Like Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull was regarded with much reverence in the land of the Grandmother. It was there that he had made a last stand of his own before returning home, and when he visited Montreal with the Wild West he was greeted like a returning hero. All along the streets of Wellington, McGill, St. James, Catherine, and Pointe-Saint-Charles, crowds cheered the parade. “The first performance was held in a summer downpour,” wrote Walter Havighurst. “Annie Oakley did her shooting through a curtain of rain and splashed her horse through standing water. But the crowd cheered wildly and the sky brightened. Before the final rout of Indians from the settler’s cabin, sun streamed down and the wet ponies shone like paint.” Later the cast was taken to Lachine on the St. Lawrence, where LaSalle had dreamed of heading for China in a canoe caravan. “Sitting Bull was presented to a group of Iroquois chiefs,” Havighurst noted, “and the whole party, red men and white, boarded the steamer Filgate for a swift and swirling trip through the rapids. Back at the dock in Montreal, they inspected the spanking new steamers Sarnia and Sardinia.” Later they would go the studios of the world-famed photographer William Notman and pose for the iconic pictures.
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In Montreal, Sitting Bull was besieged by young fans. They would hang around his tent, follow him onto the grounds, sometimes imitating his gait, described by a reporter as “bowlegged and limping,” and he would buy them Cracker Jack and candy. But it was more than young fans who sought his attention backstage. By all accounts, he was sought out by admirers wherever he went. In posing for the famous series of photographs with Buffalo Bill at the Notman studios in Montreal, he must have been relatively confident that he would not have to face intrusive individuals inquiring about Custer or threatening him with damnation for his sins as he emerged from the session. But that is a low bar, as they say; in Canada, he knew he was in the Grandmother’s arms, and Lakota culture, after all, was a matriarchy.
The man who would take the photograph that memorialized the alliance between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill is hardly recognized today—not outside of Canada, at any rate. But William Notman was the first Canadian photographer known internationally. He emigrated to Montreal from Scotland in 1856 and set up a commercial photography studio that became a roaring success. His first commission was photographing the construction of the Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence River, which Sitting Bull would cross as a celebrated guest during an orchestrated event when he returned to Canada with Buffalo Bill. Queen Victoria so appreciated Notman’s photographs of the bridge construction and opening and other iconic Canadian scenes that she made him “photographer to the Queen.” During that era, photographers such as Edward S. Curtis and D. F. Barry attained prominence for making photographic portraits of Native Americans and making sure that their images were not lost to the ages. Notman was taking pictures of everyone and everything—and earning a good living while doing so. If you were celebrating a milestone, you contracted with Notman for the portrait. If your class was graduating at Yale or Harvard, you hired Notman for the portrait (he had set up seasonal studios at various American universities). If you wanted a record of your marriage, you arranged it with Notman, and if you were the Canadian government and you wanted images of the landscape for the archives or pictures related to forestry or mining, you set it up with Notman or his surrogates.
Little is known of the preparations that were made for the visit with Notman, or, for that matter, of who exactly contacted him and what was said, and if the idea had been percolating for a while (or not). But there is intrigue surrounding the session which memorialized the two icons. Did Notman happen to be in town at the same time that the Wild West was booked for Montreal? Or was that arranged in advance? Or perhaps he had contacted Cody or his advance people with the idea of a joint portrait of Buffalo Bill and his most celebrated star; after all, Sitting Bull had been generating more coverage in Montreal than Cody and it would have been the natural thing to do for a man who made his living by making photographic portraits, sometimes of celebrated figures. Of course there had already been many photographs of Buffalo Bill, and some of Sitting Bull, but none of the pair together. The idea was sure to be a publicity bonanza, and however it was hatched, something was clearly in motion in advance of the portrait, it seems, as Sitting Bull apparently headed to Notman’s studio with two sets of clothing, each of which was used in different photographs from that session. In one photograph of Sitting Bull alone, of his head and shoulders, he is in a white shirt and vest with a bandolier across his chest and two feathers in his hair. In the other, with Buffalo Bill, he is in full dress, wearing what he wore in the show, as did Cody. The fact that Sitting Bull brought two clothing changes with him would suggest that he liked the idea of the session with Notman—and maybe even was something of a dandy or a little bit vain; certainly those are not traits out of character for a man who symbolized an empire, regardless of the fact that its time had come to a close. He knew what was at stake on the day of the photo session, and Cody too was well prepared for the moment. Dressed to the nines, with his Winchester in tow, he and Sitting Bull arrived at the Notman studio on an August afternoon. They were accompanied by several other Indians. Adirondack Murray, the “father of camping,” would join them.
