Buffalo Soldiers-whence the name

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>"Sgt. Matthews, who also was the oldest Buffalo Soldier, was heir to a
>proud military heritage that originated with the black soldiers who fought
>in the Indian wars on the Western frontier. Historians say that the
>Cheyenne, Kiowa and Apache tribes bestowed the appellation because the
>soldiers' black, curly hair reminded them of a buffalo's mane."
>
>I found a cite from Newspaperarchive,  the _Hillsdale(MI) Standard_  25
>August 1868 which described a meeting of 5000 Indians all joined for a hunt.
>
>"At the head of the command was what they call Buffalo soldiers, carrying
>a long stick trimmed with fancy feathers, ribbons, cloths, &c, called the
>"Buffalo stick," and no one is allowed to go ahead of that."
>
>But a cite from 1886 says the Indian "facetiously" called the "colored"
>troops this.
>
>So, why did the Indians bestow the name, which they had evidently had for
>their own,  on the "colored" troops?  And, if so, why?  If the name
>actually came  from another source, what was it.

Offhand, in my woeful ignorance of the subject, I see no reason to think
that the two usages are continuous or related in any way. Is there any
evidence of a connection? The tribes represented in the 1868 article don't
seem to be related to the Cheyenne, Apache, Kiowa tribes mentioned in the
lead quotation. The languages of the last three tribes are very different
and without any known common ancestry (I think).

One question -- about either usage -- is whether "buffalo soldier" was an
expression coined in English or a 'translation' from some American Indian
language. The word "soldier" as used in modern English AFAIK would not
correspond exactly to anything in the tribal cultures. "Soldier" as applied
to a US Army soldier probably meant soldier (although I don't myself know
whether "buffalo soldier" was invented by tribal Indians or by [say]
journalists). But "soldier" as applied to an Indian outside US mainstream
society would mean what? Warrior? Male tribe member of fighting age?
Participant in a certain event?

To what extent would the Indians in the 1868 piece have been expected to be
habitual English speakers? Would they have used -- among themselves -- a
dialect of English in which "soldier" might have had a meaning divergent
from the standard?

As for the "historians" who "say that such and such tribes bestowed this
and that" ... who are they? The same nameless historians mentioned by
SNYCH, the ones who verified the true facts about Eve and her Big Apples?

-- Doug Wilson