Text by Richard W. Slatta
Photographs by Christopher Marona

Young Beauty: Wa-Ka-Cha-Sha (Red Rose), c.1887, by Elliott & Fry, London. Men, women, and their children performed in the Wild West Shows.

Indians, with their graceful flowing feathered headpieces and brightly painted faces, added tremendous excitement and allure to Wild West shows. The astute William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody early recognized their terrific market appeal. He initially used Pawnee Indians in restaging the famous attack on the Deadwood Stagecoach and in other acts. In the mid-1880s, however, he began hiring mostly Sioux Indians, usually from South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation.

Indian performers proved immensely popular in Europe, just as they had in the United States. Photographers did a brisk business selling their memorable images. The photograph titled "Only Indians Ever in Venice" is one of several similar shots done at various spots in Europe. Photographers likewise advertised shots taken elsewhere as "the Only Indians Ever to Visit __" (fill in the blank).

Cody and his Indian troupe impressed even those at the highest levels of power. In January 1890, they visited Rome and received the blessing of Pope Leo XIII. The Indians bowed reverently, as did Cody. Sioux Chief Rocky Bear, baptized by Roman Catholic missionaries at Pine Ridge, knelt and crossed himself. However, one of the Indians died shortly thereafter, leading many to question why God's representative on earth had not protected him.

Rocky Bear found other things to criticize in Rome. Contemplating the Roman ruins, Rocky Bear told his comrades: "I want you to remember that these men...will all die like the people who used to live here, and their houses will fall down like these you see around you."

Over the decades, hundreds of chiefs and other Indians performed with Cody. Most have remained unknown. Thanks to new research, we are now learning more about their fascinating lives and histories.

Iron Tail (Sinte Maza, c. 1850-1916), an Oglala Sioux war chief, joined Buffalo Bill's show and accompanied it to Europe in 1889. He became the leader of the Indian troupe until the show went bankrupt. Thanks to his status, he appears in many photographs with Cody.

Iron Tail later worked for the Miller Brothers' 101 Show where promoters hyped him mercilessly as the model for the famous Indian or Buffalo head nickel first issued in 1913. In reality, artist James Fraser used several other models as well, including Cheyenne Two Moons and the Seneca John Big Three.

The rough-and-tumble life of the Wild West show resulted in many performer injuries and some deaths. Serious illness could strike the troupe, especially during long stints on the road. The death of Long Wolf (Schoongamoneta Hoska), an Oglala of the Pine Ridge reservation, is one sad example. He died of bronchial pneumonia at West London Hospital on June 11, 1892. Old injuries complicated the 59-year-old warrior's condition. Cody and many of Long Wolf's comrades held a graveside memorial at West Brompton Cemetery. Cody purchased an expensive plot that cost the equivalent of six weeks' wages for the average English worker.

Wild Bunch: Brave Chief, Eagle Chief, Knife Chief, Young Chief, Buffalo Bill Cody, American Horse, Rocky Bear, Flies Above, Long Wolf, 1886, by Anderson, New York. Finley A. Goodman Collection

The lives of many during that era took strange turns. Oglala Sioux by birth, Kicking Bear joined the Miniconjous through marriage and became a band chief. He fought at the battles of Rosebud, Little Bighorn, and Slim Buttes during the War for the Black Hills in 1876-77. He also became a medicine man and an apostle of the Ghost dance. In October 1890, at the behest of his uncle, Sitting Bull, he held the first Ghost Dance at North Dakota's Standing Rock reservation.

Ordered off the reservation after a week, Kicking Bear and his band skirmished the soldiers in early 1891. Following negotiations, Kicking Bear surrendered his rifle to General Nelson A. Miles on January 15, 1891. After his release from Fort Sheridan, he went to work with Cody's Wild West Show and performed in Europe. Joining the troupe, Kicking Bear expressed his gratitude to Cody: "For six weeks I have been a dead man. Now that I see you, I am alive again."

Richard W. Slatta is author of Cowboys of the Americas, The Cowboy Encyclopedia, and other books. His web site is www2.ncsu.edu/ncsu/chass/history/slatta.html.

L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996) offers many more details on the lives of the previously anonymous Indians of the Wild West shows. Additional source material and illustrations are available from the McCracken Library, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming. Thanks to B. Byron Price, Paul Fees, Frances Clymer and Elizabeth Holmes for their invaluable research assistance.

All historical photographs are from the collection of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming.

Copyright ©1998 Cowboys & Indians

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