Air Date: November 8, 2018
Jimmy Mills has an admiration for horses that began as a child.
Jimmy: There was a gentleman that used to pick up metal and stuff and he had a horse and cart and that was back when I was about 7 years old.
Mitch: What is it that you love about horses so much?
Jimmy: They have a spirit about them. They can feel what you feel.
At the old Mounted Police station in Rouge Park, Jimmy uses his passion for horses to re-enact and enlighten people about the history of the U.S. Calvary’s Buffalo Soldiers.
Jimmy: Without the Buffalo Soldiers there would have been lots more chaos of the settlers going West. These are ex slaves so they made excellent well-disciplined soldiers. They were given all the worst of the worst from the military the horses were the worst the weaponry were old they were given most of the stuff from the Civil War but they excelled at everything that they did.
From 1866 to the early 1890s, the Buffalo Soldiers served in the Southwest and the Great Plains. They had a distinguished record in fact thirteen enlisted men and six Officers earned the Medal of Honor.
Mitch: And they served for a country that didn’t always respect them back?
Jimmy: They built towns they couldn’t go in they protected the railroads they protected the stagecoach. Once we understood their involvement in our country what we wanted to be a part of this.
Bringing the long history of the early west to the city’s youth, Jimmy Mills and the modern day Buffalo Soldiers are riding proud, here in the heart of Detroit.
