The third and final connection is what makes Manifest Destiny and
Adoration on Stage, Assimilation at
Home
Buffalo Bill’s show Indians, Reformers, and Manifest Destiny during the Late Nineteenth Century.
MA Thesis, American Studies Program, Utrecht University
By
Wouter de Jong
3475905
July 2, 2014
i
Content
Content
Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition; the Reformers ............................. 50
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Preface
Preface
“Other nations have the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” 1
John O. Sullivan, United Stated Democratic Review, July 1845
Introduction
On May 17, 1883, William Frederick Cody rode into an arena at the Omaha Fairgrounds to open
‘The Wild West, Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition’, and by doing so started his career as
Buffalo Bill. For more than three decades, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show would venture across
America and Europe, providing its audience not only with entertainment, but with ideological images of American society. Between 1883 and 1907, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show expended in size, including ever more Native Americans, cowboys, prairie animals, and a wide variety of international performers, such as Mexican Gauchos. In 1893, the show performed for nine months outside the Columbian Expedition in Chicago, and for the first time included performers form other continents: military units from England and Germany, Cossacks from Eastern-Europe,
African tribesman, and many more. Although the show was still centered on iconic scenes depicting the American West, it now included aspects of frontier life from other continents, giving the show an international identity.
2
1 John O’Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity.” United States Democratic Review 6 (1845): 426. Accessed
April 14, 2014. http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usde;cc=usde;idno=usde0006-
4;node=usde0006-4%3A6;view=image;seq=350;size=100;page=root .
2 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of
New Mexico Press, 1996), 1-4.
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Preface
Show Indians
The hiring of Native Americans as performers, or ‘show Indians,’ for reenactments of the
American West was not a new phenomenon. During the 1870’s, Cody was involved in multiple stage productions, both as producer and performer, which made Cody inspired to provide his audiences with spectacular performances. He achieved this by including real horses to these stage productions, creating special effects to increase the realism of the performances, and make
Native Americans visible and recognizable for the audience. During the 1870’s, Native Americans were played by ‘supers,’ white performers dressed up as Native warriors, wielding bows and feathered war bonnets. However, during the late 1870’s, Cody began to aim for the most realistic representation of these Native warriors by hiring actual Native Americans to perform on stage.
These ‘Indian performers’ were not a new phenomenon to the entertainment business; they had involved in the business since the 1840’s, working for circuses and exhibitions as ‘exotic curiosities.’ Cody saw potential in Indian performers and began to include them in his theater productions by 1877.
3
Native performers were appealing for the audiences, who longed to see the representation of these “noble savages.” 4 Cody’s realization of their popularity did not take long; he recognized the vital role Native Americans could play in the reenactment of the American West and frontier life. This conclusion led Cody to aim for a type of performance much greater then a stage production; a Wild West show.
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Reformers
However, the story of Native performers is not solely a serenade of success and adoration; there were skeptical eyes looking at them as well. These eyes belonged to a group of people critical to
3 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 190-195.
4 Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America, 195.
5 Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: the Americanization of the World, 1869-1922
(Chicago; Chicago University Press, 2005), 30.
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Preface the employment of Indian performers by Cody and were concerned about the consequences of being a performer on a Wild West show. Commonly referred to as ‘Reformers,’ these individuals
“alleged mistreatment and exploitation […] and became concerned about the show’s effects on assimilationist programs and on the image of the Indian in popular mind.” 6 Reformers were often involved with the Indian Rights Association (IRA), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), or other humanitarian, mostly Christian, organizations. Their criticism was built on assumptions of exploitation and mistreatment, supported with a continuing attention for deadly accidents during the show, which included Native performers.
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Assimilation policy
Yet, the main point of critique on the hiring of Indian performers was based on the presumed negative effects on the assimilation policy of the U.S. government. During the nineteenth century,
America witnessed a change in political ideals regarding race; while political rhetoric around the
1800’s was imbedded with an optimistic view on racial improvability, the 1850’s bookmarked political rhetoric built on assumptions of superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and inferiority of other races. Partly responsible for this change in ideals was the continuing armed conflict with
Native American tribes. After these conflicts were ‘resolved,’ U.S. government started to focus on assimilating Native Americans, in order to make U.S. citizens out of them.
8
A small side note has to be made after the term ‘assimilation policy’ has been mentioned.
There was no single, clearly defined assimilation policy; this has become the overlapping term for scholars, used to refer to several legal, social, and cultural programs and policies of education and transforms, aimed at transforming several aspects of Native American life. These programs and
6 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of
New Mexico Press, 1996), 5.
7 Moses, Wild West Shows and Images of American Indians, 2-6.
8 David R. Wrone, "Indian Treaties and the Democratic Idea," Wisconsin Magazine of History 70 (1986): 83-
106.; Reginald Horsman, “Scientific Racism and the American Indian in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” The
Western Historical Quarterly 27 (1975): 153.; Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion
and the Empire of Right (New York; Hill and Wang, 1995), 24-26.
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Preface policies were issued and executed by the U.S. government and were aimed at assimilating Native
Americans, which resulted in the origination of the term ‘assimilation policy.’ This research will follow the example of scholars and use the term ‘assimilation policy’ when it is referring to the several actions and policies aimed at assimilating Native Americans.
The second half of the nineteenth century proved to be a complex and difficult phase for the assimilation policy. Obvious examples are horrific events such as the battle of Little Bighorn in
1872, the Ghost Dance uprising in 1889, and the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. Forced assimilation became a key policy in dealing with Native-American tribes in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. In this context, the critique of Reformers on the hiring of Indian performers is understandable; Native Americans were given an opportunity to reenact their own culture, an opportunity non-existent on reservations.
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Manifest Destiny
In 1845, John O’Sullivan, a politician and editor of the Democratic Review, coined a term that would have a profound impact on American ideas about race, gender, and empire. According to
O’Sullivan, it was America’s mission “to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." 10 Manifest Destiny provided American society with a collection of ideals on how America should exists and why. It influenced the continuing search for an ‘American identity’ and proved valuable to U.S. governmental policies, both foreign and domestic.
11
Considering this context, it is possible to recognize several connections between the
Native-American assimilation policy and the ideals expressed by Manifest Destiny. If it was
9 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 369-375.; Anders Stephenson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New
York; Hill and Wang, 1995), 24-26.
10 Robert J. Scholnick, “Extermination and Democracy: O'Sullivan, the Democratic Review, and Empire,
1837—1840.” American Periodicals 15 (2005): 124.
11 Stephanson, Manifest Destiny, 1-6.
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Preface
America’s mission develop, civilize, and cultivate the continent, it is not difficult to identify a base for conflict between U.S. government and Native Americans; the first desired land, which was occupied by the latter. The logical result of this problem was the start of relocation of Native tribes, one of the first stages of Native-American policy, followed by the above mentioned assimilation policy. If the ideals promoted by Manifest Destiny were of significant influence on the creation of this assimilation policy, it is reasonable to assume these ideals can be identified in the debate surrounding Indian performers. Yet, contemporary scholars involved with the research on this debate seldom reflect on this connection. I believe there is such a connection.
Which ideological elements of manifest destiny regarding race and civilization can be identified as fundamental to the debate surrounding Native Americans performing in Cody’s Wild
West show during the late nineteenth century? This will be the central research question of my thesis. As mentioned earlier, this debate was dominated by Reformers; individuals usually affiliated with governmental organizations, such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs or private organizations, such as the Indian Rights Association, who labeled the employment of Native
Americans as exploitation and harmful to the Natives. However, several authors, such as Warren and Moses, define the ‘humanitarian’ arguments against Native employment as a façade for the actual fears of Reformers; the negative effects the employment would have on the governmental assimilation policy. However, Moses and Warren make no comparison between these Reformers and their arguments and the concept of manifest destiny. I believe there is such a connection, based in the ideals of manifest destiny and the ideals of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.
This question interests me for several reasons. The two major topics, Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West show and manifest destiny, covered by this paper are intriguing subjects for research on themselves. The Wild West show was an important form of mass culture in the nineteenth century, as well as an important medium in the process of ‘Americanization.’ Especially the
European tour of Cody’s show was a catalyst for the spreading of American ideals on race,
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Preface domesticity, gender, and imperialism. It had a similar function in the United States. Audiences were not only amused with a slightly fictional yet spectacular reenactment of life in the American
West, but with messages on racial order, domestic ideals, gender relations, and civilization ideals.
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Status Quaestionis
Manifest Destiny and Buffalo Bill both have been significant topics of research and debate during the second half of the nineteenth century. Manifest Destiny is most often analyzed in a context of territorial expansion; the end of the nineteenth century signaled an expansion of American territorial influence across the globe, the Philippines, Cuba, and Mexico being the prime examples of this new ‘imperial’ America. This imperial belief can be traced back to the providential mission bestowed upon the United States to spread Anglo-Saxon civilization across the continent and the globe as a guiding light for others to follow. Over the last three decades, this connection between
Manifest Destiny and American imperialism has become a significant source for debate and research and the topic of several important books. Primary examples of such books are Anders
Stephanson’s Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right and Amy S.
Greenberg’s Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents.
Greenberg’s book provides an example of a change in research interests regarding
Manifest Destiny; primary sources. Manifest Destiny is not a clearly defined concept, but rather an idea of ideal interpretable in multiple ways, depending on which context is provided. Whereas
Stephanson and Greenberg focus on the territorial expansion aspect, scholars during the 1960’s and 70’s focused on the racial component of Manifest Destiny, thereby transforming the term into an explanation for certain social conflicts based on race and gender. The best example of
12 Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: the Americanization of the World, 1869-1922
Chicago; Chicago University Press, 2005), 12-13, 31-33.
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Preface such a work is Reginald Horsman’s Race and Manifest Destiny: the Origins of American Racial
Anglo-Saxonism.
William “Buffalo Bill” F. Cody is most commonly identified with the concept of
Americanization and popular culture through his most recognizable achievement; the famous
Wild West show. Cody as a person is a complex topic of research, since it is difficult to objectively divide William F. Cody form his alter-ego, Buffalo Bill. Notable Buffalo Bill scholars, like Louis S.
Warren and Don Russell, have stressed the importance of keeping the two personalities apart in their respective works. Especially when the topic of research is Cody’s Wild West enterprise, it can be quite difficult to keep fact and fiction apart.
The twentieth century has seen a steady production of academic works concerning Cody’s show and the significance of the show on Americanization and popular culture. Several books have been of significant influence on this field of research: Louis S. Warren’s Buffalo Bill’s
America: William Cody and the Wild West Show, Robert W. Rydell’s and Rob Kroes’ Buffalo Bill in
Bologna: the Americanization of the World, 1869-1922, Don Russell’s The Lives and Legends of
Buffalo Bill, and Paul Redding’s Wild West Shows. Most of these academic publications on Cody’s show and its influences come from the second half of the twentieth century and tend to focus on the implications of the show on American and European society and the social and ideological values represented in the show. Although the connection between Manifest Destiny and the show is scarcely uttered in these exact words, there has been research on the connection between the racial and imperial ideals expressed by Manifest Destiny and the content of Cody’s show. The primary example of such research is Robert W. Rydell’s and Rob Kroes’ Buffalo Bill in
Bologna: the Americanization of the World, 1869-1922.
Native American studies has become an academic field on its own during the last two decades of the twentieth century, containing a steady supply of material based on Native
American culture. However, material related to political issues surrounding Native Americans and
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Preface their place in American society throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century can often be located in the field of American Studies. Especially the topic of relocation and assimilation policy has become an important part of American Studies over the last five decades. An important figure in this field of research is Franchis Paul Prucha, author of American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian
Reformers and the Indian, Documents of the United States Indian Policy, and The Great Father:
The United States Government and the American Indians. Prucha’s work has been of significant influence on the process of explaining the governmental Native American policy throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century by locating important primary sources and identifying aspects of Native American policies similar to social ideal in American society.
Contemporary American Studies contains a significant amount of research and material on Manifest Destiny, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, and the Native American assimilation policy.
These subjects share a similarity; scholars have been occupied with connecting these subjects with ideals of American culture and society. This paper will follow a similar direction in trying to establish a connection between fundamental ideals expressed by Manifest Destiny, the Native
American performance elements of Cody’s Wild West show, and the opposition of Reformers to these show elements. This connection can be labeled as a political debate surrounding the participation of Native performers in Cody show. This debate included Reformers, William F.
Cody, and the arguments of both parties, which were based on the participation of Native
Americans in the show and the role they played.
Within the academic debate, there has been attention for the connection between ideals on civilization and race and the discussion surrounding show Indian, yet a specific comparison between this discussion and Manifest Destiny has not been established. I hope to support this connection with this research. After doing the research for this proposal, I identify myself with the opinion of Warren, Moses, Kroes, and Rydell; the employment of Native Americans by Buffalo
Bill’s show was not an act of exploitation or suppression, but an act of opportunity, both
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Preface economic and cultural. Essentially, by reenacting their own history and culture, Indian performers established a process of preservation of their history and culture. Besides that, they were employees by definition; they received an opportunity to make a decent living for themselves, an opportunity basically non-existent on the reservations, where job opportunities were provided by the U.S. government. These opportunities were not very lucrative, which is why performing in
Wild West shows became an attractive alternative for live on the reservations.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
“In the Eastern States, or even east of the Mississippi, the methods of these people [frontier men] are comparatively unknown, and it is for the purpose of introducing them to the public that this little pamphlet has been prepared. Hon. William F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill"), in conjunction with Mr.
Nate Salsbury, the eminent American actor (a ranch owner), has organized a large combination that, in its several aspects, will illustrate life as it is witnessed on the plains; the Indian encampment; the cowboys and vaqueros; the herds of buffalo and elk; the lassoing of animals; the manner of robbing mail coaches; feats of agility, horsemanship, marksmanship, archery, and the kindred scenes and events that are characteristic of the border. The most completely appointed delegation of frontiersmen and Indians that ever visited the East will take part in the entertainment, together with a large number of animals; and the performance, while in no wise partaking of the nature of a "circus," will be at once new, startling, and instructive.” 13
John M. Burke, General Manager. May 1, 1883. Omaha, Nebraska.
Introduction
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny became a term of explanation for the staggering development of the United States. The ideal of a providential mission to spread civilization across the continent had materialized in an expanding territory, a fast growing population, and steady economic development. Especially the expansion of the U.S. economy had become an important goal for U.S. government at the beginning of the nineteenth century and replaced the urge for territorial expansion. An important reason for this was the ‘problem’ that arose with the annexation of land containing ‘nonwhite peoples,’ like Mexicans and Native
Americans. The question on what to do with these specific groups divided U.S. politicians and proved to be a tough issue to resolve. As a result, the economic expansion of the United States became more important than territorial expansion, thereby avoiding the ‘problem’ of nonwhite people.
14
13 “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the Worlds, 1893,” Folder 25, Box
13, Cody, William Frederick/Buffalo Bill Collection (WH72), Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado.
Hereafter referred to as Cody Collection Denver.
14 Thomas Jefferson, “Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1805,” in Manifest Destiny and American
Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St.
Martins, 2012), 55-57.; Daniel Webster, “Letter to the Citizens of Worcester Country, Massachusetts,” in
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
In this era of changing politics and ideals, a man arose with the dream of educating
American citizens on his own ideal. This man was William F. Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, and his ideal was the American West. Cody, a man well familiar with life at the Western frontier, saw the world he came to know and love coming to an end, an assumption which triggered him in pursuing a career as entertainer and educator. The result of this pursuit was the Buffalo Bill Wild
West show, a staggering entertainment enterprise that would tour the American continent as well as Europe, baffling millions of people with stunning representations of the American frontier live, including the mysterious ‘red savages,’ or Native Americans. The quote above, taken from an
1893 show program, gives a good impression of what Cody had in store for his audience.
Manifest Destiny and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show are both important aspects of a turbulent era at the end of the nineteenth century. Considering this fact, it seems reasonable to assume a possible connection can be made between the two. As mentioned in the introduction, this research is aimed at finding a connection between the ideals of Manifest Destiny and the political discussion dominated by Indian Reformers. This task will prove impossible if there is no context in which to place the main question. Therefore it is essential to establish and clarify a connection between Manifest Destiny and Buffalo Bill and his Wild West enterprise, in order to provide this research with a solid contextual foundation, before it ventures into its central timeframe of 1889-1893. This chapter will provide such a foundation. It will identify central aspects of Manifest Destiny and Cody’s Wild West show and compare these elements in order to clarify the connection between them. This chapter will be guided by the following central question: which central elements of Manifest Destiny were represented in Cody’s show?
The question above has both a descriptive and argumentative element. The descriptive element is built on the contextual foundation being provided in this chapter by locating central
Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Amy S. Greenberg
(New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012); 90-92.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age elements. The argumentative element of this chapter is based on the fact that it will establish a connection between central elements of Cody’s show and Manifest Destiny. Since Manifest
Destiny did not have a clearly established definition, its central aspects are open to debate. The same can be said about elements from Cody’s show, which has elements that can be interpreted in several ways, as is proven by the debate surrounding Native performers. This chapter will thus be both a descriptive and argumentative chapter, aimed at providing this research with necessary context.
Origins of Destiny and Territorial Expansion
Although the term Manifest Destiny was coined in 1845, the idea of ‘American exceptionalism’ lies at the foundation of the United States. Upon arrival at the new continent, the first Puritan settlers envisioned their journey as blessed by God. As William Bradford describes it in his 1650 manifest Of Plymoth Plantations, the new settlers had to depend on this blessing, “for what could now sustain them but the spirit of God and his Grace?” 15 Indeed, the first wave of settlers arrived at a continent not yet touched by western civilization, so the fact that it was their ‘mission’ to change this was unmistakably connected to an assumption of a divine blessing. A well-known concept representing this assumption is the ideal of “a city upon a hill. The eies of all people are uppon us.” 16 From the very beginning, these two ideals were fundamental to the settlement of the American continent, so two of the core issues of the 1845 definition of Manifest Destiny, providential mission to spread civilization, as an example for all of humanity, are much older than
O’Sullivans’ definition.
17
15 William Bradford, “On Plimoth Plantation,” in Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A
Brief History with Documents, ed. Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 41-41.; John
Wintrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” in Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A Brief
History with Documents, ed. Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 43-44.
16 Wintrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” 43-44.
17 Amy S. Greenberg, ed., Manifest Destiny and the American Territorial Expansion: a Brief History with
Documents (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 4-5.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
Although the ideals described above were fundamental to the origin of the United States, they were not solely responsible for territorial expansion during the early Republic period of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The primary reasons for territorial expansion were a fast growing population and security concerns. According to the United States Census Bureau, the
American population nearly tripled over the turn of the eighteenth century, expending from
3.929.214 registered citizens in 1790 to 12.860.702 registered citizen in 1830.
