Published February 2, 2023, for State 48 A2Z
Black History Month Special Edition
If your history of the American Old West is based on watching Hollywood movies and reading your American History books back in grade and high school, you probably believe that the west was settled by white guys that wore white hats and fought outlaws that wore black hats. If so, your perception of old west history is completely based on partial truths at best. In fact, historians attest that between 20 and 25% of the southwest Cowboys were African American.
It is a sheer atrocity that the contributions of African Americans and other people of color have been omitted from history books and Hollywood movies about the old west. But you must remember that until recent years these books and films were mainly created by white men for a white audience. In fact, back in the 1920s through the 1950s, if a movie had a black lead actor in it, it was nearly impossible to get it played in theaters in the southern states.
With that being said, let's focus on the positive and not the negative of the past and delve into the contributions made by a couple of African American cowboys in the settling of the wild west.
Shortly following the end of the Civil War in 1865, freed African American slaves from the southern states started to make their way westward seeking a new life and hopefully better racial equality. For these freedom seekers, cowboy life was a perfect way to accomplish this. Life for any cowboy was not an easy one, but it was one that many freed African Americans had the basic skills for from their slave days. This was appealing to the cattle industry and these freed slaves were trained in the Cowboy way of life by Vaqueros, who were the original cowboys of the American Southwest.
As we look at the origin of the word Cowboy, we find that it was initially a term for black ranch hands. Back in the early days of ranching, white cowboys were called “cowhands”, while blacks performing the same job were called “cowboys”. The separation in the terms was from slavery days when black men were called the derogatory term “boy” regardless of their age. At some point, the term began being used universally for all cowboys alike, no matter their race.
However, everyday life for an African American cowboy was vastly different than it was for whites. In many cases, Black cowboys had more than one duty they were expected to perform. One example is a Black cowboy who was hired as a cook was also expected to hunt deer and wild turkey, cleaning the cooking and dishware. and “performing” when on the trail by singing and/or playing musical instruments. Another example would be Black cowboys were also expected to perform the roles of nurse, bodyguard, and money transporter for White Cattlemen. It was also very common for Black cowboys to be given wild horses with very bad temperaments to tame. This was called horse breaking.
One African American cowboy that stands out in American history is a man named Willie (Bill) M. Pickett, who became a cowboy, rodeo performer, Wild West show performer, and eventually a movie actor.
Pickett was born somewhere around 1870 (the exact date and year are uncertain) in Jenks Branch, Texas. His ancestry was Black, White, and Cherokee. Pickett would attend school through the 5th grade before getting his first job on a nearby ranch where he learned the skills to become a great rider and ranch hand despite his 5’7” and 145-lb soaking-wet stature. Pickett was said to be all muscle though. One fact that history books never taught us is that Pickett invented bulldogging, a method of bringing a steer to the ground by holding its horns and twisting its neck.
Pickett developed this method by watching actual bulldogs that were used to stop a runaway steer. The dog would use its teeth to latch onto a steer’s upper nose and lip area, at which time the steer stops moving. Pickett’s method was to chase after the steer on his horse, leaping onto the steer, grabbing it by the horns, and twisting its head to wrestle it to the ground. He would then bite the steer's lip and nose area until it held still. This earned him the nickname “The Bulldogger”.
The Texas cowboy would go on to ride in exhibitions throughout Texas before joining up with the 101 Ranch Show in 1905 before becoming Hollywood’s first Black Cowboy when he signed with an all-black production company called Richard E. Norman Studios. Pickett would then star in two movies, Crimson Skull (1921) and The Bull-Dogger (1922).
Another famous Black cowboy was Nat Love (AKA Deadwood Dick), who was born into slavery in 1854 and was taught to read by his father. At some point following the end of the Civil War, Love would head west in search of a fortune. In his quest for riches, Love would become a cowboy, learn to speak Spanish, became a champion roper, and published an autobiography titled The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick" in 1907.
These are just a couple of amazing African Americans that help tame and settle the old west. You can search online and find many more stories like these. There are too many for one article. It is a fact that people of all colors helped settle the American west and should be noted in history books, schoolbooks, movies, documentaries, etc. We are talking about American history; all of America.
Admittedly, this article was a diversion from my regular focus on Arizona history and attractions, but it is a story that needs to be told. Surely there are many stories like these in Arizona history, I am just having a difficult time researching them. I had to self-educate on this subject matter as it was not something that I ever saw in movies or learned in school from my teachers or in history books. It’s so sad that this is still being dealt with today.
With that, we will wrap things up for this special Black History Month Edition of State 48 A2Z. Until next week, please comment on our articles, share our posts with your friends and family, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Linked In to have our posts and photos delivered directly to your newsfeeds. Peace!
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