Work Text:
Buffalo Soldier
Episode 110: All In
Calian: This lead. It came from a friend?
Gus: An officer high up in the buffalo soldiers.
Calian: Can we trust him?
Gus: Well, he and I didn't see eye to eye on what the buffalo soldiers have become. And when I deserted, he could've shot me. But he didn't. So, yeah. Yeah, I trust him.
The origin of the name 'Buffalo soldiers' is attributed to both the Comanche and the Apache. The name is thought to have been created due to the bison coats these soldiers wore in winter: I would love to see Gus in this kind of winterwear he'd have looked fierce. The term Buffalo Soldiers became a generic term for all African-American soldiers, and it is now used for US Army units that trace their direct lineage back to any of the African-American regiments formed in 1866. The idea that Gus' descendants might be able to trace their lineage back to him serving as part of the Buffalo soldiers is satisfying- African-Americans were fighting for this country as far back if not longer.
During the Civil War, the U.S. government formed regiments known as the United States Colored Troops, composed of African-American soldiers and Native Americans but this was disbanded in the fall of 1865. It would have been interesting to see how African-American soldiers and Native Americans got along and we do get a delicate vignette of it in Walker Independence's portrayal of Calian's and Gus' friendship- each of them admires the other, Calian's nobility 'always thinking of others' as Gus says and Gus' sense of duty 'this town needs you' as Calian says. One has to wonder if the disbandment of the African-American soldiers and Native Americans was not only due to the end of the Civil War but because of the fear of the potential threat of a strong alliance between these two population groups- Gus' desertion seems to imply he did not want to fight with the Apache because he perhaps did not agree with the brutality that the Buffalo soldiers might have begun to slaughter the Apache with, or because he might have realised that the Buffalo soldiers had no quarrel with the Apache.
In 1867, the Regular Army was set at ten regiments of cavalry and 45 regiments of infantry. The Army was authorized to raise two regiments of African-American cavalry and four regiments of African-American infantry who were mostly drawn from USCT veterans. In 1869, the Regular Army was kept at ten regiments of cavalry but cut to 25 regiments of Infantry, reducing the African-American complement to two regiments. Again one has to wonder if this was due to controlling African-Americans and not empowering them with formal army training.
From 1879 to 1881, portions of the Buffalo Soldier regiments were in New Mexico pursuing Chief Victorio and Chief Kas-tziden and their Apache warriors in Victorio's War. Victorio's War was an armed conflict between the Apache followers of Chief Victorio, the United States, and Mexico beginning in September 1879. Faced with arrest and forcible relocation from his homeland in New Mexico to San Carlos Indian Reservation in southeastern Arizona, Chief Victorio led a guerrilla war across southern New Mexico, west Texas and northern Mexico. I wonder if one of these Victorio Campaign skirmishes was the one where we see Calian and Gus meet for the first time in the episode 112: 'How We Got Here'. Chief Victorio fought many battles with the United States Army and raided several settlements until the Mexican Army killed him and most of his warriors in October 1880 in the Battle of Tres Castillos. After Victorio's death, Chief Kas-tziden led a raid in 1881.
Apache
Episode 112: How We Got Here
[convo between Calian and Gus on Apache tribal land]
Calian: I spoke to the others about you staying. It's gonna take time for some not to see you as an enemy.
Gus: Well, I guess we lead by example. Thank you for helping me, for giving me sanctuary. It's a place you go to find peace. It's safe.
Calian: Teach me more of those words.
Gus: [groans] Long as you teach me some of yours.
The Apache were first encountered by the Spanish conquistadors. The Spanish first used the term Apachu de Nabajo (Navajo) in the 1620s, referring to people in the Chama region east of the San Juan River. By the 1640s, they applied the term to southern Athabaskan peoples from the Chama on the east to the San Juan on the west.