18 The primary stimulators behind this exponential growth were a low mortality rates and an increasing stream of immigrants from Europe. An inevitable result of this growing population was a constant need for new land to support a growing rural population, which took great pride in private ownership of land and did not hesitate to venture into unknown territories to the West, with or without governmental permission.
19
Native lands
By the end of the 1830’s the United States covered almost half of the American continent. The western border was set along the contemporary states of Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, and
Michigan. The northeast territory of the continent known as the Oregon territory, which consisted of modern-day Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, existed under a combined British-U.S. occupation, while a large part of the contemporary Midwest fell under the unorganized Missouri territory.
20
During the period of territorial expansion described above, conflicts with Native
Americans emerged. There is a simple cause for these conflicts; Native Americans occupied land that was desired by the United States, which led to increasing efforts of U.S. government to ‘buy’
18 “American Census Bureau, 1830 facts,” last modified April 16, 2014, https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/fast_facts/1830_fast_facts.html.
19 Harriet Martineau, Society in America: volume II (New York; Unders and Otley, 1837), accessed on April
22, 2014, http://books.google.nl/books/about/Society_in_America.html?id=AfT2MxEbcjQC&redir_esc=y ,
291-293.
20 “American Census Bureau, 1830 Map,” last modified April 16, 20014, http://www.uscensus.org/states/map.htm#1830 .
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age the Indian lands by way of treaties. Not every acre of land that came into U.S. possession was obtained fairly; so called squatters – white settler who occupied land outside the U.S. border, proved to be an everlasting problem. By ignoring federal or state policies against illegal settling of
Indian lands, squatters formed a real threat to diplomatic treaties, established between U.S. government and Native tribes during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. 21
Despite the problems created by the actions of squatters, federal government had no intentions of putting a stop to the illegal occupation of land. Two documents can provide more insight to this complex situation. On December 6, 1830, President Andrew Jackson held his State of the Union Address, in which he reflected on the federal Indian policy and proposed a future way of resolving territorial conflicts with Native-American tribes;
“It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the
Government, steadily pursued for nearly 30 years, in relation to the removal of the
Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of
Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages. The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters.” 22
The passage above can provide multiple insights. First, the acquiring of new land was a central goal for U.S. government, which can be connected to the agricultural character of
American society; more people required more food, which required more cultivatable land.
Second, the statement made by Jackson about ‘savage hunters’ suggests a negative racial attitude of U.S. government towards Native Americans. This connection will be analyzed in greater detail in the next paragraph. And third, a ‘solution’ for the problem of squatters on Native lands would
21 Amy S. Greenberg, ed., Manifest Destiny and the American Territorial Expansion: a Brief History with
Documents (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 10-13.
22 “Andrew Jackson, “State of the Union Address, 1830,” accessed April 20, 2013. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8032 .
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age be the annexation of these lands and the removal of Native-American tribes, which can hardly be considered an actual solution. This policy towards Native Americans and their claims to land were characteristic for Jackson’s presidency. In 1830, he passed the Indian Removal Act, a legislative piece aimed at relocating Native-American tribes from the land they claimed to poses. What followed was an aggressive policy of removal, often not in line with earlier established treaties, laws, and Supreme Court rulings.
23
An example of such an aggressive and partial illegitimate act of removal is the Cherokee
Nation removal in 1838 and 1839. The Cherokee did not respond with force, but tried to play the diplomatic game they were taught by U.S. government through the negotiation of various treaties in the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Between the signing of a relocation treaty between U.S. government and a small segment of the Cherokee nation in 1835 and the actual removal in 1838, representatives of the Cherokee nation addressed Congress on multiple occasions in an effort to protect their land. The following passage is taken from such an address, filed in 1836;
“It would be useless to recapitulate the numerous provisions for the security and protection of the rights of the Cherokees, to be found in the various treaties between their nations and the United States. The Cherokees were happy and prosperous under a scrupulous observance of treaty stipulations by the government of the United States, and from the fostering hand extended over them, they made rapid advances in civilization, morals, and in the arts and sciences. Little did they anticipate, that when taught to think and feel as the American citizen, and to have with him a common interest, they were to be despoiled by their guardian, to become strangers and wanderers in the land of their fathers, forced to return to the savage life, and to seek a new home in the wilds of the far west, and that without their consent.” 24
23
Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New York; Hill and
Wang, 1995), 24-25.
24 “Memorial and protest of the Cherokee Nation, June 22, 1836,” in Manifest Destiny and American
Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St.
Martins, 2012), 67-68.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
The passage above supports the claims made earlier in this chapter; treaty or no treaty, legal or illegal, the U.S. government was aiming for the annexation of Native lands. During the presidency of Andrew Jackson, treaties and legal support for land annexation became trivial to the hunger for new territory. However, the emergence of this policy of aggressive expansionism went hand in hand with a growing amount of critical voices. These critical voices came from the losing side of the battle for territory; European nations, most significantly the British and the
Spanish, and of course the various Native-American tribes who were victimized by the relocation policy. The most significant critics within American society were members of the Whig Party, the political opponent of Jackson’s Democratic Party.
25
It would be incorrect to describe the Whigs as critics of America expansion completely; they promoted the growth of the United States, but believed this should be achieved by optimizing the manufacturing sector and resource extraction within the existing borders and not by expending U.S. territory. According to the Whigs, a larger territory would be difficult to manage efficiently and would weaken the position of strength of New England, the Whigs’ seat of power. The rise of critical voices towards U.S. removal policies created problems for those who supported the policies. What was needed was a reasonable theory supporting the ‘right’ U.S. government had to claim Native lands. Manifest Destiny proved to be the solution.
26
Scientific racism
Although Manifest Destiny was coined in 1845, the message regarding providential expansion and civilization it expressed were widely recognized and supported in American society during the first half of the nineteenth century and coincided with a change in political rhetoric that took place around the 1840’s. American Studies scholar Reginald Horsmen describes this change in his 1975
25 Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New York; Hill and
Wang, 1995), 30-31.;
26 Stephanson, Manifest Destiny, 29-31.; Daniel Webster, “Letter to the Citizens of Worcester Country,
Massachusetts,” in Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012); 90-92.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age essay Scientific Racism and the American Indian in the Nineteenth Century. In mid-nineteenth century, the general opinion of American society was one of white superiority and non-white inferiority, where the beginning of the nineteenth century was characterized by an opinion of racial improvability and opportunism for human civilization. This opportunistic view on race and society changed after Andrew Jackson’s presidency and resulted in an increasingly aggressive policy of expansionism and Indian relocation. The result was an American society supportive of the ideals on Anglo-Saxon superiority, which enabled the creation of something called scientific racism. This idea provided U.S. government with the argument they needed for their aggressive relocation policies; it was their natural right to claim land from the inferior ‘savages,’ since it was
America’s providential mission to spread civilization across the continent.
27
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny and scientific racism came together in American society. The idea of a providential mission to spread civilization was still widely supported, but ideals on racial superiority and inferiority now accompanied this idea.
Manifest Destiny became an argument for the relocation of Native-American tribes, which were not white and therefore had no right to claim the land they had lived on for thousands of years.
Again, Andrew Jackson provides the words to capture this mid-nineteenth century ideal;
“Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?” 28
27 Reginald Horsman, “Scientific Racism and the American Indian in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” The
Western Historical Quarterly 27 (1975): 152-153.
28 “Andrew Jackson, “State of the Union Address, 1830,” accessed April 20, 2013. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8032 .
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
After the Civil War, Manifest Destiny became a term connected to both the superiority of
Anglo-Saxon civilization and the Anglo-Saxon race. The term still supported the belief of
Americans in a providential mission of civilization, but now included an element of racial inferiority, which resulted in a stronger belief in the ‘right’ of the United States to occupy land, relocate Native American tribes, and force Anglo-Saxon civilization upon them. Manifest Destiny had become the main argument in favor of territorial expansion. There were several reasons for this continued craving for territory; internal problems regarding race, class, and gender divided the country. In order to secure the survival of the Anglo-Saxon race, the United States had to maintain a dominant position, both on and off the continent. The result of this attitude was the effort to civilize and relocate Native Americans, either with or without force.
29
Buffalo Bill emerges
On May 17, 1883, William Frederick Cody rode into an arena at the Omaha Fairgrounds to open
‘The Wild West, Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition’, and by doing so started his career as
Buffalo Bill. For more than three decades, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show would venture across
America and Europe, providing its audience not only with entertainment, but with ideological images of American society as well. Between 1883 and 1907, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show expended in size, including more Native Americans, cowboys, prairie animals, and a wide variety of international performers, such as Mexican Gauchos. In 1893, the show performed for nine months outside the Columbian Expedition in Chicago, and for the first time included performers form other continents: military units from England and Germany, Cossacks from Eastern-Europe,
African tribesman, and many more. Although the show was still centered on iconic scenes
29 Amy S. Greenberg, ed., Manifest Destiny and the American Territorial Expansion: a Brief History with
Documents (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 30-33.; Reginald Horsman, “Scientific Racism and the
American Indian in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” The Western Historical Quarterly 27 (1975): 154-157, 167-
168.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age depicting the American West, it now included aspects of frontier life from other continents, giving the show an international identity.
30
It is essential to point out the complex relationship between William F. Cody and his alter ego Buffalo Bill. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, many scholars have devoted their time to unravelling the intriguing life of Cody and Bill. One of these scholars is Louis
S. Warren, the author of Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show. This book provides its readers with an extensive insight in the life and career of Cody by shifting myth from reality and William Cody from Buffalo Bill. In order to maintain oversight of his research, Warren builds on a central thesis: How did Cody adapt his life experienced to be representable in his show? This question can be used for the sake of this research as well. Which social ideals were central to Cody’s life, and how did these ideals influenced the contents of his Wild West show?
31
Indian fighter
Before 1872, Cody made a living by scouting for the U.S. army and guiding hunting expeditions for officers and tourists. This period in Cody’s life would be a source for many historical deeds, both real and fictional, on which nineteenth century critics and twentieth century historians would ponder. A combination of mythical and actual events earned Cody the nickname ‘Buffalo Bill,’ a name that would stick to his persona till far after his death. Cody used his nickname to start a career in show business, after he discovered the popularity of Buffalo Bill as a frontier character.
During his career in show business, Cody introduced a wide variety of ‘personal experiences’ to his performances, many of which are doubted to be real. A telling example is Cody is his involvement in the battle at Little Bighorn, which would become a centerpiece of the show during
30 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 1-4.
31 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), XIV-XV.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age the 1890’s. In this performance, Cody arrives just too late to save Custer’s life, while in reality,
Cody was not even near Little Bighorn when Custer made his final stand.
32
A second example of a myth represented as reality in Cody’s show is the famous scene
‘The scalping of Yellow Hand.’ The story told on stage was one of heroism, performed by Cody and a regiment of soldiers from the Fifth Cavalry in a skirmish with 200 Cheyenne warriors. According to the tales, Cody fought with Yellow Hand, a Cheyenne chief, and scalped him while shouting
“The first scalp for Custer!” 33 This scene was first performed on stage in 1879 and continued to be part of Cody’s productions for some years. An intriguing fact of this story is the high possibility of it being true. What makes this story interesting for this research is not its truthfulness, but the way it represented Cody as an ‘Indian fighter.’ 34
The image of Cody as an Indian fighter was central to his career as performer and show producer. It fitted the overall picture of Cody as a ‘true western frontier man,’ skilled in scouting, hunting, and above all, fighting Indians. This created the illusion that Cody was connected to
Native Americans at some level, which resulted in Cody’s nickname ‘white Indian,’ a man who incorporated Native-American fighting skills and social practices with a strong belief in American ideals regarding society, civilization, and race. This was not unusual for U.S. army scouts; in order to be successful at their job, scouts had to know Native lands and its occupants and Cody was no exception to this necessity. During a later stage in his career, Cody’s supposed connection to
Native Americans would become an important tool for the hiring of Native Americans to his show.
However, the fact is that Cody knew few Native Americans in person; the real connections Cody
32 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 117-120.
33 “Program The Wild West: Buffalo Bill’s Rocky Mountain and Prairie exhibition, 1885,” folder 19, Box2,
Cody Collection Denver.
34 Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America, 120.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age had acquired were with middlemen who knew Native Americans, predominantly men already established in show business.
35
Cody’s America
The connection between Cody and Native Americans will be analyzed in greater detail further on in this research. What is of interest for this particular chapter, is the other side of Cody’s personality as frontier man and Indian friend; his perception of American society, civilization, and race.
It is important to recognize the complexity of the era in which Cody lived. As mentioned earlier, a collective ideal of Anglo-Saxon superiority rooted itself in American society after the
1850’s. This process also influenced the U.S. army and frontier life. In the popular mind, the army existed of Anglo-Saxon males, but the reality was quite different; over 50 percent of the soldiers in the U.S. army were foreign born and came from the ever growing stream of immigrants.
Although these foreign born soldiers possessed a white skin color, they were not considered
‘white.’ The term ‘white’ was applied to white, Anglo-Saxon men, born on American soil, who were Protestant and English speaking. The traditional example of this paradox is the Jewish immigrant; white of color but non-white in society. This complex definition of ‘white’ created tensions among soldiers and between them and their commanders.
36
Cody was no stranger to this racial tension. In his autobiography Life of Buffalo Bill, Cody makes several remarks regarding his position on race by ridiculing certain aspects of black and immigrant soldiers, like their speech. A telling example of this tendency is a passage in which Cody repeats a Black soldier, who wanted to “sweep de red debels from off de face ob de earth.” 37 This passage provides some insights in Cody’s opinion on a multiracial army. Within this melting pot of nationalities and cultures, Cody was a ‘true’ Anglo-Saxon male, which explains his popularity with
35 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 120.
36 Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America, 97-99.
37 William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill’s Life Story: an Autobiography (New York; Skyhorse Publishing, 2010), 158.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age the army commanders, who were also Anglo-Saxon males. Despite his experience in a multiracial frontier army, the soldiers in Cody’s Wild West show were all white. There is a complex explanation for this turn of events, based on racial ideals, social tensions, and Manifest Destiny.
38
Manifest Destiny had already become affiliated with the ideals of Anglo-Saxon supremacy before Cody presented his all-white army to his audiences, so there is no need to describe this connection again. It is important, however, to apply to this connection some of the social issues that divided American society during the second half of the nineteenth century. One of these social issues was the growing consciousness of something called neurasthenia, a term invented by physician George M. Beard. According to Beard, American society grew anxious about the survival of the Anglo-Saxon race. The term was invented in 1880 and gathered support during the next two decades. When one combines this with the growing aggression towards European immigrants, the tensions in a multiracial army, and an economic depression taking flight in the late 1880’s, it is not difficult to understand the growing belief in Anglo-Saxon superiority and the revitalized support for Manifest Destiny’s core belief; Anglo-Saxon civilization would become dominant, simply because it was Anglo-Saxon civilization. But in 1890, a problem occurred; the
Western frontier was closed, putting a stop to the spread of Anglo-Saxon civilization. What was left behind was an anxious feeling of an uncertain future.
39
Representation of Civilization
It is during this period, troubled by social unrest, radical racial ideals, and a growing belief in
Manifest Destiny, that Cody exchanged the prairies for a career on stage. During the first three years if the 1880’s, Cody was faced with a challenge; recreating the violent frontier world suited for middle-class men, women, and children. Quite surprisingly, Cody succeeded not only in providing entertainments suitable for women and children but also in entertaining audiences
38 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 99-101.
39 George Beard, “Neurastenia, or Nervous Exhaustion.” The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (1869):
217-221.; Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America, 94-103, 213-218.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age located at both sides of the political divide. During the twentieth century, many scholars have pondered on the following question; how did Cody succeed? The answers provided includes a wide variety of central aspects; racial messages, accuracy in representing the western frontier, promotion of Anglo-Saxon civilization, and the representation of a fundamental idea of domesticity in American culture. Indeed, all of these aspects have made an impact on the popularity of the show, but where can they be placed in a turbulent period in American society, imbedded with a strong belief in Manifest Destiny?
“And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of
American history.” 40 These words lie at the center of one the most important publications in
American western history; Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis. The frontier, Turner argued, had come to an end in the 1890’s. U.S. government agreed with him; in 1890 the U.S. Census
Bureau concluded there was no more Western frontier.
41
This turn of events had some unforeseen consequences for American social ideas. In the mind of many Americans, the western frontier was the last place in which ‘true American values’ were still alive; white supremacy, manliness, and individualism. When the frontier closed,
American society became afraid for the existence of the American values, which resulted in a growing belief in neurasthenia. The western frontier became a memory in American society, one that reminded them of social problems in an urbanizing country and made them fearful for the existence of the Anglo-Saxon race.
42
When one considers the complex social situation described above, it is understandable why a wide variety of nineteenth century Americans and twentieth century scholars have
40 Frederick Jackson Tuner, The Frontier in American History (New York; Henry Holt & Co., 1920), accessed
23 April, 2014, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/turner/.
41 Robert Porter, Henry Gannet, and William Hunt, eds., Report on Population of the United States at the
Eleventh Census: 1890, Part I (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1895) XXXVIII-XXXIV, accessed
April 23, 2014, http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1890a_v1-01.pdf
42 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 213-217.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age concluded that it was the aspects of white, racial superiority and the representation of Anglo-
Saxon civilization what made Cody’s show a success. Although these individuals were nog entirely wrong, this image is too simplistic to be used as an explanation for the show’s popularity with the
American audience. Cody’s wish to attract middle-class families could not be realized by actual reenactments of the western frontier; bloody battles between soldiers and Native Americans could be considered as a boost for racial ideals on Anglo-Saxon superiority, but it would not appeal to Cody’s preferred audience. The key to Cody’s success can be found in what Louis C.
Warren labels as the “domesticating of the Wild West.” 43 This process was based on the inclusion of subtle racial and civilization ideals, a significant dose of reality, and a central figure to keep control over the show and its acts.
44
Domestication and artful deception
The first Wild West show produced by Cody consisted of three categories of events; races, reenactments, and shooting exhibitions. These three categories would be the backbone of Cody’s show as it transformed from dress rehearsal in 1883 to mass entertainment spectacle in 1893.
Proof of this can be found in several show programs that remain today, like the program of the
October 1883 show in Chicago’s driving park and the program of the 1893 show outside the
Chicago world fair.
45
The 1883 show opened with a bareback pony race, followed by a reenactment of the Pony
Express. Both were performed by Pawnee Indians and cowboys, as was the Attack on the
Deadwood Mail Coach that followed. After these ‘historic’ reenactments the audience was dazzled by multiple sharpshooting exhibitions, performed by Cody himself, the notorious A.H.
