Legends of the Old West - BUFFALO BILL Ep. 5 | “The Wild West Abroad”

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Buffalo Bill Cody takes his popular Wild West production to Europe for years of tours and performances for royalty and the average fan alike. But as the production experiences unprecedented success abroad, tension builds at home in America between Native American societies and the U.S. government. The Ghost Dance movement gains momentum and leads to tragedies at Sitting Bull’s home and Wounded Knee. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1886, a 26-year-old Oglala Lakota man named Black Elk, a cousin of Crazy Horse, learned that some of his tribesmen were joining the Wild West. I thought I ought to go, Black Elk said, because I might learn some of the secret of the Wasichu that would help my people somehow. I even thought that if the Wasichus had a better way, then maybe my people should live that way. In the Lakota dialect, the word wasichu translates literally to takes the fat, but it means greedy, and it was the Lakota term for white man. Black Elk joined Buffalo Bill when the Wild West played Madison Square Garden for four months. Black Elk then said,

After I had been there for a while, I was like a man who had never had a vision. I felt dead and my people seemed lost. I did not see anything to help my people. Three months later, Black Elk and the cast of The Wild West were in London, where they were invited to perform for Queen Victoria. Black Elk said, Grandmother England was little but fat and we liked her because she was good to us. She said, if you belong to me, I would not let them take you around in a show like this. When the Wild West left London and performed in Manchester, Black Elk and three other Lakota performers got lost in the city and missed the boat when it left.

They bought train tickets back to London where they joined the show of one of Buffalo Bill's competitors, a man called Mexican Joe. Black Elk traveled with Mexican Joe to Paris and Germany and to see Mount Vesuvius in Italy, but Black Elk was too sick to perform with the show. He had a vision that the ceiling above him became a cloud, and he flew on the cloud back over the Atlantic, across America, up the Missouri River, toward the Black Hills, and into the Pine Ridge Reservation. He looked down and saw his parents in their teepee, with his mother looking up at him, but then he was drawn back across the ocean and into his body. The people around him said he had been gone for three days and that they were in the process of building a coffin to bury him.

When Buffalo Bill and the Wild West returned to Paris, Cody bought Black Elk a ticket home to the United States and paid for train passage back to Pine Ridge. Black Elk returned home three years after he left, only to discover that the U.S. government had taken more of his people's land. Worse, Black Elk had been free to perform his religious dances in front of Grandmother England and on the showgrounds of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. But now Wasichu agents told he and his people not to dance. He had fought with Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn. He had fought with Crazy Horse at the Little

Bighorn. He had seen New York and London and had met the Queen of England. He had seen Paris and Rome, and he had seen visions about his people and their place in the world. He had traveled east to see if the white man's way of life would be better for his people and returned convinced that it was not. Black Elk's time with Buffalo Bill's Wild West spectacle had been a period of personal dislocation and cultural confusion. But it provided him with valuable experiences that shaped and informed his role as a holy man. It reinforced his mission to heal, educate, and guide his people through tumultuous times, drawing strength from both Lakota traditions

and his expanded worldview. That strength would be tested in the extreme as the American nation steamed toward the 20th century, and at the same time, proved it was not done with the old bloody conflicts of the 19th century. century. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of William F. Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, the man who turned the American frontier into the Wild West. This is Episode 5, The Wild West Abroad. From November 11, 1886 through February 22, 1887, Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West spectacle occupied New York's Madison Square Garden. The inside of the arena was decorated with giant curved paintings, each 40 feet high and 150 feet long, depicting what Bill and his business partner Nate Salisbury called the drama of civilization.

In January, the show added a thrilling conclusion, a reenactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It was marketed as Custer's Last Rally and attended and endorsed by Custer's widow Libby. She sat in a private box to watch while Buffalo Bill, wearing a blonde wig and holding aloft a saber, portrayed her fallen husband's final battle. When Cody was asked how he could employ some of the same Sioux warriors who had actually fought in the battle, he replied, their lands were invaded by gold seekers, and when the U.S. government failed to protect them, they thought it was time to do it themselves. The government did all they thought they could do, but the white men wouldn't

be held back. No one can blame the Indians for defending their homes, but all that is past. With the combination of the giant paintings, the endorsement of Libby Custer, the real Sioux Warriors, and attractions like Annie Oakley, the Wild West at Madison Square Garden rose to new heights. Its roots went back to a 4th of July celebration called the Old Glory Blowout that Bill had organized for North Platte, Nebraska, and now it was firmly entrenched as an acceptable middle-class attraction. Both in the show's programs and in newspaper coverage, Buffalo Bill's Wild West was called America's National Entertainment.

