THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER SCOUT
was vital during the period of westward expansion between 1840 and 1890.
Possessing a priceless knowledge of the geography, people and characteristics of the great American hinterland, this rare breed of pioneer had a bigger influence on the pace of settlement and control of the American West than any other single factor. The scout's keen eyesight saw the faint outline of a hoof print or a broken twig on the trail. His ears heard the call of an eagle or the sound of horses many miles away. Nothing escaped the notice of the army scout.
The word "scout" comes from the French verb ecouter, meaning, "to listen." Armies have long used scouts to gather information about the enemy. From the earliest days of exploration, the US Army was dependant on its scouts to guide them across the plains and through the mountains as they blazed the trails and guarded the nation's frontier settlements.
THE CRAFT OF THE SCOUT
An ability to "read sign" was an essential skill for the frontier scout. This involved studying minute physical evidence and using all of the senses. Signs on the ground were vital. An army officer in Dakota Territory during 1869 described the "Indian Trailer" as "a man of close observation, quick perception, and prompt action ... often not another step is taken until a mystery that may present itself ... is fairly solved. The Indian Trailer will stand still for hours in succession, to account for certain traces or effects in tracks, and sometimes give to the matter unremitting attention for days and weeks."
Keen eyesight was an essential asset for the scout. Despite being 60 years old, Jim Bridger was riding ahead of an army column near the Tongue River in Wyoming Territory in 1865, when he pointed out some smoke rising at a distant point. The officer commanding could see nothing, even with the aid of field glasses. But as they advanced onward, other scouts rode in reporting an Indian village with campfires ahead of the column.
Sounds heard at night meant much to the experienced scout. While scouting for the 7th Iowa Cavalry in Nebraska during 1864, John Smith listened to the howling wolves and commented: "That isn't a wolf- that is a Cheyenne." He informed his soldier comrades that the Cheyenne had a method of long-range signaling or communicating by wolf-calls. By this means, they passed on information such as the number of soldiers they saw and whether it was dangerous to attempt an attack or not. Unfortunately, scouts could not understand these signals as they differed on each occasion.
To survive in the wilderness, and to learn about the best trails and mountain passes, the scout needed to communicate with Native Americans who spoke a multitude of languages and dialects. Although some scouts, like Jim Beckwourth and Tom LeForge, were fluent in several of these languages and made good interpreters, most learned but a few phrases. Faced with the same language barrier, the Indians had developed a nearly universal system of hand signs, which some white men also mastered. Captain Randolph B. Marcy, 5th Infantry, explained some of this system in his trail handbook, The Prairie Traveler, published in 1859. Another volume, published in 1884 and entitled The Indian Sign Language, was written by Captain W. P. Clark, who commanded a mixed battalion of Sioux, Snake, Crow and Pawnee scouts in 1876. Clark believed that knowledge of Indian sign not only helped him to communicate with many different tribes, but also to think like an Indian, a trait he considered essential for a good scout and cavalry soldier. Retired army officer Garrick Mallery compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of Indian sign language. Published in 1880, it became the standard, if rather retrospective, reference work on the subject.
Most army scouts did not work alone, but operated in groups sometimes amounting to 30 or 40 men. Scouts were also regularly required to serve as couriers to deliver urgent news of either victory or defeat. During the Ute War in Colorado Territory during 1879, a white scout named J. P. Rankin rode 180 miles in 24 hours to carry word to General George Crook of an attack at Milk Creek on a battalion of the 4th Infantry, under Major Thomas T. Thornburgh. As a result, a relief column saved the infantrymen from disaster!
Many scouts throughout the period preferred to ride mules rather than horses because, according to Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer, they could "perform a rapid and continuous march without forage, being able to subsist on the grazing to be obtained in nearly all the valleys on the plains during the greater portion of the year." Custer also believed that the object of the scout was "not to outrun or overwhelm the Indians, but to avoid both by secrecy and caution in his movements." The method of deploying scouts when an army unit was on the move was particularly important. According to Captain John Bourke, who served in the Southwest under General George Crook: "Our Apache scouts ... were kept from 12 to 24 hours in advance of the main body, but always in communication, the intention being to make use of them to determine the whereabouts of the hostiles, but to let the soldiers do the work of cleaning them out."
