Ode To The Buffalo Soldiers Of The United States 9th &10th Cavalry Regiments

Black Buzz News
Monday October 19 2009
Negro Knoll Florida.
In every major war throughout the history of the United States , from the American Revolution through the Indian Wars , Native Americans and African American have fought with and against each other. This scenario prevailed during the Civil War.
BUFFALO SOLDIERS originally were members of the U.S. 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army , formed on September 21 , 1866 at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas. The nickname was given by the Native American tribes they fought;the term eventually came to include six units :

*9th Cavalry Regiment
*10th Cavalry Regiment
*24th Infantry Regiment
*25th Infantry Regiment
*27th Cavalry Regiment
*28th Cavalry Regiment

Although several African American regiments were raised during the Civil War to fight alongside the Union Army (including the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,the 55th Massachusetts , the Ist. Kansas Volunteer Colored Infantry , the first Arkansas Volunteers, the First , Second and Third Louisiana Native Guard , the first South Carolina Infantry, the Twenty Eight USCI , the Twenty Eight USCI ,and many other United States Colored Troops Regiments ) , the "Buffalo Soldiers" were established by Congress as the first peacetime all Black regiments in the regular U.S. Army.

Sources disagree on how the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" began. According to the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, the name originated with the Cheyenne Warriors in 1867,the actual Cheyenne translation being "Wild Buffalo." However ,writer Walter Hill documented the account of Benjamin Grierson ,who founded the 10th Cavalry regiment,recalling an 1871 campaign against the Comanche tribe.

Hill attributed the origin of the name to the Comanche due to Grierson's assertions. Some sources assert that the nickname was given out of respect for the fierce fighting ability of the 10th cavalry. The term Buffalo Soldiers became a generic term for all African American soldiers. It is now used for U.S.Army units that trace their direct lineage back to the 9th and 10th Cavalry,units whose bravery earned them an honored place in U.S.history.
The Buffalo soldiers aided and abetted in the genocide of Americas first victims of white individual and Institutional racism the Native American , and I find nothing heroic or noble in their actions in fighting the Native indigenous tribes nor in making it easier and safer for corrupt white settlers to steal & confiscate land on which the indigenous tribes had lived proudly on for thousands of years. Indeed the Buffalo soldiers were the toughest men on the Plains in which they had to fight the white settlers ,white town people, white crooked law men , outlaws & bandits, and the Native tribes who were fighting for their survival to do starvation and the diseases from the European invaders and conqueror's.It is true that slaves, and Black soldiers , who couldn't read or write , had no idea of the historical deprivations of the frequent systematic genocidal intent of the U.S. government toward Native Americans. The Buffalo soldiers had the mentality of slaves so when the master(Uncle Sam) said " I need troops to fights the heathens(Indians) on the Northern & Southwestern Plains" these combat ready and in many cases Civil War Veterans volunteered in droves for service on the rough and tumble Plains. The Buffalo soldiers frequently married Native American women and European women, and the Native American women in many cases were desperate because of the genocide being perpetrated against them. Many of the Buffalo soldiers settled in the all Black towns in Oklahoma, Kansas, California and throughout the West and Southern U.S. Some became the most feared lawmen in the west has ever known and many just simply stayed in the military for life. After the Civil War White Southerns and Easterners were not desirous of giving work to free armed Black men who were in competition with poor whites and white Civil War veterans in both the North and the South.
So the U.S. filled that void by getting rid of two problems with the enactment of the Buffalo Soldier Cavalry Regiments and the continually brutally forcing of the indigenous tribes into the terrible God-forsaken territory in Oklahoma and in other areas around the country.

Blogger Black Buzz 's poem titled "Ode To The Buffalo Soldiers of The United States 9th & 10th Cavalry Regiment is a moving , dynamic , compelling and acute observation of the Buffalo Soldiers pursuit of the America's first victims of racism from the perspective of an Native American( Mescalero Apache) as the Buffalo soldiers search for the bold , brave ,courageous,and proud Victorio and his people.

POEM

ODE TO THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS OF THE UNITED STATES 9th & 10th Cavalry Regiments

What's Up !
Buffalo Soldier
Why are you hunting me
Just a few Moons ago,
You weren't so free.

What's Up !
Buffalo Soldier,
I remember when
You were a meek and docile Slave
Now you are wearing the Blue uniform of
The Home of the Brave.

What's Up !
Buffalo Soldier,
Was it not Me
That gave you your Name
But now our relationship has changed,
And it will never be the Same.

What's Up !
Buffalo Soldier,
I am watching you,
As you hunt for Victorio
Why are you
So blind Oreo ?

What's Up!
Buffalo Soldier,
The same man who enslaved you,
Stole all of my Land
Come join me
So we can make
A unified Stand.

What's Up!
Buffalo Soldier,
We have a common enemy and foe
Do you understand me
Mr. Buffalo ?

By Ronald B. Saunders
1995

Blogger BLACK BUZZ notes that :
BUFFALO SOLDIERS
March 30,1870- The great buffalo is considered sacred by the Cheyenne Indians of the Great Plains. When a brave calls an enemy " buffalo," he respects this enemy as he does the buffalo. The great and industrious Cheyenne call the Black troops of the U.S. 9th and 10th Cavalry"buffalo soldiers ". For two years now,the Black horsemen have served with distinction on the American frontier.
Advantages In Army
Organized in August,1866,the two regiments attracted many young Blacks. The Army,after all,affords them social and economic advantages difficult to achieve elsewhere in society. Thirteen dollars a month is meager pay but more than most freed Blacks can earn today as civilians.
After a year of training the 9th and 10th Cavalry moved westward into the Great Plains. Today they have distinguished themselves in scouting, escort duty, and Indian fighting.
One Black soldier Filmore Roberts was assigned to carry mail to Fort Gibson, through so-called Indian Territory,but was never seen again.
Roberts was charged with desertion. Months later his body was found in the Canadian River. He had died trying to ford the swollen river and the mail pouch was still strapped to his back.....
Last October,h and I Companies of the 10th. Cavalry had their first major contact with so-called hostile Indians. About 500 attackers charged and fired into the columns wagon's,which had been circled up. The Buffalo soldiers maintained a steady accurate return fire and in late afternoon the Indians departed. The infamous General Phillip Sheridan personally praised their action and recommended their white lieutenant, Louis Carpenter,for the Congressional Medal of Honor.
* There was no such thing as a hostile Native or Indian. The Europeans were stealing,confiscating, and making fraudulent land deals and bogus treaties in an systematic effort to annihilate the indigenous tribes, and thus today we see the everyday results, and impact of that brutal genocide coupled with the niggardly enslavement of the various Black African tribes ,who came from the birthplace of all mankind, Africa.