THE ' ALL NATIONS' CONCEPT		

	Why would the baseball people in Des Moines, Iowa be putting together a traveling "novelty" teams in 1912 come up with the name 'All Nations'?  You must first realize that participation in the game of baseball was considered a major role in the development of the 'national pastime'.  An important activity in the celebration of the American national experience.   Why would the casual baseball fan of this time understand the concept of putting together an 'All Nations' team.  The All Nations team would highlight the players from the many ethnic groups who had begun playing baseball throughout the expanding, American empire. 
	The last formal conflict of the Plains Indian wars of the 19th Century was the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.  This took place in what is part of southwestern South Dakota, only a year after South Dakota was made a state.  As a result of this conflict a series of forts were created to monitor and suppress the activities of the people of the Great Sioux Reservations.  Forts were located at Ft. Meade (near Sturgis, South Dakota), Ft. Niobrara (Nebraska) and Ft. Robinson(Nebraska).  These outposts were considered the least favorable assignments for U. S. soldiers in the last years of the nineteenth century.  For this reason several African American units were stationed at the forts in the region.  Black soldiers were assigned at Ft. Randall and Ft. Sisseton in South Dakota and Ft. Buford (North Dakota)  for many years prior to the creation of Ft. Robinson and Ft. Niobrara.
	The first 25th Infantry baseball team was organized at Ft. Missoula (Montana) in May, 1894.  Post teams were organized at many of the military posts in the region.  These military post teams played other military post teams, as well as town teams in the areas surrounding the forts.  During the years of 1895-1898 the military post teams continued to play ball games each summer.  Several games were played each year against teams from outside the military posts.  A baseball game was an important meeting place for the military and the neighboring civilian populations.  Frank N. Schubert, in his, A History of Fort Robinson noted that, " baseball provided practically the only consistently freindly or at least civil meeting ground for black soldiers and white civilians.  At Fort Robinson the baseball diamond was an important setting for biracial gathering. "  The post teams would play all interested teams traveling throughout the region into Wyoming and South Dakota.  One season the Tacoma, Washington nine, which was playing in the Northwestern League was sold as a team, and transferred to Toledo, Ohio in the American Association.  As the team was being transported East they were challenged to a game by the Ft. Missoula team of 25th Infantry players.  The Tacoma/Toledo team won the special game.  Toledo went on to win the American Association pennant that season.  
	In the spring of 1898 war was declared by the United States against Spain.  Black infantry units such as the 25th Infantry were moved throughout the States for training and mobilization.  During the summer of 1899 the 25th Infantry was sent to the Philippines.  The 25th Infantry baseball team continued to play games all during this experience.  The 25th Infantry played a series of games in Manila and Luzon in the Philippines soon after their arrival.  By the end of the 1901 baseball season the 25th Infantry had won the baseball championship of the Philippine Islands. The games were attended by military post residents, as well a significant number of people from the native population.
	In early 1902, Major Arlington Pond of the Medical Corps, U. S. Volunteers became the 25th Infantry manager and coach.  Pond graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1895.  In 1896 Pond won sixteen games, as  a pitcher for the pennant winning, Baltimore Orioles National League team.  He won eighteen games for the Orioles in 1897.  He left the Orioles in the spring of 1898 and became a Medical Corps officer.
	The end of the 25th infantry assignment to the Philippines ended the organization of the most potent nine.  The various battalions were sent to various post throughout the West. Companies, A,B,C,D, I, K, L, and M were assigned to Ft. Niobrara (Nebraska).   In the fall of 1903 the regiment was ordered to move to Ft. Riley (Kansas) for maneuvers.  The 25th Infantry marched from Ft. Niobrara to Norfolk, Nebraska, where it met the train which would transport them to Ft. Riley.   Baseball games were arranged at every camp, all along the line of march.  The 25th Infantry team won every game that it played during its two hundred and fifty-four mile journey.  
	When the various regiments arrived at Ft. Riley for the Department of the Missouri maneuvers every post was represented by a baseball team.  An elimination tournament was organized.  The 10th Cavalry team from Ft. Robinson and the 25th Cavalry team from Ft. Niobrara met for the 1903 Department of the Missouri Championship.   Ft. Niobrara won the championship by the score of 3-2 in twelve innings.   
	Ft. Niobrara organized teams for the 1904, 1905, and 1906 season.   Ft. Niobrara was abandoned as a military post in June of 1906.   
	In the spring of 1907 the 25th Infantry was sent back to the Philippines.   During their tour of duty in the Philippines in 1907, 1908, and 1909 the 25th Infantry baseball team lost only two games.  The 25th Infantry team continued to operate after the regiment returned to the United States in October, 1909.   In 1913 the 25th Infantry was assigned to the Scofield Barracks in Hawaii.  A Post League was established with teams from the 25th Infantry, 4th Cavalry, and 1st Field Artillery.  During this time period a Honolulu City League was established.  The league consisted of an all Chinese, all Portuguese, all Asian, and the Champions, the 25th Infantry team.  During the winter months teams from the mainland, including many major league and Pacific Coast League players, visited Hawaii.  Their featured opponent was the 25th Infantry nine. The featured pitching matchups included an appearance by the outstanding, Pacific Coast League pitcher, Jim "Death Valley" Scott.   Scott, a Deadwood, South Dakota native, and a member of the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame, was perhaps the best South Dakotan born player to ever play major league baseball.  He went on to be a mainstay for the Chicago White Sox in their championship seasons, prior to World War I.
	During 1914 an Oahu City League was established which included the 25th Infantry, Coast Artillery, the all Chinese, and all Portuguese teams.   
	
	The various state National Guards were mobilized during the Spanish-American Conflict from 1899-1901.  The members of the South Dakota National Guard, for example were not involved in the conflict in Cuba and the Carribean.  They were sent to the Pacific Ocean. and were involved extensively in the fight against the Nationalists in the Phillippines.  The American soldiers spent considerable time in the Hawaiian Islands which had become under the control of the Americans by 1900.  During their time in Hawaii and the Phillippines the soldiers had the opportunity to watch and participate in the various baseball games and tournaments which were organized amongst the soldiers and the native populations of the islands.   These baseball games, as a celebration of the emerging American empire, featuring players from many ethnic groups, and regions of the world, was no doubt, the historical background from which the concept of the All Nations team developed.  Who would imagine that one of African American performers for All Nations would become a sports phenomena in the Upper Midwest in the years prior to World War I.