Combat weapons
We tend to think of American Indians as the enemy of white settlers in the early years of our nation, but in truth it was in most cases a situation of coexistence and mutual cooperation rather than conflict.
And this was not limited to the passage of the white man into land controlled by Native Americans for centuries, but between individual tribes occasionally at war with each other. It has often proved to be in the interest of both, Indians and whites, to find common ground at the expense of language and cultural differences so as to come to an end.
A practice, however difficult, that has been carried on for more than 150 years since the end of the War of Secession.
Colonialists have relied on Native American scouts since the French-Indian War (1754-1763), during the American War of Independence, and also as a young nation during the War of 1812, America’s Second War of Independence.
American Indians also fought on both sides during the American War of Secession, most notably Cherokee chief and Brigadier General of the Confederate States Army Stand Watie, who commanded the first Cherokee Mounted Rifles in Georgia. Watie was the last Confederate commander to surrender.
The “official” use of Indians as cavalry scouts was not authorized until the year following the War of Secession, in which Native Americans on both sides of the war between the American states played a key role. From 1877, the period to which this photo of a cavalry soldier and an Indian scout examining a battlefield map belongs, the U.S. Army incorporated Native Americans from all the different Plains Indian tribes into the cavalry.
After the War of Secession, it became clear that Indian scouts were essential for the effective deployment of troops and for warfare strategies to be adopted at the front, especially in conflicts between American cavalry and Indian tribes during the 1870s. In the facts, not only did cavalry men die in the June 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn, but also Indian scouts of the U.S. Cavalry, including the favorite of Lt. Col.
George Armstrong Custer, Bloody Knife, a Sioux of the Hunkpapa tribe who had served as a scout for the 7th Cavalry Regiment since 1868. He had accompanied Custer on numerous hunting trips and was at his side during the famous Yellowstone Expedition of 1873.
The walnut wood handles were fixed with hammered brass studs and added by the author from the original documented patterns. The use of a cross was very common on Native American weapons.
It is worth mentioning, that while relations between Native American tribes and the U.S. government were consistently problematic, their experiences on both sides were not always negative, especially among the Indian scouts who voluntarily served the cavalry and in their relationships with these legendary frontiersmen like Wm. F. Buffalo Bill Cody, Kit Carson, Frank North, Al Sieber, and Tom Horn, all of whom created strong ties with various Indian tribes.
Almost all Indian tribes, at one time or another (1700 to 1800), met the needs of the American cavalry as scouts, trackers, and auxiliaries (Indian soldiers), often against other tribes, and as in the case of Bloody Knife, against the Sioux, his own people. Some of the strongest alliances were between the Texas Rangers and the Lipan Apaches in conflict with the Comanches. The importance of Indian scouts to the cavalry was never emphasized by anyone other than Brigadier General George Crook, the champion most devoted to scouts.
Crook, who had been pursuing Geronimo and his small group of Chiricahua since 1882, eventually had to rely on his Indian scouts to track the Apache leader to his refuge in 1886, which led to his “second” surrender to Crook in as many years. Geronimo and his group still escaped from the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona and aimed for Mexico, where they were pursued by the Indian Cavalry scout led by Tom Horn (who later became Chief of U.S. Army Scouts) and Lt. Charles B. Gatewood.
The two were invited to Geronimo’s camp in September 1886 where they convinced their old friend to surrender for the last time to General Nelson Miles.
George Armstrong Custer was very even-handed in his dealings with the Plains Indians, much more so than he is given credit for in the writings about him. He was often in the company of his scouts on hunting trips and during his historic Yellowstone expedition in 1873. His dearest scout was Bloody Knife, a Sioux Hunkpapa who died with Custer at Little Big Horn in 1876. Bloody Knife can be seen at left in the photo holding his nickel-plated Colt SA while pointing to the map in Custer’s lap. (George A. Custer Museum of the Monroe County, Michigan, Historical Museum)
The use of Native Americans as cavalry scouts became vital by the 1880s when the Army began using the name “scout,” or the phrase “going on reconnaissance,” for any kind of patrol, patrol or find-and-destroy mission. Doing reconnaissance also included plotting, tracking, and assessing the strength of enemies.
This required stealth tactics and common sense learned from childhood, not those taught in schools or army training camps. Crook noticed that a Sioux boy was training to be part of the cavalry from the very moment he learned to ride a horse. The scouts could see “signs” where most white people could see absolutely nothing.
Because of this, the hostile tribes on the western side of the border had little regard for the blue-clad soldiers, and in doing so did not understand how far the use of Native American scouts, “wolves” as they were known among the hostiles, had extended the capabilities of the U.S. military.
There were different types of scouts, some were listed as Indian scouts on the short term and others were hired as scouts by the U.S. Army. Some may have served at different times first as hired scouts and then as scouts on list. Before 1866, Indian scouts were seen as clerks rather than soldiers.