During the last decade of the 19th century, an end to hostilities on the western frontier meant a reduction in the strength of the Indian scouts. Army General Order No. 28, issued on March 9, 1891, reduced the number of scouts to 150, distributed as follows: Department of Arizona, 50; Departments of the Dakota, Platte and Missouri, 25 each; Department of Texas, 15; and the Department of the Columbia, 10. The same order required the conversion of Troop L in certain cavalry regiments, and Company I in selected infantry regiments, to consist of 55 Native American enlisted men. In so doing, it was believed that those who had once been nomadic warriors would be assimilated into white culture as conventional US soldiers.
The Indian scouts that remained were spread very thinly within each department, and by official nomenclature the classification of their unit was changed from "company" to "detachment." Within the Department of the Dakota they were distributed as follows: ten scouts were assigned to Fort Meade; five to Fort Bennett; four to Fort Yates; two each to forts Assinniboine and Buford; and two to Camp Poplar River. Those in Arizona were mainly employed in border patrol work. About 20 of the 39 Apache scouts in service in 1916 saw field duty in the Pershing campaign against the Mexican bandit/revolutionary, Pancho Villa. Arriving too late to be involved in many active operations, they still performed an invaluable role as guides and couriers, much as their forefathers had done.
Following new regulations issued in 1917, the period of enlistment for Indian scouts was changed from three to six months, to seven years - the same as for regular soldiers. The separate units of Indian scouts, which had existed since 1866, were finally discontinued on June 30, 1921, and after that time those that remained were carried on the Detached Enlisted Men's List. The Detachment of Apache Indian Scouts at Fort Huachuca was finally disbanded as a US Army unit in 1943, although its last three sergeants, Joe Kessay, William Major and Joe Quintero, were not retired until November 30, 1948.
UNIFORMS AND GUIDONS
Civilian scouts and guides attached to the US Army on the frontier were employees of the Quartermaster Department and as such were not officially issued military uniforms or equipment, although some items were clearly either acquired informally or traded between the troops and scouts. Hence, their appearance was mostly that of plainsmen or mountain men, with fringed buckskin jackets and trousers much in evidence.
During the Powder River Expedition in November 1876,
Pawnee Scout commander Luther North commented that he wore "a buckskin suit with porcupine quills and fringe, just like a real scout!" From July 1866, when Indian scouts were officially enlisted in the army for short periods of time, they were issued old pattern uniforms from surplus stock legally exempt from sale. This was often worn in less than regulation style mixed with native costume. For example, before they set out from Oregon for the Lava Beds in California during April 1873, the Warm Springs Indian scouts under Donald McKay were issued with "sixty privates' suits." According to photographic evidence, this included 1858-pattern hats, which were also still being issued to regular army soldiers, and 1851-pattern dismounted greatcoats. Some Indian scouts continued to prefer their native dress.
In 1870, Captain Bourke, 3rd Cavalry, described Apache couriers in Arizona as being "almost naked, their only clothing being a muslin loin-cloth, a pair of pointed-toed moccasins, and a hat of hawk feathers." Many of the Crow scouts with General Crook during die summer campaign of 1876 wore a headdress formed from "an old black army hat, with top cut out and sides bound round with feathers, fur, and scarlet cloth." Others took full advantage of the availability of army clothing, no matter how haphazardly they were supplied. Of the scouts posted at Fort Abercrombie, North Dakota, in 1878, Lieutenant J. M. Burns remarked: "At each inspection they paraded in full dress, and were as proud of their glittering uniforms as any soldier in the Army." By the late 1880s, units such as Casey's Cheyenne scouts, and Taylor's Oglala Sioux scouts, were immaculately dressed in 1889-pattern campaign hats, wool five-button blouses and medium blue kersey trousers. |
