Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, happy, Saturday's Chuck here with a Saturday Select
Speaker 1: Select shun. Yeah, that works. This week, I'm going to
Speaker 1: go with who Were the Buffalo Soldiers? This from January
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and I love my history episodes that we do,
Speaker 1: and this is one that I really enjoyed doing because
Speaker 1: we dug in didn't know anything about this topic, and
Speaker 1: those are always my favorite when I go and kind
Speaker 1: of blind and learn a lot. So check it out
Speaker 1: Who Were the Buffalo Soldiers? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know,
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's
Speaker 2: Charles w Action, Jackson Bryant, right, sure, and then there's
Speaker 2: Jerry over there, the flash that makes this stuff you
Speaker 2: should know.
Speaker 1: That's right. If there's a one thing people say to
Speaker 1: me is how much I'm like Carl Weathers. Sure, and
Speaker 1: how speedy Jerry is.
Speaker 2: Why do I want to say that Carl Weathers had
Speaker 2: one arm in Action Jackson?
Speaker 1: I don't think that was a case.
Speaker 2: Has he ever had one arm in any of his Oh?
Speaker 2: I think his arm gets pulled off in Predator? Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm conflating the two.
Speaker 1: It sounds about right, I saw Predator, but just once,
Speaker 1: like you know, when it came out.
Speaker 2: I saw it within the last twelve months. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it's even better now as it grown up.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, Okay, I can really feel the tension
Speaker 2: like you're in the jungle there with everybody. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Have you been singing the Buffalo Soldier song like constantly
Speaker 1: in your head.
Speaker 2: Despite my best efforts, I can't stop.
Speaker 1: Well, I looked up the lyrics because I was just
Speaker 1: you know, I know some of them, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of see where exactly he was probably talking
Speaker 1: about the soldiers. Yeah, and there were some kind of
Speaker 1: on the those references. Sure you mentioned san Juan, mentioned
Speaker 1: San Juan.
Speaker 2: What else?
Speaker 1: You know? Fighting for America, fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 1: I always got it wrong though. I thought he said
Speaker 1: dreadlock rock Star.
Speaker 2: No, he says dreadlock Rosta.
Speaker 1: I know I've learned that today.
Speaker 2: I did Lock rock Star.
Speaker 1: I've been seeing well. I thought he was talking about himself.
Speaker 2: That's hilarious.
Speaker 1: I was singing it wrong. I mean he was singing
Speaker 1: about himself.
Speaker 2: No, he's singing about the Buffalo Soldiers.
Speaker 1: They weren't rostas I.
Speaker 2: Guess some of them could have been. Maybe we'll find out.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I've been singing for forty years. Dreadlock rock star.
Speaker 1: That's pretty great, like a dumb dumb.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's all right, it's pretty close, man, And it
Speaker 2: still makes sense. The ones that don't make sense are
Speaker 2: the hilarious ones.
Speaker 1: That just seems like a very like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one white college kid thing to sing.
Speaker 2: Dread like rock star, Yeah, dread lock frock. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When you first start listening to Bob Marley.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, okay, you're ready, I'm ready. So we're talking
Speaker 2: Buffalo Soldiers, and it is not just about Marley song.
Speaker 2: It's if anything, the Bob Marley song is kind of
Speaker 2: like a historic history lesson, which is kind of interesting
Speaker 2: a bit. But the Buffalo Soldiers was the name of
Speaker 2: some all black regiments and then eventually all black soldiers
Speaker 2: in the United States fighting in the United States military.
Speaker 2: That's right, from right after the Civil War all the
Speaker 2: way up until I think nineteen fifty one, when the
Speaker 2: last all black regiment was disbanded in the military, was
Speaker 2: in practice desegregated.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but when did you say that happened?
Speaker 2: I think nineteen fifty one.
Speaker 1: Okay, but they did not take on that name till
Speaker 1: post Civil War.
Speaker 2: Right, and at first it wasn't a name that they
Speaker 2: took on themselves. It was a name that was given
Speaker 2: to them. There's a lot of dispute over where it
Speaker 2: came from, who's the first to use it, that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. But it's a really interesting history, and it's
Speaker 2: not just an interesting like military history. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of like terrible tragic irony involved. There's this kind of
Speaker 2: overarching theme where you can make a case that the
Speaker 2: Buffalo Soldiers are the ones who actually paved the way
Speaker 2: for desegregation throughout the entire United States. You can trace
Speaker 2: a direct line from their service to desegregation. It's pretty
Speaker 2: pretty amazing stuff. And yet there's still this kind of
Speaker 2: cloud that hangs over them historically because of one of
Speaker 2: the things that they participated in, which was the genocide
Speaker 2: of Native Americans at the behest of the white US government.
Speaker 1: Right, because they were trying to earn a place in
Speaker 1: white America and gain some status and prestige.
Speaker 2: And white America was like, we want you to do
Speaker 2: something for us first.
Speaker 1: And we'll still probably not grant you that respect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is kind of par for the course from
Speaker 2: what I understand as far as military service and being
Speaker 2: black in America goes. In the Battle of New Orleans,
Speaker 2: the Black Phalanx, this black regiment ended up.
Speaker 1: Pretty cool name.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. They ended up basically winning the
Speaker 2: battle against the British at the Battle of New Orleans,
Speaker 2: which actually came ironically after the end of the War
Speaker 2: of eighteen twelve, but it was still a decisive battle
Speaker 2: and they had been mustered a lot of them from
Speaker 2: local plantations by Andrew Jackson, and Jackson had promised them
Speaker 2: their freedom if they came and fought and won. And
Speaker 2: they came and fought and won, and Jackson said, yes, sorry,
Speaker 2: you have to go back to your plantations. I was lying, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's not a surprise. Yeah, but imagine that. And that
Speaker 2: was not the first time that that had happened to him.
Speaker 2: That was pretty much par for the course. While they
Speaker 2: were enslaved, they would be promised freedom for fighting and
Speaker 2: then no, after the fact, that's just it's not going
Speaker 2: to happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, like we said, the Buffalo soldiers
Speaker 1: post Civil War were and we'll get to like their
Speaker 1: formal designation and their regiments and stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: there had been individuals enlisted in all the way back
Speaker 1: to the Revolutionary War. There were you know, black individuals
Speaker 1: that would go and fight, but they just weren't grouped
Speaker 1: in their own regiments. The first one was the Black
Speaker 1: Regiment in Rhode Island, I think, yeah, in the Revolutionary War.