And it was America's National Entertainment which firmly established the story of the American West as the story of American history. When the Wild West left New York at the end of February 1887, newspaper reporters noted that children in town were playing a new game that was called Cowboys and Indians. Nearly 140 years later, American kids are still playing it, and maybe kids around the world. That's how deep the cultural impact runs of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West.

And in the early spring of 1887, when all of the enormous paintings were packed, the tents were folded, and the cowboys and Indians were finished with Madison Square Garden, Buffalo Bill and Nate Salisbury made an announcement. Buffalo Bill's Wild West was sailing for Great Britain. It seems fitting that the ship that carried Buffalo Bill's Wild West to Europe was the SS State of Nebraska. The ship pulled out of New York Harbor on March 31, 1887, and it was stuffed with more than 200 horses, 18 buffalo, and assorted longhorn steers, donkeys, mules, elk, and deer. 209 show performers, including nearly 100 Lakota men, women, and children, occupied the ship's quarters. The passage was long and rough,

and not all of the animals survived. But the contingent arrived in time to perform at the American Exhibition, a World's Fair held at Earl's Court in London to coincide with Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, a celebration of her 50th anniversary as Queen. Bill and the cast began rehearsals soon after their arrival, and because of the efforts of publicist John Burke, spectators crowded the area to get a glimpse of the cowboys, Indians, and perhaps even the great Buffalo Bill himself. William Gladstone, who had been elected Prime Minister three times, came to see the show as

it was in its rehearsal. The Prince of Wales, who would succeed his mother as King Edward VII, also came to an advanced performance. And a few days later, in a private showing, Buffalo Bill's Wild West was attended by Queen Victoria herself. At the start of the show, as a standard-bearer presented the American flag, the Queen stood and made a gesture of respect. John Burke wrote, As he waved the proud emblem above his head, Her Majesty rose from her seat and bowed deeply

and impressively toward the banner. There arose such a genuine, heart-stirring American yell from our company as seemed to shake the sky. For the first time since the Declaration of Independence, a sovereign of Great Britain had saluted the star-spangled banner, and that banner was carried by a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. And that banner was carried by a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere. They have an all-in-one e-commerce platform and in-person POS system.

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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Realm. The implied endorsement by Queen Victoria of Buffalo Bill's Wild West as the quintessential representation of America was better than all the advertising money could buy. European royalty was already in London to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. Now, they flocked to the Wild West.

According to one story, at one evening's performance, the Deadwood Stagecoach, which was the centerpiece of the stagecoach robbery sequence, was loaded with the Prince of Wales, the King of Denmark, the King of Saxony, the King of Greece, and the King and Queen of Belgium. When the show was over, the Prince of Wales commented that Buffalo Bill had never held four kings like these before. Bill replied, I've held four kings, but four kings and the Prince of Wales makes a royal flush, such as no man has ever held before. The prince liked the joke so much, he repeated it for the rest of his life. The spectacle and success of Buffalo Bill's Wild

West in London set the stage for the rest of Buffalo Bill's career. He had once been a soldier, a hunter, a scout, and an actor. With the Wild West spectacle, he became a showman. Now, he was the most famous man in the world. Imitators sprang to life almost immediately. Doc Carver, Bill's partner in the first version of the Wild West, toured Europe with a new partner. Men called Mexican Joe and Texas Jack Jr. visited the United Kingdom. P.T. Barnum brought the greatest show on earth to London, but none could compete with Buffalo Bill's Wild West for longevity or influence. When the Wild West left London, it headed for Birmingham, Manchester, and Hull before returning to America for a two-month run of

performances on Staten Island. Those were followed by appearances in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia. And Bill and Nate Salisbury had already booked a return trip across the Atlantic, where the Wild West opened at the World's Fair in Paris, France in May of 1889. After six months in Paris, during which time the company performed for the King of France and the Shah of Persia, the show moved on to Lyon, Marseille, and Barcelona, Spain, before heading to Rome. In the history of public entertainment, there was probably never a tour before the Wild West or since that played to so many world leaders. The idea that four kings, a queen, and a prince would actively

participate in such a show would be unfathomable today. And when the tour moved to Rome, Romans poured out to experience America's national entertainment just like audiences everywhere else. to experience America's national entertainment just like audiences everywhere else. From Rome, promotional mastermind John Burke sent reports to newspapers in America about a meeting between the Wild West Company and Pope Leo XIII. The New York Herald reported,

