Before Buffalo Bill became super famous with his Wild West traveling show, he first hosted small theater shows with Native Americans. It was a big thing, before the 1880's.
Buffalo Bill became known somewhat as an "Indian expert," and his opinion on various topics was often requested. Here, on March 13th, 1881, he was asked about the Indian question. The "question" being, what do you do with them?
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| 1881, March 13 Democrat and Chronicle |
"I think Secretary Schurz's policy has been a good one. It is very hard to please the people upon the subject. The people of the east have very different views upon the subject from the western people in regard of the Indian question. There have been so many things promised the Indians, and so many promises broken, that the Indians are very suspicious. I cannot recall to my memory now a single treaty that has been broken by the Indians. The breaking of treaties has always been on the side of the whites. The Indians have been too often the victim of bad treatment on the part of the government. I know the prejudice is strong against them, and for that, I suppose, the belief that they are always in the wrong."
In 1881 he also said
"the Indians are more honest than the white people who deal with them." Great quote!
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| 1881, Jan 15 The Times Picayune |
This 1881 piece says: "Buffalo Bill" came into fame by being glorified in a ten cent novel, and the Boston Post thinks its no use telling him that novels are pernicious literature." "Pernicious" means harmful. Quite fitting, I'd say. Buffalo Bill was definitely a story-teller, a boaster of fictional accounts, and he changed history to fit his idea of what a good show should be. And he exploited the hell out of indigenous people, being as dishonest as the other white people who associated with them.
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| 1881, March 16 The Weekly Wisconsin |
1883 - This story sets the stage for a new show, Carver & Cody's Wild West Show, and encourages young boys to attend. "The boys, instead of taking up the dime novels with the inevitable beginning... will have a chance for realistic knowledge of life in the far West by going to the State Fair grounds..." to see Buffalo Bill and Dr Carver.. "and a large party of genuine cowboys and Indians..." who will "give an exhibition of experiences on the plains which will be decidedly thrilling."
There will, of course, be a "mimic representation of Indians attacking an overland stage, fights between cowboys and Indians..." [to continue the stereotype of the savage wild Indian.]
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| 1883, Oct 3 Detroit Free Press |
1883, Buffalo Bill has a new entertainment that hits the road called the "WILD WEST" !
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| 1883, May 6 The St Joseph Herald |
1889 ad for the Wild West show. I assume he's holding the scalp of an Indian...
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| 1889, Aug 4 The Saint Pail Globe |
And I'll end this post with another answer to the Indian Question:
Give the Indians a Chance.
Hon. William F. Cody, who is better known as "Buffalo Bill," is in Washington endeavoring to secure permission of the Indian bureau to take a number of Indians from the reservations to accompany his Wild West show to Germany. He has also been agitating the passage of a bill by which young Indians may elect to leave the reservations and engage in this or other pursuits, which has brought to light the foolish requirement imposed by the government on the Indians to remain on their reservations. The intermingling of Indian and white blood has never been considered in the same abhorrent light as the commingling of the black and white races, and presents, therefore, no obstacle to Indians leaving the reservation and losing their race identity by absorption. The mere attrition with the white race, through business and labor, would educate the Indian in the right direction, and be one means of permanently settling the Indian problem. If the Indians could be immediately scattered generally throughout the entire United States, and put on their own resources to make a living, there would be an end at once of all Indian troubles, and such of them as are willing to take their chances in civilized regions out to be allowed the privilege. In other words, we should give the Indians a chance.
- Source March 12, 1891.
The Kansas City Gazette
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| 1891, March 12 The Kansas City Gazette |
In case you haven't read my other articles, go to the Wild West Shows tab on the right. Cody was in DC because the Native people were supposed to be prohibited from traveling with shows for various reasons - but one was that the year before several indigenous performers accused Cody of abuse, abandonment and exploitation. He denied it, of course, and was able to talk his way out of the ban, go to reservations - such as with the Sioux who were being held as prisoners of war on their saddened reservations - and take as many Indian performers as he needed. He then went to Germany, advertising that these were the 50 fierce warriors from Wounded Knee. He was cleared - not too sure how though - of all charges of neglect and mistreatment.
