Matthew Barger

10/21/15

Buffalo Bill: Friend of the Frontier, or Just a Hero?

William Cody, or Buffalo Bill as he is more widely known, is perhaps one of the most
complex men that made the frontier his home for the majority of his life. Regardless of his
almost mythical status in frontier legend, Cody is tightly contested among historians and the
public alike on how his influence affected the Frontier not only physically, but in the American
Consciousness. Some scholars such as Bobby Bridger and Louis Warren make it a point to
emphasize that, while Cody did hunt buffalo and participate in battles with Indians, he also was a
friend to the natives, helped the buffalo into the world of American culture, and created the
image of the Frontier that became popular culture and showcased America to the world through
his traveling show. On the other side of the table there are historians such as Richard White and
Don Russell, while faithfully telling of what Cody accomplished, decide to focus a majority of
their works on the negative aspect of Cody, the killing of the Buffalo not just at his shows but his
bragging of killing earlier in life, and his depiction of the Indians in his shows, who as White
explains His spectacles presented an account of Indian aggression and white defense; of Indian
killers and white victims; of, in effect, badly abused conquerors.1 While Cody is undeniably a
very influential man of the era, I believe his impact lies more in his work to make peace with the
Indians and show off the last Buffalo as more representative of his significance, while also taking
a look at how his show and person influenced American views of the frontier.
While Codys achievements cannot be disputed, his legacy always will be. While some of my
sources are more biographical in nature, I have chosen to separate them based on the framing of
their story. This is especially true for Don Russells book The Lives and Legends of Buffalo
1 Richard White, Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill ,
http://www.studythepast.com/his378/turnerandbuffalobill.pdf

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Bill, which while biographical it does take some shots at Cody, particularly at his Wild West
Show in which he heavily criticized Cody for his attitude against the Indians, as well as his
glorifying of Custers Last Stand. White actually quotes Russell in his paper that compares
Turners Thesis to Codys own legacy. To counter that stance, in Louis Warrens paper she
directly discredits Russell in regards to how Cody portrayed the Frontier in his show, saying
which he (Russell) described Custers Last Fight as the Long crowning spectacle of the Wild
West Show.2 Warren goes on to prove that Codys show in fact did not often end in Custers
Stand; in fact it rarely played at all. While that paper in particular is helping me sway on the side
of Buffalo Bill the somewhat conservationist I do see the arguments many historians give to
counter that thought, but I am a big proponent of not judging historical characters for their
actions hundreds of years ago. For the final paper I also plan on using many different
newspapers and letters to portray how the common American felt about Cody and how their
opinions changed after his show had hit the road. Comparing Cody to someone like Frederick
Jackson Turner as Richard White did is another way to see the differences in how the two men,
arguably the most influential about the Frontier, portray that which they both clearly loved,
While Turner is all about the farmer and the changing environment, Cody portrays the Frontier as
a wild, dangerous place ruled by Indians and settled by cowboys and gunslingers.3My goal in the
paper would be to explain how Cody, through his actions, shaped the American perception of the
Frontier.

2 Louis Warren, Cody's Last Stand: Masculine Anxiety, the Custer Myth, and the
Frontier of Domesticity in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, pg.50
3 Richard White, Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill ,
http://www.studythepast.com/his378/turnerandbuffalobill.pdf

Matthew Barger
10/21/15

Bibliography

Primary Sources
1. The Life of Hon. William F. Cody Known As Buffalo Bill The Famous Hunter,
Scout and Guide." William F. Cody Archive. 1879. Accessed October 20, 2015.
- Buffalo Bills own autobiography, written before his show had really taken
off, it is interesting to see how America saw Cody before his show became
iconic.
2. "The "Wild West" Combination." The Washington Post, July 5, 1884. Accessed
October 21, 2015. http://codyarchive.org/texts/wfc.nsp01191.html.
- Just one of the many newspaper articles found at codyarchive.org, I
happened to choose this particular one as it is fairly early on in the show
and can be compared to shows he did in the late 1890s.
3. Letter from W. H. Clapp to William A. Jones, April 3, 1897
4. "The Indian Actors." The Washington Post, September 24, 1878.

