In the years immediately following the Civil War, thousands of former
             slaves moved westward, hoping to find new opportunities for employment.
             Among the opportunities open to young black men was serving with the United
             States Army. In 1866, the United States Congress authorized the creation
             of six regular Army regiments to be staffed entirely by black soldiers. By
             1869, these regiments were decreased by two. Black men were given the
             choice of enlisting with the Ninth or Tenth Cavalry or the Twenty-fourth or
             Twenty-fifth Infantry. It is these regiments that would eventually be
             dubbed the Buffalo Soldiers (Katz 1996).
             The term Buffalo Soldiers was bestowed by the Plains Indians, who were
             the soldiers' enemies. Despite their enmity, however, the name reveals the
             respect many Native Americans accorded to the black soldiers. The Indians
             had high regard for the courage and valor shown by the black men in combat.
             This paper argues that the Buffalo Soldiers played a crucial, though
             often overlooked role in the history of westward expansion. By protecting
             settlers, the Buffalo Soldiers paved the way for the settlement of the west
             and the creation of the United States. By showing courage on the
             battlefield, the Buffalo Soldiers also challenged prevailing misconceptions
             about black people. In doing so, they contributed to the establishment of
             multicultural societies in the West and by extension, in the rest of the
             The Buffalo Soldiers initially came into being because during the late
             19th century, the United States Military supported segregation. Black
             freemen thus could not serve along with the white soldiers. Thus, the
             Buffalo Soldiers were tasked with building forts which were often reserved
             only for white soldiers. In Forth Concho, the Buffalo Soldiers were housed
             in separate rooms. However, historians like Stanford L. Davis (1999) argue
             that the realitie...