Happy National Native American Heritage Month.
With that, how about a short look at the 20th Century U.S. Army Indian Scouts program?
While the Army used native troops going back to the Revolution, the colonials had native allies as far back as the Pequot War in 1634, and four regiments of Indian Home Guard– recruited in Kansas– were raised in the Civil War, Congress only authorized active recruitment and enlistment of native soldiers– up to 1,000– in 1866, to act as scouts, with detachments in each active regiment, designated “Troop L” in each of 10 cavalry regiments and “Company I” in each of 25 infantry regiments, although generally not of full troop of company strength.
In addition to their role as scouts, they often proved invaluable as interpreters during negotiations, particularly with the Apache.
1870s. A group of Apache Scouts drills with rifles at Fort Wingate, New Mexico. U.S. Army Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-87797. NARA Identifier 530918
The service was not easy, and many perished while on orders. This list is just of those killed on relatively quiet “Northern” service (e.g the Dakotas, Montana, Oklahoma, and northern Texas):
At least a dozen (some sources cite as many as 16) Scouts are listed as having earned a Medal of Honor, all during the Plains Wars in the later 19th Century.
- Alchesay. Sergeant, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entry of service date unknown. Entered service at: Camp Verde, Arizona. Born: 1853, Arizona Territory. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Blanquet. Indian Scout. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Chiquito. Indian Scout. Place and date: Winter of 1871-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Co-Rux-Te-Chod-Ish (Mad Bear). Sergeant, Pawnee Scouts, U.S. Army. Place and date: At Republican River, Kansas, 8 July 1869. Birth: Nebraska. Date of issue: 24 August 1869. Citation: Ran out from the command in pursuit of a dismounted Indian; was shot down and badly wounded by a bullet from his own command.
- Elsatsoosu. Corporal, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Jim. Sergeant, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1871-73. Birth: Arizona Territory. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Kelsay. Indian Scout. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Kosoha. Indian Scout. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Machol. Private, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Arizona, 1872-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaign and engagements with Apache.
- Nannasaddie. Indian Scout. Place and date: 1872-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Nantaje (Nantahe). Indian Scout. Place and date: 1872-73. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apache.
- Rowdy. Sergeant, Company A, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Arizona, 7 March 1890. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 15 May 1890. Citation: Bravery in action with Apache Indians.
Sgt Rowdy, standing, with his MoH loaned to a comrade, was a member of Co A, Indian Scouts, & received the Medal of Honor for a March 7, 1890 action, during the Cherry Creek Campaign in the Arizona Territory. His citation reads, “Bravery in action with Apache Indians.” He was the last of 16 Scouts who earned the MoH. He passed in 1893 and is buried in Sante Fe National Cemetery in New Mexico.
After Geronimo laid down his arms in 1886 and the Cherry Creek Campaign in 1890, the Scouts’ active use declined and they were withdrawn from other districts to the Arizona Territory.
Authorized at no more than 275 men in 1889, this was trimmed to 150 in 1891 and just 75 Army-wide by 1898.
The reduced force was consolidated at Arizona’s Fort Apache and, after 1913, Fort Huachuca, which was just 15 miles from the Southern Border. Their peacetime role was to patrol the isolated forts’ boundaries, and they lived as a self-contained unit on the campus with their families.
Patrolling the Huachuca Mountains for trespassers, typically smugglers coming up from Mexico, they also constructed fire trails and breaks. They further cared for the post’s livestock and performed odd carpentry and blacksmithing duties, helping to maintain some 60 miles of post fencing.
Of note, their quarters areas were off-limits to non-native personnel.
From Huachuca, at least some Scouts were utilized as “trailers” in the tense border region during the Mexican Revolution and Civil War, followed by the 1916-17 Punitive Expedition against Poncho Villa.
Photograph of Apache Scout, Mexican Punitive Expedition, May 13, 1916. Note the traditional head and footgear, relaxed grooming standards, and regular GI blouse, trousers, and web gear. 111-SC-102733. NARA 329589935
On 3 June 1916, the Scouts were folded into the Army proper, with their members carried on the rolls as regulars and not auxiliaries.
From muster rolls in the National Archives, the Jan. 31, 1920 roster for the Detachment of Indian Scouts at Huachuca lists a 1SG, Eskehnadestah, two corporals, and 18 privates. An 1893 enlistment, Eskehnadestah retired to Whiteriver where he lived to the age of 95, dying on February 3, 1955.
Follow the names on these rosters and you will quickly see this small detachment would endure for years.
Fort Apache was deemed surplus to requirements in October 1922 and the few remaining Scouts were consolidated at the Huachuca det, the unit’s last home. At the same time, recruitment of new Scouts was discontinued but those in good standing and of good health could continue to reenlist until they reached the mandatory retirement age.