"'The cowboys bowed, and so did the Indians. "'Rocky Bear, a Lakota man, "'knelt and made the sign of the cross. The pontiff leaned affectionately toward the group and blessed them. In reality, Cody and crew simply attended an anniversary celebration of the Pope's coronation and were afforded the same mass blessing as all the other attendees. But between the real reception by European spectators and the magnifying prominence afforded by reporters, Buffalo Bill's Wild West surpassed the bounds

of simple entertainment and became something more. Other circuses, entertainments, and even Western shows played to large audiences and welcomed famous guests, but none had the impact of the Wild West. Part of it was because Cody's success came as an answer to America's worries that its culture and art weren't distinctive enough and weren't up to the standards of the old world. In the hands of Buffalo Bill, an exhibition of American frontier history was experiencing unprecedented success with the cultured elites of Europe. It validated Cody, American history, and American entertainment all in the same show.

In Buffalo Bill's first stage shows, with his friend Texas Jack and dime novelist Ned Buntline, the famous Italian ballerina Giuseppina Morlachi had been on hand to convince audiences that the show had some artistic merit. Now, Buffalo Bill was bringing distinctly American art to Italy, the heart of European culture. The show visited Florence, Bologna, Milan, and Venice before performing at all the major cities in modern-day Germany and Austria. The European tour finally ended in October of 1890, and the company returned to the U.S. nearly 18 months after it had left. Buffalo Bill's Wild West presented itself, both in Europe and in America, as an authentic historical exhibition, showing the, quote, drama of civilization as it unfolded in the frontier.

Central to the story and to the Wild West spectacle were the show's Lakota performers. It was Bill Cody's show and he was the star, but the Native Americans were its most crucial element. Spectators watched the Lakota in mock combat with cowboys during the show, but they also visited Lakota lodges on the showgrounds to see how the men, women, and children lived as families. In many ways, the spectacle of the Wild West was matched in the estimation of visitors only by the experience of seeing and meeting Lakota people in person. only by the experience of seeing and meeting Lakota people in person. The Lakota performers were treated well.

In 1889, the Wild West paid $28,800 to its Lakota performers. That would be close to or more than a million dollars today. The Lakota men were paid $10 per month, and Cody hired their wives at the same rate, with small cash allowances for the children. At a time when Native people had very few economic opportunities, the show provided both a chance at relative wealth and an opportunity to practice and protect their religious ceremonies, songs, and dances in a way that was increasingly prohibited at home. In 1887, the United States government passed the Dawes Act, which took communally held tribal lands and assigned them to individual families in plots of 320 acres.

In March of 1889, the government continued to break the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which was the result of Red Cloud's War, by dividing the Great Sioux Reservation into five smaller reservations. And in February of 1890, while the Lakota performers with the Wild West were entertaining crowds and the Pope in Rome, the government opened nine million acres, or half of the former Great Sioux Reservation, for public purchase. After that, Congress cut funding for the Sioux by 10%. One million fewer pounds of beef than promised were sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Influenza raged through the Reservation, as did whooping cough and measles, which decimated the Lakota population. There were 5,500 people on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1890 and 540 deaths.

The situation was about as bleak as it had ever been. And then came the Ghost Dance. Dance. Rooted in a vision by a Paiute prophet, the Ghost Dance prophesied the return of the ancestors and the retreat of the white colonizers, restoring the land to indigenous people. Participants in the Ghost Dance believed that through the dance, they could bring about this vision of renewal and regain their lost traditions and way of life. The movement's rituals, which included singing and dancing in a circular pattern, were seen as a way to purify oneself and unite with the spirit world. To U.S. government officials and the settlers who flocked to take over Lakota land, the

Ghost Dance seemed like a call to rebellion and was perceived as a threat. As the Ghost Dance spread, tensions between the U.S. government and the Lakota escalated. General Nelson Miles believed that bloodshed could be avoided if Sitting Bull could be arrested. At a banquet in Chicago in late 1890, Miles asked Buffalo Bill if he would help to, quote, secure the person of Sitting Bull and deliver him to the nearest officer of U.S. troops. Bill obliged and headed for South Dakota with two wagons of gifts meant to ease Sitting Bull's worries and convince him to come with his old show partner. James McLaughlin, the Indian agent assigned to the Lakota by the Department of the Interior, was furious that the Department of War was sending someone to arrest Sitting Bull.

