Buffalo Bills Wild West Show - Presenting Buffalo Bill: the man who invented the Wild West

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To Mr. P., with love

You will notice that throughout this book I havewhenever possibleidentified American Indian people as members of specific tribes. This is the preferred usage. Still, I have also used the phrases Native American , American Indian , Native , and Native performer to refer more broadly to peoples indigenous to North America. Additionally, I have used Indian when it appears in historical material from which I am quoting or when it is used in an established term such as Bureau of Indian Affairs or Indian Agent . I realize all these terms are problematic, and have been much debated. But terminology is needed. Always my intention when referring to people outside my own cultural heritage is to be respectful and accurate.

Buffalo Bill Cody in 1895 at the pinnacle of his Wild West career.

When I was a kid in the 1960s, westerns like Gunsmoke and Bonanza were the biggest hits on prime-time television. Every week these shows broadcast an idea of the Wild West into millions of American homes. Stampeding buffalo and runaway stagecoaches. Shoot-outs and showdowns. Wide-open spaces and the call of the cavalrys bugle. I thrilled to it all. But by far the most appealing image was that of the rugged cowboy. In episode after episodeusing nothing but his superior roping, shooting, and riding skillshe faced down vicious outlaws and fierce American Indians. Even then, I understood he was more than a television hero. He was supposed to be representing America itselfcourageous and freedom-loving; a shining symbol of our nations conquest of the West. He was a legend, a tall tale, a myth.

Every human group creates mythsthose fables and fantasies that help people make sense of their history. And in the United States, the winning of the West is the most popular myth. As its often told, Europeans sailed across the ocean to a primitive continent. Surviving brutal conditions, they labored to conquer the land. Once settled in the East, they bravely turned their faces westward. Courageous and independent, they fought American Indians. They built farms and towns and democratic societies. They spread civilization from sea to shining sea. Its a stirring story.

Too bad its not accurate.

Thats the problem with myths: theyre not overly concerned with facts. Yes, taming the Wild West is a fundamental part of how we built our nation. It is a pivotal part of the American story. But real western history is not so romantic. It is messy, sometimes grim, and anything but simple.

So where did this mythology come from?

Certainly, TV westerns perpetuated it. So did Hollywood filmmakers and cowboy stars like John Wayne. But who came before that? Where did it all start?

With a hardscrabble frontiersman who became Americas legendary showman: William Frederick Buffalo Bill Cody.

An iconic image of Buffalo Bill, rifle in hand and riding a big white horse (c. 1900).

M AY 11, 1887

O utside the London arena, William F. Cody sat astride his favorite stallion, Charlie, and inspected his shows performers. He had brought his entire outfit218 performers, 180 horses, 18 buffalo, 10 elk, 5 wild Texas steers, 4 donkeys, 2 deer, and 2 bears, not to mention a stagecoach, a replica log cabin, canvas scenery, wagons, 36 brass instruments, rifles, saddles, and more bullets than a man could countall the way from America. Hed come with hopes of striking it rich, of selling millions of tickets and making millions of dollars. But never in his wildest dreams had he expected thisa command performance ordered by Queen Victoria of England herself!

Cody had come a long way from herding cows at five dollars a week to performing for royalty. As he watched his troupe gather, his mind must have flashed back to the sad boy whod been forced to go to work full-time after his fathers death. Cody claimed that between his eleventh birthday and fifteenth birthday, he freighted wagons across the frontier, survived a starvation winter at Fort Bridger, skirmished with some American Indians and made friends with others, rode the Pony Express, prospected for gold in Colorado, and hunted buffalo on the Great Plains. And he wove all these adventures into his show. Giving them titles like Attack on the Settlers Cabin, Buffalo Hunt as It Was in the Far West, and Cowboy Fun, Cody reenacted the experiences of his young life for the entertainment of his audiences.

And tonight, his audience was the Queen of England herself!

His dark brown eyes swept over his troupers. All looked in order. There stood Annie Oakley, Little Sure Shot, her rifle slung over her buckskin-clad shoulder. Behind her, bushy-bearded John Nelson perched atop the old Deadwood stagecoachthe one Cody had won in a coin tossreins in his hands and ready to go. The showman looked for Lillian Smith. Lillian was good with a gun, too. But the flighty fifteen-year-old sometimes arrived late for performances. Not today, though. There she stood along with champion roper Jim Kid Willoughby and Broncho Charlie Miller, dressed to the nines and raring to go. Behind them, already mounted on horseback, waited Buck Taylor, King of the Cowboys, along with his fellow riders. Those boys could ride anything they could get a leg acrossbulls, buffalo, horses. And the horses were real buckers. Theres nothing fake in my whole show, Cody liked to say. There were more than ninety Lakota men, women, and children, too. Wearing buckskin and feathers, a group of warriors sat bareback on their ponies, waiting.

Inside the arena, the Cowboy Band struck up a lively tune. It was time for the grand entrance. Shouting, the Lakota warriors galloped into the arena at breakneck speed, the pounding of their horses hooves echoing across the wide-open space. Right behind them, six-shooters blazing, plunged the cowboys, followed by Mexican vaqueros, grizzled frontiersmen, rifle-toting Texas rangers, and detachments dressed as the U.S. cavalry and artillery wildly waving the Stars and Stripes. Around and around the arena the performers looped until finally they formed a colorful square. Falling suddenly silent, they turned and faced the queen.

There was a suspense-filled pause.

Then a trumpet sounded.

And in rode Cody. Wheeling his prancing horse before the queen, he came to a quick stop. Charlie reared, standing on his hind legs.

In her seat, Queen Victoria politely clapped her lace-gloved hands.

Letting the horse down, Cody swept off his big sombrero. The long brown hair that hed rolled up under it fell down around his shoulders.

Now, head held high, Cody prepared to send his deep voice soaring over the grandstand. And even though the only people in the grandstand today were the queen, her military escort, and an entourage of aristocrats, he shouted:

Welcome, your Majesty, to the Wild West!