Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West ( M.K. Brown Range Life Series #21) »

Army scout, buffalo hunter, Indian fighter, and impresario of the world-renowned "Wild West Show," William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody lived the real American West and also helped create the "West of the imagination." Born in 1846, he took part in the great westward migration, hunted the buffalo, and made friends among the Plains Indians, who gave him the name Pahaska (long hair). But as the frontier closed and his role in "winning the West" passed into legend, Buffalo Bill found himself becoming the symbol of the destruction of the buffalo and the American Indian. Deeply dismayed, he spent the rest of his life working to save the remaining buffalo and to preserve Plains Indian culture through his Wild West shows.
This biography of William Cody focuses on his lifelong relationship with Plains Indians, a vital part of his life story that, surprisingly, has been seldom told. Bobby Bridger draws on many historical accounts and Cody's own memoirs to show how deeply intertwined Cody's life was with the Plains Indians. In particular, he demonstrates that the Lakota and Cheyenne were active cocreators of the Wild West shows, which helped them preserve the spiritual essence of their culture in the reservation era while also imparting something of it to white society in America and Europe. This dual story of Buffalo Bill and the Plains Indians clearly reveals how one West was lost, and another born, within the lifetime of one remarkable man.

Library Journal

Best known for his epic trilogy Ballad of the West, Bridger, a descendent of frontiersman Jim Bridger, became interested in the relationship between Buffalo Bill Cody and the Indians while completing the section on Cody in Ballad. That relationship is supposed to be at the heart of this book, but instead Bridger has produced a "life and times" biography reminiscent of those popular a century ago-long on the times and short on the life. What is missing are the details, insights, and understanding that would make both Cody and Sitting Bull real people rather than figures on the stage of history. Bridger relies on a small number of secondary sources, chiefly Cody's own autobiography, Don Russell's The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill, and Stanley Vestal's Sitting Bull: Champion of the Sioux. Libraries already holding these books, as well as Nellie Snyder Yost's Buffalo Bill, His Family, Friends, Fame, Failures, and Fortunes, can safely pass on Bridger's book. However, it is entertaining to read in spite of a few glaring minor errors, and public libraries may wish to consider it.-Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Introduction
Prologue
Chapter One. The Rainbow Trail
Chapter Two. The Scouts
Chapter Three. The Pony Express
Chapter Four. Destiny
Chapter Five. The Indian Wars
Chapter Six. Pahaska Becomes Buffalo Bill
Chapter Seven. Chief of Scouts
Chapter Eight. The Trail to Summit Springs
Chapter Nine. Dime Novels
Chapter Ten. Magicians from Mythology
Chapter Eleven. Troding the Boards
Chapter Twelve. The Duel with Yellow Hand
Chapter Thirteen. Grandmother's Land
Chapter Fourteen. The Wild West
Chapter Fifteen. Grandmother England
Chapter Sixteen. Arrows of Light
Chapter Seventeen. Absaroka
Chapter Eighteen. Pahaska Had a Strong Heart
Notes