McLaughlin determined that the, quote, honor of arresting the legendary Lakota leader should be his. McLaughlin sent a telegram to Washington, asking to rescind General Miles' orders for Buffalo Bill to arrest Sitting Bull. Meanwhile, McLaughlin convinced an officer at Fort Yates to get Buffalo Bill drunk in an effort to convince Bill to agree to the change of plan. When Cody's capacity for whiskey failed to sway him from his assignment, McLaughlin instructed two of his scouts to lie to

Bill, telling him that Sitting Bull had already left camp and headed to the agency. By then, McLaughlin's telegram had reached the desk of President Benjamin Harrison, who wired to rescind the arrest order. Buffalo Bill left the reservation without seeing Sitting Bull. Buffalo Bill left the reservation without seeing Sitting Bull. Two weeks later, on December 15, 1890, McLaughlin ordered 39 Indian agency policemen to surround the house of Sitting Bull, who had allowed ghost dancers to gather at his camp. When Sitting Bull refused to comply with their demands that he come with them, he was shot, twice in the chest and once in the head.

In the fighting that followed, eight policemen were killed, as were Sitting Bull and seven of his followers. Two weeks later, on December 29th, a band of mini-konju Lakota, led by Chief Bigfoot, was intercepted by U.S. troops near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. What exactly transpired remains a topic of debate, but a shot was fired which quickly led to chaos. The U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry, the unit that had suffered devastating losses at the Battle of the Little Bighorn 18 years earlier, opened fire on the Lakota, including women and children. When the shooting stopped, more than 150 Lakota were dead, with some estimates placing the number closer to 300. The Sioux leaders of the Ghost Dance Movement were imprisoned at Fort Sheridan, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs announced that no more Native Americans would be allowed to

participate in show business. But General Miles, remembering Buffalo Bill's willingness to talk to Sitting Bull, offered another solution. With the support of Nebraska's congressional delegation, Buffalo Bill was given permission to take the Lakota prisoners with him to Europe. When Kicking Bear, a Lakota chief and first cousin to Crazy Horse, was released from prison, he told Buffalo Bill, For six weeks I have been a dead man. Now that I see you, I am alive again. Twenty-three imprisoned Lakota joined 75 more Lakota when the Wild West sailed for Antwerp in April of 1891. for Antwerp in April of 1891. The show toured Europe for a full year before wrapping up with another command performance

for Queen Victoria on the grounds of Windsor Castle. While Buffalo Bill and Nate Salisbury had waited to learn if they would be allowed to hire Lakota performers for the tour, they really diversified the show's cast. As the show had trekked across Europe, it added groups of Russian C the tour, they really diversified the show's cast. As the show had trekked across Europe, it added groups of Russian Cossacks, Argentine Gauchos, and Mexican Vaqueros to its contingent of cowboys, cowgirls, and the members of Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band. It had been five

years since the Wild West had conquered London, and four since it had performed in the United States. When they made their triumphant return to American soil, they were renamed Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. News of Buffalo Bill's artistic triumph over the people, aristocracy, and culture of Europe elevated him to almost mythic status. and culture of Europe elevated him to almost mythic status. Widespread news of the Ghost Dance, the killing of Sitting Bull, and the massacre at Wounded Knee made the American public intensely anxious to see the Lakota performers in the Wild West and their simulated battles with Buffalo Bill's cowboys. And there was no better venue for the Wild West to stage its triumphant return to America than the World's Columbian Exposition, more commonly known as the Chicago World's Fair.