This bumped the Huachuca force from 21 to 23 by August 1924, led by SGT Askeldelinney, who was listed as a private on the 1920 roster.
Note this September 1924 roster with eight scouts, a corporal, and seven privates, detached for maneuvers with the 10th Cavalry.
In early 1925, a retired Kiowa Scout, 1SG Tahbonemah (I-See-O), who had logged at least 42 years in the service, mostly with the Seventh Cav, visited the White House with a tribal delegation in uniform, complete with four long service stripes on his left sleeve, where he met the Secretary of War and President Coolidge.
SECWAR John Weeks is seen on the left, and Coolidge to the right
By October 1931, there were only 12 Scouts, a sergeant (the long-serving Charles Bones, seen in the roster as a private in both 1920 and 1924), two corporals, and nine privates.
Around this time, the Scouts and their families, who had lived in tents and traditional dwellings at a camp near the Old Post, were moved to new-built adobe structures at Apache Flats. Wired for electricity and furnished with Army cots, tables, and desks, each dwelling consisted of two rooms– a large living room, and a smaller sleeping room in the back.
The move met with mixed results.
As related by Colonel Allen C. Miller, former Huachuca commander:
The scouts remained rugged individualists to the end. Only one of the last twelve scouts spoke English. All were very large, well-built men. Not only were they excellent horsemen, but foot marches of up to 85 miles in a single day are recorded. Individually and as a unit they were fine soldiers, but they never gave up many of their tribal ways. Until the mid-thirties, they lived with their families in tepees which were located in an area of the garrison some distance apart from the other troops. When the WPA (Works Projects Administration) offered to improve their housing conditions, the post commander at Fort Huachuca enthusiastically set about building adobe houses for the Indians. An impressive dedication was held to celebrate the movement of the Indian families into their new quarters. Great was his consternation to find soon thereafter that all the families had moved back into tepees and that the scouts’ horses were the only occupants in the new quarters
The Army also deeded them other land, in small parcels.
Indian Scout Cemetery in North Dakota 75-FB-603
By 31 December 1939, with the war on the horizon, the Scouts numbered eight men: SGT Riley Luke Sinew, two corporals (one on furlough), and five privates. Sinew, a 1921 enlistment, is shown as a private in the 1924 rosters above and seen again as a corporal on the 1931 roster.
Carl Gaston, working with the Army Signal Corps, ventured to Huachuca in April 1942 and took a series of images of the last of the Scouts. Their age is apparent, as the Army ceased recruiting new scouts 20 years prior.
Note the quoted captions are period captions, not mine.
SC131140 – “Sgt. Sinew L. Riley is receiving reports on the activities of the day from his scouts.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #16 by Carl Gaston
SC131141 – “Private William Major and Private Andrew Paxson patrol the southern border from a peak of the Huachuca Mountains.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #17 by Carl Gaston
SC131142 – “Sergeant Sinew L. Riley is serving his 21st year as a scout in the Army and is the 3rd generation of his family to serve as such. Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942).” Note the “USS” device on his cap. Riley died of appendicitis in 1958, and the Army later named an enlisted barracks at Huachuca in his honor. Signal Corps Photo #18 by Carl Gaston
SC131143 – “Sergeant Sinew L Riley is teaching his son, Larrie H. Indian wood lore.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #19 by Carl Gaston
SC131144 – “These Indian scouts are shown filing up the side of a mountain on patrol.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #20 by Carl Gaston
SC131145 – “Private Andrew Paxon is shown scaling a peak for a better view.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942). Note the slung M1903 Springfield. Signal Corps Photo #21 by Carl Gaston
SC131146 – “These grizzled Indian features make a very interesting picture.” L to R: Corporal Jim Lane, John Rope, and Kassey Y-32.Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #28 by Carl Gaston
SC131147 – “Private Andrew Paxson is shown leaving his Army tent on outpost to start his scout duties.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #50 by Carl Gaston
SC131150 – “Corporal Jim Lane is shown here after having quenched his thirst from a spring.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #76 by Carl Gaston
SC131151 – “Sergeant Sinew Riley, US Army scout, listens to John Rope, (Black Larriet) retired US Army scout, relates the many battles he fought as an Army scout.” Ft. Huachuca, Arizona (April 1, 1942) Signal Corps Photo #37 by Carl Gaston
The Scouts remained activated, dwindling in number until only four remained and the detachment was deactivated in 1947, when they were honorably retired.
In the end, only a single member of the final contingent of seven Scouts, a Private Kessay (Y-32), had served less than 25 years in uniform– having just 24 on his file. Two other privates, Jim Lane and Jess Billy, had 32 and 33 years on the books. Riley, Cpl. Antonio Ivan and Pvt. Andrew Paxson, all had 26. Pvt. William Major had 25.