Warriors of Conscience: Uncorroborating the Myths and Omissions of the American Indian and Black American Soldiers Indian Wars History 1865-1890

Abstract

Black American soldiers sustained a dubious sphere of influence in the history of the American Indian especially after the American Civil War and throughout the period of Euro-American history called “the Indian Wars”, 1865-1890. Up until this examination, it has been the convenient purview of scholars to follow the status quo writings of the overwhelmingly non-Indian interpretation of the events and interactions between American Indian societies and black soldier regiments of the U.S. Army during the so called Indian Wars. Books written about the black regiments also known as the Buffalo Soldiers, discuss the West Point graduate officers, the black regimental chaplains, the daily discriminatory challenges facing these newly freed soldiers both within the military and in the frontier communities and the military battles with the American Indians societies. This thesis uncovers another aspect of the history of the American Indian and African American soldiers, heretofore ignored. These actors, conscripted into a war not of their making were socially and politically aware of their circumstance and their mutual second-class social-political status in the newly forming Eurocentric dominated country. A thorough examination of the attitudes and philosophical understanding of these two ethnic groups during this period of American history has not been characterized, except for anecdotal stories. The consolidated evidence analyzed in this work, speak for itself as to the depth of understanding that both ethnic groups had of the irony of their respective situations. The abundance of evidence demonstrates that contrary to the presentations of previous historical accounts, the American Indian population did not view African Americans and subsequently the black soldier in the same vein as his white comrades and commanders. In today’s politically correct thinking world, it should not be an intellectual revelation to appreciate the tenuous situation it must have been for former enslaved men to follow the oppressive dictates of a government that had just recently given them their liberty. What I demonstrate in this work is that both the American Indians and African American soldiers were conscious of the in congruent basis of their conflict, instigated by the white colonists. While their military interactions consisted largely of em-battlement, there was also a consciousness of thought to their social-political predicament.

Keywords: Buffalo Soldiers, Indian Wars, Ute Indians