Speaker 2: Didn't we talk about them in a short stuff about
Speaker 2: the Black Revolutionary War Fighters and they moved up to
Speaker 2: Nova Scotia. We definitely did, did we.
Speaker 1: So the Grabster put this a lot of this together
Speaker 1: for us, which was a big help. And it's important
Speaker 1: to look at what was going on after the Civil
Speaker 1: War and this unique set of circumstances that created that
Speaker 1: kind of led to these regiments being formed. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: was about twelve thousand maybe a little bit more black
Speaker 1: veteran soldiers from the Civil War all of a sudden
Speaker 1: needed jobs and they were soldiers at this point, so
Speaker 1: they were like, you know, I'll keep doing this, this
Speaker 1: could be my career. Like give us a job in
Speaker 1: reconstruction in the South, they needed federal troops.
Speaker 2: They needed white federal troops.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it was probably not a good idea to
Speaker 1: send black troops to oversee reconstruction, so.
Speaker 2: To occupy the South, can you imagine?
Speaker 1: No, it would not have been oh my god. So
Speaker 1: they sent white troops, of course, but that created a
Speaker 1: vacuum elsewhere where they could use and utilize these black troops.
Speaker 1: There were four million slaves that were now free and
Speaker 1: ed hazard a guests that you know, let's say a million,
Speaker 1: one and a half million of these were adult males
Speaker 1: that were ready to go and serve and fight if
Speaker 1: need be. And then we were going west, and we
Speaker 1: knew that there were Native Americans out there that were
Speaker 1: not going to go easily. There was Mexico looming on
Speaker 1: the horizon as potential conflict. And because they were sending
Speaker 1: white soldiers to the South, they needed people to go
Speaker 1: out west and kind of, you know, keep the peace
Speaker 1: in a way and take care of business in another way.
Speaker 2: Or to remove Native Americans forcibly from their ancestral lands.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: So on July twenty eight, eighteen sixty six, Congress did
Speaker 2: something really surprising. They said, we've got all these kind
Speaker 2: of expansionist ideas. We've got the South that we need
Speaker 2: to occupy. We need a bigger army. We're going to
Speaker 2: raise a huge peacetime army. And not only that, we're
Speaker 2: going to form some all black regiments. We're going to
Speaker 2: let black people enlist for the first time ever as
Speaker 2: peacetime soldiers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and partially because they just needed people, and partially
Speaker 1: because they thought these black veterans that fought in the
Speaker 1: Civil War for the Union, they should be rewarded with
Speaker 1: jobs exactly.
Speaker 2: So for the first time, the federal government didn't renege
Speaker 2: on the offer of something better after having served and
Speaker 2: fought as a soldier. So there's a big deal in
Speaker 2: just having allowing soldiers black soldiers to enlist during peacetime. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But the fact that they could enlistment that they could
Speaker 2: become officers as well, which meant West Point was open
Speaker 2: to black soldiers for the first.
Speaker 1: Time, which was a huge deal in eighteen So in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty six is when they expanded the army. Just
Speaker 1: a few years later they wanted to shrink the army
Speaker 1: a little bit, so they consolidated a bunch of regiments
Speaker 1: down to twenty five and the original I think it
Speaker 1: was six four infantry and two cavalry were now shrunk
Speaker 1: down and combined into the ninth cavalry, the tenth Cavalry.
Speaker 1: I'm saying both cavalry and cavalry.
Speaker 2: Sure, just covering all your bases.
Speaker 1: Even though only one of them is correct in this cavalry,
Speaker 1: the twenty fourth Infantry in the twenty fifth Infantry, right.
Speaker 2: And the fact that they survived this downsizing of the
Speaker 2: army because Congress went, we need a big army. That's
Speaker 2: too big, let's get rid of some soldiers. The fact
Speaker 2: that all black regiments survived is really miraculous because in
Speaker 2: that downsizing decree a few years later, it wasn't included
Speaker 2: like and we still needed to keep black regiments intact, right,
Speaker 2: And William T. Cumps to Sherman was no great friend
Speaker 2: to the black man by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 2: And he was in charge of downsizing these troops. And
Speaker 2: yet he knew enough that there was still congress people,
Speaker 2: congressmen in Congress who had created the black regiments in
Speaker 2: the first place. They would not be very happy if
Speaker 2: he just dissolved them, so he kept him intact and
Speaker 2: actually just went from six to four.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's interesting because it was peacetime, you know,
Speaker 1: during wartime, especially back then, it was really pretty easy
Speaker 1: to get people to sign up and volunteer and fight
Speaker 1: for whatever side they were on. But in peacetime they
Speaker 1: found that they could get the cream of the crop
Speaker 1: of black soldiers because they didn't have as much opportunity,
Speaker 1: so they could really be picky and get these really
Speaker 1: like super capable fighters, whereas on the other side during
Speaker 1: peacetime it was harder to get white soldiers that were
Speaker 1: as capable because they had much more opportunities to do
Speaker 1: other things beyond like, hey, I got nothing going on,
Speaker 1: let's sign it for the army.
Speaker 2: Right exactly. And in the army too, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of mythologizing about, you know, how the black regiments were treated.
Speaker 2: It related to white regiments as well, and it seems
Speaker 2: like some historians have shown if you trace the supply lines,
Speaker 2: the black regiments got the same shoddy and then increasingly
Speaker 2: better supplies as the white regiments at the same time.
Speaker 2: And in the army, you had just opportunities that just
Speaker 2: weren't afforded to you outside, like the opportunity to make money,
Speaker 2: you know, and to have savings and a pension, things
Speaker 2: that you could you could kind of bank on a
Speaker 2: future with that that was just not part of the
Speaker 2: black experience of black men back then, right, you know, I.
Speaker 1: Think that's a very robust set up and more.
Speaker 2: Oh oh, we're still doing setup.
Speaker 1: No, let's be on, like that's why I said and more. Okay,
Speaker 1: But I think what I'm trying to say is it's
Speaker 1: a great time for a break. Okay, Yeah, yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: We'll be right back and we'll talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about how this name came to be right after this.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot in here about how this name
Speaker 1: came to be, right, But I think we candense it.
Speaker 1: We can condense it to just a couple of versions,
Speaker 1: one of which was that the name may have come
Speaker 1: from the Native a mayor Pricans as sort of an honor,
Speaker 1: like they're brave and they fight, They're like fierce, like
Speaker 1: the buffalo.
Speaker 2: And like Sasha fierce.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is.
Speaker 2: That's like Beyonce's weird alias. Really, why do stars, when
Speaker 2: you get to this enormous, huge point, decide to create
Speaker 2: an alter ego that's always not good? Chris Gaines, Yes,
Speaker 2: learn the lesson from Chris Gaines.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who else has done that?
