Talk:Navajo Scouts

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[edit] Comment

Not sure what is not following Wiki style guidelines. Will remove it, please comment here. Thanks.

Came from a 100 page paper I did in 1975. Over the course of a year, I spent a lot of time at the Navajo Tribal Museum at Window Rock, looking at original Crown Point pension files and copies of Army records that were reports from the field.

In respect for the Navajo, it is my opinion that it is not appropriate for a non-navajo to show pictures or to mention names of the scouts. I believe that over 30% of scout age males in the south east corner of reservation were scouts in a 6 month enlistment period in 1886. I also believe that the recruitment and service of Navajo Scouts had a very positive impact upon all Navajos in their relationship with the US Army and BIA.

I would like to add some of the books I read on the history of the South West from 1870 to 1890. Discovered how to use Wiki via Moodle.org Wonderful--Rcollman 13:35, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Move "Navajo Scouts" to "Indian scout"?

I propose moving this page to Indian scout and expanding it to include people from all Native American nations that served as scouts with the U.S. Army. This would cover people like the Crow scouts that served with Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and many others, such as Mitch Bouyer. "Indian scouts" appears to be a much more common term than the more specific "Navajo Scouts" (judging from Google hit counts). Jwillbur 21:57, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I respectfully disagree. This would be like lumping "Indian Tribes". Very interesting comment because I don't know how to define an Indian Scout, there are probably US Army Indian Scout, definations in the history of military regulations. But then there are Indian Guides and I am not sure what the colonies called them. This page is more concerned with the cultural impact of the Navajo Scouts upon Navajo/Army relations. Linking is better. Perhaps the page should be name "Navajo Army Scouts", so it is not confused with Navajo Boy and Girl Scouts :) Thanks for taking the time to comment --Rcollman 23:22, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Now that you mention it, I think U.S. Army Indian Scouts would be a more appropriate name for the article I was thinking of. "Indian scouts" by itself could cover things such as traditional Apache scout, but I was thinking specifically of the U.S. Army definition of "Indian scout". I do think that the name of this page should be changed to prevent confusion, maybe Navajo scouts in the U.S. Army? -- Jwillbur 03:12, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Do we have to find a WikiMediaGod to do a page rename? Or do we do a cut & paste with a redirect? The "the" in a page name in your suggestion bothers me. But I don't know convention. In MoodleDocs we would do something like Navajo scouts (U.S. Army) or Navajo military scouts in case there are some experts on Spanish/Mexican use of Navajos :)

And thank you Jwilbur for the edit. I work in a specialized version of mediawiki (moodle.org > documentation) and am still learning about wikipedia style. I am not used to quotes and citations and such. I appreciate the examples and it looks so much better. --Rcollman 23:27, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

No problem, I've been editing on Wikipedia for several months now and am only just getting the hang of quotation templates and the like. -- Jwillbur 03:12, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

As a former scholar, I know there has been a lot written about Apache Scouts. I assumed there was all sorts of material about other Indian Scouts in history books. Goodness, I am the first one to create a page on the subject of US Army Indian Scouts in Wikipedia? In hard copy material, there is hardly any mention of the Navajos in the Apache Wars, some mention in accounts of the Buffalo Soldiers. Now I see your perspective a little better. Hardly any hits on "Indian Scouts" in Wikipedia - well I did get an Indian Scout hit about India.--Rcollman 23:38, 11 September 2006 (UTC)--Rcollman 23:38, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you are the first person to post information about US Army Indian Scouts! I think I will go ahead and make the U.S. Army Indian Scouts page to collect information about how the Army recruited, treated, and utilized Indian scouts from all tribes, as well as the origins of the practice. Then seperate pages, like this one, could be created to explain how each tribe participated in and/or was affected by the U.S. Army Indian scouts. -- Jwillbur 03:12, 12 September 2006 (UTC)