Judging from the tones of light in the photographs, it was probably bright and sunny on the day that they were taken, according to the former curator of the Notman Museum, Stanley Triggs. The skylights in the studio faced north to get soft light. As an assistant helped set up the shot, the two men posed against a painted background, one that Notman had used in other portraits. “It looks eastern,” Triggs tells me in a phone conversation, examining the photos that are rarely inquired of nowadays. Yet the background’s origin is of little consequence; not much is visible, and the men are front and center in a prominent way. “Sitting Bull just stood there,” Triggs recounts, recalling museum records. “He was not posing. Apparently Notman had trouble with Sitting Bull because he wanted a more pleasant look on Sitting Bull’s face.” Buffalo Bill of course was clearly posing, assuming a well-known attitude with ease. It would have taken about one-tenth to one-twenty-fifth of a second for the photograph—the one that has entered the annals—to be taken, and while Notman was taking it, and the other images, an assistant would have been going back and forth into the darkroom, checking on them. We can imagine Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill holding their positions, both men frozen in the moment, neither betraying any thought or feeling (though perhaps Cody said something witty while waiting for the images to develop between takes). Notman would have shown the results to Cody and Sitting Bull, and clearly, some of them met their satisfaction. One in particular would become a hallmark of the Wild West, the image dramatically entitled “Foes in ’76, Friends in ’85.” The slogan instantly became part of the show, with the photo made into cabinet cards and widely sold and distributed, and even after Sitting Bull left, it continued to be used as an invocation of Cody’s ongoing alliance with Native Americans.
So there the two men stood, clutching a Winchester—“the gun that won the West”—and, in a lesser known role years later, caused Sarah Winchester, the wife of its progenitor, to go mad because this gun, the one that made her family rich, killed so many Indians that she wanted no part of it and gave her fortune away, and then tried to purge the famous mansion named after the gun and where she lived of its aboriginal ghosts.
It must now be noted that there was another photograph taken by William Notman, or credited to him, when the Wild West was in Montreal, one that is of lesser fame, to be sure, but nonetheless significant. I refer to a picture of a newborn buffalo calf in the corrals of the four-legged Wild West menagerie. The calf is with its mother and Cody is nearby. It’s not an especially well-composed photograph, does not romanticize the animals or capture them in a transfigurative moment such as mid-stampede or while they are charging or making eye contact with the photographer. The buffalo and its mother are just there, recorded casually, seemingly as an afterthought. The rest of the herd that traveled with the Wild West is nearby, out of frame, because they were kept with their kin, along with all creatures in this spectacle. To Sitting Bull and the other Indians on tour, the birth of a buffalo while touring would have been noteworthy, though not strange; life goes on, of course, but they knew the buffalo had vanished and seeing that it was procreating even as they were in captivity would probably have registered. They may have made no public mention of it, for such a manifestation was not meant for chatter. Yet some may have acknowledged it in some way, remarking on it to cowboys in the troupe, for instance, or a cook, or maybe it was the other way around; it is Cody in the picture after all (and he may have strode into the frame because Notman was recording the image), and Cody himself may have told the Indians of the birth, and maybe he even relayed the news to Sitting Bull (though if so, that’s something Cody would have mentioned in his many autobiographies). I imagine Sitting Bull getting word one way or another, for there was probably little that escaped his attention when it came to matters of tribal interest, then perhaps walking the grounds at dusk after the show, pausing at the corral fence or the gates, reminded of his Sun Dance just before Custer was felled. The ritual was now forbidden on the reservation and its underpinnings were the buffalo, and now here he was, in a show that permitted him and his kind to live the Lakota way again, and the buffalo was back, one of them was anyway, and they were prisoners together on the White Man’s Road, and people paid good money to cheer and jeer them and buy their photographs. As the sun set and fires were lit in the Wild West camp and tourists who had gone backstage to mingle with Indians and even touch them were heading home, Sitting Bull might have headed back to his tipi, his choice to travel this road affirmed by the birth of the buffalo calf, a thing that was in accord with spirit, and his alliance with Cody would bode well for all people—bittersweet though it was.