43 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 211.
44 Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America, 218-229.; Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: the
Americanization of the World, 1869-1922 (Chicago; Chicago University Press, 2005), 29-34.
45 “Program The Wild West: Buffalo Bill’s Rocky Mountain and Prairie exhibition, 1885,” folder 19, Box2,
Cody Collection Denver.; “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the Worlds,
1893,” Folder 25, Box 13, Cody Collection Denver.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
Bogardus, and several cowboys shooting from horseback. The show concluded with Cowboy Fun, a demonstration of horsemanship performed by skilled, white, rodeo performers.
46
The 1893 program shows many similarities with the 1883 show. The Pony Express, the
Deadwood Mail Coach, the sharpshooting exhibitions, and several acts of extraordinary horsemanship were still central to the show. The main difference between the two shows is its size; the 1893 show included more cowboys, both from the United States and Mexico, a wide variety of Native Americans from different tribes, international soldiers from Europe Germany and the Middle-East, and several other stars, like Miss Annie Oakley, a skilled female sharpshooter.
However, the show was still structured around races, historic reenactments, and sharpshooting exhibitions.
47
These three central elements provide the key to understanding how Cody reached the audience wished for. The show was not focused on the defeat of Native Americans, thereby promoting Anglo-Saxon supremacy over an inferior race, realistic reenactments of bloody warfare, or on purely entertaining acts, such as the horse- and footraces. What gave Cody’s show its appeal towards middle-class families was the mixture of these elements, which made the show realistic, educational, and child friendly, yet imbedded with subtle ideological messages on race, civilization, and social ideals. The aspect of order and safety desired by Cody was provided by his choice to employ ‘true western heroes,’ like himself and Bogardus. The display of Western heroes gave the show a sense of security and assured victory.
48
Conclusion
Two aspects of Manifest Destiny can be identified in Cody’s Wild West enterprise. First, the show promoted a subtle message of Anglo-Saxon supremacy by fielding an army of white American
46 “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the Worlds, 1893,” Folder 25, Box
13, Cody Collection Denver.
47 Ibidem.
48 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 224-234.
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age soldiers against a band of ‘red savages,’ played by real Native Americans. Second, the white army always defeated the band of red savages, thereby underlining the undeniable victory of Anglo-
Saxon civilization. Essentially, Cody’s show provided its audience with the same message as
O’Sullivan did; Anglo-Saxon civilization would eventually vanquish the inferior Native American race, because it was destined to be. American society believed in this inevitable victory, but was anxious about the inevitability of victory during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.
Cody’s show reminded American viewers of the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization and race and the inferiority of Native Americans, thereby soothing the doubts and fears of the audience for the time being.
It is incorrect, however, to see Manifest Destiny as a foundation for Cody’s show. It is true that there was a connection between central aspects of Manifest Destiny and the show, but this was not a straight forward connection. Cody had a specific audience in mind when he started developing his show; the middle-class family. In order to reach this audience, Cody had to adjust his show to the collective mind of American society and during the second half of the nineteenth century, this mind was in despair. With the closing of the Western frontier came a feeling of anxiety about the future of Anglo-Saxon civilization and American society. This resulted in a more radical interpretation of Manifest Destiny; the survival of Anglo-Saxon civilization had to be secured with force, which revealed itself in more aggressive policies towards Native Americans and the desire to transport American domination to other parts of the globe. Labeled as neurasthenia, this feeling of social insecurity developed itself throughout the decades after 1850, creating social tensions and a growing sentiment towards the western frontier, where true
American ideals could be identified. This sentiment provided Cody with the opportunity to create the entertainment enterprise he wished for.
It is difficult to make assumptions on Cody’s belief in Manifest Destiny, but it is possible to determine how significant it was to his show. And it was of a significant influence. Manifest
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Chapter 1: America’s Entertainment in a Changed Age
Destiny enjoyed wide support by an insecure American society, regarding ideals on civilization and race. These aspects were cleverly imbedded in Cody’s show, yet is attracted the middle-class family as its primary audience. Manifest Destiny was not the primary foundation for Cody’s show, but it was a central aspect of its audience. Essentially, Manifest Destiny formed American society in way it became possible for Cody to create his show in a profitable way. The central aspects of race and civilization were represented in the show, but in combination with simple entertainment. It provided its audience with a mixture of fun, education, and a set of ideals that necessary to assure society on the ideals they supported by believing in Manifest Destiny.
The following chapter will focus on the role of Native Americans in the reenactment of their own defeat and the ‘inevitable’ victory of the Anglo-Saxon civilization. An interesting paradox emerges here; Native Americans joined Cody’s show, while it depicted the defeat of
Native American culture by the hands of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Why, then, did Native
Americans join the show, and which part did they play in the reenactment of the western frontier? Chapter two will provide answers to these questions, thereby adding to the context necessary for this research.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
“We stayed there and made shows for many, many Wasichus [white people] all that winter. I liked the part of the show we made, but not the part the Wasichus made. After a while I got used to being there, but I was like a man who never has a vision. I felt dead and my people seemed lost and I thought I might never find them again. I did not see anything to help my people. I could see that the Wasichus did not care for each other in the way our people did before the nation’s hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. They had forgotten that the earth was their mother.” 49
Black Elk, New York, 1886
Introduction
Since the first hiring of a band of Sioux-Oglala Indians for a theater production in 1877, more than a thousand Indian performers travelled with Cody’s Wild West show, who performed for millions of people in the United States and Europe. As performers, they received a paycheck and were provided with food and shelter, as well as with an education on ‘Wasichu society.’ The Native
Americans that traveled with the show were selected at auditions, organized on Native reservations. According to an eyewitness, identified by Nellie Shiner Yost as ‘Death Valley Scotty’ in her book Buffalo Bill: His Friend, Family, Fame, Failures, and Fortune, as many as 500 Indians attended the auditions for the 1884 and 1885 season in Rushville, Nebraska, to earn a place in
Cody’s company. Those who did not succeed in earning a sport seemed depressed about it.
During these auditions, Cody guaranteed the performers’ safety and well-being, as was required of him by Government officials.
50
The previous chapter has already established the significant role of Native performers in
Cody’s show by performing in some of its central acts. This chapter will focus on the specific roles
49 John G. Niehardt, Black Elk Speaks; Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (New York; State
University of New York press, 2008), 165.
50 Nellie Snyder Yost, Buffalo Bill: His Family, Friends, Fame, Failures and Fortunes (Athens; Ohio University
Press, 1979), 143.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
Native American performers played and the ideological value of these roles. In other words, what did Native performers do and why? This brings any researcher on Native performers in Wild West show to face an undeniable obstacle; individual records or memoirs are scarce. Twentieth century publications on this topic are often based on a combination of records from non-Native performers, newspaper articles, and governmental documents, since these primary sources remain in greater quantity than personal histories from Indian performers.
Yet, it is possible to gain some insight in the life of Indian performers by combining the above mentioned sources with the few personal records of Native Americans that remain today.
One of these sources is John G. Niehardt’s Black Elk Speaks, a biography on Black Elk, an Oglala-
Sioux medicine man and performer in Cody’s show from 1886 till 1889. During this period, Black
Elk performed in the United States and in Europe, granting him the opportunity to educate himself in English and learn about white society. His records of this period as a performer can provide important information on the experiences of Indian performers, both in America and
Europe. 51
Another primary source of information is Sitting Bull, the legendary Lakota Chief who performed at Cody’s side in 1885. It is not personal memories that make Sitting Bull a source of information, but the fact so much has been written about him. He was a participant of the Battle at Little Bighorn, which made him a famous, yet notorious, historical figure in U.S. society. Nate
Salsbury, Cody’s entrepreneurial partner, mentions several interviews Sitting Bull gave to reporters, some of which he collected in his scrapbook that survived till this day. These interviews can provide essential information on the experiences of Native performers during their
51 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 52-55.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race employment by Cody, the roles they played, and the way they lived their lives during the show’s seasons.
52
Which ideological values were expressed by Native performers in Cody’s show? This will be the central question of this chapter, which will consist out of three components. First, it will analyze the contribution of Native performers to the show program, by looking at the part Native performers played. Second, it will analyze the ideological message imbedded in the role Native performers played. Third, this chapter will analyze the life of Native performers behind the curtains. This last element is an essential component of the answer to the research question of paper; the opposition of Reformers towards Cody’s show was partly built on assumptions concerning the living conditions of Native performers outside their performances. The opposition of Reformers and the arguments they used will be central in the following two chapters, yet it is important to provide the context of their arguments in this chapter, since Native performers are central in it. In order to maintain a clear structure of this paper, this chapter will thus cover the three elements described above.
The time period cover in this chapter will be the years between 1885, the start of Cody’s enterprise, and 1893, the year in which his show took on an international shape and reached a highpoint in both size and popularity. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, personal records of
Indian performers have not survived history in great quantity, which makes a survey of the short period between 1889 and 1893, the primary period of this research, a difficult task. Furthermore, most of the prominent figures like Sitting Bull and Black Elk were involved in the show outside this timeframe, but provide important information nonetheless, which is why the period before 1889 is vital to this chapter.
52 Nate Salsbury scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4, Cody Collection Denver.; Robert M. Utley, Sitting Bull: The Life
and Times of an American Patriot (New York; Henry Holt&Co., 1993), 88, 122.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
1883-1889
Since it inaugural performance on May 17 th , 1883, Cody’s Wild West show toured the United
States till March, 1887, after which it embarked on its first European tour. During this period, the show visited many of the larger cities, including a three month performance in New York’s
Madison Square Garden after the 1886 summer season.
53 This performance was a turning point in the show’s existence; it transformed from a ‘small’ circus-like show to an entertainment enterprise, performing both out- and indoors, but also stayed on the same locations for more than a month.
54
Sitting Bull
Between 1883 and 1889, Cody’s show achieved significant financial success and grew popular among U.S. citizens. This success can partly be explained by the presence of Sitting Bull during the
1885 season. Sitting Bull, a famous Hunkpapa-Sioux chief, was well-known throughout the United
States for his role in the famous battle at Little Bighorn, which explains why Cody was not the first entrepreneur searching to use Sitting Bull’s status to his own advantage. In 1884, Sitting Bull traveled some 25 cities across the East coast as a part of a travelling exhibition, commissioned by
Alvaren Allen, a business man from Minnesota and friend of Major James McLaughlin, who presided over the Standing Rock Indian Agency, where Sitting Bull lived. Allen’s tour proved to be a financial failure, which led to the refusal of McLaughlin to allow Sitting Bull to leave the reservation a second time. However, Cody’s career as a military scout had left him with some influential connections, which he used to his full advantage. After a positive reference from
General William T. Sherman, for whom Cody scouted in the 1860’s, McLaughlin allowed Sitting
53 Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: the Americanization of the World, 1869-1922
(Chicago; Chicago University Press, 2005), 30.; L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American
Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 30-31.
54 Sarah J. Blackstone, Buckskins, Bullets, and Business: A History of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (Westport;
Greenwood, 1986), 16-19.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
Bull and his family to join Cody’s Wild West show on May 18 th , 1885. According to Cody, Sitting
Bull had expressed a desire to join his show, although it is unknown why.
55
The above described turn of events provide insight in Sitting Bull’s hiring by Cody and on what terms. First, Sitting Bull was allowed to bring his family and some followers with him.
Second, Cody intended to treat Sitting Bull with respects and dignity. Yet it remains unknown why
Sitting Bull was suddenly allowed to leave the reservation after Cody’s first request was denied. A clue can be found in the 1885 annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John D.C.
Atkins to the Secretary of the Interior, Lucius Q.C. Lamar. In his report, McLaughlin describes positive achievements of ‘civilization’, yet he claims that “Sitting Bull’s retarding influence” 56 was an obstacle in reaching all Natives on the reservation. This is an intriguing statement. In combination with the previous rejected request from Cody, the references of General Sherman, and the promise of Cody to treat Sitting Bull with respect, one might come to the conclusion that the permission granted to Sitting Bull, his family, and some close followers to leave the reservation, was a political move from both Atkins and Lamar, aimed at removing an obstacle from the path of assimilation. Unfortunately, this assumption is bound to remain and assumption due to the absence of sufficient source material. It is possible to presume Sitting Bull was not fully cooperative regarding reservation policies, considering his involvement in the 1890 Ghost Dance uprising and the negative reports from McLaughlin. 57
The fact remains that Sitting Bull accompanied Cody’s show during its 1885 season from
June 12 till October 11 and became central figure of the show. A closer look at the 1885 show program can provide a better picture of the role Sitting Bull played in the show. The show existed
55 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 25-27.; Louis Pfaller, “ ’Enemies in ’76, Friends in ‘85’ – Sitting Bull and Buffalo
Bill.” The Journal of National Archives 1 (1969):17-21.
56 John D.C. Atkins, Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1885
(Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1885), accessed April 25, 2014, https://archive.org/stream/annualreportcom18affagoog#page/n288/mode/2up.
57 Moses, Wild West Shows, 26-27.; Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West
Show (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 379-381.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race out of twenty acts, divided in races, historic reenactments, and sharpshooting exhibitions. Sitting
Bull is not mentioned in the descriptions of these twenty acts, yet his life story is part of the program for educational purposes. Two pages of the 34 page program are devoted to Sitting Bull and the events that made him such a well-known figure in American society. The following passage is a fine example of the stature Sitting Bull enjoyed while touring the show; “he was noted as a hunter and warrior, and in early middle age he gained prestige as a Medicine Man (the
Sioux order of priesthood) and Counselor. By shrewdness, diplomacy and force of character he gained a lasting influence among his people, and became by common consent the consulting head of his nation. During the Big Horn expedition Sitting Bull was in command and of over five thousand warriors, and by his masterly control, and direction of their movements gained the title of the Napoleon of the Indian Race—after a series of battles that demonstrated his wonderful strategic powers.” 58
Noble savage
Sitting Bull appearance matched his role during the show; he was a not as much a performer as an object of display. This sounds degrading, but when placed in the context of respects and fame described above, it gives Sitting Bull’s role a more positive identity. Sitting Bull became the embodiment of “the noble savage,” 59 the counter perspective to the image of the red savage, embodied by the Indian warriors who performed in historical reenactments like the Attack on the
Deadwood Coach. Cody’s show provided its audience with both the image of the red savage and the noble savage, balancing the negative and positive images of Native Americans that existed in the late nineteenth century, and this balance persisted in the show thought its existence.
60
58 “Program The Wild West: Buffalo Bill’s Rocky Mountain and Prairie exhibition, 1885,” folder 19, Box 2,
Cody Collection Denver.
59 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 3.
60 “Program The Wild West: Buffalo Bill’s Rocky Mountain and Prairie exhibition, 1885,” folder 19, Box2,
Cody Collection Denver.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
The assumption mentioned above can be supported by a development in the show’s content. As the show expended in size and prepared to Europe, Indian performers began reenacting a variety of Native customs, manners, and dances, in order to represent Native civilization before they were ‘civilized’ by the Anglo-Saxon race. After the London exhibition in
1887 these Native representation became a more influential part of the show, as is proven by their presence on many advertisements for the show and the extensive information on Native society in the show programs. This development also supports the assumption on Cody’s effort to give his show an educational meaning.
61
Black Elk
Sitting Bull was the first famous Indian performer, but would not be the last one. In the summer of 1886, Black Elk, an Oglala-Sioux medicine man, joined Cody’s show for a tour through the
United States and its first tour the Europe, which started with the American Exhibition in London in 1887. Although Black Elk was not a well-known figure during the late nineteenth century, the fact that the German anthropologists John G. Niehardt published his biography in 1932 makes
Black Elk’s records of his time with the show a valuable source of information.
“There came to us some Wasichus who wanted a band of Oglala’s for a big show that the other Pahuska [Cody] had. The show would go across the big water to strange lands, and I thought I ought to go, because I might learn some secrets of the Wasichus that would help my people somehow.” 62 This fragment of Niehardt’s Black Elk Speaks partially explains why Black Elk joined the show; he believed it would educate him on Anglo-Saxon society and provide him with knowledge to help his people. Black Elk describes his days of performing as happy times, during
61 “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, London Exhibition, 1887,” Folder 19, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.;
“Salutary by John M. Burke, program 1885,” Folder 19, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
62 John G. Niehardt, Black Elk Speaks; Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (New York; State
University of New York press, 2008), 165.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race which he got the opportunity to perform for “grandmother England,” 63 Queen Victoria, whom
Black Elk describes as respectful towards the Native performers. Black Elk performed in a dance before Victoria, which was not surprising; he participated predominantly in dances and rarely in acts that required him to shoot or participate in battle reenactments. At the American Exhibition in London, the show was again divided in the three categories of races, historical reenactments, and shooting exhibitions, although the representation of Native society became an influential part of the historical reenactments in the show.
64
English perception
There is another important clue hidden in Black Elk speaks memoires. According to Black Elk, the
Indian performers “liked the part of the show we [Natives] made, but not the part the Wasichus made.” 65 If one considers Black Elk’s appreciation of dance and his negative attitude towards shooting exhibitions, one can assume that Black Elk is referring to representations of Native culture as the part of the show Indian performers enjoyed. Coincidently, this is also the part of the show that many of the English reviewers of the show appreciated. Native performers proved to be a spectacle on their own, based on the interest of English journalist in their performance in the show and encampment they lived in. An unknown journalist of The Illustrated London News describes the show as “an exact reproduction of daily scenes of frontier life, as experiences and enacted by the very people who now form the “Wild West” company. It comprises Indian life,
‘cow-boy’ life, Indian Fighting and burning Indian villages…” 66
63 John G. Niehardt, Black Elk Speaks; Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (New York; State
University of New York press, 2008), 170.
64 “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, London Exhibition, 1887,” Folder 19, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.;
“Article Morning Post, April 12, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
65 Niehardt, Black Elks Speaks, 167
66 “Article The Illustrated London News, April 23, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
Not a word is mentioned on the historic reenactments in which Indians are represented as the red savage warriors. A journalist of The Saturday Review describes his tour through the Indian encampment on April 25, 1887:
“The vary Indian babies, with their faces painted in an odd lemon color, toddling around with their tattooed mothers, in their long crimson blankets, with their hair bedecked with beats and even with scalps, added to the illusion [illusion of the real frontier life]… And the Pawnee and Oglala chiefs stride from tent to tent, wrapped up in their sweeping blankets, looking like ‘ghosts of a departed glory.’ The scene assumes its weirdest aspect, and quite justifies the intense curiosity which has taken possession of its [London] inhabitants.” 67
Another journalist from The Sunday Chronicle describes in his report how a tour of the encampment and a visit to the show changed his perception on its content: “The show, I imagined to be vulgar and tawdry, and this assumption, a false one I make haste to say…” 68 The reporter then continues to express sympathy for the traditional way the Indians camped during their stay in London.