The World's Columbian Exposition was held in 1893 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. The exposition showcased technological advancements, architectural innovations, artistic marvels, and cultural demonstrations from around the world. It drew millions to Chicago's specially designed White City, a collection of white neoclassical buildings and waterways. Cody wanted to set up the show inside the White City, but the exposition's management thought the Wild West was too commercial to be an official part of the fair, so they offered a place on the Midway along the

route to the fairground's entrance. The Wild West sold almost 4 million tickets during its time in Chicago, generating a profit of more than a million dollars, the equivalent of more than 34 million today. Some visitors came to Chicago to attend the World's Fair, saw Buffalo Bill's Wild West instead, and left satisfied they'd seen the entire thing. The Wild West was not an official part of the fair, but because it was set up nearby, it became one of the main attractions. While the fair represented a vision

of progress and modernity, Buffalo Bill's show provided a nostalgic and often romanticized view of the American frontier. Its presence near the exposition illustrated the convergence of America's fascination with its past, even its fairly recent past, and its aspirations for the future. When the Wild West finished its highly profitable stay in Chicago, it moved to New York in 1894 with its collection of Rough Riders for a six-month stay in Brooklyn. 1994 with its collection of Rough Riders for a six-month stay in Brooklyn. And now, the show was fully illuminated by electric lighting installed and maintained by the Edison Electrical Illuminating Company. Cody and Salisbury spent more than $30,000 to buy generators to keep the Wild West humming, and they hired 11 full-time employees for the brand-new Wild West Electrical Department, who would operate all the fancy new machines. Illumination allowed for nighttime shows,

and the Wild West doubled ticket sales without increasing salaries. The new format was an amazing success and set the stage for seven years of continual touring across the United States, with thousands of performances in hundreds of cities between 1895 and 1902. And for those who have already recognized a fairly famous American nickname in this evolution of the show, the impact of the Wild West rippled into everyday life. rippled into everyday life. In 1898, Theodore Roosevelt took charge of the first United States volunteer cavalry to fight in the Spanish-American War. The public took one look at Teddy's collection of Texas Rangers, Native Americans, Ivy League athletes, and Western frontiersmen, and decided that if the Cowboys, Cossacks, Gauchos, and vaqueros of the Wild West show

were called Buffalo Bill's Rough Riders, then these volunteer soldiers were Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. The name stuck, and the group rose to fame for its role in the Battle of San Juan Hill. And then, in performances the following year, Art imitated life imitating art when Buffalo Bill's Rough Riders reenacted the charge of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders up San Juan Hill. As expected, the performance was a smashing success. Bill was earning unprecedented profits as an entertainment impresario, and he started pouring lots of that money into a new venture with his partner Nate Salisbury and entrepreneur George T. Beck in Wyoming's Bighorn Basin. Beck and his partners were planning to create a town on the banks of the Stinking Water River, as it was called, in northwest Wyoming. Obviously, that name was going to have to change. No one was going to

want to live on the banks of the stinking water river. George Beck petitioned the state to change the name of the river to the Shoshone. Then Beck submitted the name of the proposed town, and it was also Shoshone. The state said they couldn't use the name Shoshone for the town because the town was too close to the nearby Shoshone reservation. The new name he sent to the state was the name of his partner, the most famous man in the world, Cody. The partners founded the Shoshone Irrigation Company and set about building dams, canals, office buildings, stores, stables, and roads, all funded by Buffalo Bill and his profits from the Wild West. By 1896, full-page spreads in the Wild West show programs advertised, irrigated homes in the Bighorn Basin, the greatest agricultural valley in the West, now open to settlers and home seekers.

now open to settlers and home seekers. Buffalo Bill founded the town's first newspaper, opened a gold mine, founded a livery, and opened a hotel that he named after his youngest daughter, Irma. The town of Cody, Wyoming was officially on the map, and it was a place Bill planned on building up, bringing his family to, and retiring in. But before he could retire, bringing his family to and retiring in. But before he could retire, Buffalo Bill's life would continue to follow a familiar pattern. Every time things were going well, tragedy and turmoil rose up like an angry snake ready to strike.

Next time on Legends of the Old West, old age catches up with Bill and his partners. Bill's long and tumultuous marriage to Louisa finally hits obstacles it can't overcome, and the revelations that become public will shock newspaper readers. More personal tragedy follows, and financial problems as well as financial successes, all of which help cement the legacy of the greatest showman on earth. all of which help cement the legacy of the greatest showman on Earth. That's next week on the finale of the Buffalo Bill Cody story here on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes.

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