Le décor est planté . C’est la Nature avec une majuscule, symbolisée par la forêt dense qui se dresse opaque sur la toile de fond avec un arbre à l’avant-plan; du foin a été jeté au sol pour sursignifier l’appartenance de deux hommes à cet univers sauvage.
Le portraitiste a déterminé que le regard des modèles doit porter vers un point qui se situe loin derrière celui qui contemple la photo. Cela crée un double sentiment d’étrangeté. D’abord, on s’attendrait à ce que, dans ce portrait de studio, le sujet photographié regarde vers l’objectif comme c’est généralement la norme. Ainsi, des générations d’ancêtres nous regardent-ils au même titre que nous les regardons quand nous sommes placés en face de photographies anciennes. Ici, les yeux nous évitent pour aller se fixer à droite derrière nous dans un hors champ qui nous est inatteignable. Ensuite, nonobstant l’abstraction voulue de la thématique forestière, il est immanquable que le spectateur soit déstabilisé par l’évocation d’une ligne d’horizon lointaine, ce qui est le propre des déserts (ou de la mer) mais certainement pas typique des régions boisées. Par contre, si nous imaginons les deux personnages comme étant sur une scène, l’attitude redevient « naturelle»; se découpant sur l’arrière-scène constituée d’une toile peinte, les comédiens regardent vers un imaginaire lointain au bénéfice du parterre qui se fait complice de l’artifice dramatique.
Nulle volonté de réalisme donc dans cette installation évoquant le milieu naturel auquel appartiennent les sujets de la photographie, au moyen d’une forêt nordique esquissée en lieu et place des paysages de l’Ouest américain; nous sommes donc dans une représentation conceptuelle où la théâtralité du lieu et l’abstraction de la proposition artistique sont pleinement assumées. Ce flottement entre l’évocation des grands espaces ouverts et la réalité d’un lieu clos semble trouver son parallèle dans les attitudes contradictoires des protagonistes où l’un joue le jeu, l’autre pas.
Le « cow-boy » prend bien volontiers la pose, qu’il exagère même un tantinet. Scout de l’armée ou chasseur de bisons, le pas qu’il esquisse ici est bien plus celui d’un danseur ou d’un jongleur. Le regard est fièrement levé vers le lointain où il se porte. Cependant la coquetterie de la gestuelle nous laisse entendre que la pensée du modèle est d’abord occupée par le souci de bien faire. Celui-ci s’efforce jusqu’à l’affèterie à se montrer à la hauteur du personnage de légende qu’il est devenu.
L’Indien, lui, s’il accepte d’avoir un œil dans l’alignement indiqué, offre au contraire une attitude d’immobilité qui contredit le dynamisme de l’ensemble. Ce corps détendu, comme au repos dans un équilibre naturel sur ses jambes droites, obéit pourtant lui aussi à un ressort interne qui commande cette posture de repli. En effet, le serrement des lèvres, habituel si l’on en juge par les rides qu’il a creusées de chaque côté de la bouche, révèle une crispation que l’attitude corporelle n’avoue pas. Et que dire de ces deux yeux intenses qui trouvent le moyen de signifier qu’ils ne regardent pas là où on leur a dit de regarder, au point focal vers lequel ils n’en feignent pas moins de tendre? Leurs pensées, on peut les supposer en s’aidant des informations historiques dont nous disposons.
