Mini Mag Mar 1 2021

Pages of time will be turned back more than a century-and-a-half when Buffalo Soldier re-enactors come to Salina.

The Nicodemus Buffalo Soldiers Association will be among featured educational entertainment during the Equifest of Kansas, March 5-6-7. Buffalo Soldiers were African-American regiments of the Army that were created in 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They served in peacetime Indian wars, the Spanish-American War, both World Wars, and the Korean War. “We started the Nicodemus Buffalo Soldier Association in 1995 with the purpose of bringing the African-Americans in the West to life,” said First Sergeant Barrie Tompkins said. “It was a part of history that went unnoticed for so many years. Living in Nicodemus, we decided to form a troop,” Thompkins explained. “That way, we could go out and present a part of living history, instead of just reading about it.”

During the Equifest of Kansas, the Nicodemus Buffalo Soldiers Association re-enactors will present the story of Buffalo Soldiers in American history.

The small town of Nicodemus in northwest Kansas’ Graham County was founded by newly freed slaves in 1877. Nicodemus was the first black community west of the Mississippi River and is the only remaining predominantly black community west of the Mississippi. Some early residents of Nicodemus served as Buffalo Soldiers, who fought Indians, captured cattle rustlers and thieves and protected stagecoaches, wagon trains and railroad crews, Buffalo Soldiers from Nicodemus served in the 24th Infantry Regiment and the 9th and 10th Calvary Regiments. Thompkins, a Kent Cavalry Company F Buffalo Soldier reenactor, believes the men’s reasons were probably pretty practical.