The report of journalist described above fit the program of the show during the London
Exhibition. Named The Drama of Civilization, the show did not intended to depict Native
Americans as savages, but rather provide its audience with a representation of the inevitable loss of Native civilization for the good of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Here the show touches upon its presumed educational value again. As a reporter for the Observer remarks, the show was an
“opportunity for studying the wildfull ways of the “children of the prairie” before popular favor and superfluous hunger rendered them civilized.” 69 This does not mean there was no place for the triumph of Anglo-Saxon civilization in the show. The Attack on the Deadwood Mail Coach was still
67 “Article The Saturday Review, April 23, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
68 “Article The Sunday Chronicle, April 24, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
69 “Article The Observer, April 24, 1887,”Folder 37, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race featured in the show, as well as the representation of The Pony Express, but the pinnacle of the show regarding ‘red savagery’ was the reenactment of Custer’s Last Stand, in which Custer’s entire regiment was killed by Indian warriors. The reenactment was accurate in depicting this
“reddest page in Savage history,” 70 was a true display of savagery, with an Anglo-Saxon army being defeated by Indians on stage. Although this reenactment is mentioned in some newspaper reviews from English reporters, their interest seems to be in the reenactments of Native culture and society. This educational aspect of the show had been fundamental aspect of the show, as is shown by a telling passage from one of Cody’s bibliography. Cody explains that his reason for inviting a group of Oglala-Sioux to his show was to provide his future audience “with a true experience of the West.” 71 This intention resulted in his interest in reality and the balance between historical reenactments of battles and of Native culture a society central to the show.
72
1889-1893
After a six month stand in London, the show toured through England until May 5, 1888, when it performed for the last time in Hull. After this performance, the entire company left for Staten
Island, New York, with the exception of Black Elk and three other Indian performers, who were left behind in Manchester. Black Elk would later rejoin the show in Paris in 1889, after spending two seasons with another Wild West show managed by a man called Mexican Joe, during which he toured Europe and educated himself on European culture and the English language. When he was reunited with Cody in Paris in 1889, Cody showed Black Elk a great amount of respect and threw him a special dinner at the encampments. Afterwards, he provided Black Elk with a ticket back home and 90 dollars, more than three times Black Elk’s salary at Mexican Joe’s show. His
70 “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, London Exhibition, 1887,” Folder 19, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.;
71 William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill’s Life Story: an Autobiography (New York; Skyhorse Publishing, 2010), 233.
72 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 286-287, 317-318.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race time in Europe is described by Black Elk as a spirit journey, during which he had a vision on the future of his people.
73
Exposition Universelle
On May 19, 1889 the Wild West show opened at the Exposition Universelle in Paris with the
Drama of Civilization. However, there was a significant addition to the program; visitors were now allowed, even encouraged, to tour through the encampment. By doing so, they would get an impression of how Native Americans lived their daily lives and how the Indian performers were treated. As was recognized by a reporter in London a year earlier, there were no signs of exploitation or unhealthy living conditions. The Native encampment included some fifteen spouses of Indian performers, which were the only Native females on the show. By letting visitors tour the encampment, these females became performers in their own way; the contributed to the educational aspect of the show. Touring the encampment became part of the show upon its return to the United States after its first European tour in 1887 and 1888. However, during the show’s stance at the Paris exhibition, the female Indians became performers ‘on stage’ as well; they participated in the opening march of the show and were part of the display of Native society, acting out the daily task they performed in the encampment every day.
74
During the Paris Exhibition in 1889, the show became more than just a show; performers were encouraged to venture into the city, thereby spreading a true ‘Wild West’ hype. Indian performers became a common sight in the streets of Paris, making the show even more popular than it already was, and attracted attention everywhere they went. 75
73 John G. Niehardt, Black Elk Speaks; Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (New York; State
University of New York press, 2008), 172-176.
74 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 85-86.
75 Paul Redding, Wild West Shows (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 102-103.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
After a period of three months in Paris, the show began a tour of Europe, starting in the south of
France, continuing through the Mediterranean towards Italy. Although the show’s stay in Spain was not particularly successful, its tours through Italy, Austria, and Germany proved to be success.
In the larger cities, like Milan, Rome, Venice, Vienna, and Munich, Indian performers continued to attract attention whenever they ventures into the street, a fact that Cody uses to his advantage. A telling example is the attendance of several Indian performers at Pope Leo XIII’s coronation anniversary on March 3, 1890. The performers attending this specially arranged visit were dressed up in full performing costume and gear and resembled the noble savages they played on stage.
Journalists and reporter were there to describe the magnificent scene of Rocky Bear kneeling before the Pope and receiving a blessing and of other Indian performers making the sign of the cross while looking like heathen savages. Although several articles were published in The New
York Herald, one cannot be sure on the truthfulness of the events. Cody and his companions were not the only visitors during the Pope’s coronation celebration; some influential Royal Europeans were there as well, a fact taken by Cody to support his claim of European popularity of his show, while in fact, Cody was a guest because he was an American.
76
Chicago Exhibition
After a second tour through Europe, Cody returned to the United States to perform before
American audiences. Having gained enormous popularity after the successful tours through
Europe, the show attracted large audiences in the United States as well. The high point of this rise in popularity became the show’s stance just outside the 1893 Columbia Exhibition in Chicago.
The show opened on April 26, 1893, just outside the fairgrounds and under a new name;
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the World. Indeed, the show had become more than a representation of the American west. It now contained frontier
76 Chris Dixon ed., Buffalo Bill from Prairie to Palace, by John M. Burke (Lincoln; University of Nebraska
Press, 2012), 245.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race reenactments from across the globe, including soldiers from Germany, France, England, and
Russia, Georgian Cossack, Arabian and Syrian Horsemen, and a group of Native Americans larger than ever. However, the show was still organized in three categories; races, reenactments, and shooting exhibitions. Furthermore, the Attack on the Settler’s Cabin and the Attack on the
Deadwood Mail Coach were still the centerpieces of the show, highlighted in the show program.
77
Reception
Although the show was larger than ever and contained a wide variety of performers, the Native performers still starred in most races and reenactments and continued to capture the attention of journalists and reporters. Reviews of the show and its performers were filled with the same appreciation and respect as the review of the shows in London and Paris several years earlier. The term “noble savages” can be found in most of the paragraphs of the more extensive reviews in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Globe, and the Daily Mail.
78 One reporter describes the scene of 76
Sioux Indians arriving at the fair, where they greeted Cody as an old friend, even though they had never met him before. Cody spoke with great respect to his newest performers, a sight that impressed the reporter and increased his appreciation for Cody’s educational work.
79
Another similarity between the show in Chicago and the show in Paris was the effort taken by Cody and Salsbury to guide visitors around the encampment. Since the camp had increased significantly in size, it had become an attraction on its own, a small multicultural town with inhabitants from all across the globe. Again, the reviews from reporters were predominantly positive, underlining descend living conditions, significant amounts of quality food, and enough opportunities for performers to socialize after work. What is highlighted here is the educational
77 “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the Worlds, 1893,” Folder 25, Box
13, Cody Collection Denver.
78 Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4, Cody Collection Denver.
79 Ibidem.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race purpose of the show. As mentioned before in chapter one, Cody fancied himself an educator as much as an entertainer. 80
A significant change between Cody’s show in London and Paris and the show in
Chicago was the importance of education. Although reality and education had always been a central characteristic of the show, they took on a new form in the 1893 Chicago season. As mentioned earlier, tours around the encampment became an attraction of their own, but Cody took it to a new level; Cody made an effort to show politicians and diplomats the educational aspect of his show. A telling example of this effort is the visit of Senator Kyle and Emma C. Sickels, chairman of the Women’s committee Indian Congress. They were guided through the encampment and were impressed by the civilized manners of the Native performers and the quality of their living environments. They complimented Cody on his influence in civilizing the
Native Americans, a compliment that opposed the opinion of Reformers, as shall be made clear in the next chapter.
81
The role of Cody as an educator of its audience has briefly been mentioned in chapter one already, but it is important to mention it once more. In his autobiography Buffalo Bill’s Life Story,
Cody positions himself in the middle of American civilization and Native American savagery; statements like “White men were the enemy, not the Indian” 82 and “Indian attacks were inevitable,” 83 Cody creates a sense of inevitability; American civilization had to overcome the obstacle of ‘noble savages,’ but it was a shame it had to be like this. Although the autobiography has a high dose of overdone morality and respect, this assumption does connect to several parts of the Wild West show. First, Native performers were not forced to represent the vanquishing of their own culture; they choose to do so by applying for the job of performer. Second, Cody had a
80 “Details on Camp Site,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4, Cody Collection Denver.
81 “Article Chicago Tribune, September 24, 1893,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4, Cody Collection
Denver.
82 William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill’s Life Story: an Autobiography (New York; Skyhorse Publishing, 2010), 22.
83 Cody, Buffalo Bill’s Life Story, 50.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race good relationship with several important performers, the prime examples being Sitting Bull and
Black Elk. Third, Native performers were treated with respect and received better economic opportunities than they would receive on the reservations. Finally, Cody had stressed the importance of authenticity of his reenactments from the beginning and saw himself as an educator as much as an entertainer.
84
Playing themselves
In the introduction of this chapter it has been made clear that three elements would be included; the role of Native performers, the ideological messages of these roles, and the day-to-day lives of performers outside the arena. The first to elements have been completed at this point.
Essentially, Native performers played two distinct roles; one depicting them as savage warriors, the other as noble savages. The warrior character was represented in the battle reenactments, the most important part of Cody’s show, while the noble savage was represented in cultural reenactments, like dances and replica settlements, as well as the actual show encampment.
Both roles played by Native performers were part of a single message; Native civilization was both noble and savage, but inferior to Anglo-Saxon civilization and therefore destined to be swept from the continent, either by assimilation of force. It is this distinction between inferior and superiors races and civilizations that was central to the subtle messages broadcasted from the arena floor by Cody and his Native performers. It is sour irony, yet Native performers were supporting the decline of their culture and race, by reenacting them as if they were still in their glory days. The races and reenactments, the two components of the show dominated by Native performers, molted together the noble savages and savage warriors into a hybrid Native race,
84 Don Russell, The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill (Norman, University of Oklahoma press, 1960), 477-
479.; “Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the Worlds, 1893,” Folder 25,
Box 13, Cody Collection Denver.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race both to be admired, respected, but to be vanquished nonetheless, because it was inferior to the
Anglo-Saxon civilization, the property of Anglo-Saxon civilization.
Allegations
The period between 1885 and 1893 was not only a time of rising fame and increasing profit; with the growth of Cody’s show came an increasing opposition towards the show. This growing opposition can best be described by analyzing the 1890 Bureau of Indian Affairs hearing, regarding allegations of mistreatment and exploitation. On June 20, 1890, The World published an article describing the homecoming of Kill Plenty, White Horse, Bear Pipe, and White Weasel, who returned from Cody’s show in Europe. The article described a conversation between an unidentified reporter of an Italian newspaper and Kill Plenty. According to The World, Kill Plenty had expressed complaints about bad food and poor treatment during his stay in Europe to an assistant superintendent of Immigration, James O’ Beirne, who forwarded these complaints to authorities and press. When Kill Plenty died a few weeks later, officials of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs were outraged; they believed Cody’s show had ‘killed’ these Native performers by exposing them to Europe and disconnecting them from their reservations and ‘American values.’
The fact that for every article expressing poor treatment by Cody, ten articles were written on good treatment by Cody was left out of the discussion. During the 1890 European tour, Cody was confronted by serious opposition towards his policy of hiring Native performers.
85
Death and injury
Besides these allegations of mistreatment by several Native performers, there was another fact that supported claims of the show in Europe being of a negative influence on Native Americans; death and injuries. During the 1890 season, four Lakota performers were killed by diseases and heart failure, while common injuries continued to take out performers during the season.
85 “Article The World, June 20, 1890,” Folder 1, Box 2, The William F. Cody Papers, McCracken research
Library, Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming. Hereafter referred to as Cody Papers CotW.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
Although injuries were part of everyday life in the show, deaths were not. There is a reasonable explanation for this; performers in Cody’s show were selected on their horsemanship and shooting talent, which included combining the two in faring stunts on horseback. Although the riders were talented, there was no guarantee for staying on the horse. One particular injury that was fairly common among the performers who rode on horseback was a broken collar bone.
Several letters of performers to their families back home mention accidents with this particular injury as a result. Letter from Pedro Esquival (1895) and Warren Grant Vincent (1897) both spend a few words on broken collarbones as a result of falling from a horse. Both men are fairly short on the topic; “Accidents happen.” 86
Deaths, on the other hand, were not common. According to a documents produced by the
McCracken Research Library in 2007, only eighteen can be confirmed as casualties during the show, fourteen of which are confirmed as Native performers. Comparing this to the fact that some 1000 Native American traveled with the show makes fourteen casualties look like a drop of water on a hot plate. Yet this assumption cannot be made so easily. Of the fourteen deaths, only one has been connected to an accident during the show; the rest of them have been confirmed as death by diseases like smallpox or tuberculosis. 87
One can say these deaths were simply part of the show. However, Reformers saw it as proof of poor living environments, an argument supported by the fact that most deaths were caused by diseases, which could be connected to cold, wet, or damp living environments.
88 One can understand how this argument was put together and placed within the discussion surrounding the show after the 1890 season and became a central point of critique on Cody’s
86 “Letter Warren Vincent to family,” Folder 9, Box 1, Cody Collection Denver.; “Letter Pedro Esquival to
Family,” Folder 9, Box 1, Cody Collection Denver.
87 “Native American Deaths, 1888-1893,” unpublished document created by McCracken Research Library,
Cody Papers CotW.
88 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 369-372.; “Article The World, June 20, 1890,” Folder 1, Box 2, Cody Papers CotW.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race hiring of Native performers, critique that would eventually become the first serious threat to
Native performers. In 1890, a hearing was held by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, aimed at investigating the alleged mistreatment of Native performers during Cody’s season in Europe. This hearing, and the arguments of Reformers in particular, will be analyzed in greater detail in the next chapter, but it is necessary to note the outcome, which was in favor of Cody. As it turned out, for every Native performer with critique on Cody, there were five who had nothing but respect for Cody and praised his attitude and generosity in front of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs. A particular telling example is Rocky Bear’s statement on fair wages. After multiple questions, he showed the inquisitors a purse filled with 300 dollars he had saved up during this days with Cody’s show. This left the inquisitors quite speechless; not only was it proof of sufficient pay, but it also countered some of their arguments regarding indecent practices, like poker, which will we analyzed in the next chapter.
89
Positive statements
The positive outcome of the 1890 hearing can be linked to several statements made by Native performers on good treatment, fair wages, and plenty of good quality food. Besides Rocky Bear,
No Neck and Black Heart testified on their treatment by Cody. These statements were supported by two other statements; one from Dr. Joseph A. Turner and one from W.H. Edwards, U.S. consul general in Berlin. Turner’s statement was made after he had examined Native performers before the opening of the show in Paris in 1889. He concluded that the Indian were in fairly good condition and did not seem to lack any food or other living commodities.
90 Edward’s statement took one the same positive shape. After communication with assistant deputy O’Breine, Edwards was order to examine the Native performers during their stay in Berlin in August, 1890. His
89 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 372.; “Article Philly Paper, August 21, 1890,” Folder 1, Box 2, Cody Papers CotW.
90 Don Russell, The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill (Norman, University of Oklahoma press, 1960), 351-352;
Carolyn Thomas Foreman, Indians Abroad, 1493-1938 (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1943), 201-
205.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race conclusion was flattering; they were “the best looking, and apparently the best fed Indians” of any he had seen before.
91
These statements represent the same positive attitude towards the treatment of Native performers as several news articles and personal correspondence from performers to their families. One telling example is a letter from an unidentified cowboy, sent to his family on May
22, 1889 from Paris. According to the cowboy, the food was terrific. “I now weigh about 154 Lbs. which is about 5 lbs. more than in America. My appetite is tremendous.” 92 This statement is supported by several news articles, especially the ones describing tours through the show’s encampment, mentioned earlier in this chapter.
93 A negative remark on the living conditions of the performers are very hard to come by in these articles, yet statements of approval and praise are common. With regards to the food, the main conclusion seems to be that it is “plenty and well-arranged.” 94
As shall become clear in the next two chapter, the arguments of Reformers were often built on non-existent claims of mistreatment and exploitation, claims that were a façade for the real concerns of Reformers; the influence of Cody’s show in the assimilation policy executed by
U.S. government. As for this chapter, the third element has been completed. Native Americans participating in Cody’s were treated no different than American cowboys or Mexican gauchos.
Housing, food, and comfort were descent, judging by the positive statements on these issues made by several reporters in multiple articles. The fact is that articles praising the living conditions of the performers outnumber the articles criticizing these issues. Furthermore, personal correspondence, although very view remain today, speak no ill about the living conditions. As for
91 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 98.
92 “Letter Warren Vincent to family,” Folder 9, Box 1, Cody Collection Denver.
93 “Article Observer, 24 April,” Folder 38, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
94 “Article The Era, April 23, 1887,” Folder 38, Box 2, Cody Collection Denver.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race injuries and deaths; Cody could control many aspects of show, but bad fortune or powers of nature were not among them.
Conclusion
Native performers joined Cody’s show for two distinct reasons; economic opportunities and cultural freedom. Cody hired his cast during open auditions and selected them for their skills in horsemanship, dancing, and shooting. These qualities were necessary for the show’s three types of entertainment; races, reenactments, and shooting exhibitions. Native performers were predominantly active in the first two categories, in which their skills were most useful. During the reenactments they were free to play themselves in a way they could not on their reservations.
Native Americans played two roles; a noble version of themselves or a savage version of themselves. Native performers who participated in the different dances displayed for the audience or took part in the reenactment of a Native settlement resembled the noble savage, while the performers attacking the Deadwood Stage coach embodied the savage warrior. These two distinct representations of Native American life were molted together in a single ideological message; Native American culture and the race that resembled it were to be feared and respected, but remained inferior to the superior civilization spread across the continent by the
Anglo-Saxon race. Cody projected himself as a neutral individual, drifting between the two civilizations; he felt sorry for the fact that Native American civilization had to end, but it was an inevitable result if the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Native performers could praise their own civilization on stage, but by doing so supported the ideological message of Cody’s show;
Native American culture and civilization had to disappear in favor of Anglo-Saxon civilization.
While Cody’s show was rising to fame and fortune, opposition was raising its voice as well.
