South End Life: Cousins Show How Horses Are Key to Black History and Community

Lenard Howze Jr. says he grew up with what he called a "peculiar" lifestyle in the Seattle area. His father, Lenard Howze Sr., had a horse-and-carriage service along the waterfront beginning in the 1980s. The business morphed into offering equestrian programs and horse-related events for carnivals, birthday parties, and festivals, such as Juneteenth and Umoja Fest.

Howze, who grew up in Skyway and went to South Shore Middle School and Garfield High School, described a typical morning on the day of an event. "I'd hop on my 10-speed [bike] and head down the street to catch the horses, ride them back bareback to the house in Skyway, tie them up in the yard, and I would begin grooming and getting them prepared for the event," Howze said. "I'd take the keys to my dad's truck, back it up in the yard, and hook up the horse trailer. Mind you, I'm 9 or 10 years old."

Today, the younger Howze is the executive director of Buffalo Soldiers of Seattle (BSS). They attend some South End festivals on horseback, dressed in period U.S. military regalia. The elder Howze founded the organization with a group of local Black men in the early 1990s. The program was created to share their passion for Black history, horsemanship, and outdoors skills.

Geordan Newbill, BSS program director and cousin of the younger Howze, says he would watch his own father and uncle Lenard Sr. in parades dressed in Buffalo Soldier regalia as he was growing up, and he couldn't wait to join in.

Today, the organization arranges hikes and teaches archery. Participants gather kindling and learn to chop wood to build a fire. They cook fish in the fire's coals and camp in a tent. They also learn about grooming horses, equine therapy, and riding skills.

Newbill says they also talk about Black history with a focus on the organization's namesake. Buffalo Soldiers refer to Black soldiers who served in the segregated U.S. military from 1886, just after the Civil War, until the Korean War in the early 1950s. Howze's grandfather was a Buffalo Soldier who served in World War II and at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Much like U.S. history as a whole, the history of Buffalo Soldiers is complicated. Buffalo Soldiers fought in World War I, the Spanish American War, and the Philippine Insurrection, and more, under inequitable conditions compared with other units. They also played a major role in expansion of the U.S. frontier. They built infrastructure, like roads and forts, and protected settlements, railway lines, and depots. Locally, they were stationed in Seattle's Fort Lawton (now Discovery Park) and Camp George Jordan, a site in SoDo just south of 1st Avenue South and South Spokane Street. Buffalo Soldiers were also involved in campaigns against Indigenous tribes.

Newbill says that according to some accounts, Buffalo Soldiers had a reputation to "fight hard and not give up," which he says "also reminded some Plains tribes of the buffalo."

For many Buffalo Soldiers who conscripted from the South, "These are men who just got out of slavery, and there were two options for them: You can either be a sharecropper, which is practically still being a slave, or you can go and join the military, where they teach you to read and write," said Newbill. "They're going to pay you, they're going to give you a uniform and clothing, teach you how to work with weapons, and a horse is assigned to you." Newbill says many Buffalo Soldiers took the skills they gained in the military and used them to help build up wealth and economy in Black communities, like in Rosewood, Florida, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Youth Who Have Worked With Buffalo Soldiers of Seattle

Ona Johnson

Ona Johnson attended Buffalo Soldiers of Seattle camps through a BIPOC horse program with Young Women Empowered. She had already spent her early years at a pony camp and around the stables where her mother had a horse.

"When you're riding a horse, you need to understand their behavior, and you need to be calm because they're sensitive, and they can feel your energy, your anxiety, or your happiness when you're riding them. So it's like almost sharing a body. I've learned to tune in to another person or animal and be more in touch with my own emotions and feelings too."

Johnson is Tlingit, Haida, Alaska Native, and her tribe is from Ketchikan and Klawock. "I'm also Black on my father's side, and I love horses, so I signed up for the program, but it was a little conflicting with [Buffalo Soldiers'] history and me identifying and representing my Indigenous people," Johnson said. "They've been acknowledging it and growing with it. They're very welcoming."

As she participated, Johnson became aware that family was central to the program. 

"Interesting thing about these summer camps is that they're a whole family — not all blood related, but they work with each other all the time," Johnson said. "They bring their kids to the summer camps, and you'll see them running around. You can hang out with them, and then interact with the Buffalo Soldiers. It's good to be in community."

Marcus Boston

Marcus Boston joined as a teen when his late grandmother, who cooked for Buffalo Soldiers events, encouraged him to connect to his Southern and Black roots. Boston comes from a lineage of Black military. The Buffalo Soldiers taught him farming, riding skills, and more.

"Jordan taught me how to do the gritty work — how to hook up the trailer for the horses and basic car maintenance," Boston said. "Lenard taught me management. I set up meetings, and he let me promote myself as barn manager. I organized everything using labels and took pictures of where everything is. Anytime something went missing, they always came to me."

For life lessons, Boston said, "Animal care and just being a cowboy has definitely saved my life. My mother and my grandmother made it very clear to me that I don't have to act a way that I'm not, all hard or whatever. [Buffalo Soldiers] taught me to never give up no matter how challenging the task: Always ready, always forward."

Howze and Newbill hope to create a team to compete in equine sports. "I didn't know that I could have gone for a scholarship in equestrian sports or professions," Howze said. "These are prominent activities, but us in Seattle's inner city, we don't get [the] action of knowing that."

Buffalo Soldiers sometimes offer weekend programming at Red Barn Ranch, a 40-acre Seattle Parks and Recreation site in a rural area outside of Auburn. The space was donated to the City of Seattle by the Basketball Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor in 1966 to be used as a camp for Seattle's underserved youth.

In March, Buffalo Soldiers of Seattle will begin Equine Days at the Park every second and fourth Saturday at Rainier Beach Community Center from 12–2 p.m.