ED GORDON, host: Retired First Sergeant Mark Matthews, one of America's last Buffalo      Soldiers, died last week in Washington, DC, at the age of 111.  Matthews      joined the US Army at age 16 and became part of the decorated black      regiment that fought the Indian wars along the Western frontier.  He      served along the US-Mexico border and helped pursue the bandit and      revolutionary Pancho Villa.  An expert horseman, Matthews trained      recruits to ride and tended President Roosevelt's stables.  He also      fought in World War II.  Matthews retired in 1970 as chief of security      guards at the National Institute of Health in Maryland.</s>ED GORDON, host: This is NPR News.
Ed Gordon offers a brief tribute to First Sgt. Mark Matthews, one of the last "buffalo soldiers" — black military men who fought in the Indian Wars in the early 1900s. Matthews died last week at age 111.