Maddra, Sam Ann (2002) 'Hostiles': the Lakota Ghost Dance and the 1891-92 tour of Britain by Buffalo Bill's Wild West. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3973/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] `Hostiles':The LakotaGhost Danceand the 1891-92 Tour of Britain by Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Vol. II Sam Ann Maddra Ph.D. Thesis Department of Modern History Facultyof Arts University of Glasgow December2002 203 Six: The 1891/92 tour of Britain by Buffalo Bill's Wild West and the Dance shovestreatment of the Lakota Ghost The 1891.92 tour of Britain by Buffalo Bill's Wild West presented to its British audiencesan image of America that spokeof triumphalism, competenceand power. inside This waspartly achievedthrough the story of the conquestthat wasperformed the arena, but the medium also functioned as part of the message,illustrating American power and ability through the staging of so large and impressivea show. Cody'sWild West told British onlookersthat America had triumphed in its conquest be of the continent and that now as a powerful and competentnation it wasready to recognisedas an equal on the World stage. The Indians were presented by Buffalo Bill's Wild West as resolute barriers to civilisation; 'a counter-forceagainst which the hero displayedhis virtues." This image ' The waseasily recognisable to a British public well-versedin imperialist propaganda. for notoriety of the Ghost Dancerswas used to pull in the crowds,but except their being introduced as the 'Hostiles' as opposedto the 'Friendlies,' their role within the arenaremained the sameas the other Indian performers. The 1891-92tour of Britain alsoincluded a 'Wounded Kneeorphan' who they presentedas 'the last of the stock,' ' reinforcing the idea of American Indians as a vanishing race. The young boy had survivedthe massacreand travelled with his adoptive parents No Neck and his wife Ellen. 1 Kasson, Buffalo Bills Wild West, 161 2 John M. MacKenzienoted that 'War cameto be seen as a "theatrical event of sombremagnificence", while theories of the inevitability of warfare emerged from the social application of Darwinism. Warfare was endemic to civilisation, it was argued,both in the competition of rising Statesand in the conflict betweenthem and their decayingcounterparts. ' John M. MacKenzie,Propaganda and Empire: TheManipulation of British PublicOpinion, 188a1960 (Manchester,Manchester University Press,1984) 6. 204 Cody's exploitation of the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee was restricted to publicity for the show, as no re-enactments were staged despite encouragement from some British journalists to do so, and when examined in the context of the wider exploitation would suggesta certain amount of empathy with the Lakota. The use of such `real' characterswas intended to give the exhibition a cloak of authenticity and to reinforce its claims of presenting educational fact.' However, not all characters presented were `real,' and a number of the Lakota appeared in the arena in the guise of other Indian Nations. Such inaccuracies appear not to have concerned the Indian performers, and simply made logistical sensefor the management. The overwhelming successof the tour, despite the poor summer weather, suggeststhat British audiences enthusiastically embraced the image of a triumphant America as presented by Cody's Wild West exhibition. ****** On 1 April 1891, the SS Switzerlandsailed from Philadelphia carrying a number of personnel associated with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, including seventy-five Lakota Indians. These men and women were travelling to Europe to resume the Wild West's first tour of the continent, which had begun in the spring of 1889.5 The majority of 3 EveningTimes (Glasgow), 23 Dec. 1891. `The 4 Philip J. Deloria stated authentic... is a culturally constructedcategory created in opposition to a perceivedstate of inauthenticity. The authentic servesas a way to imagine and idealize the real, the traditional, and the organic in opposition to the less satisfying qualities of everydaylife. ' Deloria, PlayingIndian, 101. s PassengerList of SSSwitzerland, CS, MS6.IX, box 2, McCracken ResearchLibrary, BBHC; Russell, Livesand Legends,369; Moses,Wild WestShows and the Imagesof AmericanIndians, 18834 933,111. The had tour opened in Paris at the ExpositionUniverselle, May 19 1889, and had extensivelytoured Continental Europe. For details of this tour see Russell,Lives and Legends,350.53; Moses,Wild West Shows Images and the of AmericanIndians, 1883-1933,80.92; Rosa and May, BuffaloBill and his Wild West, 143.47;Reddin, Wild WestShows, 96.114; and Kasson,Buffalo Bid's Wild West,8391. Cody himself SSNoordlund, sailedon the with a number of other personnel,on the sameday. 