In 1890, Cody came very close to losing his beloved Native performers when the Bureau of Indian
Affairs issued a hearing after several performers had expressed their dissatisfaction about the
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race living conditions and food at Cody’s show. Yet this negative testimony on life off-stage was one of the few; for every negative testimony there were ten positive ones, praising the living conditions in the encampment. Besides these testimonies, many news articles remain, describing the encampment as pleasant and of good quality.
Two other important sources of information regarding daily life of performers are interviews and testimonies from Sitting Bull and Black Elk, two high-profile performers who joined the show between 1885 and 1890. Sitting Bull was the center of attention whenever reporters were near and the memoirs of Black Elk have become an important source of information on daily life in Cody’s Wild West show. Sitting Bull became essential for the creation of the ‘noble savage’ image, desired by Cody. He did not participate in the show, but Sitting Bull became the embodiment of this noble savage, being a high profile Indian chief who enjoyed nation-wide recognition for his part in the Indian wars and the battle at Little Bighorn. Sitting Bull gave many interviews, reflecting on his experiences with Cody’s show, his travel across the United States, and his opinions on American society.
The show had one weak spot for Reformers to aim at; deaths and injuries. Abuse and bad living conditions are easily connected with deaths and injuries, yet closer analysis of statements and memoirs reveal that there was no such connection in Cody’s show. Injuries were common and part of the job, since performers were engaged in dangerous acts, often including fast horses.
Almost all the deaths during the show were the result of diseases or natural causes. Whenever a performer became sick, medical care was provided by the show. In combination with descend wages, social freedom, good living conditions, and good quality food, one can conclude that
Native performers in Cody’s Wild West show were treated well, despite allegations of abuse and mistreatment, made by Reformers. The Reformers and their arguments will be the central topic of the next chapter.
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Chapter 2: Representing a Vanquished Race
Throughout this chapter, terms like Reformers, opposition, and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs have been mentioned, yet not in great detail. In the next two chapters, these terms will be analyzed in greater detail, when we will relocate the focus of this research from Cody’s Native performers to the voices that opposed their participation. The voices are often referred to as
Reformers, individuals connected to U.S. government and private organizations connected to
Native American policy. Chapter three will look at the identity and arguments of these individuals and their organizations, thereby identifying the true reason for the opposition depicted during the
1890 Bureau of Indian Affairs hearing and arguments that were used to support this opposition.
Chapter four will take the next step in answering the main question of this research, by locating the ideological components imbedded in both Manifest Destiny and the arguments of Reformers.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers
Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition; the Reformers
“The expansion of humanitarian reform was a natural transition to a broader area of activity that eventually affected the civil rights of nearly all racial minorities within the United States. Working as individual writers and lecturers or as members of organizations, those who tried to reform the
Indian policy represented a number of Christian denominations. Their personal beliefs ranged from orthodoxy to a liberal free religion, but most could be described as social-gospel Christian humanists because they were deeply concerned with the improvement of the well-being of their fellowmen.” 95
Robert Winston Mardock, The Reformers and the American Indian
Introduction
In 1881, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Hiram Price spoke the following words; “Savage and civilized life cannot live and prosper on the same ground. One of the two must die.” 96 He was referring to the growing problem of Native American tribes occupying land deemed desirable by
American society. The West had been an infinite source of land, which resulted in the consistent relocation of Native Americans across the land, but when the westward expansion reached the
Pacific Ocean, land had once again become a finite source. This turn of events resulted in a question vital to the development of the United States in the second half of the Nineteenth century; what was to be done with the Native Americans? This question would challenge U.S. decision makers till the early 1900’s and became known simply as ‘the Indian problem.’
Two organizations were of significant influence in finding a solution for this problem. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs 97 is a federal institution, established as the Office of Indian Affairs in 1824 as part of the War department and tasked with administrative duties regarding legal land claims
95 Robert Winston Mardock, The Reformers and the American Indian (Columbia; University of Missouri
Press, 1971), 1.
96 Hiram Price, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1881,” in Documents of United States Indian Policy, ed. Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press,
2000), 154-156.
97 Hereafter referred to as the abbreviation ‘BIA.’
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers from Native American tribes. Soon after its establishment, however, the Bureau started developing plans for the systematic assimilation of Native Americans. Is was not uncommon for these plans to be based on the personal beliefs of the acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the highest officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which were often installed through personal relations, regardless of their capacity to run the Bureau. As we shall see later on, individual
Commissioners, like Thomas J. Morgan, had a significant influence on Indian policy and played an important role in the Bureau’s conflict with Cody.
The Indian Rights Association 98 originated in 1884 as an initiative of several Christian humanitarians, who desired full assimilation of Native Americans, in order to make them productive and legal citizens of the United States. The IRA acted as an independent lobbying agency for the rights of Native Americans, although they shared the objective of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs. Although the organization was fairly small, it became influential fairly quick as a result of its ‘members.’ Many of these members were influential, often political figures with a large network, thereby increasing their influence on the Indian policy. Although the Indian Rights
Association shared a common belief in assimilation with the BIA, they claimed to be ‘friends of the
Indian,’ operating from a humanitarian perspective.
99
Although the IRA and the BIA were different organizations, they shared a common view on the solution for the Indian problem, as this chapter will prove. Contemporary scholars often separate the organizations due to the difference in character; the BIA is a governmental institution, while the IRA was a private organization. Furthermore, the BIA had the authority to execute legal procedures and policies, whereas the IRA was limited to supporting or opposing such measures. One can argue about organizational details, but the fact is that both organizations shared two important similarities; they shared the same vision on solving the Indian problem and
98 Hereafter referred to as the abbreviation ‘IRA.’
99 Donald L. Fixico, Bureau of Indian Affairs (Santa Barbara; Greenwood, 2012), 14.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers both opposed the hiring of Native Americans by Cody’s Wild West show, using the same arguments. It will become clear in this chapter that the BIA and IRA were more alike than some scholars care to admit, especially in their arguments against the hiring of Native performers.
Why were Reformers critical to the hiring of Native performers by Cody and which arguments were used to support this opposition? This question will be central to this chapter. The question seems quite simplistic, yet an explanation is required here. As mentioned earlier,
Reformers seemed to be occupied with the well-being of the Native Americans participating in
Cody’s show, yet there was no evidence to support their concerns about this issue. The true concern of Reformers was the possible effect of the show on the assimilation policy executed by
U.S. government during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Yet this concern was rarely uttered in public; the public opposition to Cody’s show was based on arguments of mistreatment and exploitation, proof of which can be found in the 1890 BIA hearing, described in the previous chapter.
This chapter will thus do the following; it will provide a clear analysis of the main concern of Reformers regarding Native performers and analyze the arguments used to masquerade this concern, thereby answering the question stated above. Answering this question is vital for this research for two reasons. First, Reformers were central to the political debate surrounding Native performers in Cody’s show, which makes their arguments and intentions a vital component of this research. Second, the arguments Reformers used to oppose Cody’s show were different from their actual concern about Cody’s show, which makes the Reformer’s opposition a complex subject for analysis. It is therefore essential to sort out the arguments and concerns and value them, so they can be placed neatly in the political debate surrounding Native performers. To put it bluntly, in order to for this research to be successful, it is vital to know what Reformers said, why they said it, and what they actually mend.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Established in 1824 as the Office of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was originally charged with three basic tasks; controlling the trade with Indian tribes, organizing new borders between Native lands and U.S. lands, and managing settlers. These tasks proved to be difficult enough, since the westward expansion took up a rapid pace in the three decades after 1824, which resulted in the overruling of treaties, the complication of trade, and the increase of squatters on Indian lands. The solution, according to the BIA, was swift and total assimilation of
Native Americans to Christian farmers, thereby posing a solution to the constant need for more farm land.
100 In the word of President Andrew Jackson, Native Americans had to “cast of their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.” 101
For the next four decades, the Bureau of Indian Affairs stayed committed to its basic tasks till March 3, 1871. On that day, Congress passed a Funding Act for Yankton Sioux that would influence the federal Indian policy to great length. The act on itself was nothing special, yet it contained a paragraph that would put a stop on the diplomatic approach towards the Indian problem, taken by U.S. government. Essentially, the United States would not negotiate with
Native tribes, since they were not being recognized as sovereign nations. To the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, the 1871 Act meant a heavy setback; diplomacy was one of their most efficient tools, and now it was gone. As a result, assimilation became a more significant part of the Bureau’s policy, since it became clear that the Indian problem had to be solved one way or the other.
102
U.S. officials preferred a ‘peaceful solution’ to the Indian problem, which resulted in
President Ulysses Grant’s Peace Policy. Ulysses realized that waging war with the Native American was costly, especially after the Civil War had drained the U.S. treachery. Therefore, Grant advocated peace by giving Native American clear legal rights and obligations. By doing so, the
100 Donald L. Fixico, Bureau of Indian Affairs (Santa Barbara; Greenwood, 2012), 18-20.
101 Andrew Jackson, “On Indian removal, December 8, 1829,” in Manifest Destiny and American Territorial
Expansion: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012),
47-48.
102 Fixico, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 50.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers reservations on which the Native tribes lived would become productive communities on their own. Although Grant spoke about legal rights and obligations, the ultimate goal was no different than the goals of other policies; in order to obtain legal rights, the Native American had to give up on their ‘savage’ cultural habits, become devoted Christians, and pick up the craft of agriculture.
Grant’s peace policy was the same policy that had existed since the establishment of the BIA, only under a different name.
103
Several events in the 1880’s and 1890’s signaled the failure of Grant’s peace policy;
Wounded Knee, Custer’s last stand, and the Ghost Dance uprising are some of them. Yet the peace policy did result in a change for the BIA; they became an organization charged with finding a solution to the Indian problem. Since treaty making was no longer an option, the Bureau turned even more attention to missionaries and the plan to Christianize Native Americans, in order to make them U.S. citizens. Again, the destination was assimilation, the road towards it was
Christianity.
104
An important piece of legislation, supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was the 1886
Dawes Allotment Act. This act aimed to separate Natives from their communal lifestyle and place them on 160 acres of farmland, thereby forcing them to pick up farming as their only source of income. Furthermore, the Allotment Act cut down the size of reservations significantly, making land available for U.S. citizens and companies. In its effort to civilize Native Americans, U.S. government kept limiting their land and forcing them to sever the ties with their communal culture, with support of the BIA. Although the Bureau claimed to pursue peaceful and gradual assimilation, it supported federal policies of repression, such as the Dawes Allotment Act and the
1871 Funding Act.
105
103 Mary C. Collins, "A Fall From Grace: Sectarianism and the Grant Peace Policy in Western Washington
Territory, 1869-1882," Pacific Northwest Forum 8 (1995): 55-77.; Donald L. Fixico, Bureau of Indian Affairs
(Santa Barbara; Greenwood, 2012), 37-40.
104 Fixico, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 49-53.
105 Henry L. Dawes, “Dawes Allotment Act,” in Documents of the United States Indian Policy, ed. Francis Paul
Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 170-172.; Fixico, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 59-65.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers
The BIA remained preoccupied with finding a way of forcing Native Americans into
Christian communities, supported by agriculture. The Dawes Allotment Acts gave them an opportunity to implement assimilation on a large scale with full support from U.S government. In order to do so, it would be necessary for Native American to be confined to their reservations.
When William F. Cody started recruiting Native performers from these reservation, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs feared a setback in their efforts to civilize the Native tribes, since reservations were under U.S. government control and were the only location were Native Americans could be assimilated by force.
Indian Rights Association
Although many Americans agreed with the assumption that Native Americans were a problem, not everyone shared the opinion of Commissioner Francis Walker that they had to “Yield or perish.” 106 There was group of influential people who called themselves ‘friends of the Indian,’ and they were critical towards the Indian policy implemented by the U.S. government and the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 1882 these individuals came together in Philadelphia and founded the
Indian Rights Association. The purpose of the IRA was to find and support practical ways to resolve the Indian problem. They shared a similar goal with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, yet they claimed to oppose the methods and organization of the Bureau, specifically criticizing fraud within the Bureau regarding the appointment of Commissioners.
107
Although the IRA operated from a humanitarian and Christian point of view, their
‘solution’ was not much different from the solution already proposed by the Bureau of Indian
Affairs. Total assimilation of Native Americans was to be achieved in three steps. First, all Native
American tribes should be contained on reservations, thereby stopping the constant removal of
106 Francis Walker, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1872
(Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1872), 9, accessed June 17, 2014, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep72
107 Francis Paul Prucha, Americanizing the American Indians: Writings by the "Friends of the Indian," 1880-
1900 (Lincoln; University of Nebraska Press, 1978), 3-6.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers tribes to new land. Second, Native Americans should receive citizenship as soon as possible if it had been proven that they were able to carry this responsibility. Third, U.S. government should provide education for adult Natives and pursue them to use this possibility for education. Children should be placed in boarding school, regardless of their wishes of or their parents’.
108
It is difficult to find any true differences between the goals of the BIA and IRA; assimilation through reservations, farming, Christianity, and education. Yet there is a fundamental difference.
The IRA devoted itself to the well-being of Natives on reservation in a way unseen within the BIA.
There are two reasons for this difference. First, the BIA was given life to devote itself to administrative and legal matters, not social matters regarding the well-being of Natives on reservations. Second, corruption and fraud were festering within the Bureau; positions were filled in through political patronage, which resulted in the hiring of incapable men who lacked the required knowledge on Natives, reservations, and policy making. This was a thorn in the side of the IRA, which was critical towards this form of organization and organized itself in a more business-like fashion to prevent corruption among their own ranks.
109
There was another similarity between the BIA and the IRA; by the 1890’s, both organizations believed in the willingness of Native Americans to civilize. Herbert Welsh, one of the founders of the IRA and a life ling member, states in his book The Indian Question; Past and
Present that “Indians were capable of civilization and it was largely due to the injustices or inefficiency of the government’s dealings with him that the Indian had attained to civilization so imperfectly.” 110 This statement was made after a visit to a Sioux reservation in Dakota in 1882. A similar statement can be found in the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John
D.C. Atkins. According to reports from Indian Agents, civilization was slow, but steady. Reports
108 Herbert Welsh et al., Address to the Public of the Lake Mohonk Conference in Behalf of the Civilization
and Legal Protection of the Indians of the United States (Philadelphia; Government Printing Office, 1883),
10-15. Accessed on June 18, 2014, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175035167033;view=1up;seq=1
109 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 60-66.; Welsh et al., Address of the Lake Mohonk Conference, 10-13.
110 Ibidem.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers from James McLaughlin, agent of the Standing Rock reservation, were positive on the improvements in attitude, farm skills, and individualism, thereby signaling gradual but certain progress in the assimilation policy on the reservations. Atkins’ successors, John H. Oberly and
Thomas J. Morgan, shared this positive view on assimilation; they firmly believed in the three-way approach, assimilation based on education, Christianity, and agriculture. The same can be said for
Herbert Welsh and his fellow Reformers at the IRA.
111
Opposition to Cody
According to Lawrence Moses, the opposition of the BIA and the IRA was centered on a single issue; participating in the show would reinforce the image of ‘savage warriors’ instead of the preferred civilized Indians. By giving Native Americans a stage for the reenactment of the days of stagecoach robbing and attacks on settlements – these two scenes were key performances in
Cody’s show – the Native Americans would remain connected to their cultural heritage, which would result in their opposition to assimilation programs. 112
Moses is both right and wrong; the image of Indians was indeed an issue of concern for both the BIA and the IRA, yet it was not the most pressing matter. The real problem created by the Wild West show was its effect on the assimilation policy, which would be jeopardized if Native
American left the reservation to travel around the country and through Europe. This was the main concern of both the BIA and the IRA; assimilation was only possible on reservation, guided by
Indian agents, and not with a show that encouraged the Natives to reenact the culture U.S. government was trying to erase.
113 The opposition of the BIA and the IRA is murky, to say the least. Both organizations feared the effects of the Wild West show on their ‘civilized Indians,’ yet
111 Robert M. Kvasnicka and Herman J. Viola, eds., The Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 1824-1977 (Lincoln;
University of Nebraska Press, 1979), 181-203.; John D.C. Atkins, Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1885 (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1885), 50-51.
Accessed April 25, 2014. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep85
112 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 64.
113 Moses, Wild West Shows, 63-67.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers both parties did not directly charged Cody with these allegations. The BIA and the IRA turned to other arguments to support their critique on Native performers.
Exploitation
Allegations of exploitation and mistreatment became an argument Reformers used to support their opposition to Cody’s show. There is a simple reason for this; living conditions, wages, injuries, and death were issues that could be investigated and controlled, making mistreatment and exploitation an allegation that could be proven by facts. From 1886 till the early 1900’s, the
BIA began to regulate the hiring of Native performers by forcing their employers to guarantee adequate food and shelter, medical care, fair wages, the hiring of interpreters to accompany the performers, and a promise to return the Natives safely to their reservations after their employment had ended. Throughout the late 1880’s and 1890’s, these requirements would be inspected by Indian agents on reservations and by U.S. government officials who joined the Wild
West show in Europe to oversee the Native performers on the show.
114
Between 1885 and 1890, allegations of mistreatments, unfair wages, and increasing numbers of injuries and death began to reach the BIA and prompted the acting Commissioner of
Indian Affairs to focus more attention on these allegations. In 1890, agents were ordered to report the status of returning Native performers and Cody received direct orders from the acting
Commissioner Morgan to brief him on the status of all the Natives who participated in his show in
August 1890. Morgan, a devoted Christian and strong opponent of Wild West show, was the first
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to publicly charge Cody’s show with allegations of mistreatment.
115
In November 1890, Cody faced a serious challenge; Commissioner Morgan had summoned 79 Native performers to an inquiry regarding their treatment. Although the statements of Kill Plenty, White Horse, Bear Pipe, and White Weasel, made towards assistant
114 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 98.; Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West
Show (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 368.
115 Moses, Wild West Shows, 97-102.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers deputy James O’Beirne – briefly discussed in chapter two – were the catalyst for the hearing, the true cause for the hearing was a continuing campaign of the BIA to gather evidence of mistreatment and exploitation that started in 1885. The outcome of the hearing disappointed
Morgan and the BIA; 79 Native performers testified on the adequate living facilities, fair wages, sufficient medical care, and overall respectful treatment by Cody.
116
The IRA was less concerned with the possibility of canceling the hiring of Native performers by Cody than with the actual well-being of the performers. On November 13, when
Cody and his 79 Native performers arrived at Philadelphia by ship, Herbert Welsh was one of the first to confront Burke. Welsh requested an examination of the Native performers to guarantee their well-being. Although Welsh did not obtain permission to do so, it is clear that Welsh was concerned more about the physical well-being of the Native performers than in the allegations of mistreatment by Cody.