William Cody devenu Buffalo Bill, légende de la conquête de l’Ouest grâce à une série de romans populaires (dime novels), voit enfin le Wild West Show, qu’il a inauguré trois ans plutôt, connaître le succès. Ici, au studio Notman, photographe des notables et des célébrités, il est pour ainsi dire chez lui. Il se félicite d’avoir pu obtenir, du chef lakota qu’il est allé lui-même solliciter à Pine Ridge et des autorités fédérales américaines, très réticentes à la chose, que Sitting Bull, le plus célèbre des Amérindiens, puisse participer à la tournée de 1885. Il est content de l’accueil des Montréalais qui ont applaudi Sitting Bull dans son tour de piste (alors que les huées ont fusé lors des premières représentations en sol américain). Il est bien informé de la récente bataille de Batoche (la publicité du spectacle annonce une reconstitution de combats «semblables à ceux de Fish Creek, de Cut Knive et de Batoche») et de son issue; Riel vient d’être condamné à mort, on ne parle que de cela à Montréal, où même l’épidémie de variole qui y sévit ne trouve pas à tempérer l’ardeur des manifestants qui se réunissent en grand nombre pour protester contre le verdict. Enfin, Cody doit aussi se préparer à accueillir sous sa tente plusieurs dignitaires de Montréal et préparer un mot de bienvenue qui soit diplomatique pour ses invités.
D’autre part, Sitting Bull, dans sa farouche intériorité, ne manque pas d’événements historiques ou d’anecdotes personnelles qui se mêlent aux premiers, à se remémorer. Songe-t-il à la fameuse bataille de Little Big Horn, qu’il avait prophétisée, où tout un régiment de la 7e cavalerie a péri sous les coups des troupes amérindiennes qu’il avait levées? À son séjour au Canada où il s’était réfugié par la suite? À la prison de Fort Randall où il a été détenu après sa reddition en dépit des ententes qui avaient été conclues? À l’avenir de son peuple qui, vaincu par les armes, cherche à s’adapter à sa nouvelle situation de minoritaire? Aux bisons qu’il a vus courir par milliers et qui sont maintenant une espèce en voie de disparition?
Il y a enfin la Winchester, arme aussi mythique que les deux hommes qui la tiennent ici entre eux. Maintenant inoffensive, elle a ostensiblement pour fonction d’évoquer la paix qui fait suite à la guerre. Mais, ainsi mollement tenue, l’arme à feu prend un côté dérisoire; une lecture freudienne parlerait d’impuissance éjaculatoire et de castration, c’est-à-dire de la mort. Et la figure de ces deux hommes dans leurs habits d’apparat surannés, figés dans un décor qui pourrait bien être celui d’un salon funéraire, c’est bien de mort qu’elle nous parle; avec le souvenir d’une époque révolue qui s’offre en spectacle historico-circassien dans la splendeur crépusculaire de la tragédie, cérémonial incantatoire capable de ramener à la vie, l’espace d’une représentation, les morts des batailles d’avant-hier.
L’embaumement constitue un fait fondamental de la genèse des arts plastiques, écrivait Bazin; mais, selon lui, l’évolution aurait dégagé l’art de ses fonctions magiques. À voir. Ici la photographie se fait visiblement monument funéraire et, malgré la verticalité de la pose, c’est bien à un gisant que l’on songe. Cela dit, derrière le masque funéraire, c’est là sa «fonction magique», les morts ont la vie dure.
