Measure creates Buffalo Soldier corridor in Oklahoma

Wednesday, June 22nd 2005, 6:28 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Ollie Jackson, a member of a famed black Army unit, watched and smiled as Govenor Brad Henry signed a bill creating the ``Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Corridor'' on Tuesday.

``This is so wonderful,'' Jackson, 80, said. ``I'm just tickled. I never thought I would be able to do this.''

Those attending the ceremony applauded as Henry, surrounded by members of the Ninth & Tenth (Horse) Cavalry Association and another group representing the black troops who fought in the Civil War's Battle of Honey Springs in eastern Oklahoma, signed the legislation.

The corridor follows the path the soldiers took across Oklahoma, and communities along the route will be able to use the history of the buffalo soldier in their tourism efforts, said Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, D-Tulsa, who sponsored Senate Bill 659.

Congress authorized the 9th Cavalry in Greenville, La., and the 10th Cavalry out of Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and four regiments consolidated into the 24th and 25th infantries, said Fred Gray, president of the Lawton-Fort Sill chapter of the Ninth & Tenth (Horse) Cavalry Association.

The soldiers protected then-Indian Territory from encroachment before it was settled, helped protect telegraph lines and stagecoach routes and helped build Fort Sill in southwestern Oklahoma.

The Cheyenne Indians, who hadn't seen black soldiers before, coined the term ``buffalo soldier'' after encountering them in 1867, Gray, of Lawton, said.

Soldiers used to wrap buffalo hides around them to keep warm and sometimes, with only their faces and dark hair showing, resembled the animal, he said. But the soldiers also were fierce fighters and the Indians believed that their spirit mirrored that of the buffalo.

``The troops knew they held the buffalo in high regard. They didn't take offense. They took it in a positive way because of their reverence of the animal.''

Jackson, an Oklahoma City native who now lives in San Bernardino, Calif., was a member of the 10th Cavalry and served in North Africa during World War II. He didn't get a chance to attend his graduation ceremony at Douglass High School in 1943 because he had to report to Fort Sill that June before being shipped out.

Jackson, who had to learn to ride a horse, remembered that the black soldiers were segregated from other troops, even as they prepared for deployment.

``At Fort Sill we were off to ourselves in the corner,'' he said. ``All the transport trains were segregated. All our officers were white.''

The concept of the horse cavalry units changed with that war, which was fought with mechanized vehicles and planes, and the regiments were disbanded.

``What they concluded was that the horse was not the best mode of travel and way to fight wars anymore,'' said Sam Samuels, a Lawton resident and Vietnam veteran who is vice president of the cavalry association.

Eason McIntyre said she had heard of the buffalo soldier before but didn't know about their contributions to the military and Oklahoma history until she heard Bruce Fisher, diversity curator at the Oklahoma Historical Society, speak about them in 2002.

``Through the process it gave me an opportunity to honor the services that African-American men have provided to our state and to our country from the post-Civil War through a little bit of the Korean War,'' said Eason McIntyre, the daughter of a World War II veteran and granddaughter of a World War I fighter.

``They're both not here but I'm sure they're looking down and saying `Thank you' for not only highlighting our services, but the services of African-American men in the military who despite their value and their courage felt an evil of discrimination, yet they served courageously and tried to do their best for their country and their state.''

Eason McIntyre said her former House colleague, Rep. Jerry Ellis, D-Valliant, helped guide the bill through the House.

No new money will be appropriated for the corridor, so it doesn't have a direct fiscal impact, Eason McIntyre said. Indirectly, a position in the marketing division of the tourism department and one in the Oklahoma State Historical Society will be included in both agencies' budgets, she said.