117
Welsh’s position on the matter of Native well-being was in line with the common opinion of the IRA. According to historian Donald Fixico, the IRA originated from concerns about the wellbeing of Native Americans, both on and of the reservations and preoccupied itself with the reporting of shortcomings on the reservations and the lobbying for improvements. An example of such effort can be found in a report of an 1887 investigation report, made by Herbert Welsh.
Welsh had visited a group of Apache prisoners in St. Augustine, since “as much doubt existed in the public mind regarding the cause which led to the imprisonment of these people, their physical and moral condition during captivity, and the measures in operation looking toward their civilization, this visit of investigation was deemed by the [Indian Rights Association] deemed
116 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 101-104; Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild
West Show (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), 371-373.
117 Moses, Wild West Shows, 100-101.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers advisable.” 118 This visit was thus made to investigate two issues; the well-being of Native
Americans and the progress of their assimilation.
119
This approach was based on a solid foundation of Christian morality and humanitarian concerns about Native Americans. This did not, however, prevent the IRA from supporting the BIA in their quest to stop the hiring of Native performers for Wild West show. The IRA, and Welsh in particular, believed that the Native performers could not profit from participation in Wild West shows, since it took them away from their reservations, where Christianity and education were at work to improve their lives. Essentially, by taking Natives American away from their reservations,
Cody was mistreating them; the only proper treatment for Native Americans was assimilation, everything else was a negative influence on them.
120
The BIA had a simple reason for proving the allegations of mistreatment; they wanted
Native performers back on their reservation, where they could be civilized. Limiting the mobility was an important measure taken by the BIA until 1879, when the Standing Bear vs. Crook decision declared Native Americans as ‘free people,’ thereby enabling them, with permission from an
Indian agent, to travel outside reservations. Despite this ruling, the BIA, and Commissioner
Morgan in particular, went to great lengths to keep Native Americans confined to their reservation. This was the main motivation behind the hunt for allegations of mistreatment by
Cody.
121
118 Herbert Welsh, Report on a Visit to Chiricahua Apache Indians at Present confined to Fort Marison, St.
Augustine, Florida (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1887), 1. Accessed 20 June, 2014, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/download/pdf?id=mdp.39015001662132;orient=0;size=100;seq=5;at tachment=0
119 Ibidem.
120 Herbert Welsh et al., Address to the Public of the Lake Mohonk Conference in Behalf of the Civilization
and Legal Protection of the Indians of the United States (Philadelphia; Government Printing Office, 1883),
12-16. Accessed on June 20, 2014, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175035167033;view=1up;seq=1 ; Donald L. Fixico, Bureau of
Indian Affairs (Santa Barbara; Greenwood, 2012), 15-18.
121 Robert M. Kvasnicka and Herman J. Viola, eds., The Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 1824-1977 (Lincoln;
University of Nebraska Press, 1979), 193-202.; Moses, Wild West Shows, 63, 77.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers
Images
One of the key aspects of assimilation was the abolishment of ‘savagery’ by Native Americans.
Reformers had protested the image of Native American warriors in Cody’s show from the beginning, since they deemed it an image not suitable for the American public to see. However, this image was based in two issues; the representation of ‘savagery’ by Cody’s show and on a public sentiment of disapproval of the ‘gypsy-ness’ of the traveling shows and circuses. This
‘gypsy-ness’ was based in a belief that traveling shows, circuses, and theater productions gave rise to immorality, indecency, and contributed to the degradation of Christian virtues. One can understand why this sentiment was supported to great extent by the IRA.
122
A combination of ‘savagery’ and ‘gypsy-ness’ lay at the foundation of the second great concern of Reformers, regarding Cody’s Native performers; the creation of a negative image. This negative image can be identified rather easily; according to Reformer and Indian agents, any image of Native Americans that did not represent them as civilized and tamed citizens was an image that obstructed the assimilation policy of the late nineteenth century. The above mentioned ‘gypsy-ness’ undermined the efforts of Reformers to Christianize the Native Americans on the reservations, while ‘savagery’ strengthened the ties of Native Americans with their
‘heathen’ cultural background.
123
Commissioner Price stated in his 1871 Annual report that “Savage and civilized life cannot live and prosper on the same ground. One of the two must die.” 124 His predecessors agreed with this assumption, although they did on different levels. One particular Commissioner who aggressively opposed the image of savagery was T. J. Morgan. Installed as Commissioner in June
122 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 366.
123 Janet M. Davis, The Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top (Chapel Hill; University of
North Carolina Press, 2002), 37.; Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Reformers
and the Indian, 1865-1900 (Norman; University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 319-326. Kindle Edition.
124 Francis Walker, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1872
(Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1872), 9, accessed June 17, 2014, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep72
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers
1889, Morgan focused his attention on education. Besides Christianity, education was the most important way in which the Native Americans could be assimilated into civilized citizens of the
United States. According to Morgan “This great nation, strong, wealthy, aggressive, can signal its spirit of fairness, justice, and philanthropy in no better way, perhaps, than by making ample provisions for the complete education and absorption into the national life of those who for more than one hundred years have been among us but not with us.” 125 This assumption generated significant support from the IRA, since education was one of their key ingredients for civilizing
Native Americans. “We do not fail to recognize that the schools and other methods of instruction, industrial, intellectual, moral, and religious, as carried on within or near the reservations by
Christian missionaries for the last fifty years, have lifted up tribe after tribe to civilization.” 126
What Morgan and the IRA also had in common, was their failure to see any positive results from Cody’s Wild West show on the education of Native performers, especially the ones that joined Cody’s tours through Europe. John Noble, Secretary of the Interior and essentially
Morgan’s supervisor, did so. Noble was one of the few Reformers that recognized the effort Cody had undertaken during his tours to educate Native performers on ‘white culture.’ Noble based his assumption in the reports of several Indian agents who claimed that the Native performers who returned from Cody’s show had a positive influence on their fellow reservation inhabitants.
According to John L. Bullis, an agent in Arizona, “reservation Indians were profiting by those
Indians who had been out in the World.” 127
This assumption stood at the foundations of Cody’s belief in education. Indeed, Cody claimed his show was not only educational for his audiences, but for his performers as well.
During his tours in Europe, Native performers were encouraged to venture into society and were
125 Thomas J. Morgan, Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior,
1889 (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1889), 113-114. Accessed June 21, 2014, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep89
126 “Program of the Lake Mohonk Conference, 1884,” in Documents of the United States Indian Policy, ed.
Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 164-165.
127 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 75-77.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers often taken to important places, like New York City Hall, the Vatican, or the British Parliament.
128
George Bates, the Indian supervisor appointed to the show, supported the claim made by Cody on the educational purpose of his endeavor for his Native performers. Regular Church attendance was a big part of this effort, a fact that should please Reformers.
129
There is sufficient proof for the educational effort mentioned above. In an interview with a reporter from the London Globe, Red Shirt, a Native American chief and performer in Cody’s show for multiple years, expressed his opinion on the educational aspect of the show; “The Red
Man is changing every season, Indian of the next generation will not be like the Indians of generations past. Our children will learn the white man’s civilization and to live like him.” 130 In
1885, Sitting Bull had made a similar statement in an interview with a reporter of the Boston Daily
Globe, stating that he would tell his people of “the kindness of the white man and its world.” 131
Statements like these can be found in great quantity in several scrapbooks that have remained, especially the ones created by Cody and Salsbury themselves. It was a fact that was used by Cody to counter the allegations of Reformers like Morgan, who stressed that the only education possible was provided in the reservation.
132
The vigorousness of Morgan’s attitude towards Cody’s influence on the savage image of
Native Americans was exceptional for his time, even among Reformers. Yet, they were united on a single issue concerning Cody’s show; ‘gypsy-ness.’ This term can best be explained by a statement from Richard V. Belt, who acted as Commissioner of Indian Affairs due to the absence of
Commissioner Morgan and led the 1890 hearing on alleged mistreatment. Belt warned Native performers; “You are engaged in the exhibition or show business. It is not considered among
128 “Daily News, April 25, 1887,”, “Echo, April 25, 1887,”, “Morning Post, April 25, 1887,” Folder 38, Box 3,
Cody Collection Denver.
129 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 368-369
130 “London Globe, undated,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4, Cody Collection Denver.
131 “Boston Daily Globe, July 31, 1885,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4, Cody Collection Denver.
132 Thomas J. Morgan, Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior,
1889 (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1889), 113-114. Accessed June 21, 2014, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep89
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers white people a very helpful or elevating business. I believe that that which is bad for white people is bad for the Indians.” 133 This opinion was widely supported by the middle-class, protestant society in the United States during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Indeed, show business, circuses, and theater were often identified with alcohol, diseases related to sexual immorality, greediness, and overall sinful behavior. The connection with Reformers and their opposition to Native performers in Cody’s show is not difficult to identify; whereas the Reformers supported the assimilations policy that would turn the Native Americans into pious, hard-working
U.S. citizens, the show promoted the opposite of these qualities. This argument is therefore pretty straight forward; Reformers opposed the participation in the show, because it allegedly taught the participating Native Americans the opposite qualities than those supported by the assimilation policy on the reservations. As a response, Cody kept emphasizing on the educational aspects of the show and pointed out to the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the individual contracts required for participation, limited the freedom of Native Americans to consume alcohol or participate in immoral activities.
134
Despite the allegations of mistreatment and the concerns about a negative image of
‘savage Indians,’ the opposition of both the BIA and the IRA was built on a single issue; the effects of the show on the assimilation policy. The train of thought can be summarized as follows:
Assimilation was to be achieved by education, Christianization and honest labor. This could be provided for Native Americans on their respective reservations, were their progress could be supervised. If Native Americans participated in Cody’s show, they would escape assimilation and supervision, resulting in the obstruction of assimilation, a serious problem in the eyes of
Reformers. Therefore they used mistreatment, exploitation, and negative representation as
133 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 372.
134 Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America, 370-371 ; L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American
Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 100-103. Janet M. Davis, The
Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top (Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina Press,
2002), 29-32.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers arguments to support their opposition to Native performers in the show, even though evidence for these allegations was scarce.
Conclusion
The BIA and the IRA can both be placed under the common label of Reformers; both were created to solve the Indian problem of the late nineteenth century. The solution for this problem would be assimilation, a process of civilizing the Native American by Christianity, education, and honest labor, which would transform the ‘savage’ Native Americans into ‘tamed and civilized’ Native
Americans. If this was achieved, the Native Americans could become legal U.S. citizens, thereby solving the Indian problem.
In order for the assimilation policy to work, the Native Americans had to be on reservations, where Christian missionaries provided them with religious development, U.S. government could educate the Natives on agriculture and Anglo-Saxon civilization, and Indian agents could supervise the progress of the Natives. The reservations were key elements of the assimilation policy. It is therefore understandable that criticism emerged from the Reformers when Cody started hiring Native American to perform in his Wild West show. If these Native performers were not on their reservation, they could not benefit from the assimilation policy implemented by the BIA and supported by the IRA. Furthermore, Native performers could not benefit from participating in show business, since Reformers – and a significant part of the protestant American population – believed this sort of business was immoral and vulgar. Native
Americans should be turned into Christian, hard-working farmers, in order for them to be productive members of society. The immorality of Wild West show would only obstruct the progress of Native Americans towards this status.
Contemporary scholars have claimed that the main concerns of Reformers regarding
Native performers in Cody’s show were the negative image of ‘savage Indian’ it would create and the physical and mental well-being of the Native performers. Especially the humanitarian
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers
Reformers from the IRA seemed to be concerned about the latter, while the BIA seemed more preoccupied with the negative image of Indians Cody’s show allegedly produced. Scholars like
Lawrence Moses tend to divide the BIA and the IRA, based on the differences between both organizations. The IRA was a private organizations based on humanitarian concerns about the well-fare of Native Americans, while the BIA was a governmental organization, focused on solving the Indian problem and charged with the administrative supervision of Native Americans, their reservations, and the assimilation process.
These claims described above are arguable. Yes, it is correct that the BIA and IRA differed on several levels – organization, fundamental values, size – but their concerns regarding Cody’s show and the involvements of Native Americans were similar; Native performers were not on their reservation when they were on tour with Cody and if they were not on their reservation, they could not be civilized. Therefore, both organizations agreed on the necessity to take the
Native performers out of Cody’s show and back on the reservations.
What is interesting is the fact that neither the BIA nor the IRA stated their concern about
Native assimilation and the effect on this by Cody’s show openly. Both organizations supported their criticism towards the show with arguments based on alleged mistreatment and exploitation and the negative effects of the show on the image of Native Americans in the public mind. These were the two main arguments used by Reformers to support their criticism towards Cody’s show.
The argument of exploitation and mistreatment remained a key aspect of the Reformer’s criticism, although evidence did not support these claims. The argument of negative imagery was based on two sub-arguments; Native Americans could not be educated when on the road with the show and the show was located in show business, a sector of American society that did not enjoy a positive image among U.S. citizens. Put together, these two facts created a bad image of Native
Americans, something that would obstruct the assimilation process on the reservations.
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Chapter 3: Christian and Humanitarian Opposition the Reformers
Although the humanitarian concerns of the IRA were sincere, their main concern was assimilation of Native Americans. The same can be concluded for the BIA. Arguments of image and exploitation aside, both organizations wanted to solve the Indian problem of the late nineteenth century by assimilating Native Americans with Christianity, education, and honest labor. Any distractions from these elements would cause Native Americans to remain savage and would obstruct their assimilation into tamed and civilized U.S. citizens. Reformers wanted assimilation, but could not achieve this if Cody hires Native Americans to join his show. In order to stop this, arguments that could not be sufficiently supported by facts were continuingly used to fuel the Reformer’s opposition towards the show. What they actually wanted to achieve was stopping the participation of Native Americans in Cody’s show. Since this proved to be an impossible goal, severe restrictions and tight surveillance were the best result achievable for
Reformers.
With the main issues and arguments established, it is now time to look towards their ideological foundation. The next chapter will analyze the ideological content of the main concern of Reformers – the assimilation policy – and the arguments they used to support their opposition towards Cody’s show and compare them to the ideological messages expressed by Manifest
Destiny. This comparison will bring this research close to an end; with the ideological connection between Manifest Destiny and the arguments of Reformers established, a final comparison with
Cody’s arguments regarding the hiring of Native performers and the ideological values of these arguments can be made, resulting in a fruitful conclusion to this research.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny
Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny
“This civilization may not be the best possible, but it’s the best the Indians can get.” 135
Thomas J. Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Introduction
When William F. Cody’s Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the World performed outside the Columbus Exposition in Chicago in 1893, its popularity was at an all-time high. A combination of realism, entertainment, and subtle messages on race, gender, domesticity, and civilization had captured the hearts and imagination of audiences in both the United States and Europe. Native Americans were still the cornerstone of the show; their representation of a savage, yet noble warrior culture had captured the hearts and minds of their audience and earned them a very decent paycheck. The ability to express their fading culture and the wage that came with it were the two main reasons for Native Americans to join the show.
Many Americans, however, did not share the same positive attitude towards the Native performers as their audience did. Reformers had started criticizing the participation of Native
American performers in Cody’s show since its first hiring of Native performers in 1885. The BIA expressed concerns about the impact of the ‘savage’ representation of Native Americans on the image of these Natives that existed in U.S. society. The IRA expressed concerns about the same issue, besides their humanitarian interest in the physical and mental well-being of Native
Americans both on and off the reservations. These two arguments were used in fearsome opposition to Cody’s Wild West show and the hiring of Native performers, yet these arguments acted as a supportive pillars for the main concern of Reformers; participating in Cody’s show would obstruct the progress of Native performers on their way to civilization through BIA and IRA
135 Thomas J. Morgan, Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior,
1889 (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1889), 113-114. Accessed June 21, 2014, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep89
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny supported the assimilation policy, which was based on education, agricultural labor, and
Christianity. This assimilation policy was vital for the solving of the Indian problem; only civilized could the Native Americans become U.S. citizens.
Civilization was the keyword for Reformers during the second half of the nineteenth century, as it was in Reformer’s language criticizing Cody’s hiring of Native Americans for his show. Manifest Destiny was a keyword for American society throughout the nineteenth century as well. Ideals on race, identity, religion, and civilization were issue concerning the American population, which resulted in the growing influence of Manifest Destiny as a term for explanation for several events. The idea that Anglo-Saxon civilization was superior and destined by
Providential decree to cover the entire continent, a fundamental aspect of Manifest Destiny, gave
American society a feeling of security in times when this presumed dominance was challenged, by, for example, the Indian Problem.
The late nineteenth century was a period in which Manifest Destiny, Reformers, and
Cody’s Wild West show shared an equal level of prominence. The connection between Manifest
Destiny and Cody’s show has already been analyzed sufficiently in chapter one. This chapter will analyze the connection between Manifest Destiny and the Reformers, by looking at central ideological aspects of both Manifest Destiny and the arguments and concern of Reformers regarding Native performers. Furthermore, an analysis will be provided on the ideological foundation of the Reformer’s pride and joy; the assimilation policy. The latter is an essential part of the political debate regarding Native performers, since the main target of Reformers was the assimilation of Native Americans.
Which ideological beliefs can be identified within the arguments and concerns of
Reformers? This question will act as a guiding light through this final chapter. The answer will be consist out of two components; an analysis of the ideological foundation of the mistreatment, exploitation, and negative representation arguments, used by Reformers, and an analysis of the
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny ideological motivation behind Reformer’s support of the assimilation policy. When these analyses are completed, the ideological foundation of the political debate regarding Native performers will be established, making a conclusion on the connection between the ideological messages expressed by Manifest Destiny and the political debate possible.
Exploitation and mistreatment
Concerns about the exploitation and mistreatment of Native performers were an important part of the Reformer’s opposition towards Cody’s Wild West show and gathering evidence for such allegations was an important part of the BIA’s and IRA’s offensive against Cody between 1885 and
1893. Although evidence remained scarce, the BIA continued its hunt evidence, especially under
Commissioner Morgan. The closest the BIA ever came to actually proving exploitation and mistreatment was the hearing of 1890, which eventually turned out positive for Cody.
At first sight, there is no clear connection between allegations of mistreatment and exploitation; these claims seem to be based on true humanitarian concerns for the IRA and a façade for the actual concerns about the assimilation policy being obstructed by Native performers for the BIA. However, the claims of exploitation provide clarity here. Reformers that claimed the Native Americans in the show were being exploited did not referred to economic exploitation, since they were aware of the fact that Native performers made significantly more money than their peers on the reservations. In 1890, the average wage for a reservation job was
10 dollars a month. In the same year, Cody paid his performers an average of 25 dollars a month.
One can understand how this was not exploitation, even if one opposed the show.