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter Chris Ganes.
Speaker 1: Some of them Ziggy Stardus certainly worked. Captain Fantastic worked fine.
Speaker 2: Chris Gaines negates all those.
Speaker 1: No, I agree, Okay, I didn't know that. Beyonce very
Speaker 1: short lived? Really and what was the persona? Was it?
Speaker 2: Really? I guess she was fierce. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: just heard her name a couple of times.
Speaker 1: Beyonce's fierce though, right right.
Speaker 2: You don't need an alter ego Beyonce. You're fierce enough.
Speaker 2: You don't want to go too much fiercer.
Speaker 1: You should be her manager. I should, you know all
Speaker 1: the right moves, so that that is. One of the
Speaker 1: stories was that it was honor, a name of honor
Speaker 1: from the Native Americans. But this to me sounds like
Speaker 1: it might have been just something kind of cooked up
Speaker 1: in history.
Speaker 2: Books, or it just kind of converted into that. Maybe
Speaker 2: the Smithsonian Museum of African American History says, yeah, that
Speaker 2: stands as popular lore. That's one example. Another is, basically
Speaker 2: there's two competing ones, and that is that the Native
Speaker 2: Americans did give this name to the black soldiers, but
Speaker 2: that they were referring to the wooliness of the black
Speaker 2: soldier's hair compared to white soldier's hair, and that if
Speaker 2: you look between the horns of a buffalo, that kind
Speaker 2: of like to pay almost that the buffalo is wearing
Speaker 2: bears of vague resemblance to it, And that's where it
Speaker 2: initially came from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And there's like direct evidence from letters and stuff
Speaker 1: of the time of this, whether or not it was
Speaker 1: true or not, it was at least down in print
Speaker 1: as being the reason. Yeah, but we don't know for sure,
Speaker 1: and we don't know for sure how they felt about
Speaker 1: the name, other than it seems like as time went
Speaker 1: on they kind of embraced the name as a designation.
Speaker 1: And in one case there was one troop that did
Speaker 1: use a bison on a patch on their uniform, but
Speaker 1: then bison were used on other patches on uniforms of
Speaker 1: white soldiers too.
Speaker 2: I think it was strictly Black regiments, oh really, just
Speaker 2: later ones that weren't the ninth, tenth, twenty fourth, or
Speaker 2: twenty fifth. Oh gotcha, that was my interpretation, Okay, But yeah,
Speaker 2: by the time I think nineteen eleven is when that
Speaker 2: first patch appears, So by the time nineteen eleven rolls around,
Speaker 2: the Black regiments had totally like taken on buffalo soldier
Speaker 2: as a name of honor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Ed points out, and I think it's fair.
Speaker 1: It's easy now in twenty twenty to look back at
Speaker 1: two ethnic groups that were kept under the thumb of
Speaker 1: the white man and say that, oh, you know, the
Speaker 1: Native Americans respected them as fierce fighters, and the black
Speaker 1: soulis respected the Native Americans. But that's probably retroactive revision
Speaker 1: is history, because you know, there were plenty of cases
Speaker 1: where the Buffalo soldiers referred to them as you know, savages,
Speaker 1: and one case of one soldier, you know, going as
Speaker 1: a costume party dressed up in I guess what you
Speaker 1: would call red face. Oh yeah, and so yeah, it
Speaker 1: seems like that's sort of cooked up these days, like
Speaker 1: they really had much respect for one another during their battles.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if that's the case.
Speaker 2: No, but you can understand how that would how people
Speaker 2: would want to do that, sure, you know, because I
Speaker 2: mean the sending African American soldiers out to remove Native
Speaker 2: Americans from their land with violence. Yeah, at the behest
Speaker 2: of white people.
Speaker 1: It's not a good story.
Speaker 2: No, it's a terrible story.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It takes a bad story makes it worse.
Speaker 2: And then at the same time, there's a real silver
Speaker 2: lying to it. There's that good story that like black
Speaker 2: soldiers served as heroes for the black community in America
Speaker 2: as a whole at a time when they really needed
Speaker 2: some black heroes, you know, the Jim Crow South was
Speaker 2: really starting to solidify. So it's not like an all
Speaker 2: bad story, but it's definitely not an all good story either.
Speaker 2: So people want like a nice story book ending for sure,
Speaker 2: which is surely where that came from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. So should we talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about what they did, Yeah, we should service record.
Speaker 2: Yeah. When they were first assembled in I think that
Speaker 2: late to mid eighteen sixties, they were almost immediately moved
Speaker 2: out to the frontier Kansas and Texas, New Mexico, pushing
Speaker 2: further and further west as their work was increasingly successful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and usually under the command of white officers. It
Speaker 1: was not looked at as some great assignment. If you
Speaker 1: were a white officer to west and command one of
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Soldier regiments.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would have been like being stationed in Alaska
Speaker 2: or something like that. Alaska's great, although some white commanding
Speaker 2: officers did rise to the occasion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and had a lot of great things to say
Speaker 1: about the soldiers too.
Speaker 2: For sure, some of them definitely did not rise to
Speaker 2: the occasion and actually went the other way, right, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned West Point. This was a huge
Speaker 1: deal because, like you said, now, these young men could
Speaker 1: go attend West Point and come out officers upon entry
Speaker 1: into the army. There were quite a few cases. One
Speaker 1: was a man named Henry Flipper. He was the first
Speaker 1: black graduate of West Point in eighteen seventy seven, came
Speaker 1: out as second lieutenant in the tenth Cavalry and was
Speaker 1: basically set up with a court martial. There was a
Speaker 1: case where there was some He was put in charge
Speaker 1: of a quartermaster safe to guard it basically and take
Speaker 1: charge of it. Money comes missing, he kind of freaks
Speaker 1: out and lies about it. It's kind of all evidence
Speaker 1: pointing to the fact that he didn't take the money,
Speaker 1: but he did lie about how did he went?
Speaker 2: What did he lie about?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 2: I couldn't find.
Speaker 1: That the initial money was missing at all. Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: not really sure, but it looks like it was a setup.
Speaker 1: He was acquitted of the main charge even back then,
Speaker 1: and was found guilty of an added charge of conduct
Speaker 1: unbecoming of an officer. The lying part right and was
Speaker 1: dismissed from the army, which even back then was an
Speaker 1: overblown sentence compared to the similar charges of white officers.