As author and historian Thomas W. Dunlay noted in his book Wolves for the Blue Soldiers , for the early 1870s “…the regularization of Indian scouts was a symbol of society’s intention to bring all Indians under the norms and control of the U.S. government. To many, the supposed lawlessness of Indians appeared as an anomaly in nineteenth-century America; Indian scouts would be the tools of white law, and they would also be among the first Indians whose activities would be regularized.” While a noble, if not selfish, goal, the implementation of these principles proved nearly impossible, and the consequences of countless misunderstandings have since filled volumes with tragic events. Suffice it to say that the Indian scouts of the U.S. Cavalry were the tip of a new sword that became increasingly blunted as time went on.
The scouts
While a large number of Indian scouts wore some version of American cavalry uniforms of equal rank, most preferred their own traditional garb, and festively outfitted themselves with braids, bandannas, jewelry, armor, and commonly used weapons, in addition to a Colt Single Action revolver and a Springfield Trapdoor model rifle.
Others preferred to carry a Henry rifle plus a Spencer repeating rifle from the period of the Civil War, 1866 Winchester models, and when possible, the latest 1873 model. An interesting historical fact is that prairie Indians developed the art of reloading metal cartridges before it became a common practice among white men!
The Indian scouts photographed at Fort Wingate were led by the famous poet scout Captain Jack Crawford, and helped in the campaign to capture the Apache warrior Victorio. The scouts included whites, Native Americans, and mixed-race individuals from different tribes and regions of the United States. The holster carried by the Apache scout on the far left was the basis for the double loop created by Chisholm’s Trail Leather for this article.
Beginning in 1873, the revolvers carried by Indian scouts were the same .45-caliber Peacemakers carried by regular troops, only the scouts were equipped with nickel-plated weapons, since many were unfamiliar with routine maintenance techniques.
Nickel was more forgiving of forgetfulness in cleaning and care. As time passed, rifles and revolvers carried by Indian scouts were also decorated in tribal style, leather bindings and hammered studs on stocks, wrists and grips decorated with a variety of traditional patterns.
Although cavalry holsters were available (and could be seen in numerous photos of Indian scouts taken in the 1870s), many chose ones made from hand-worked leather, with tribal symbols printed on them or made with special tools as shown in the belt and double implant holster featured in this article, copied from the original by Chisholm’s Trail Leather.
Autonomy test
The 7.5-inch nickel-plated Colt single-action revolver shown is a new “Indian Scout” model from Pietta for 2012 bearing on the castle the U.S. stamp seen on Model 1873 revolvers carried by Indian soldiers and scouts (Indian Scouts).
Shooting a standard slow-fire target from 50 feet using a two-handed grip and Ten-X 200 gr. cartridges. RNFP .45 Colt, the average speed measures 715 feet per second with the best group of five rounds with 1.25 inches center to center.
The walnut wood handles were fixed with hammered brass studs and added by the author from the original documented patterns that often included a cross on one side.
Pietta’s “Indian Scout” displayed the same quality in form and finish and ease of use as all of Pietta’s current Colt-style single-action revolvers.
The guns are based on the design of the latest Colt powder-infused castle with a drum-locking pin from ca. 1892 and which saw the addition of a second stop on the pin, which when inserted (pushed and locked back) protrudes through the back of the recoil shield and blocks the firing pin from hitting the primer of the chambered cartridge.
An interesting and safety-effective method but not an absolute certainty: the dog should always stay on an empty chamber, just like in the Old West.
In our test of the weapon the trigger pull had a modest average of 2 pounds and 4.0 ounces, indicative of the actions currently prepared by Pietta as a standard item on all SA models. Prepared actions also yield a dog draw that is a slick 3 lbs. 14.0 oz. average, considerably lighter than most SA models with ready-to-use actions.
Shooting a standard slow-fire target from 50 feet using a two-handed grip and Ten-X 200 gr. cartridges. RNFP .45 Colt, the average speed measures 715 feet per second with the best group of five rounds with 1.25 inches center to center. This is a really accurate and easy-to-use six-shooter that would elegantly fill the holster of any Indian scout or cavalry soldier on the western border.
The effectiveness of Indian scouts in cavalry during the 1870s and 1880s might best be summarized by the Apache chief Cha-ut-lipun who surrendered to General Crook and his troops in 1873, saying that thanks to Crook’s Apache scouts his people could no longer sleep at night or light fires for fear of drawing troops on them: “We are not afraid of Americans alone, but we cannot fight you and our own people at the same time.”
Pietta’s “Indian Scout” displayed the same quality in form and finish and ease of use as all of Pietta’s current Colt-style single-action revolvers. The guns are based on the design of the latest Colt powder-infused castle with a drum-locking pin from c. 1892. The trigger had a finely prepared 2-pound, 4.0-ounce shot.
Indian scouts proved essential to settlement in the West and to a greater extent than most realize, playing an important role in providing an honorable alternative to endless and often futile battles-a belief that it was possible for both Indians and whites to cooperate and achieve the end they both desired. The fact that it often did not end up that way does not make their contribution any less important.