Buffalo Bill n’est-il pas ici un Custer de substitution qui se place en vis-vis aux côtés du général amérindien qui a présidé à la défaite de celui-là ? Le Wild West Show a d’ailleurs commencé par un numéro intitulé «un scalp pour Custer» dans lequel Buffalo Bill rejoue un duel au couteau où il vainc un chef nommé Yellow Hair. Nous sommes en plein rituel amérindien de permutation où la force du scalp comme maison de l’âme permet au vainqueur de s’incorporer les qualités du défunt. Notons aussi, puisque nous sommes au chapitre des pilosités et de leur fonction métempsycosique, que Buffalo Bill arbore la chevelure longue et hirsute, la moustache et la barbiche de feu le général Custer.
Et à ses flans, le chef lakota dont l’irréductible intériorité continue à narguer le conquérant (et le photographe) se présente lui-même comme égal et équivalent au général Custer, vénéré comme un héros de guerre par l’opinion étatsunienne. Sitting Bull qui, dans son superbe quant à soi, signifie aux générations futures qu’il n’a jamais abdiqué sa souveraineté et que la reddition ne peut être autre chose qu’une concession temporaire. Sa posture sur la photographie parvient à faire de celle-ci une riposte visuelle à l’iconique Custer’s Last Stand. En effet, le baroud d’honneur de Custer, figuration stylisée des derniers moments du général à Little Big Horn, objet de nombreuses gravures d’époque, illustre une horde barbare et sanguinaire tournant comme des fauves autour d’un îlot de résistance de l’armée américaine. Mais ici, dans la photographie qui va aussi à son tour devenir une icône de la culture populaire américaine, le combattant amérindien se donne comme un fier combattant capable de résister avec bravoure aux assauts du conquérant.
Sitting Bull a-t-il pu déjà entrevoir la société de l’image qui s’amorce alors? On sait par exemple, qu’il a négocié que lui seul était autorisé à vendre des photos de sa personne sur le site du Wild West Show (cela lui aurait rapporté encore plus d’argent que ses cachets qui étaient pourtant importants). Cette clause à son contrat démontre qu’il était loin d’être un naïf ou une victime. Au studio Notman de Montréal en août 1885, une photo historique est tirée. C’est déjà la rencontre d’une mythologie (de l’Ouest) avec une technologie (celle de la reproduction mécanique), caractéristique du western selon le mot de Bazin (encore lui), qui se produit, neuf ans avant que d’autres Indiens du Wild West Show soient captés par les appareils de vues animées de Thomas Edison à West Orange et 13 ans avant que Veyre tourne, avec le cinématographe Lumière, Danse indienne à Kahnawake. Un nouveau combat s’est engagé, pour l’image et dans l’image. Sitting Bull peut maintenant se retirer. Il a remporté le premier engagement de cette nouvelle phase de la guerre. À d’autres maintenant de poursuivre le combat.
Part of this “winning of the West” or conquest narrative also involved the construction of Native peoples as a vanishing race. But the Indian Wars were now over, and Native peoples had not vanished. A modification in discourse from the “savage and vanishing Indian” to the “civilized and tamed Indian” was hence necessary to maintain the story of a successful conquest. This modification in discourse is clearly linked to contemporary debates about the “Indian problem,” which considered the place of Indians in modern America. 18 The conquest narrative, therefore, also entailed discourses of friendship and peace, which supported the fact that Native peoples were no longer a threat, that is, no longer a foe. The foe-to-friend discourse found in newspaper reports and other media related to the Wild West show signaled to the public the successful civilizing of Native peoples, as well as their changing relationship with the white settler community.