Speaker 2: Right and the army at the time. He could have
Speaker 2: gotten his discharge changed to a honorable discharge, but the
Speaker 2: Army apparently didn't have any procedure to do that, so
Speaker 2: it was up to the commander in chief, Chester A.
Speaker 2: Arthur to decide yeah or nay, and he just he
Speaker 2: just let it pass by, right. But he so, lieutenant
Speaker 2: was he a lieutenant?
Speaker 1: Second lieutenant?
Speaker 2: Second lieutenant Flipper went to his grave saying that he
Speaker 2: was innocent. And in the nineties, I think nineteen ninety eight,
Speaker 2: Bill Clinton finally pardoned him. Billy boy, he did, and
Speaker 2: Clinton that ghoul ordered him exhumed and reburied with full
Speaker 2: military honors. Oh interesting, But they suspect that Clinton just
Speaker 2: wanted to see what the body looked like. Come on,
Speaker 2: he said, let's do this, right, Yeah, he probably did
Speaker 2: say that.
Speaker 1: So there are another couple of cases, John Hanks, Alexander
Speaker 1: and Charles Young. They were West Point grads early on
Speaker 1: they went on to lead these regiments. And that's not
Speaker 1: to say that at West Point it was smooth Salin
Speaker 1: of course, you know, they had a very hard time
Speaker 1: there and still persevered extraordinarily.
Speaker 2: It points out that in the Tuskegee Airman Episode two,
Speaker 2: I think we talked about how those guys who went
Speaker 2: through West Point had or the military academies had just
Speaker 2: an awful time of it too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that happened. I mean it probably still
Speaker 1: happens to some degree, sure, But I mean I read
Speaker 1: The Lords of Discipline. I did too, and saw the movie.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I saw the movie or not.
Speaker 1: And that was what year was that set? That was?
Speaker 2: It's probably sixties, wasn't I don't remember. What was the
Speaker 2: problem with that guy? He just was soft or something,
Speaker 2: wouldn't it He like was h he had feelings, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I don't remember. I haven't seen it in a
Speaker 1: long time. Yeah, but that was the Citadel, not West Point.
Speaker 2: Which is Navy, I think, right, Air Force Marines.
Speaker 1: What the citadel is?
Speaker 2: National Guard?
Speaker 1: No, cub Scouts, Yes, it was cub Scouts, Citadel famous
Speaker 1: cub Scout. So these regiments had about a thousand troops
Speaker 1: and officers, but they were constantly under supplied, and like
Speaker 1: you said earlier, there's no evidence that they were intentionally undersupplied.
Speaker 2: No, but it's a myth that they were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but kind of everyone out west was because it
Speaker 1: takes a long time to get stuff out there, and
Speaker 1: a lot of those old Civil War weapons and equipment
Speaker 1: were pretty shoddy anyway. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Plus, I mean it's not really easy to come by
Speaker 2: water in the New Mexico Desert. Sure, you're fighting the
Speaker 2: Cheyenne or the Apache, like, so you have horses that
Speaker 2: need water too, because you're a cavalry unit and the
Speaker 2: horses were breaking down. Was a really bad time as
Speaker 2: they were moving further and further west. Because we tend
Speaker 2: to think of the United States military like in the
Speaker 2: terms of today, this just incredibly well oiled, logistical juggernaut. Sure,
Speaker 2: that was not the case after the Civil War. As
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, until I believe the Spanish American War,
Speaker 2: the United States military was looked upon internationally is kind
Speaker 2: of like a not the best around. Oh yeah, certainly
Speaker 2: not the best equipped the logistics. We didn't have that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff down.
Speaker 1: You didn't hear it from me, but right exactly.
Speaker 2: But and this is you know, the army that these
Speaker 2: guys were enlisted in. Yeah, so they were dealing with
Speaker 2: an army that was not was finding its feet, and
Speaker 2: then also on the frontier of the United States at
Speaker 2: a time when they're protecting the people building the railroads.
Speaker 2: So there's not even the railroads out there yet. One
Speaker 2: of their jobs was to protect railroad workers, mail carriers,
Speaker 2: people who were on trattle drives. Yeah, these were the
Speaker 2: jobs they were tasked with.
Speaker 1: Well, they were also fighting, like we said, in what
Speaker 1: was known as the Indian Wars, including some of the
Speaker 1: some of the big ones.
Speaker 2: I think we need to do a big old episode
Speaker 2: on the Indian Wars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's do it. Wounded Knee, the White River War.
Speaker 1: I'd never heard of that one.
Speaker 2: I looked it up. The war is not a term
Speaker 2: for most of these. It should be a massacred. No,
Speaker 2: it should be straight up massacres.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the other thing too, this is really easy
Speaker 2: for guys like us to do, especially in retrospect, is
Speaker 2: what's called like mythologizing the noble savage, right where where
Speaker 2: we kind of make it seem like the Indians were
Speaker 2: just the people who, you know, kind of meekly accepted
Speaker 2: their fate and were just rolled over by the US government.
Speaker 2: Through this westward expansion. That's not the case. In almost
Speaker 2: every case, the further west we got, the fearce of
Speaker 2: the fighting got. They pushed back. For sure. They engaged
Speaker 2: in massacres that included killing women and children and non combatants.
Speaker 2: Both sides did. So it's not like the Native Americans
Speaker 2: were just innocent of bloodshed. But it's important to remember
Speaker 2: that they were defending their lands from invaders. They were
Speaker 2: the insurgents in that so there's like a certain amount
Speaker 2: of moral higher ground that they're afforded just for in
Speaker 2: that position, right, you know, oh, for sure. But it's
Speaker 2: just that's the thing. That's why I've always been fascinated
Speaker 2: about history. It is like it's never just you know,
Speaker 2: black and white.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so much nuance. Yeah, that gets overlooked, especially
Speaker 1: if you were raised in like, you know, public schools
Speaker 1: in America.
Speaker 2: Exactly, not a lot of nuance going on, right, and
Speaker 2: white people swooped in and everything was great, exactly.
Speaker 1: So by the eighteen nineties, the Indian Wars ended, the
Speaker 1: reservations popped up, or they were just flat out massacred
Speaker 1: like you said, or imprisoned. And this is when the
Speaker 1: Buffalo soldiers started taking part in some of the land
Speaker 1: disputes out west with white settlers. Yeah, the removal of
Speaker 1: the Sooners in Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: That's huge. It is huge because all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: black regiments show up and they're like, you might be white,
Speaker 2: but you need to get out of here because you
Speaker 2: didn't follow the rules.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: That's a huge change from a decade or so before
Speaker 2: when like those people would have been enslaved in the South. Right,
Speaker 2: it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: What else you mentioned San Juan from the Bob Marley song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was when they entered the national stage for
Speaker 2: the first time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fighting in Cuba in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very confusing. They fought at the Battle of
Speaker 2: San Juan Hill in Cuba and the Battle for San
Speaker 2: Juan in Puerto Rico. That's right under the tenth Regiment,
Speaker 2: under the command of a guy named General John Pershing, Yes,
Speaker 2: who you might be familiar with, is known as black
Speaker 2: Jack Pershing, the famous World War One general.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had heard, I knew, I'd heard of him.