136
Farming
The way in which Reformers saw exploitation is quite complicated. In order to understand this, several quotations are needed. In 1889, a Kansas Indian agent wrote the Commissioner of Indian
136 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 365.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny
Affairs the following; I do not think the government should permit Indians to connect themselves with shows. He should now be taught useful practical lessons of real life; such as will secure him a sound body, comfortable clothing, a permanent home, and the knowledge, that by honest toil alone, men become happy, successful, and even great.” 137 In 1881, Commissioner of Indian Price made a similar statement: “Give the Indian teams, implements, and tools amply sufficient for farming purposes; give him seed, food, and cloths for at least a year; in short give him every facility for making a comfortable living, and then compel him to depend upon his own extensions of food.” 138
These two statements hold several clues. First, performing in a Wild West show was not considered a decent profession, despite the reasonable wages demanded by the BIA since
1886.
139 What was considered a decent and honorable profession was hard manual labor, preferably farming, as stated by the Indian agent from Kansas. Reformers placed a high value on farming; multiple Commissioners expressed their support for it by approving the steady supply of tools, seeds, and land to reservations, especially after the Dawes Act went into effect in 1887.
Commissioner Price stressed the importance of labor in his 1881 Annual Report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs; “Labor is an essential element of civilization.” 140 The principle form of labor Price and other Reformers referred to, was farming.
141
Farming was an important part of U.S. society, so it was only reasonable for the Native
Americans participate in this agricultural tradition. According to Reformers, if Native American would learn how to cultivate the land they occupied, they would need significantly less land to
137 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 369.
138 Hiram Price, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1881,” in Documents of United States Indian Policy, ed. Francis Paul Prucha ed. (Lincoln, University of Nebraska
Press, 2000), 155.
139 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 98.; Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America, 368.
140 Hiram Price, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,” 154.
141 Robert Winson Mardock, The Reformers and the American Indian (Columbia; University of Missouri
Press, 1972), 213-214.; Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Reformers and the
Indian, 1865-1900 (Norman; University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 319-326. Kindle Edition.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny live on, leaving large parcels of land open for white settlement. Thus, farming was not only considered an acceptable and decent professions, it would also solve two problems; the shortage of land for a growing population and the reservation system, which had become a complex and barely manageable system by the 1890’s.
142
The promotion of agriculture was not an initiative from the late nineteenth century
Reformers; before the Dawes Act was even thought of, agriculture became an essential element of the solution to the Indian problems. During the 1850’s, the BIA considered agriculture a solution for both the shortage of land and the increasingly difficult relocation of Native American tribes. The transformation of Native Americans from hunters and gatherers to farmers became an important starting point for policies that would eventually become the assimilation policy supported by Reformers. Farming was not difficult to learn, which made it an efficient job for
Native Americans to obtain. Furthermore, Indian policy makers believed the investment of the
U.S. government would be minimal, since an agricultural society could support itself after a few years, rendering the constant funding by the government unnecessary. Of a similar importance was the social identity of farming; it was considered ‘honest labor’ and a source of morality and
Christian spirituality. Thus, farming was not only a practical solution for the Native body, but for the Native mind and soul as well.
143
These clues mentioned above can be molted together in a single argument; participating in a Wild West show may have been profitable in economic terms, but it was not on a level of morality. Moral satisfaction could only be achieved through ‘honest’ labor, like farming. Here there is a slight connection between Manifest Destiny and the argument of exploitation. In chapter one, territorial expansion and its connection to Manifest Destiny has been touched upon
142 Thomas J. Morgan, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1889,” in Documents of United
States Indian Policy, ed. Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 175-176.; Francis
Paul Prucha, The Great Father: the United States Government and the American Indians (Lincoln; University of Nebraska Press, 1986), 50-54.
143 Prucha, The Great Father, 110-111.; Robert Winston Mardock, The Reformers and the American Indian
(Columbia; University of Missouri Press, 1971), 214-217.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny already. A growing population made land valuable, resulting in continuing relocation of Native
Americans across the continent. Until the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States was a nation built on cultivating farm land, acquired by the continuing expansion of Anglo-Saxon civilization. This was an important part of Manifest Destiny, which gives it a connection to the
Reformers argument regarding manual labor and farming, although the connection is thin of nature. Besides the moral value of farming, the practical consequence of educating Native
Americans on agricultural labor was the possibility to confine them to smaller areas, significantly decreasing the size of reservations, which resulted in the availability of land for white settlers.
144
Morality
There is a stronger connection between the Reformer’s opposition to the show businesscharacter of Cody’s show and the Christian virtues promoted by Manifest Destiny. As concluded in chapter one, Christianity stood at the foundation of Manifest Destiny long before the term was coined in 1845. According to Josiah Strong, a Congregational minister, the Anglo-Saxons were the embodiment of “a pure spiritual Christianity, divinely commissioned to be his brother’s keeper.” 145 This ‘pure and spiritual Christianity’ was based on certain key values regarding domesticity, labor, and morality. Reformers were concerned about the attendance of these key values in Cody’s Wild West show. According to Reformers, these ideals were essential in
“performing duties to Family, the State, and the Church.” 146 Show business was seen as an area of employment in which participants were confronted with immoral and un-Christian values, like sloth, drunkenness, sex, corruption, and rebelliousness. If Native Americans came into contact
144 Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New York; Hill and
Wang, 1995), 25.; Amy S. Greenberg, Manifest Destiny and the American Territorial Expansion: a Brief
History with Documents (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 7374.; Robert Winston Mardock, The
Reformers and the American Indian (Columbia; University of Missouri Press, 1971), 214-223.
145 George Brown Tindal and David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History (New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1984), 704.
146 “Program of the Lake Mohonk Conference, 1884,” in Documents of the United States Indian Policy, ed.
Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 163.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny with these values, it would be difficult to educate them on Christian values, like honest labor, sobriety, marriage, and faithfulness.
147
The connection between the argument of Cody’s show bringing Native Americans into contact with immoral and un-Christian behavior and the Christian ideals expressed by Manifest
Destiny is evident; the first opposed the latter, which caused Reformers to oppose the latter in name of obstructed assimilation. The fact that Reformers were often devoted Christians or even
Ministers only increases the likeliness of the influence of Christian values on the Reformer’s opposition to Cody’s show. The ‘gypsy-ness’ of the show was un-Christian and immoral, an opinion shared by a large segment of the American public in the second half of the nineteenth century.
148 To put it in the words of an Indian agent from Devil’s Lake reservation, “The only show that an Indian should be connected with or take interest in is the State of County Fair where he can exhibit his farm produce and well-kept stock on the same footing as the white man.” 149
According to Reformers, the only way for Native Americans to achieve the same status as a white man was to dedicate oneself to a life of farming and morality on the reservations. After all,
Reformers “did not fail to recognize the schools and other methods of instruction, industrial, intellectual, moral, and religious as carried on within or near these reservations by Christian missionaries for the last fifty years, have lifted up tribe after tribe to civilization.” 150
Negative image
The concern about ‘gypsy-ness’ went further than a fear for moral exploitation and the negative impact on assimilation; Reformers were concerned about the public image of Native Americans that would emerge if they kept participating in the immoral and sinful Wild West show. The
‘savage warrior’ represented in Cody’s show was the exact opposite of the civilized and tamed
147 Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Vintage Books,
2005), 369-371.
148 Ibidem.
149 Ibidem.
150 “Program of the Lake Mohonk Conference, 1884,” in Documents of the United States Indian Policy, ed.
Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 162-163.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny
U.S. citizen, which was how the Reformers wanted to represent the Native Americans. As mentioned earlier, show business had a reputation for being immoral and sinful, a reputation disapproved by a significant part of American society. If the image of Native Americans would be one of savagery, the assimilations policy would be obstructed since public support would diminish. Savagery and civilization could not live next to each other, so one of them had to disappear, and argument supported by American society.
151
This notion of savagery and civilization can be connected to a fundamental ideal of
Manifest Destiny; Anglo-Saxon civilization would conquer savagery, since this civilization was superior and part of the superior white race. Furthermore, American society believed in the divine blessing of both, making the possibility of savagery surviving assimilation rather small. Indeed,
Reformers and American society saw Native Americans as savage ‘heathen,’ who needed to be tamed by Christianity, not by presenting them the opportunity to maintain their heathen cultural traditions. After all, Christianity was the way to true happiness, a fact already mentioned in this chapter. 152
Regardless of ideals, Reformers feared the influence of a negative image of Native
Americans on their efforts for assimilation and the support of American society for this assimilation policy. Especially the BIA was anxious about the consequences of Cody’s show. This is understandable, since the BIA was responsible for the solution of the Indian problem and the process of transforming ‘savage warriors’ into tamed and civilized U.S. citizens. The concerns about negative images may have been sincere, yet the main issue remained the obstruction of the assimilation policy. If this policy should prove ineffective, the fundamental ideal of Anglo-Saxon civilization vanquishing the savage and heathen Native culture would be harmed, a fact that concerned Reformers to a great extent.
151 Hiram Price, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1881,” in Documents of United States Indian Policy, Francis Paul Prucha ed. (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press,
2000), 154-156.
152 Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Reformers and the Indian, 1865-1900
(Norman; University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 319-321. Kindle Edition.
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As mentioned earlier, U.S. citizenship was an important aspect of assimilation; citizenship was the final stage of the transformation of Native Americans, since this would allow them to join society as Americans, not Native Americans. The acquiring of citizenship has been a central part of the assimilation policy since the early 1880’s and had been lobbied for by Reformers since the creation of the IRA in 1882. In September 1884, Reformers from the IRA and other Christian organizations gathered in upstate New York to discuss a unified Reformer’s approach to the
Indian problem, as they did annually since 1882. The program for the Lake Mohonk Conference, as the meeting came to be known, contained the priorities of the Reformers and expressed the way in which these priorities should become practical solutions. The ultimate necessity for assimilation was U.S. citizenship. “All adult male Indians should be admitted to the full privileges of citizenship by a process analogous to naturalization, upon evidence presented before the proper court of record of adequate intellectual and moral qualifications.” 153 The 1887 Dawes Act proposed a similar measure;
“And every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allotments shall have been made under the provisions of this act, or under any law or treaty, and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States who has voluntarily taken up, within said limits, his residence separate and apart from any tribe of
Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, [and every Indian in Indian
Territory,] is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens.” 154
Good intentions aside, the road to citizenship was not an easy one for Native Americans; there were certain goals that had to be achieved for one could apply. Both quotes stated above mention the importance of civilized manners, decent moral, and the ability to sustain oneself by
153 “Program of the Lake Mohonk Conference, 1884,” in Documents of the United States Indian Policy, ed.
Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 162.
154 Henry L. Dawes, “Dawes Allotment Act,” in Documents of the United States Indian Policy, ed. Francis Paul
Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 171-172.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny farming. These demands show resemblance with the ideological values of Christianity and honest labor expressed through Manifest Destiny. To become a U.S. citizen, Native Americans should be able to perform the duties of a pure and spiritual Christian, based on ideals of labor, domesticity, and moral. Reformers called this the ability to serve family, State, and church.
155
Essentially, civilizing mend transforming to the standards of Anglo-Saxon civilization, the cornerstone of Manifest Destiny and American identity. If Native American would not conform to the American identity, they could not be U.S. citizens, which was the ultimate goal of the assimilation policy. However, in order to reach this status, support for this policy was vital; in the program of the 1884nMohonk Conference, Reformers call to attention the value of public support for their cause. Without this support, the assimilation policy would prove useless.
156
From this point of view, one can understand why Reformers were anxious about Cody’s show and its influence on the perception of Native American by American society. No support from society would result in failure of assimilation efforts, which could ultimately result in the failure of Native Americans to obtain U.S. citizenship. For this reason it was vital for Reformers to present the Native Americans as worthy recipients of Anglo-Saxon civilization, based on the ideals expressed by Manifest Destiny. Native Americans participating in Cody’s Wild West show were not seen as open to Christian and civilized ideals; they were seen as untamable savages, the exact opposite. Essentially, Native Americans had to accept the ‘American identity’ based on Anglo-
Saxon civilization, in order to become U.S. citizens.
157
Destined for assimilation
Arguments of exploitation and negative representation aside, the true concern of Reformers was the influence of Cody’s show on the Native American assimilation policy. This issue shows a solid
155 George Brown Tindal and David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History (New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1984), 704.
155 “Program of the Lake Mohonk Conference, 1884,” in Documents of the United States Indian Policy, ed.
Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 163.
156 Ibidem.
157 Ibidem.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny connection with one of Manifest Destiny’s cornerstone aspects; the inevitability of victory over savagery and heathen culture by Anglo-Saxon civilization. According to Anders Stephenson,
Manifest Destiny contained a fundamental message; “it [Anglo-Saxon civilization] was to poses, multiply, and fructify at the expense of heathens.” 158 This message expresses the same belief in
Anglo-Saxon superiority as the statements of Commissioners Price and Morgan, who both claimed that Native Americans either had to accept Anglo-Saxon civilization or be defeated by it.
159
The Indian problem could only be resolved by making Native Americans U.S. citizens. In order to achieve this goal, they had to conform to Anglo-Saxon society, by becoming “pure and spiritual Christians;” 160 hard-working and honest farmers, educated on Anglo-Saxon values and ideal. This process was to be completed on reservations, were the BIA could monitor the progress of Native Americans and could supply them with the proper tools en education. However, if
Native Americans would leave their reservation, they could not be civilized. Therefore, Reformers opposed the participation of Native Americans in Cody’s Wild West show.
161
Christianity, education, and agriculture; those were the three main aspects of the assimilation process. It is important to recognize the connection between these three elements, since they could not be approached as individual issues. Christianity was essential for civilization, yet Christianity had to be achieved by education and honest labor. Essentially, if one of the three aspects of assimilation failed, the whole process failed. Reformers believed that by civilizing the
Native Americans, they could save a ‘heathen’ race from extinction, by adapting them to U.S. society. Christianity was essential to this belief, since Reformers believed that conversion to
158 Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New York; Hill and
Wang, 1995), 25.
159 Hiram Price, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1881,” in Documents of United States Indian Policy, ed. Francis Paul Prucha (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press,
2000), 154-156.; Thomas J. Morgan, Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of
the Interior, 1889 (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1889), 113-114. Accessed June 21, 2014, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep89
160 George Brown Tindal and David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History (New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1984), 704.
161 L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque; University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 5.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny
Christianity would save the Native American souls. Without this, they could never become U.S. citizens and would be vanquished from the land by the superior civilization of the Anglo-Saxon race.
162
Reformers – and a significant part of American society – thus believed in the inferiority of the Native American race, a race destined to be either transformed by Anglo-Saxon civilization or defeated by it. The connection with Manifest Destiny can be identified rather easily; the spread of
Anglo-Saxon civilization across the continent is central aspect of Manifest Destiny and it only became stronger in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Indian problem was predominantly based on the need for farm land, yet the solution was built on a solid ideological argument; savagery had to be overcome by civilization. It was destined to be as such. By way of
Christianity, education based on American values, and farming, Native Americans were to be transformed, as it was meant by God.
163
The above mentioned connection redirects to a second important aspect of Manifest
Destiny; racial ideology. Native Americans were seen as an inferior culture, but as an inferior race as well. By the 1890’s, Social Darwinism had rooted itself in American society, feeding the anxiety of many Americans regarding the survival of their race. The notion of ‘survival of the fittest’ became an important source of power behind the assimilation policy. With or without their consent, Native Americans had to be civilized in order to secure the dominant position of the
Anglo-Saxon race.
164 This attitude was representative for American society in the 1890’s, when the United States expended its ‘providential mission’ of civilization to external territories, like the
162 Robert Winson Mardock, The Reformers and the American Indian (Columbia; University of Missouri
Press, 1972), 1-5, 79-82.
163 Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New York; Hill and
Wang, 1995), 25-27.; “Andrew Jackson, “State of the Union Address, 1830” accessed April 20, 2013. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8032 .; Thomas J. Morgan, Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1889 (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1889), 113-114.
Accessed June 21, 2014, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.AnnRep89
.
164 Amy S. Greenberg, Manifest Destiny and the American Territorial Expansion: a Brief History with
Documents (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 33.; Albert J. Beveridge, “The March of the Flag,
September 16, 1898,” in Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with
Documents, Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St. Martins, 2012), 154-156.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny
Philippines. The Anglo-Saxon race should not only be dominant on the continent, but across the globe as well. Considering this attitude, is not difficult to recognize the same train of thoughts in the efforts of Reformers to assimilate Native Americans. They did not have a choice in their own future, since they belonged to an inferior race.
165
Conclusion
The arguments of Reformers regarding Cody’s Wild West show contain multiple similarities with the ideals of Manifest Destiny. First, Christianity was vital for the assimilation of Native
Americans; without this, they could not reach the status of U.S. citizens. Christian values and moral were deeply imbedded in American society during the second half of the nineteenth century, as was the support for the forced conversion of Native Americans. In order to become
‘Americans,’ Native Americans had to be educated in socially acceptable moral and values, which were based on Christian ideals regarding family, State, and church. These ideals came forth from a belief in the superiority of Christianity, supported by the idea of Manifest Destiny. Reformers argued that participation in Wild West shows would bring Native Americans in contact with immoral and sinful behaviors, something that would obstruct their education in moral and
Christian behavior.
An important part if this ideal was the moral value of honest labor, like farming.
Agricultural education and support was an important part of the assimilation policy supported by
Reformers and it was a key element of American society in the first half of the nineteenth century, since it was identified as an important aspect of civilization. In order to solve the Indian problem,
Native Americans had to become self-sufficient. The best way to do this was by teaching them to cultivate their own land, according to Reformers. If Native American would become self-sufficient
165 Albert J. Beveridge, “The March of the Flag, September 16, 1898,” in Manifest Destiny and American
Territorial Expansion: A Brief History with Documents, Amy S. Greenberg (New York, Bedford/St. Martins,
2012), 154-156.; Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New
York; Hill and Wang, 1995), 26-27.
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny farmers, there would be excess land available for cultivation by white Americans. Territorial expansion and the increasing of farm land was a significant part of Manifest Destiny since it was used to approve the annexation of Indian lands throughout the nineteenth century. This is the second connection between the arguments of Reformers and Manifest Destiny, although it is an arguable and thin connection.
The third and final connection is what makes Manifest Destiny and important part of the arguments of Reformers. Overall, these arguments aimed at the negative impact of Cody’s show were used to support a single claim; Native performers obstructed the progress of assimilation.
