met with resistance not only from many Army officers, Indian Bureau bureaucrats, and other whites but also from the new Indian soldiers. Unlike the scouts of Company B, the men of the new units were required to live in barracks. As with regular soldiers, family life was discouraged. The Indian soldiers resented being moved away from their home regions when regiments were transferred. These new outfits came into existence in the waning days of the Cheyenne and Arapaho scouts. By the mid 1890s, both the scouts and the regular Army Indian units were all but gone.
Company B and the other two companies initially raised in late July 1885 demonstrated their worth in the field augmenting regular Army troops in Indian Territory into the early 1890s. Theirs was a unique story in American history, a success when measured against other attempts to include Indians into Anglo-American life at the close of the frontier.
Resources
Primary Sources
- National Archives and Records Administration, Microfilm Publications
- Post Returns
- Fort Supply, microfilm 617, roll 1244
- Regimental Returns
- Twenty-fourth Infantry, M 665, roll 247
- Fifth Cavalry, M744, roll 53
- Post Returns
- Oklahoma Historical Society, Research Division
- Cheyenne and Arapaho File
- Cheyenne and Arapaho Papers
- Cheyenne and Arapaho Letter Books
- Indian and Pioneer Papers
- Oklahoma State University, Government Collections
- Report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1886. Report of Captain Lee, 114-124
- United States Military Academy, Special Collections & Archives, USMA Library.
- John J. Brereton Collection
Secondary Sources
Carriker, Robert. Fort Supply, Indian Territory: Frontier Outpost. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.
Heitman, Francis B. Heitman’s Historical Register & Dictionary of the United States Army From Its Organization, September 27, 1789 to March 2, 1903.
James, Louise. “Company B”. Woodward Daily News, May 7, 1989.
Internet Links
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Squint Eyes: Artist and Indian Scout,
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/scout
Tichkematse: A Cheyenne at the Smithsonian, http://nmnh.si.edu/squinteyes/squinteyes.htm