Speaker 2: He was named Blackjack because he was in command of
Speaker 2: the black regiments, the tenth Cavalry.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I think in the First World War
Speaker 1: he was a little less willing to stand up and
Speaker 1: like advocate for them. But by the time World War
Speaker 1: Two came around, he was okay.
Speaker 2: So I didn't hear about the World War two part.
Speaker 2: But that was a pretty big betrayal in World War
Speaker 2: One because he led the tenth Cavalry up San Juan
Speaker 2: Hill in Cuba, along with the rough Riders, along with
Speaker 2: white infantry. This battle was one of the first ones
Speaker 2: right before the turn of the twentieth century where there
Speaker 2: were if you were standing back, like looking at this battle,
Speaker 2: there's black guys, there's white guys, there's black guys on horses,
Speaker 2: there's Spanish people coming down here, like there's all these people,
Speaker 2: but the black soldiers and the white soldiers were intermingling,
Speaker 2: fighting together, side by side. Yeah, and they won. And
Speaker 2: Teddy Roosevelt said it was all me. I won the
Speaker 2: Battle of Cuba San Juan in Cuba. But historians say, actually, no,
Speaker 2: these black regiments, specifically the tenth Cavalry, really won this
Speaker 2: battle in the Spanish American War done in Cuba, and
Speaker 2: it was huge. It put the Buffalo soldiers on the
Speaker 2: map for really the first time ever in the American
Speaker 2: popular consciousness and like black families around America, Like you
Speaker 2: could go into their dining room and there'd be a
Speaker 2: print of like a painting of the Battle of San
Speaker 2: Juan with the buffalo storming the hill. Like one historian
Speaker 2: put it that they were there that generation's Jackie Robinson
Speaker 2: and Joe Lewis, like they were the heroes. Like I
Speaker 2: was saying, they were the heroes at a time when
Speaker 2: Jim Crow laws were really coming into into force. I'd
Speaker 2: a really really bleak time for black America. All of
Speaker 2: a sudden, there's these buffalo soldiers that basically helped win
Speaker 2: the Spanish American War, fighting alongside white soldiers too and
Speaker 2: being equal in that respect.
Speaker 1: And that's why you'll see all those statues right next
Speaker 1: to Teddy Roosevelt exactly exactly. And you know what, I
Speaker 1: may have made up that part about General Pershing advocating
Speaker 1: more of World War two, now that I think about it.
Speaker 2: Oh, well, that was I didn't get to the betrayal thing, chuck.
Speaker 2: So when World War One rolled around, he was in
Speaker 2: charge of I think basically everybody in Europe, and he
Speaker 2: turned his back on his black regiment and all black
Speaker 2: soldiers and basically said, no, you guys fight in your
Speaker 2: own regiment, so I don't want you fighting side by side.
Speaker 2: But the French were like, hey, come fight with us,
Speaker 2: we'll command you.
Speaker 1: And that happened.
Speaker 2: That reminded me. The French were also the first ones
Speaker 2: to recognize officially the native American code talkers, even before
Speaker 2: the United States did.
Speaker 1: Oh I remember that.
Speaker 2: And they also used black aviators in World War One too.
Speaker 2: So up with the French historically speaking, right, there's a teachhert.
Speaker 1: They gave us those fries, sure, and that bread you.
Speaker 2: Mean freedom fries?
Speaker 1: Uh huh, freedom bread.
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm talking a lot.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, am I? I mean no more than usual?
Speaker 2: Okay, freedom bread.
Speaker 1: So in World War Two, the Buffalo Soldier units were
Speaker 1: used a lot a lot of times, though they were
Speaker 1: not on the front lines. They were stuck to administrative
Speaker 1: and support duties. But they did join in combat here
Speaker 1: and there and on both the theaters and the war mostly
Speaker 1: toward toward the end of World War Two. But it
Speaker 1: was you know, a lot of the US A lot
Speaker 1: of the good that you see coming out of what
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Soldiers did was foundation work and groundwork for
Speaker 1: desegregating the military, for showing that these guys are just
Speaker 1: the same as white soldiers. They're just as capable, they
Speaker 1: fight just as bravely, and it really kind of laid
Speaker 1: that groundwork for the desegregation after the war.
Speaker 2: Yes, like a direct line for it. It's weird, but
Speaker 2: they basically a way to put it is that white
Speaker 2: America said, okay, all right, if you will, we'll give
Speaker 2: you a shot. You go out and serve in battle,
Speaker 2: and let's see what you what you can do, and
Speaker 2: then maybe we'll see what we'll see from there. And
Speaker 2: just by being given that one opportunity to show that
Speaker 2: they could do things that were presumed they couldn't, like
Speaker 2: act bravely and fight and be a good soldier, that
Speaker 2: was like, you know, good at being a soldier. They
Speaker 2: proved that all of these myths about how black people
Speaker 2: couldn't do these things were wrong. And that kind of
Speaker 2: thing opens up some people's eyes to Okay, well, what
Speaker 2: else do I think about black people that are wrong?
Speaker 2: And it's weird to think about because.
Speaker 1: On a.
Speaker 2: On a social level, that that's what it takes, that
Speaker 2: people's minds can be changed like that. But historically speaking
Speaker 2: in retrospect, like that's how it happens. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: like one prejudice is tested and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: other prejudices start falling slowly. Yeah, kind of kind of
Speaker 2: falling over like dominoes, totally, very very slowly though.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Unfortunately, like dominoes, you can only picture falling fast.
Speaker 1: I know, do that in slow mo.
Speaker 2: It's almost a terrible analogy almost.
Speaker 1: So it's crazy to think. But even though desegregation happened
Speaker 1: long before this, it takes a while for that to
Speaker 1: fully happen, right, And they were buffalo so nits in
Speaker 1: the Korean War, all black units in the Korean War.
Speaker 2: There was but it was nineteen forty eight I think
Speaker 2: that Truman signed this act desegregating the military.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it was. It took three more years.
