Skip to content

featuring historical research, writing, and media at st. mary's university

  • World History

    World History

    Menu
    • World History
    • Pre-Classical History (to 600 BCE)
    • Classical History (600 BCE-600 CE)
    • Post-Classical History (600 CE-1492 CE)
    • Early Modern History (1492-1789)
    • Modern History (1789-1914)
    • Global History (1900-present)

    From the Ancient World

    The Battle of Zama: Rome's Vengeance

    Posted by Davis Nickle12/01/2020

    From the Modern World

    The Holy See Takes On The Fight Against Climate Change

    Posted by Victor Rodriguez11/30/2020

    Regional Histories

    Menu
    • African and African American Studies
    • Latin American Studies
  • US History

    Early America

    Menu
    • US-Three Worlds Meet (to 1620)
    • US-Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)
    • US-Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
    • US-Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
    • US-Civil War & Reconstruction (1850-1877)

    Excelsior!!! To The King of Comic Books

    Posted by Eliezer Leal10/25/2019

    Calculating the Death of Learning

    Posted by Sabrina Doyon11/08/2019

    Edward Snowden: The Inside Scoop On The World's Most Infamous Whistleblower

    Posted by Ryan Estes04/04/2019

    Selena Gomez: Her Life Behind the Scenes

    Posted by Judy Reyes12/06/2019

    Clarence Norris: The Last Voice of the Scottsboro Boys

    Posted by Kathryn Martinez11/01/2019

    A Charlie Brown Debut: Introduction to the First 'Peanuts' Member of Color

    Posted by Rebeca Escobar04/02/2019

    Murder or “Justifiable Homicide”?: The Death of the Revolutionary Fred Hampton

    Posted by Natalie Thamm04/07/2019

    Nikola Tesla's Tower of Dreams

    Posted by Mark Dominguez11/10/2019

    The Lone Star State: The Reality of Gun Legislation In Texas

    Posted by Sofia Almanzan03/30/2020

    Metallica: The Tragedy Overseas

    Posted by Isaiah Torres05/08/2019

    America's Greatest Escape: Alcatraz

    Posted by Shea Slusser11/12/2019

    Al Capone: The Real Life Scarface

    Posted by Raul Vallejo11/15/2019

    Los Beneficios de los Programas Bilingües en los Estados Unidos

    Posted by Yamilet Muñoz12/02/2020

    Korey Wise

    Posted by Maya Simon11/29/2020

    The Exorcism of Roland Doe

    Posted by Mitchell Yocham12/05/2019

    Elizabeth Taylor the Vixen Savior

    Posted by Micheala Whitfield05/04/2020

    American Enemy? Renouncing Citizenship for Freedom and Enhancing Rights for All Americans

    Posted by Thiffany Yeupell04/16/2020

    Elvis: The Rise of the Rock and Roll King

    Posted by Alexander Avina12/06/2019

    Lucy Hobbs Taylor: The Woman Who Pulled Teeth

    Posted by Giselle Garcia02/28/2020

    Can We All Get Along?: The Fight Against Police Brutality

    Posted by Lindsey Ogle11/23/2020

    Big Nosed Kate - An Outlaw's Nightmare?

    Posted by Cameron Lopez04/04/2019

    The First Social Distancing: Examining the 1995 Heat Wave of Chicago From a Social Perspective

    Posted by Tavion Varela11/09/2020

    A Hero’s Burden: COVID-19, Mental Health, and the life of Dr. Lorna Breen

    Posted by Jarred Deptawa11/09/2020

    BEYONCÉ: The Early Days of the Worldwide Legend

    Posted by Sydney Hardeman10/01/2019

    The Wet Railing that Solved the Clarence Hiller Murder Case

    Posted by Diamond Davidson04/07/2019

    The Trials that Started the American Revolution: John Adams

    Posted by Andrea Degollado04/26/2020

    In the Shadows: Undocumented Life and Human Rights Abuses in the U.S.

