Long before the famed Code Talkers, American Indians from today’s Arizona and New Mexico played important roles in the U.S. military. As early as the 1850s, some Navajos were paid for various temporary duties.
It soon became evident to certain officers on the frontier that conventional tactics from the recently ended Civil War were insufficient when it came to the guerilla warfare the Army faced when fighting the Western tribes. The enlistment of Indians as scouts was one solution to this

July 2012
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- Sieber Goes Down
- Why were post-mortem photos taken of Harvey Logan a.k.a. Kid Curry?
- How much did a good cowboy hat cost, and how long did it last?
- What were the pay scales for Old West lawmen?
- Did cowboy poets perform in the Old West?
- What happened to real-life saloon owner Al Swearengen, famously portrayed in HBO’s Deadwood?
- Cheyenne: The Complete Third Season
- Monogram Cowboy Collection, Vol. 2
- The Big Trail
- Welcome to Hard Times / Day of the Evil Gun
- Harley Brown
- 10 for 10: Coeur d’Alene, ID
- West’s Best Greasy Spoons
- The Corny Old West
- A Proud People
- Mr. Hornaday’s War
- If Walls Could Talk
- Lord of Lightning
- Sioux War Dispatches
- Here Lies Hugh Glass
- The Legacy of the Ranger Belt
- Up and Down in the Black Hills
- West From Salt Lake
- July 2012 Events
- Fireworks & Festivities
- The Peacemaker’s Clone
- Was Geronimo a Drunk?
- Honorable Warriors
- Gunfight at the Eco-Corral
- Warner Bros. Theater Screenings
- Hollywood’s Honest Abe
- Phil Collins