The narrative of this exhibit explores the forced and harmful removal of and violence against Native communities by the colonial actions of the US government. Although explicit images of violence and harm have not been included, much of the language and imagery is distressing as it exemplifies colonial and exploitative practices. Many of the terms used in primary source materials are outdated and racist. Whenever possible, appropriate terminology used by the Native groups in question has replaced racist or outdated terminology.

Land Acknowledgement & Author’s Statement

Illinois State University sits on the sovereign land of the Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Peoria, Kaskaskia, Myaamia and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ peoples. We recognize that the Circus routes identified in these books traversed and disrupted the native land of countless tribes across Turtle Island (the United States). Our goal in sharing these archival histories is not to replace or undermine the Native histories that preceded the circus and that persist as ongoing cultural practices. Rather, we hope to hold the historic routes of the circus alongside the genocide and forced relocation of native communities and use a history of circus routes to further elucidate those atrocities. We hope that, simultaneously, our exhibit will uncover stories of joy, subversive action, and resilience in Native communities. As a white researcher and library worker, I hope to use this narrative to make space for the native and indigenous voices of history, rather than super-imposing my own.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

The most prominent figure of the Wild West show is inarguably William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. It requires acknowledgement that, although Buffalo Bill’s show enabled the limited performance and cultural expression of Native performers, he was ultimately an appropriative cultural figure who profited from the exploitation of native performers imprisoned on Indian reservations with limited means to make money. Still, Buffalo Bill’s goal of an “authentic” Wild West show made space for the cultural expression of many of his performers, and the opportunity to be viewed as skilled horsemen and warriors, rather than as the “savage” portrayal sought after by an increasingly industrialized world. Cody himself changed the script of his show from a performance of his own feats in overcoming Indian warriors, to a celebration of their accomplishments and culture (albeit, within a white-washed and stereotypical context).

Notably, Buffalo Bill Cody placed his show in opposition to the Indian Boarding school movement of the late 19th century, most publicly in his exposition just outside of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Cody had not been included in the exposition, and the choice to perform right outside of it in such a way that many visitors assumed his show was part of the official exposition. In contrast to the dull, “civilized” exhibit of the boarding school by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Cody’s colorful and engaging performance won audiences over with its display of Native American song and dance.

Redface and Minstrelsy in the Wild West Show

Native performances of the Wild West show have often been classified as minstrelsy and “Redface,” appropriately acknowledging that show Indians were forced by their circumstances to perform “Indianness” in a specific context for primarily white American and European audiences.

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The Ghost Dance Movement

One such instance of reclaiming cultural heritage can trace its origins back to the Ghost Dance Movement, a messianic religious movement that was popular among the Lakota Sioux. In 1890, the dance became popular as a hopeful ceremony and song performed with the intention of restoring a pre-Colonial existence to Native Americans in the United States. Because the message was particular resonant on reservations struggling under the poor conditions imposed by the US Government, it was popular with the Lakota Sioux of the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota, led by Chief (and Buffalo Bill performer) Sitting Bull.

Hear a recording of the ghost dance ceremony here.
 

White reservation officials of the Pine Ridge reservation viewed the Ghost Dance Movement as a Threat to US Indian policy. When the Indian police on the reservation responded, they arrested Chief Sitting Bull and killed him in the process. The Ghost Dance Movement was outlawed, and the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation suffered greatly in when the US Army responded in the events now called the Massacre at Wounded Knee. This massacre is sometimes considered the final act of genocide in the US government’s quest to eliminate Native culture and community - but that does not account for the subversive cultural practices of Native communities all over the country, and the thriving cultural practices of Native groups today.

Reclamation and Subversion in Native Performances of the Wild West Show

Performances within the Wild West show, preceding and following the Ghost Dance movement, were ripe with opportunities to subvert public opinions of native communities and to perpetuate cultural practices that the US government attempted to eliminate. Many performers arrested for their participation in the Ghost Dance Movement were granted permission by the US Bureau of Indian Affairs to travel with Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill’s Wild West shows. This created an  opportunity for ghost dance prisoners to sing and dance in public performance, an act of worthy of status and recognition, and a violation of the restrictions placed upon them by the US government.


We have little recorded information about the specific content of the songs and dances performed in Wild West Shows, but know that Buffalo Bill encouraged his performers to sing songs associated with actual Lakota cultural events and ceremonies. Because white audiences, and Buffalo Bill himself, had little or no understanding of the songs of Native Performers, many sang ironically about the victory and strength of their warriors even while performing battles intended to demonstrate white superiority: “war dances presented in Wild West shows could have been victory songs about the battle against Custer at Little Bighorn, for example” (Scarangella McNenly, 82). It’s possible that many formerly imprisoned ghost dance performers sang and enacted the rituals of the Ghost Dance Movement, banned on the reservation, for thousands of audience members across the United States. 

The Continued Battle for Sovereignty and the LandBack Movement

Native performers have continuously battled for the the right to live and exist in accordance with their own cultural practices, working to undo the lapsed treaties and land stolen by the US government in the 19th and 20th centuries. Iron White Bear, a warrior in the battle of the Greasy Grass (Battle of the Little Bighorn) was a notable performer with both the Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill Wild West Show. In a public and risky act of subversion, he testified at the US Supreme Court in 1933, helping to establish Custer’s responsibility for the atrocities of that battle. His testimony, along with decades of activism by other Native Americans, culminated in the 1980 ruling of the US vs the Sioux Nation that lands had indeed been stolen from the Sioux of South Dakota. In spite of the Sioux Nation’s desire to have their lands returned, the US Supreme Court instead elected to pay the value of that land. At the date of this writing, the Sioux have refused that money (estimated to be $1.7 billion) on the principal that land and it’s protection is their sacred duty, and not something measurable in white-colonial constructs of land ownership and exchange.

Any conversation about Native history that suggests Native community and political protest is the domain of the past ignores ongoing struggles and organizing. Native culture and political agency persist to this day, in defiance of the genocide enacted agianst them. For that reason, I trace the subversive actions of Native performers to the modern-day movement for sovereignty, specifically the movement to return native lands to their rightful communities.

The LandBack movement describes in its official manifesto the goals of:

1. Dismantling white supremacy structures that forcefully removed us from our Lands and continue to keep our Peoples in oppression

2. Defunding white supremacy and the mechanisms and systems that enforce it and disconnect us from stewardship of the Land.

3. Returning all public lands into Indigenous hands.

4. Consent — Moving us out of an era of consultation and into a new era of policy around Free and Prior Informed Consent.

Though the struggle is difficult and ongoing, the political action of the LandBack movement has seen victories. Most recently as of this writing, the state of Minnesota returned 114 acres of land to the Lower Sioux Community, rightfully restoring their custodianship over the land called Cansa'yapi (Dakota for "where they marked the trees red"), the sight of the beginning of the US-Dakota war of 1862.

The Native performers of Buffalo Bill were exploited and undermined as “Show Indians,” but their legacy is powerful. Their subversive and persistent actions allowed them to survive, providing a living for themselves, their families, and their communities. It also allowed for the subversive maintenance of their culture in a white-supremacist context: spreading songs, dances, and traditional dress across the United States via the routes of Circus and Wild West shows. To this day, their impact can be felt in the vibrant and ongoing celebration of Native culture across Turtle Island. Continue exploring this exhibit to learn more about the individual performers of the wild west show and their lasting impact.

Citations