    Posted by Manuel Rodriguez11/30/2020

    Walter McMillian: Condemned to Death by Perjury

    Posted by Melanie Fraire05/06/2020

    Innovations From NASA's X-15 Program

    Posted by Nathaniel Bielawski04/21/2020

    Movimienta Chicana: The Voice of Dolores Huerta

    Posted by Allison Grijalva11/04/2020

    Contemporary America

    Menu
    • US-Industrial United States (1870-1900)
    • US-Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
    • US-Great Depression & WWII (1929-1945)
    • US-Postwar United States (1945-early 1970s)
    • US-Contemporary United States (1968-present)
  • Themes

    SPICE Categories

    Specialty Categories

    Special Themes

    Menu
    • Social History
    • Political History
    • Environmental History
    • Cultural History
    • Economic History
    Menu
    • Art History
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Gender Studies
    • Human Rights
    • Public Health and Medicine
    • International Relations
    • Linguistics
    Menu
    • Military History
    • Music
    • People
    • Psychology
    • Religion
    • Science & Technology
    • Sports
    Menu
    • Catholic Heritage
    • The Year 1968
    • COVID-19
    • Social Justice
    • Spanish Language
  • Showcase

    Showcase Editions

    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
    Menu
    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
  • About

    Course Readings

    Article Indexes

    About Us

    Menu
    • Course Readings – SC 3300 – Nash
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Wieck
    • Course Readings – PO 4334 – Dr Celine
    • Course Readings _ PO 3365 – Dr Celine
    Menu
    • Course Readings – HS 2321 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – HS 2322 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Whitener
    Menu
    • Our Article/Author Index
    • Award Winning Articles
    Menu
    • Our StMU History Media Project
    • Our Faculty Consultants
    • Our Writers
    • Contact Us
  • Cultural History, Descriptive Article, People, United States History, US-Industrial United States (1870-1900)
  • February 12, 2017

Have Fun, Will Travel: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

Show poster  of American Native Americans attacking pioneers in wagons. Portrait of William
Show poster of American Native Americans attacking pioneers in wagons. Portrait of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody on right. By Courier Litho. Co., Buffalo, N.Y. c1889 |Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Nelson Smithwick

Nelson Smithwick

In 1883, William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, famous frontiersman, army scout, and buffalo hunter, opened the doors of his Wild West Show for the first time.1 This show was a fantastical, exaggerated portrayal of life on the frontier, complete with reenactments of famous frontier battles with natives, displays by gifted marksmen (and one woman) and horsemen, and shows of the culture of the various Native Americans in Bill’s employ. This show would capture the hearts and minds of many people in the United States, and later on even in Europe, as Buffalo Bill’s show traveled to many European countries between 1886 and 1906.2

Leaflet showing the location of attractions at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in Neuilly-sur-Siene France, 1889 | Courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France

One of the reasons for the success of Buffalo Bill’s show was its “authenticity.” Bill himself was already somewhat of a celebrity in the west, after having earned his moniker “Buffalo Bill” for killing some 4,280 buffalo for the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company in the 1860s.3 Bill also had the good business sense to employ many of the Lakota Sioux and other Native Americans, including the man famous for the role he actually played at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Chief Sitting Bull. It was in its depiction of Native Americans that many of his fans were drawn, enamored by the elaborate songs and dances of these peoples, with Buffalo Bill going so far as to say, “My Indians are the principal feature of this show.”4 The depiction of the Native Americans in his show was largely of their warrior culture, war regalia, and dances made for going into battle; however, this was taking place during the closing of the American frontier, when the death of the buffalo herds and the end of the Sioux Wars had largely ended this way of life in the west.

After roughly four months working with Cody, Sitting Bull grew tired of the show and left to return to the Standing Rock Reservation, where he would eventually be killed. Later in 1890, the Massacre at Wounded Knee would take place and many Sioux would be killed by the U.S. 7th Cavalry, the same regiment that fought with Custer years prior, at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.5 With this, the way of life that was shown in Buffalo Bill’s show was all but destroyed.