Speaker 1: Nineteen fifty one was when the final final one was disbanded,
Speaker 1: the twenty seventh.
Speaker 2: Right. But that's why I was saying you could trace
Speaker 2: a direct line of desegregation from the military, because that
Speaker 2: was the first chance that Black America had to show
Speaker 2: that it could be treated equally and that it could
Speaker 2: act equally. And they showed that and it led to
Speaker 2: desegregation in the military. And then three years after the
Speaker 2: actual in practice desegregation of military regiments, there was the
Speaker 2: Brown Versus Board of Education ruling, which not in practice
Speaker 2: but in theory desegregated schools. So it went army schools,
Speaker 2: and then eventually socially it just kept going. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: it was because of the Buffalo soldiers in their service directly, undisputedly.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean it's crazy to think as late
Speaker 1: as the Korean War, though some of those units were
Speaker 1: still fighting. Yeah, it is because when I think of match,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel modern, but it doesn't feel like Buffalo
Speaker 1: soldier territory.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, the Buffalo soldiers you think of like nineteenth
Speaker 2: century American westeen fifties Korea.
Speaker 1: No, you don't think of Hawkeye and his gin. Still.
Speaker 1: I guess there was one black character on mash with
Speaker 1: a very unfortunate name, but we won't talk about that.
Speaker 2: I'm not familiar. No good, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I think we should take a break
Speaker 1: and come back and talk about what is to me
Speaker 1: one of the cooler aspects of this whole story.
Speaker 2: The Bob Marley song.
Speaker 1: No, We'll be right back, all right, We're back, and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about what I think is one
Speaker 1: of the coolest little parts here of this whole story,
Speaker 1: which I never knew. If you've ever been to Sequoia
Speaker 1: National Park or Yosemite National Park or some other national
Speaker 1: parks out west and you're hiking a trail or driving
Speaker 1: down a road, you might have the Buffalo Soldiers to
Speaker 1: thank for that trail in those roads. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: one of their highlight achievements to me is once we
Speaker 1: establish the national parks, Teddy Roosevelt again, build statues of him. Right,
Speaker 1: you had to enforce this stuff because this was the
Speaker 1: first time we were like, wait a minute, this is
Speaker 1: protected land. Can't just come in here and take the
Speaker 1: timber or hunt, you know, the animals, Like, there are
Speaker 1: rules now.
Speaker 2: You set up like you set aside grazing land, you
Speaker 2: set aside national parks. Libertarians they take issue with that
Speaker 2: kind of thing, and you need to have Buffalo soldiers
Speaker 2: to fight them off.
Speaker 1: That's right. So from eighteen ninety one to nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: about twenty five years or so, these some of these
Speaker 1: black regiments were essentially the first park rangers. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: didn't have that name at the time, but they kept
Speaker 1: the poachers at bay and stopped the illegal grazing and
Speaker 1: the timber thieves. They fought wildfires.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't get a chance to really look into this,
Speaker 2: but I wonder what nineteen thirteen wildfire fighting was. Like,
Speaker 2: I'll bet it was real dicey bucket brigade stuff, right,
Speaker 2: Like twenty twenty firefighting is dicey wildfire fighting. But one
Speaker 2: hundred years ago, man, I'll bet it was.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine. Good Lord, But like I said, with
Speaker 1: the trails and stuff, a lot of some of the
Speaker 1: more significant trails and roads. Some of the buildings, yeah,
Speaker 1: some of the older cabins, they were built and constructed
Speaker 1: by Buffalo soldiers, which is just super cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So if you find a building in Yosemite or
Speaker 2: Sequoia National Parks that's.
Speaker 1: From eighteen ninety one to nineteen thirteen, yes.
Speaker 2: Then it was probably built by Buffalo soldiers or.
Speaker 1: Hiking a trail.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is all just super cool. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: They also rode bicycles around the place too, which is
Speaker 2: kind of neat.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Chuck the last Buffalo soldier, and I mean,
Speaker 2: like original Buffalo soldier Mark Matthews. He died on September six,
Speaker 2: two thousand and five. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Speaker 2: He was one hundred and eleven years old, and he
Speaker 2: actually fought under General Pershing in the tenth Cavalry on
Speaker 2: the hunt for Pancho Villa.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I think I don't know if we
Speaker 1: mentioned that. How many medals of honor were there? Twenty three?
Speaker 2: I saw twenty three. The National Museum of African American
Speaker 2: History says eighteen. I'm gonna go with them, all right,
Speaker 2: somewhere between eighteen and twenty three, let's say that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know, the I guess the moral of
Speaker 1: the story is that they did provide this direct line
Speaker 1: to desegregation, not only through the army, but, like you're saying,
Speaker 1: all through America. But sadly, a lot of them did
Speaker 1: exit the military. Some of them did have a little
Speaker 1: higher status and a leg to stand on, many of
Speaker 1: them didn't. There was a study of lynchings in the
Speaker 1: US that found that black military veterans were targeted and
Speaker 1: lynched more than non veteran black people, with the idea
Speaker 1: that it was a real threat in the racist white
Speaker 1: South for a black man to leave the army with
Speaker 1: some rank and some status and feeling good guns, feeling
Speaker 1: good about himselves.
Speaker 2: Don't forget the Tulsa massacre episode. It was the World
Speaker 2: War One bets who are like, uh no, we're gonna
Speaker 2: go defend this boy from being lynched, right with guns.
Speaker 2: They showed up with guns. I think there. I remember
Speaker 2: in The Black Panther episode two, they traced a direct
Speaker 2: line of this, this sense of like you need to
Speaker 2: defend yourself and protect yourself with firearms. They traced that
Speaker 2: directly to World War One veteran. Oh yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 2: there is a terrible logic to that, I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. There was also a terrible senator and
Speaker 1: governor of Mississippi named James Vardeman who was just straight
Speaker 1: up white supremacist. Like, no matter how you slice it.
Speaker 2: You could have just said senator from Mississippi in nineteen seventeen. Ah.
Speaker 1: Sure, he spoke to the US Senate and he really
Speaker 1: kind of crystallizes how they felt about black veterans in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen on the Senate floor, he said, once you
Speaker 1: impress the Negro with the fact that he is defending
Speaker 1: the flag and inflate his untortured soul with military airs,
Speaker 1: his political rights must be respected, and he wasn't saying
Speaker 1: like and that's.
Speaker 2: Great, Yeah, so let's respect that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a warning basically.
Speaker 2: Right, and he was over looked. They didn't listen to him. No, ultimately,
Speaker 2: because they did continue having black soldiers as soldiers and
Speaker 2: eventually desegregated, which led to desegregation in America, which is
Speaker 2: pretty great.
Speaker 1: That's right. I would love to hear from some current
Speaker 1: African American military personnel because I want to know what
Speaker 1: the current sort of temperature is as an active service person.
Speaker 2: Oh, what the racism's like in the military. Yeah, sure, I'm.
Speaker 1: Sure you know that there'll be different versions of that
Speaker 1: story depending on who you're in contact with and what
Speaker 1: your particular like platoon is like.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I wonder though, because the military is like some
Speaker 2: kind of weird similacrum of American society it is, I
Speaker 2: wonder if it's more racist or less racist. I think
Speaker 2: there's a chance you could go either way.
Speaker 1: I mean, my guess is less, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: my brother in law before, and as a marine and
Speaker 1: pretty high up you could say, and every time I've
Speaker 1: been on these marine bases a lot, and it all
Speaker 1: seems like they're all sort of you know, got that thinking,
Speaker 1: that group think going on, like we're just marines, like
Speaker 1: none of us are a color, we're green.
Speaker 2: Well, i've seen full metal Jacket, right, and there are
Speaker 2: a lot of racist stuff in there.
Speaker 1: No, I'm sure.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, could go either way, It could go either way.
Speaker 2: I would like to hear that as well. I'd also
Speaker 2: like to hear from any Native American listeners to know
Speaker 2: what they were taught about Buffalo soldiers too, what was
Speaker 2: pressed down within the different tribes. Yeah, because they contacted
Speaker 2: all sorts of different tribes, from the Lakota Sioux up
Speaker 2: in the north down to the Apaches in New Mexico
Speaker 2: and Mexico.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, beaches everyone. Yeah, we'll read them on listener now.
Speaker 2: If you want to know more about Buffalo soldiers, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of really great stuff to read. And you
Speaker 2: can't really go wrong with a guy named Frank Schubert,
Speaker 2: who is a scholar of them of Buffalo soldiers, and
Speaker 2: he's got a lot of articles on the web and
Speaker 2: I believe some books too. And since I said Frank Schubert,
Speaker 2: it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: Oh no, it's not. Oh that's right, you know, what
Speaker 1: it's time for Hit him Chuck. It is time for
Speaker 1: administrative details. So we haven't done this in a little while.
Speaker 1: If you're new to the show, administrative details is where
Speaker 1: we take a couple of minutes. We're going to do
Speaker 1: this on this episode. In the next you got that
Speaker 1: straight to read out some thank yous, Tell him Chuck
Speaker 1: for some of the kindnesses that people throw our way,
Speaker 1: whether they be physical totems like what T shirts and
Speaker 1: buttons and two confectioneries like cookies and pastries and Jesus,
Speaker 1: I like that. What I did not do on this one,
Speaker 1: and I feel bad because you probably did, is write
Speaker 1: down all the names of all the postcards and letters.
Speaker 2: I wrote down the ones that I yeah, I think
Speaker 2: I've got basically everybody, and we should say we almost
Speaker 2: always miss somebody, yeah or a few. So if we
Speaker 2: don't say your name and you have not been thanked
Speaker 2: on a previous administrative detail, please get in touch with
Speaker 2: us so we can correct that.
Speaker 1: That's right, And if you have a letter or a
Speaker 1: postcard that is on my desk, I'll include those in
Speaker 1: the next batch because now I feel bad.
Speaker 2: Bam.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go through these.
Speaker 2: Oh and There's also some people who I don't have
Speaker 2: names for, but we do have the items, so you
Speaker 2: can also write in and be like that was me.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: For example, the very nice person who gave us almond
Speaker 2: cookies and whiskey cake at our Orlando show, our live
Speaker 2: show in Orlando. Don't remember or don't have the name
Speaker 2: of who gave us that, but thank you for him.
Speaker 1: Katie from Davis, California. Send us some cool little notebooks.
Speaker 1: They were little notebooks like schemes. Was like the title
Speaker 1: of one of them, oh right, where you can write
Speaker 1: down schemes, band names, just sort of fun names the
Speaker 1: covers of these notebooks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks a lot, huge, huge thanks as always to
Speaker 2: our good friends Hillary and Mike lows Are and they're
Speaker 2: good friends. The people at Flathead Like Cheese for all
Speaker 2: the cheese, that's right. Flat Heeadlake Cheese is far and
Speaker 2: away my favorite cheese in the world.
Speaker 1: It's good cheese.
Speaker 2: They make very good cheese. You guys cannot go wrong.
Speaker 2: Just go get some Flathead Like cheese and you'll love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. A lot of the I don't know if they
Speaker 1: specialize in Gouda, but we seem to be on the
Speaker 1: Goudha mailing list.
Speaker 2: They make a hopped Gouda that is my favorite. Have
Speaker 2: you had it?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, it's you.
Speaker 2: It has hops in It's like it's a beer but
Speaker 2: it's cheese.
Speaker 1: And while we're on the lows AARs, Hillary and Mike
Speaker 1: and Coop. I just got this today. They sent us
Speaker 1: aprons yea word butcher. Yeah, aprons.
Speaker 2: That is so appropriate.
Speaker 1: So it's a knife going into the lettering of a
Speaker 1: word butcher. Because I don't know if you guys know this,
Speaker 1: but we are well known to mispronounce everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but your words, and you're gonna do that. So
Speaker 2: Smotty from France send us a T card with some
Speaker 2: lay two Marmott's t attached.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Smarty.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Jess Fowl sent us his game that he designed, Philosophy
Speaker 1: the Game or better yet, Drunk Philosophy.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 1: That's a great name.
Speaker 2: Katie Barnes from the Barnes Made Soap Company for the
Speaker 2: Wonderful Soap. All of them are really good, but I
Speaker 2: strongly recommend the Autumn fig and the Mariner Brian Bar
Speaker 2: good stuff. Oh you can head over to Barnes Made
Speaker 2: b A. R. N. E. S. M A d E
Speaker 2: dot com for some of Katie soaps.
Speaker 1: Becky in France send us planetary coasters that she made
Speaker 1: in her studio is uh SEFID studio dot com. That
Speaker 1: is C E P h E I D studio dot com.
Speaker 1: If you want some planetary coasters. They are pretty spacey
Speaker 1: and awesome.
Speaker 2: Kevin Reuter gave us Basil Hayden and bullet rye you
Speaker 2: remember that at our show at the Bellhouse. Yes, and
Speaker 2: even wrapped them up as Christmas presents. That's right, which
Speaker 2: is just lovely. Thanks a lot, Kevin, And funny enough.