205 the Indian performers had been hired from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota. 6 Twenty-three others had travelled down from Fort Sheridan, Illinois, where General Miles had confined them since late January.' Shortly after their arrival in Antwerp, the new contingent of Indian performers met up with the rest of the castwho had been wintering in Alsace-Lorraine, and the show continued where it had left off the previous autumn. [Fig. 22] After a brief tour through Germany, Holland and Belgium, the Wild West then sailed from Antwerp to Grimsby, and in the last week of June 1891 the tour of provincial England opened at the Cardigan Fields in Leeds.' The 1891-92tour of Britain by Buffalo Bill's Wild West was significantly different from their previoustour in 1887,when the performershad appearedas part of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubileecelebrations with the American Exhibition at EarlsCourt in London. Generallyregarded as the `chief attraction' of the American Exhibition, the showhad been an enormoussuccess and Cody had become`the hero of the London season.'9 When ticket saleshad waned the show moved on to visit Manchesterand Birmingham before returning to America in 1888. The 1891-92sojourn differed in two respects.Firstly it toured the principal towns of Englandand madeits first visit to 6 CIA to Agent Penny,Pine Ridge,9 Mar. 1891,Letter book (hereafterLB) 212, p 197-8,RG 75, NA; George Chandler, Acting Secretaryof the Interior, to CIA, 6 Mar. 1891, M1282 LS p175, RG 75, FARC; Pennyto CIA, 28 March 1891, M1282 LS p179-181,RG 75, FARC; Moses,Wild WestShows and the Imagesof AmericanIndians, 1883.1933,111. Russell,and Rosa and May, both give the figure erroneouslyas 100, the latter citing the 1893 Buffalo Bill's Wild West program, seeRussell, Livesand Legends,371, and Rosaand May, BuffaloBill and hisWild West,154. 7 Pennyto CIA, 28 March 1891,M1282 LS p179-181,RG 75, FARC; R. E. A. Crofton to Adjutant General, 31 Mar. 1891,M983, p1338, RG94, NA; Moses,Wild WestShows and the Imagesof American Indians, 1883.1933,111;Russell, Lives and Legends,369; Utley, TheLast Daysof theSioux Nation, 271. 8 BuffaloBill's Wild West1891 Program,p64, GlasgowRoom, Mitchell Library, Glasgow;Russell, Lives Legends,372; Moses,Wild WestShows and and the Imagesof AmericanIndians, 1883-1933,119; Rosa and May, BuffaloBill and his Wild West,154. v Rosa May, Buffalo and Bill and his Wild West, 106/130. Seealso Russell,Lives and Legends;Moses, Wild WestShows and theImages of AmericanIndians, 1883-1933. 206 Wales and Scotland before finally arriving in London for a summer season,thus bringing to a much larger British audience their `image' of the American West. Secondlyand perhapsmore significantly, the presenceof twenty-threeLakota Ghost Dancers,who wereperceived by the majority of the British public to be `hostages'or `Prisonersof War, ' madethis tour by Buffalo Bill's Wild West unique. The exhibition was `organised around a series of spectacleswhich purported to re- enact scenes portraying different "Epochs" of American History. ' Following the `Primeval Forest,' peopled only by Indians and wild animals, the story of conquest was portrayed. 10 The Indians played the role of the `hostiles,' representing `the other' against whom the progress of white civilisation was measured, and this messagewas by by for strengthened the audiences' awareness- reinforced publicity the show - that some of the Indian performers were `prisoners' of the US government. The North British Daily Mail concluded, `there could not be better specimens of the untamed courageoussons of the prairie. '" The notoriety of the Ghost Dancerswas used by Cody to pull in the crowdsand their presenceadded authenticity to what was purported to be educationalentertainment. Furthermore,Cody's role as custodianenhanced his statusamongst the British public. The Brighton Argussuggested that `The privilege accordedto Colonel Cody of taking thesefamous warriors on tour with him is an unique one, and... granted solely in consequenceof the greatservices he has...rendered his country."2 It is perhapsone of the greatestironies of American Indian resistance,that the last Lakota to haveforcibly resistedthe governmentof the US were releasedinto Cody's care where they proceededto act the very `roles' ascribed to them a year earlier. 10Slotkin GunfighterNation, 67. " North British Daily Mail, 6 Nov. 1891, p4, 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West. ' 12 Argus (Brighton), 12 Oct. 1891, 'Buffalo Bill' At Brighton Crowds p3, - watch the Cavalcade - An Imposing sight. ' 207 Commenting on Short Bull's appearancein the Wild West one British journalist remarked, In the spectacle of this leader of a vanquished people exhibited to the gazeof the multitude in the arena we seem to find a modern parallel to that experience of Caractacus, who, exiled from his island home, was " exposed to the gazeof the Roman populace.