Chief Sitting Bull in war bonnet photographed with Buffalo Bill | Photograph by David F. Barry c1885 | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Even with this, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show continued to be popular up until it went bankrupt and closed in 1916.6 By 1916, the “Wild West” had not truly existed for quite some time; the country had been rapidly industrializing, and the age of both Cowboys and Indians would soon give way to the machine guns and artillery of the First World War. However, it was not the death of the west that ended Bill’s show, but rather the end of interest in the west. Although people praised Bill’s show for its authenticity, it was not authentic to the contemporary west. The show did not feature miles-long slow rides in freezing temperatures on cattle drives, and it did not show subsistence farming. What Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show gave its audience was the same thing that they grew accustomed to from dime novels and stories of the west: rough and tumble cowboys, crack shots, skilled horsemen, and the Natives that made the west so dangerous. With the closing of the frontier and the nation looking outside of its borders to expand, the west was no longer as exotic as it once was in the public’s eye, and was anything but wild.

  1. Stephen G. Hyslop, “How the West was Spun,” American History 43, no. 4 (October 2008): 26. ↵
  2.  Irene Lottini, “When Buffalo Bill crossed the ocean: Native American scenes in early twentieth century European culture,” European Journal Of American Culture 31, no. 3 (October 18, 2012): 187. ↵
  3. Stephen G. Hyslop, “How the West was Spun,” American History 43, no. 4 (October 2008): 27. ↵
  4. Stephen G. Hyslop, “How the West was Spun,” American History 43, no. 4 (October 2008): 33. ↵
  5. Stephen G. Hyslop, “How the West was Spun,” American History 43, no. 4 (October 2008): 33. ↵
  6. Douglas Seefeldt, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” in America in the World, 1776 to the Present: A Supplement to the Dictionary of American History, edited by Edward J. Blum, Vol. 1. (Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2016), 163. ↵

Tags from the story

  • Buffalo Bill, Wild West Show, William Cody

Share this post

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on print
Share on email
Nelson Smithwick

Nelson Smithwick

Author Portfolio Page

Down and Dirty: the Tunnel Rats of Vietnam

If you ever see a flashlight coming your way, you can fire away, but more

Read More »

The Dalton Gang won’t Ride Again: The Coffeyville Raid of 1892

It was October 5, 1892. Three men wearing fake beards and wigs stood inside the

Read More »

This Post Has 23 Comments

  1. Avatar
    Christopher King 15 Apr 2018 Reply

    I enjoyed how this article was written. It is a short article but gets enough information across to make it worth reading. Buffalo Bill was a very interesting person throughout the Wild West. He took what many could only experience through the novels and short stories to something they could see and experience in front of their own eyes. The article does a great job articulating that and how when it came to an end it was not filing for bankruptcy but the views and image of the west was no longer the Wild West.

  2. Avatar
    Johnanthony Hernandez 15 Apr 2018 Reply

    Great article, I enjoyed reading it. I remember watching a show a few months back were they talked about the life of Buffalo Bill and the Wild West Show that he put on. In a time were most still saw Native Americans, the fact that Buffalo Bill depicted them in a positive light was something few dared to do. For his show to make it to a European audience is something else that few would have been able to do.

Comments navigation

Previous commentPrevious

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

StMU History Media

A Student Organization of St. Mary's University of San Antonio Texas

Sponsors

  • College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, St. Mary's University
  • Department of History, St. Mary's University
  • Department of Political Science, St. Mary's University
  • Center for Catholic Studies, St. Mary's University

Support Services

  • The Learning Assistance Center, St. Mary's University
  • Louis J. Blume Library Services, St. Mary's University
  • STRIVE Career Center, St. Mary's University
  • Academic Technology Services, St. Mary's University

About

  • About Us
  • Our Authors
  • Our Archive
  • Contacts

© All rights reserved

Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest