Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 51

The Menace
of Wild West Shows
For over thirty years, from approximately 1883 to 1915, Buffalo
Bill's Wild West Exhibitioi^ enjoyed a place as the "National
Entertainment." Though the ownership and title of the show
changed several times, the basic content remained essentially the
same; cowboys performed feats of skill and daring, Indians attacked
peaceful settlers, and great battle scenes depicted the bravery of the
conquering U.S. Cavalry in the face of brutal savagery. These images
of the West, patronized largely by East Coast and European
audiences, were accepted as "authentic" and "genuine." It has only
been in recent years that the myths surrounding the characters and
events that made up the very stuff and substance of the Wild West
Exhibition have been scrutinized with any intention of rectifying
earlier misconceptions. In both Arthur Kopit's play, Indians, and
Robert Altman's subsequent film adaptation, Buffalo Bill and the
Indians; or, Sitting Bull's History Lesson, Buffalo Bill is portrayed as
a muddled and misguided showman, interested more in his own selfaggrandizement than in the truth or message of his Exhibition. True
as this may be, the implication that Buffalo Bill acted out of any
deliberate intention to mislead, or with any malice towards the
Indians, fails to consider the Wild West Exhibition as a product of
the moral, political and scientific views held in the late nineteenth
century. What can be shown is that William Cody was an astute
assessor of contemporary thought and opinion, and that he fashioned
his Exhibitions to reinforce and coincide with the existing standards
of the time. As the concerns of the nation changed and evolved,
parallel adjustments were made in the episodes shown in the Wild
West Exhibition. The fact that these myths and legends continue to
survive and influence our lives speaks eloquently of their magnetic
and pervasive qualities.
It is undeniable that Buffalo Bill and his partner Nate Salsbury
went to great lengths to portray "realistically" the episodes of the
West. Not only were real cowboys, real Indians and real heroes (not
the least of whom was Buffalo Bill) employed to impersonate
themselves in actual events, but genuine props, such as the Deadwood
Stagecoach and Indian tepees, and real horses, elks and buffaloes