Scott graduated from West Point with the Class of 1876 (his
Cullum number was 2628), and was commissioned in the cavalry. He was initially assigned to the
9th United States Cavalry, but three weeks after his graduation
George Armstrong Custer and many of his
7th United States Cavalry Regiment were killed at the
Battle of the Little Bighorn so he was reassigned to the 7th. He was sent to
Fort Lincoln in the
Dakota Territory and was briefly quartered in Custer's former home. While there he learned
Sioux and
sign language.
Indian Wars In 1876, he was sent down the
Missouri River with orders to disarm
Sioux people allegedly arming
Crazy Horse. In 1877, he was sent with 10 soldiers and 35
Cheyenne scouts to determine if the Sioux were forming war parties. Later that year he accompanied a supply train to
Fort Custer and during his return he stopped to stay with members of the
Crow tribe. After his stay, he found he preferred Crow
horses. He was promoted to
first lieutenant in June 1878. In the fall of 1878, he was transferred to
Fort Totten where met and married Mary Merrill, the daughter of General
Lewis Merrill. They had a son, David Hunter Scott, while in the Dakota Territory. In 1886, he was transferred to Philadelphia to focus on recruitment, which he considered a career setback. In August 1889 he was transferred to
Fort Sill in the
Indian Territory. He traveled by train to Henrietta, Texas, before taking a wagon to the fort. While Scott was apprehensive about future relations with the neighboring
Kiowa,
Comanche, and
Apache, his knowledge of
sign language impressed them. The Comanche would call him
Molay-tay-quop, or He Talks With Hands. About this time, Scott met
I-See-O of the Kiowa tribe who would become a chief intermediary between the various groups. Scott was placed in command of Troop L of the 7th Cavalry on March 29, 1891, and of a detachment of Indian Scouts on September 18, 1891. When Scott was given command of Troop L of the regiment in 1891, he had I-See-O serve as his
first sergeant. (Infantry regiments designated Company I for their Native American scouts, and cavalry regiments did the same with Troop L.) During the
ghost dance phenomenon of the early 1890s, I-See-O helped in persuading the
Apache and Kiowa tribes not to go to war. This action, while serving the interest of white settlers and speculators, undoubtedly also saved the lives of many Native Americans. Scott's gratitude to I-See-O was such that, when he was chief of staff of the army, he allowed for Sergeant I-See-O to remain on active duty for life. In 1890–91, he was given the responsibility for suppressing the "
Ghost Dance" religious movement that swept the Indian reservations and received official commendation for that work. In 1892, he organized Troop L of the 7th Cavalry, composed of Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Indians, and commanded it until it was mustered out, the last Indian unit in the United States Army, in 1897. In 1894–97, he had charge of
Geronimo's band of Chiricahua Apache Indian prisoners at
Fort Sill,
Oklahoma. He was promoted to captain in January 1895, having served as a first lieutenant for years. In November 1897, he was attached to the Bureau of American Ethnology of the
Smithsonian Institution, where he began preparing a work on Indian sign languages. ==Retirement, death, and legacy==