Speaker 2: At the show, somebody asked us, like, our like drink
Speaker 2: we would want to have on a desert island. We
Speaker 2: could only have one, and both of us were saying
Speaker 2: gin drinks and he was like, well, I guess I
Speaker 2: guessed wrong with the Basil Hayden bullet. I was like, no, dude,
Speaker 2: you nailed it.
Speaker 1: We're all inclusive, our buddy Van Nostra, and I feel
Speaker 1: like he sent us more than this, So if you
Speaker 1: have something else, let us know. We just hung out
Speaker 1: with him and his wonderful wife Leah. Yes, in Seattle.
Speaker 1: They sent us. He sent us some records, some Awesome Records,
Speaker 1: Smurf's Disco Duck Lawrence, Welcome John Denver, the John Denver
Speaker 1: Muppets Christmas.
Speaker 2: And you know what. Van Nostron gave us books before,
Speaker 2: and one of them was about Oh, I can't say
Speaker 2: yeah because that really because the live show.
Speaker 1: Is not out.
Speaker 2: But he gave us a book about the live show
Speaker 2: years ago and I never got around to reading it.
Speaker 2: They reminded me after the show. They're like, you know
Speaker 2: that we sent you that book, you dummy. I said,
Speaker 2: I'll have to read it.
Speaker 1: Now, will and Katie Lynn Lee send his coffee from
Speaker 1: Coffee by Design, So niceish.
Speaker 2: Let's see. Nicole Collins do O, doctor of Osteopathy, sent
Speaker 2: us a copy of her book Insight, which is on
Speaker 2: vision like real vision and the miracle that is vision.
Speaker 2: So check it out.
Speaker 1: Insights, a Doctor of Metal.
Speaker 2: I was delivered by a doo and one of the
Speaker 2: things they do is they adjust you like you're a baby,
Speaker 2: and they adjust you like a chiropractor when you're born.
Speaker 2: I was born breach, so the doo adjusted me in
Speaker 2: reverse order, and apparently everyone in delivery room gave him.
Speaker 1: A golf clap afterward, and you waved your hand and
Speaker 1: said thank you everyone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. I have a taste for this applause.
Speaker 1: Thing gurgled part. Indigo Proof from Portland sent me a
Speaker 1: gift certificate for one free denim repair. Nice cause I
Speaker 1: complained about my Levi's blowing out, so they said, send
Speaker 1: me those jeens and we'll fix them for you. It's
Speaker 1: indigo proof in where else do they fix jeans Portland, Oregon?
Speaker 2: That is a gene fix in town. Sure, I got
Speaker 2: a super old one from not this past October, but
Speaker 2: the October before last. Chuck, Wow, do you remember Kathy
Speaker 2: with a K tosh and I believe our Phoenix show
Speaker 2: or our Salt Lake City show, one of.
Speaker 1: The two are you talking about?
Speaker 2: Gave us lassos, real live lassos and rope and she said,
Speaker 2: go on to YouTube and learn how to lasso. Now, yeah,
Speaker 2: and I've yet to do that, but I still have
Speaker 2: my lasso. So thanks a lot Kathy to appreciate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not only cool too, because I will try
Speaker 1: and learn that one day. But it looks cool hanging
Speaker 1: on a wall.
Speaker 2: For sure, you know. And also I think Kathy is
Speaker 2: a postal worker, so hopefully you dug our going postal
Speaker 2: episode I haven't heard from her.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: Email is Kathy and let us know how.
Speaker 1: We did have a correction to read. But I'll just
Speaker 1: wait for a listener mail for that one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that.
Speaker 1: Was that was me? That was my bad?
Speaker 2: Was it just you?
Speaker 1: I think so?
Speaker 2: Somebody else made it seem like it was me too?
Speaker 1: How many more should we do for this one?
Speaker 2: Let's teach do three more?
Speaker 1: Okay? Anna Parker she is a painter, a muralist who
Speaker 1: did this lovely painting of my three dogs, two of
Speaker 1: which are now dearly departed. But it's very very sweet
Speaker 1: and speaking of which, you can find those her work
Speaker 1: at Sweet Tea Murals dot com.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, very nice. Let's see Lance Roper, who's my
Speaker 2: boy from Toledo, who is from Actual Coffee in Toledo.
Speaker 2: Send me some really good coffee. So check out Actual Coffee.
Speaker 1: Actual Coffee. Yes, Betty Everlys and us Voodoo Dolls of Us.
Speaker 2: Oh, I want to know who that?
Speaker 1: Those are so cool? Yeah, they're like really cute and
Speaker 1: they're laden with little Easter eggs like I'm holding all
Speaker 1: kinds of crazy things that all relate to shows.
Speaker 2: I'm holding a magic mushroom.
Speaker 1: Really Yeah, well that's from my show. But they had
Speaker 1: no pins, we should point out, so they weren't voodoo
Speaker 1: dolls that were out to harm us. Her son Josh
Speaker 1: introduced her to the show and her husband.
Speaker 2: Way to go job.
Speaker 1: So thanks Betty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, momo's riding my foot online too. Oh really, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's very cute. Let's see the wooden egg and special
Speaker 2: egg coasters SYSK egg coasters from the very kind people
Speaker 2: at good egg World.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, all right. I got one more for this,
Speaker 1: a dish Adam Peterson. This was a really cool gift.
Speaker 1: He sent us two bottles of Coca Cola from the
Speaker 1: very last run of returnable bottles that Coca Cola ever did.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: There were small family run bottler in Winona, Minnesota, and
Speaker 1: he said his in laws had run it since nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two. So these were the last run of returnables
Speaker 1: that came off the line. And they're even stamped with
Speaker 1: their little family bottler name and everything.
Speaker 2: Oh that's really very cool. All right. Last one, this
Speaker 2: one came from the Toronto Show. A guy named Phil
Speaker 2: Bowen gave us each a prostheticie.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's one of the best ever.
Speaker 2: One of the best gifts either one of us has
Speaker 2: ever gotten so cool. So thanks a lot for our
Speaker 2: prosthetic eyes, Phil. We still have them. I think there's
Speaker 2: a picture of us wearing them too.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay. If you want to get in touch with us,
Speaker 2: just to say hi or to send us something, it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. You can go on to stuff youshould know
Speaker 2: dot com and follow our social links there I think,
Speaker 2: and as always, you can send us an email, wrap
Speaker 2: it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it
Speaker 2: off to stuff Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: App Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Have you listen to your favorite shows?