Aspects of his life inspired the fictional character Joshua Deets, the African-American cowboy in Larry McMurtry's novel Lonesome Dove.

[5] On the postwar cattle drives, Ikard served as a tracker and cowboy, and as Charles Goodnight's de facto banker, often carrying thousands of dollars in cash until the money could be deposited.

[6] After his last cattle drive in 1869, Ikard settled in Parker County, became a farmer, and raised a family with his wife Angeline.

"[9] In the 2010 Plains Folk feature (heard on Prairie Public Radio) called The Grave of Oliver Loving, commentator Tom Isern mentions that Bose Ikard was a prototype for Deets.

[10] Tricia Wagner, writing in Black Cowboys of the Old West, states that Lonesome Dove, with its three characters - Woodrow Call, Gus McCrae, and Josh Deets - "was based on the adventures of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving and their right-hand man, Bose Ikard" and that "Danny Glover played Bose Ikard".