The policy of assimilation provides a significant connection to Manifest Destiny. As mentioned earlier, the belief in the racial superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and the belief in the inevitability of the spread of Anglo-Saxon civilization were deeply imbedded in American society during the second half of the nineteenth century. Reformers believed this as well, even though their concerns about Native Americans came from a humanitarian background. Essentially, Native
Americans needed civilization, because they were inferior to U.S. citizens in both race and civilization. This belief was a key element of Manifest Destiny during the nineteenth century, when racial tensions produced a fear for the survival of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is no surprise that several Commissioners of Indian Affairs were fairly straightforward in their approach to assimilation; Native American should be assimilated, with or without force, or be destroyed by a superior race and civilization.
Christian ideals on moral and labor, the idea of racial and civilized superiority, and the widespread belief in the inferiority of the Native American race and civilization; all are represented in the assimilation policy supported by Reformers. Their arguments opposing the hiring of Native Americans by Cody were based on alleged exploitation and mistreatment and the negative image of Native Americans, yet their true fear was the failure of the assimilation policy.
The connection with these fears and arguments and Manifest Destiny are unclear and complex
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Chapter 4: Reformers and Manifest Destiny sometimes, but they are there on multiple levels and of multiple nature. The cornerstone argument in favor of a connection between ideological beliefs expressed by Manifest Destiny and the political standpoint and arguments of Reformers regarding Cody’s Native performers, is the deeply-rooted belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and civilization and in the inevitable vanquishing of the inferior Native civilization and race.
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Conclusion
Conclusion
“The Anglo-Saxonism of the last half [nineteenth] century was no benign expansionism, […] for it assumed that one race was destined to lead, others to serve – one race to flourish, many to die.
The world was to be transformed not by the strength of better ideas but by the power of a superior race.” 166
Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny
Introduction
By 1893, William F. Cody had dazzled Europe and the United States with his Wild West entertainment enterprise. Millions of people came to see the reenactment of the West, filled with
Cowboys, Indians, and spectacular battles. Especially Indians received a lot of attention and interest from the audience, since they were a representation of the disappearing ‘savage but noble warrior culture’. They were vital for the show’s ideological messages; Anglo-Saxon civilization would overcome its enemies, because it was owned by the superior Anglo-Saxon race.
With or without force, Anglo-Saxons would overcome the Native American culture, a belief widely supported by American society in the second half of the nineteenth century.
These beliefs and ideals about Anglo-Saxon civilization and race can be placed under the common label of Manifest Destiny. Coined in 1845 by John O’Sullivan, the term would become a powerful ideal in American society during the nineteenth and twentieth century, a period in which the United States expended its territory and influence across the globe with a series of imperial conflicts. However, Manifest Destiny was used for defining and solving of internal problems as well. The most pressing internal problem the United States had to deal with in the nineteenth century was the Indian problem. Native Americans occupied land they had lived on for centuries, but U.S. society needed this land to cultivate. The policies of relocation during the first
166 Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism
(Cambridge; Harvard University Press, 1981), 303.
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Conclusion half of the nineteenth century were not sufficient anymore. A lasting solution was needed to obtain the land Native Americans occupied.
The assimilation policy
This lasting solution became known as the assimilation policy. In order to absorb Native
Americans in society, they had to become U.S. citizens. In order to do so, they had to become selfsufficient farmers, devoted Christians, and adapt to moral ideal of Anglo-Saxon civilization. All these steps were connected with each other, making the assimilation policy a complex solution to the Indian problem. If the different steps towards citizenship were obstructed, the entire policy would be obstructed. Reformers, individuals usually affiliated with the governmental Bureau of
Indian Affairs or the private Indian Rights Association, were dedicated supporters of assimilation; the BIA supported it as a practical solution to the Indian problems, the IRA because they saw assimilation as the only way of saving the Native Americans from certain destruction. Both organizations, although slightly different in beliefs and ideals, supported the assimilation policy as the solution for the Indian problem, as solution that should not be obstructed.
Reformer’s concern
According to Reformers, Cody’s Wild West show was an obstruction to the assimilation process.
Cody hired Native Americans to perform in his show, thereby taking them of their reservations, the center of the assimilation policy, where Indian agents could monitor the progress of Native
Americans in the field of education and agriculture and the BIA could center their financial and material support for Native Americans. Although several humanitarian Reformers opposed the reservation system, they believed the reservations were only location were Native American could be Christianized, educated, and civilized. Therefore, Reformers opposed the hiring of Native performers by Cody and other shows. The supported their opposition towards the show with
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Conclusion several arguments, yet their main concern was the influence of Cody’s show on the assimilation process.
The result of this opposition towards Native performers in Cody’s show was a political debate regarding their employment, a debate that started after the first hiring of Native
Americans by Cody’s in 1885 and lasted till the first years of the twentieth century. The two main parties opposing each other were Reformers from the BIA and the IRA on one side, and Cody on the other. Both had a different view on the same facts and issues; the effect of the show on
Native Americans, the consequences of them leaving the reservations, and the role they played on the arena floor. The debate regarding Native performers was built on a single set of issues, yet resulted in two different opinions.
Arguments
The arguments used by Reformers can be summarized in two categories; exploitation and mistreatments and the creation of a negative image of Native Americans for American society.
Concerns about exploitation and mistreatment were the main cause of hearings and legal conflicts between Cody’s show and the BIA. The 1890 hearing concerning alleged mistreatment of
Native American and the implementation of individual contracts between employer and employee in 1886 are examples of such conflicts. In 1890, the allegations of mistreatment were reaching an all-time high, when at least four Native performers died during Cody’s tour through
Europe. Influenced by the press, Reformers started to gather proof for mistreatment, in order to revoke Cody’s license for the hiring of Native Americans. Sufficient proof was never found and the evidence gathered from personal memoirs and newspaper articles suggest that these allegations were false most of the time.
Allegations of exploitation met a similar fate. Performing in Cody’s show earned Native
Americans up to 25 dollars a month, more than twice the amount of the average salary of reservation jobs. However, Reformers, especially humanitarian Reformers from the IRA, were
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Conclusion concerned about the moral exploitation of Native Americans. Cody’s Wild West enterprise was part of the show business sector, which did not enjoy a particularly positive reputation in
American middle-class society. Show business was a place where Christian moral and values were challenged by sinful and immoral behavior, such as drinking, gambling, laziness, and sexual activity. Cody’s show was seen a show business, which led Reformers to believe the show was corrupting Native Americans, thereby obstructing their transformation by Christian values and moral and honest, agricultural labor. Evidence for such corruption is scarce; there have been report on drinking and gambling, yet Cody kept declaring there were no immoral activities for
Native Americans to participate in while they were employed by him. Exploitation seems to be a matter of opinion; what is acceptable behavior for the one, in unacceptable for the other. The dispute between Cody and Reformers regarding moral exploitation has never been resolved, yet the argument remained in the repertoire of Reformers during their opposition to Cody’s show.
The argument of negative representation was built on the same problem as the argument of moral exploitation; Cody’s show was perceived as immoral and sinful and participation of
Native Americans in the show would present them as savage warriors, instead of tamed and civilized Americans, the image Reformers were eager to create. Furthermore, if Native Americans were not perceived as willing recipients for Anglo-Saxon civilization by American society, their support for the assimilation policy would diminish, since it would appear to be ineffective.
Reformers recognized this fact all too well and tried to limit the negative representation of Native
Americans by Cody’s show by lobbying for limitations of Cody’s hiring rights.
Ideological foundation
Several connections can be identified between the arguments of Reformers and Manifest Destiny; the value of Christian ideals, the faith in victory of the Anglo-Saxon race, and the belief in inferiority of other races. Yet Reformers were not the only one participating in the debate on
Native performers; they were opposed by their target, William F. Cody. Allegations of
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Conclusion mistreatment and exploitation, both economic and moral, were successfully rejected by Cody.
After all, evidence in the form of statements, memoirs, and news articles seems to be in favor of
Cody, not the Reformers.
Debate
Arguments aside, the main concern of Reformers was the influence of Cody’s show on the image of Native Americans. The main role Native performers played in the show was a savage and warmongering version of themselves; reenactments of battle between White soldiers and settlers and Native American war bands were a vital part of Cody’s show. Furthermore, the show contained reenactments of Native life on the plains and cultural expressions, like war and sun dances. Basically, Native performers were paid to express their culture, which had been defeated and was being transformed by U.S. government. This freedom of cultural expression was an important reason for Native Americans to join the show, besides the decent wages.
The opponent of Reformers in their opposition to Cody’s show was Cody himself. His arguments, ironically enough, were based in the exact same facts as the arguments of Reformers; the effect of the show on Native Americans, the consequences of them leaving the reservations, and the role they played on the arena floor. Where Reformers saw exploitation and immorality,
Cody saw economic opportunities and education on white culture. Reformers claimed Native performers represented their own kind as savage warriors; Cody argued they provided the audience with the image of a noble savage. Concerns about Native Americans leaving their reservations haunted Reformers, while Cody saw it as an opportunity for Natives to educate themselves and be ‘culturally free.’ The political debate, in which both sides took part, seems to be a matter of opinion.
Both sides of the debate were no strangers to the ideological messages imbedded in
Manifest Destiny. In chapter one it has been argued that several elements of Manifest Destiny were represented in Cody’s show. The reenactments of battles between American soldiers and
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Conclusion settlers and Native American warriors ended the same way in every performance; the Native
American fought a brave and noble fight, yet final victory was achieved by the Anglo-Saxon race. A clear distinction can be identified between superiority and inferiority, inevitable victory and destined defeat. Cody’s show may have been entertainment for middle-class families, but the messages imbedded in the show were supported by the ideals expressed by Manifest Destiny, ideals that were supported by a significant part of American society. The inevitable victory of
Anglo-Saxon civilization over inferior races and cultures, a fact supported by the idea of a providential mission to spread civilization across the continent, was a message expressed by
Native performers on the arena floor. Noble as they might have been, they were still a savage, inferior race, destined to be vanquished by the supreme power of Anglo-Saxon civilization. This was a cornerstone of Manifest Destiny and a fundamental aspect of Cody’s Wild West show as well.
The same can be concluded for the most valued possession of Reformers; the assimilation policy. The main goal for both the BIA and the IRA was the including of Native Americans in
American society as legal U.S. citizens. In order to reach this goal, Native Americans had to meet requirements, such as self-sufficiency by agriculture, being a devoted Christian, and being educated on Anglo-Saxon values and ideals. One can summarize these requirements as being able to perform duties for State, family, and church. These requirements had to med through a process of government supervised assimilation. During the second half of the nineteenth century, reservations became a place where Indian agents and Christian missionaries devoted their time to educate Native Americans on Christianity, agriculture, and Anglo-Saxon values. Support of
Reformers and American society for this policy was based on the same ideological belief as was expressed through Manifest Destiny; Anglo-Saxon civilization was superior, which resulted in the inevitable vanquishing of Native American civilization. For Native Americans, the choice was to assimilate or to be destroyed, as far as Reformers were concerned. Assimilation was the only way
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Conclusion in which Native Americans could become U.S. citizens, which was the only solution to the Indian problem.
Assimilation was the dominant word in the political debate surrounding Native performers, a debate under significant influence of ideological beliefs in race and civilization.
Besides there two categories, the subject of Christianity was an influential factor in the arguments and actions of Reformers, since Anglo-Saxon ideals on society were predominantly built on
Christian values. These beliefs and ideals have been analyzed in the previous chapters of this research and have been located within Cody’s show, the roles Native Americans played in this show, and the fierce opposition of Reformers towards the participation these Native performers.
Manifest Destiny
Indeed, the ideals regarding Anglo-Saxon civilization, Native inferiority, Christian values and moral, expressed by Manifest Destiny were fundamental to Reformers, their support assimilation, and their opposition to Cody’s Wild West show and the participation of Native Americans in this show. Native performers could not be assimilated if they were not on their reservations, the place where Christian conversion and education took place. Arguments of exploitation, mistreatment, and negative representation aside, the main concern of Reformers was the failure of assimilation based on the ideals expressed by Manifest Destiny. The connection between the political debate regarding the participation of Native Americans in Cody’s Wild West show and Manifest Destiny is complicated, arguable, and at some points even vague. Yet fundamental ideals supporting
Manifest Destiny regarding on race, civilization, and Christianity were present in the debate concerning Native performers in Cody show. Both sides played a political and ideological game, while using the same pieces. The participation of Native Americans in Wild West show would be disputed long after Cody’s successful season in 1893. In a society imbedded with ideals on how live should be lived and who should lead mankind forward, this dispute was destined to continue.
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Conclusion
Further research
After completing this research, I still believe in the claim made in the introduction; Manifest
Destiny contains ideological beliefs on race and civilization that can be identified within the debate regarding Native American performers in William F. Cody’s Wild West show. This identification of ideological values within Cody’s show, the role Natives played in his show, and the ideological beliefs supporting the opposition of Reformers towards Native performers is not a continental shift in the field of American Studies; within the extensive body of material published on these topics, similar discoveries have been made. Lawrence Moses, Louis Warren, Robert
Rydell, and Rob Kroes all contributed to such findings, analyzing different aspects of Cody’s show, locating its ideological value. The same can be concluded for the ideological beliefs of Reformers;
Francis Paul Prucha has done extensive research on this topic and has filled several books with the telling answers to questions regarding the above mentioned issue.
Yet, an academic discussion is never complete. The field of American Studies is an ever expending academic discipline, relocating its resources and interests to new topics every decade or so. Manifest Destiny, Cody’s Wild West show, and Reformers are not immune for this process of change. As independent subjects they have attracted significant attention over the last two decades, resulting in the appearance of new material, such as Amy Greenberg’s Manifest Destiny
and Territorial Expansion and Louis S. Warren’s Buffalo Bill’s America. Yet the value of older material must never be underestimated, since a new age can provide new insights in old information. Combining these various sources from different ‘ages’ can result in new knowledge on already analyzed topics.
This is one of the main reasons for my interest in Manifest Destiny as a foundation for the political debate surrounding Native performers. Manifest Destiny is often affiliated with territorial expansion, American identity, and imperialism. Yet the term has not been connected to
Reformers and their quest against Cody’s show and the Native Americans participating in it. This
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Conclusion surprised me, since the ideological connection between racial ideologies and civilization ideals and Cody’s show, Christian and humanitarian Reformers, and U.S. Indian policy has been made by several authors, like Francis Paul Prucha. Furthermore, scholars like Stephenson and Greenberg have made compelling arguments for the significance of ideological messages regarding race and civilization expressed though Manifest Destiny, while connecting these ideals solely to territorial expansions and imperial ambitions.
This research has tried to connect all of the above; the ideological messages regarding race and civilization expressed through Manifest Destiny, the Native performers participating in
Cody’s Wild West show, the Reformers opposing this participation in favor of an assimilation policy, and the grand debate in which these elements came together. I believe this research has succeeded in its effort; Manifest Destiny can be used to clarify the complex context of the debate described above, by ‘connecting the dots.’ By doing so, this research will contribute to the already blossoming academic discussion regarding the topics discussed on these pages, by providing future scholars and students with a concept that can acts as a guiding light. If this research will spark further interest in Manifest Destiny as an ideological base for Cody’s show, Reformers, and the debate between these two, the effort of writing would be well-spend.
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“Article Boston Daily Globe, July 31, 1885,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4.
“Article Chicago Tribune, September 24, 1893,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4.
“Article Daily News, April 25, 1887,”, Folder 38, Box 3.
“Article Echo, April 25, 1887,”, Folder 38, Box 3.
“Article London Globe, undated,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4.
“Article Morning Post, April 12, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2.
“Article Morning Post, April 25, 1887,” Folder 38, Box 3.
“Article Observer, 24 April,” Folder 38, Box 2.
“Article The Era, April 23, 1887,” Folder 38, Box 2.
“Article The Illustrated London News, April 23, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2.
“Article The Observer, April 24, 1887,”Folder 37, Box 2.
“Article The Saturday Review, April 23, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2.
“Article The Sunday Chronicle, April 24, 1887,” Folder 37, Box 2.
Master Thesis American Studies W. de Jong 3475905
96
Bibliography
“Details on Camp Site,” Nate Salsbury Scrapbook, Microfilm 1-4.
“Letter Warren Vincent to family,” Folder 9, Box 1.
“Letter Pedro Esquival to Family,” Folder 9, Box 1.
“Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Congress of Rough Riders of the Worlds, 1893,” Folder
25, Box 13.
“Program The Wild West: Buffalo Bill’s Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition, 1885.” Folder 19,
Box 2.
“Program Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, London Exhibition, 1887,” Folder 19, Box 2.
“Salutary by John M. Burke, program 1885,” Folder 19, Box 2.
The William F. Cody Papers, McCracken Research Library, Center of the West. Cody, Wyoming.
“Article Philly Paper, August 21, 1890,” Folder 1, Box 2.
“Article The World, June 20, 1890,” Folder 1, Box 2.
“Native American Deaths, 1888-1893,” unpublished document compiled by McCracken Research
Library.
Sources consulted
Publications
Cody, William F. The Life of Hon. William F. Cody Known as Buffalo Bill, The Famous Hunter, Scout
and Guide. An Autobiography. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1879. Kindle Edition.
Dixon, Chris, ed. Charles Eldridge Griffin: Four years in Europe with Buffalo Bill. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
Georgian, Richard Alexis. Cossacks, Indians and Buffalo Bill: the Adventures of Georgian Riders in
America. Naples: Barringer Publishing, 2011.
Hedren, Paul L. “Review of Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West, by Bobby
Bridger.” The Western Historical Quarterly 35 (2004): 101-102.
Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Kossen, Joy S. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: Celebrity, memory, and popular history. New York: Hill and
Wang, 2000.
Master Thesis American Studies W. de Jong 3475905
97
Bibliography
Leckie, Shirley A. “Review.” Buffalo Bill's America: William Cody and the Wild West Show, by Louis
S. Warren.” The Western Historical Quarterly 38 (2007): 215.
Maddra, Sam, Hostiles? The Lakota Ghost Dance and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.
“Master class Louis S. Warren.” March 28, 2014. Wilson Hall, Room 153, Montana State
University. Bozeman, Montana.
Merk, Frederick. Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: a Reinterpretation. New York:
Random House, 1966.
Prucha, Francis Paul. The Indians in American Society: From the Revolutionary War to the Present.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Standing Bear, Luther. My People the Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975.
Warren, Louis S. "Cody's Last Stand: Masculine Anxiety, the Custer Myth, and the Frontier of
Domesticity in Buffalo Bill's Wild West." The Western Historical Quarterly 34 (2003): 49–69.
Archives
The William F. Cody Papers, McCracken Research Library, Center of the West. Cody, Wyoming.
William Frederick/Buffalo Bill Collection (WH72), Western History Department, Denver Public
Library. Denver, Colorado.
Master Thesis American Studies W. de Jong 3475905