Modern Apache people use the Spanish term to refer to themselves and so do the US government. This linguistic connection might explain the easy exchange between Calian and the Reyes' family, Calian taking the effort to learn and harmoniously converse with Mr and Mrs Reyes in contrast to Hoyt's uninterested attitude. However it should be noted that Apache language speakers also refer to themselves and their people in the Apache term Indé meaning 'person'/'people'. I would be interested to know if the Apache have a stronger preference to their own name Indé which references personhood more than the Spanish 'Apache' (which the French have also perversely appropriated to mean 'outlaw').
In 1875, United States military forced the removal of an estimated 1500 Tonto Apache from the Rio Verde Indian Reserve and its several thousand acres of treaty lands promised to them by the United States government. This breathtaking injustice is clearly illustrated in Walker: Independence's portrayal of Chief Taza's and now Calian's struggle to retain his tribal land. To heap further insult and injury, US Army troops made the Indé, young and old, walk through winter-flooded rivers, mountain passes and narrow canyon trails to get to the Indian Agency at San Carlos- this miserable trek killed several hundred of the Indé. The Indé were interned there for 25 years while Caucasian settlers took over their land. Only a few hundred ever returned to their lands. At the San Carlos reservation, the Buffalo soldiers guarded the Indé from 1875 to 1881- one wonders if this is the point where Calian and Gus met for the first time in the episode 112: 'How We Got Here' rather than one of the Victorio's Campaign skirmishes mentioned before.
Beginning in 1879, a Indé uprising against the reservation system led to the previously-mentioned Victorio's War between the band of Indé and the Buffalo soldiers. Again one has to wonder why these two population groups were pitted against each other- to stamp out any potential friendly relations between these more-disadvantaged groups?
Finally, most United States' histories of this era report that the final defeat of an Apache band took place when 5,000 US troops forced Geronimo's group of 30 to 50 men, women and children to surrender on September 4, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. And tragically, in the post-war era, the US government arranged for Apache children to be taken from their families for adoption by Caucasian Americans in assimilation programs.
Tong
Episode 109: Strange Bedfellows
[convo between Tom and Kai]
Tom: So the Tong would be willing to supply cheap labor, help set up infrastructure for saloons, hotels, what, anything?
Kai: The workers alone would bring more business, more money.
Tom: Yeah, but I'd be inviting organized crime into my town. Seems like more problems than I need.
Kai: You're the sheriff. Better you set the terms before they decide to do it for themselves.
The word tong means 'hall' or 'gathering place'. These organizations are described as secret societies or sworn brotherhoods and were initially created as voluntary benevolent associations for support and protection: one can see the laudable cultural collectivism evident in this kind of organization. The tong provided services for immigrants such as employment and housing opportunities- Walker Independence was light on these more benevolent origins of the Tong. They also helped resolve individual and group disputes within the community again showing the collectivistic approach.
Many of these volunteer societies, however, did not have the financial ability to fund community events or look after their members, and those that did tended to focus inward and provide help only to their own members. As a result, many tongs with little or no hereditary financial value had to either disband or operate criminal activities such as gambling houses and prostitution- this is where the Walker Independence portrayal of the Tong starts to be recognisable, this later transformation of the tongs from benevolent associations to providers of illegal services.
In the early years the tongs employed 'hatchet men' also called highbinders, as hired killers to fight the street battles that ensued over turf, business and women- these fighters can be seen in episode 109: 'Strange Bedfellows'. This is probably why Hoyt seemingly describes them as fiercesome with his 'I knew a one-armed man in Omaha. Said the Tong took the other' and why Kai acts so threatened and cornered but as a former Tong is able to effectively and impressively fight himself out of the corner. This background might also explain why he and Tom have such an unusual affinity for each other with the both of them being forged into unwilling but skilled fighting-men- the brutality of the tong fighting ring that Kai was forced to fight in being akin to the brutality that Tom describes as both witnessing and perpetrating in self-defense when in an 1880s-1890s asylum. Out of all the characters in Walker Independence, Kai and Tom both seem to be most cognizant of the varied threats that Independence faces and are most willing to apply cold hard practicality to these threats.
Sylvia (Guest) Sat 10 Jun 2023 01:26AM UTC
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