Throughout the late nineteenth century, American Indians suffered a great many hardships and faced constant oppression from white Americans. In the 1870s, buffalo hunters begin moving into the West and in only a decade, they slashed the endless herd into an endangered species. The buffalo was an important resource to the Native Americans for food and clothing, and the Native Americans were known for using every part of the buffalo. The American buffalo hunters, however, were only trying to eliminate this Native American resource and often discarded the entire buffalo carcass. In 1871, Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act, ending the practice of treating Indian tribes as sovereign nations. This act was justified as a way to avoid …show more content…
Bill Cody was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service as a scout in General Sheridan's campaign against the Cheyenne. He fortuitously met Ned Buntline and shared his stories with him. Buntline turned Cody’s stories into the dime novel series, The Scouts of the Plains, featuring Buffalo Bill as the hero. In 1888, Buffalo Bill debuted his Wild West Show drawing on his fame from the dime novels. The show featured skill acts and reenactments of Indian-American conflict, and what was perhaps the biggest attraction, real Indians. The show became so famous all around the world that posters announcing his shows needed no explanation. They simply featured a buffalo with a picture of Bill Cody and read “I am …show more content…
The Indians were a major attraction, and Bill Cody even said that “They don’t want to hear them. They don’t want to talk to them. They just want to look at them,” suggesting that the Indians were on display for the Americans. By saying that they only want to look at them, he shows that the Americans had little interest in learning about the Indians’ lives and cultures, but rather wanted to marvel at them like animals, stripping them of their humanity. The Indians were forced to reenact the deadly battles daily for the entertainment of the Americans, though many of the actors actually participated in the real battles. This would most likely have been difficult, degrading, and embarrassing for the Indians. Their victory in the Battle of the Little Bighorn demonstrated the American’s justification for American conquest and their reenactment of these battles meant they were submitting to these views. The show often featured fictional events that further stereotyped life in the Wild West, such as Native American attacks and train robberies. The show also featured skill acts such as sharp shooting, roping, and riding, and related these skills to survival in the Wild West. Buffalo Bill’s audience preferred happier endings so, overtime, he changed the outcomes of the battles they reenacted, including changing the