After the Civil War, Reeves was appointed as a U.S. Marshal in Indian Territory. This was uncommon for freedmen, especially in the South due to the Jim Crow laws of the Reconstruction Era. Despite this, Reeves worked as a Marshal for 32 years before he took a job in the Muskogee Police Department in 1907. This did not last long, however, as Reeves was diagnosed with Bright's disease, which eventually took his life in 1910. Bass Reeves is buried in Union Agency Cemetery in Muskogee, Oklahoma.