Secondary Sources
1. Bridger, Bobby. Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 2002.
This selection focuses on Buffalo Bills encounters with the Native
Americanss, especially focusing on his relationship with Sitting Bull and the
other Plains Indians. Bridger is one of the strongest voices advocating that
Buffalo Bill was kind and fair to the Indians and well respected.
2. Nesheim, David. "How William F. Cody Helped Save the Buffalo Without
Really Trying ." Great Plains Quarterly 27, no. 3, 163-75.
. Nesheim argues that while Buffalo Bill may have killed many buffalo,
and his conservation efforts were due to self-interest, his performances
showcasing these wild west concepts in reality helped push the
plight of the buffalo and to a lesser extent the Indians into the forefront
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of not just the collective American mind but those in Europe too.
Nesheim also argues that the perception of todays west is directly
influenced by the shows.
3. 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,
2003, 49.
Warren talks about how Buffalo Bills show has been misperceived over time in history
books as one that promoted big battle scenes displaying Indians as savages as well as
gloryfing their killing. In reality Bill changed his show early on and phased out many of
the wost battle scenes, including the reenactment of Custers last stand.

4. Russell, Don. The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill. Norman, [Oklahoma: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1960.
Russell is the author many of the other secondary sources draw off of. Very in detail
biography of Buffalo Bill, while I have not read all of it the quotes I have been pulling
show Russell respected Bills impact, he frames him as a man who made his fame on the
blood of others, and then used the Native Americans as his show.
5. White, Richard. "Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill." Accessed October 20,
2015.
Compares Turners approach on the frontier to how Buffalo Bill portrayed it in his shows,
showing both similarities and differences. While Bill showed a rawer, more emotional
story, Turner attempted to codify the frontier into a farmer built machine that was driving
the country forward and creating its identity.
6. SCARANGELLA MCNENLY, LINDA. "Foe, Friend, or Critic: Native Performers
with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Discourses of Conquest and Friendship
in Newspaper Reports." American Indian Quarterly 38, no. 2 (Spring2014
2014): 143-176. Accessed October 27, 2015
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Examines how Buffalo Bills impact has been viewed, from comparing
newspaper reports from the time the author has a general thesis called from
foe to friends meant to showcase how Bills show changed from portraying
the Indians as savages to one which showcased their differences while at the
same time showing the Indians as a conquered people.

7. Flint, Kate. "Surround, Background, and the Overlooked." Victorian Studies

57, no. 3 (Spring2015 2015): 449-461. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost
(accessed October 27, 2015).

A piece that focuses on how early newspaper photographers would set up pictures
in order to portray a subject a certain way, has a large part that focuses on images from
the wild west show.
8. Slatta, Richard W. "Making and unmaking myths of the American frontier."
European Journal Of American Culture 29, no. 2 (July 2010): 81-92. America:
History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed October 26, 2015).
Slatta talks about the frontier myths that arose after the initial
scholarship about Bills era, including how men like Buffalo Bill have
been portrayed as well as his show. Also touches on other historians
viewpoints that I have sourced as well as Turner.

9. Hyslop, Stephen G. "How the West was Spun." American History 43, no. 4
(October 2008): 26-33. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed October
27, 2015).
In depth essay on the big events in Buffalo Bills life, including
information on the logistics of how he began his Wild West show.
Used for a quicker reference to important facts, also has many primary
source pictures.
10. Lottini, Irene. "When Buffalo Bill crossed the ocean: Native American scenes
in early twentieth century European culture." European Journal Of American

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Culture 31, no. 3 (October 18, 2012): 187-203. America: History & Life,
EBSCOhost (accessed October 28, 2015).