Among the earliest representations of the foe-to-friend discourse in relation to Wild West shows are the photographs of Sitting Bull and “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Sitting Bull’s role in the 1885 season tour of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show was that of a famous warrior, promoted as “the killer of Custer.” While the show was in Montreal, Quebec, William Notman, a successful and well-known photographer, took a series of studio photographs that have been widely copied and reprinted in various forms. Some of the pictures of Cody and Sitting Bull feature them standing side by side as “heroes of the Wild West.” In one photograph, Sitting Bull is dressed in a fringed leather shirt, dark trousers, and a full-length Plains headdress, with an embellished sash and bag, and wear- ing a stoic, reserved expression; Cody wears riding pants, tall boots, a Stetson hat, and an embroidered shirt. It is likely Notman had knowl- edge of his subjects and insisted (or agreed) that Sitting Bull and Cody wear their richly decorated performance regalia, which were visual symbols of the archetypical Plains Indian and the frontiersman, respectively. Facing each other, they both clasp the rifle in front of them with one hand and shake hands in friendship with the other, equally heroes of the West (see fig. 1). Their equal status—as both heroes and representatives of the West—is accentuated by the symmetrically balanced composition of the photograph. Significantly, the caption on a souvenir photograph based on this series reads “Enemies in ’76, Friends in ’85.” The photograph of the two men was also reproduced for the 1893 show program with a slightly altered caption: “Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill—Foes in 76—Friends in 85.”
In many of the other Sitting Bull–Cody photographs, they both gaze out into the distance rather than face each other, perhaps looking forward toward the future. The fact that Cody’s face is well lit whereas Sitting Bull’s is dark may have been an intentional representation of their future outlooks by Notman. Moreover, while Cody’s gaze is optimistic, Sitting Bull’s expression is reserved and unreadable, almost unin- terested. To a certain degree, Sitting Bull’s expression is typical for the time period. His pose and stoic expression are consistent with popu- lar imagery of the time, maintaining the public’s romantic ideals of Na- tive peoples as noble savages. Furthermore, Native men were normally painted and photographed looking away from the camera or gazing into the distance. In one of Sitting Bull’s portraits, however, he stares directly and sternly into the camera, gazing back at the photographer (see fig. 2). Here, without his iconic headdress, his firm gaze suggests an aura of determination, perhaps even confidence and intent. This image is reminiscent of photographs taken by Palmquist and Jurgens of St. Paul, Minnesota, during Sitting Bull’s 1884 tour with Alvaren Allen and James McLaughlin. Significantly, Sitting Bull sold his photographs as souvenirs during this tour.
It is possible to decipher the probable intent and meanings of the Sitting Bull–Cody series of photographs for the multiple parties involved. For Notman, producing images that conformed to the public’s expectations of Indians was essential—that of the noble savage, both a warrior and a friend—as these photographs were likely produced to be sold as souvenirs. This particular genre of photography was familiar to Notman, who also took photographs of Canada to be sold as souvenirs, for example, his series of hunting scenes. For Cody, these photographs were promotional tools that encapsulated the main theme of the show: the winning of the West. The depiction of victory and friendship in the photographs further supported this theme. Moreover, Cody capitalized on Sitting Bull’s fame and reputation as a stoic warrior in advertisements and promotional events in order to create excitement around the show and draw in the crowds. (It is no coincidence that when Sitting Bull joined the cast in 1885, the show achieved new levels of success.) Sitting Bull himself welcomed the public and press alike at barbecues and events organized for publicity purposes. However, Sitting Bull was not a pawn; he was a savvy businessman who consciously used his status as a noble warrior. Not only did he negotiate his contract with Cody to include an exceptional salary for his stoic appearances in the Wild West show, he also insisted on exclusive rights to sell his autograph and photographs of himself. It is likely that Sitting Bull had run out of souvenir photographs or cabinet cards from his 1884 tour and willingly posed for Notman to replenish his stock. Sitting Bull’s aura of confidence in the aforementioned portrait, therefore, possibly reflects his intent and business sense when it came to marketing his persona. Perhaps Sitting Bull was not as concerned as Notman or Cody about constructing a particular image that resonated with the general public, so long as that image was of himself, an image he knew could be sold to the public.
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Although Sitting Bull only performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show for one season, he was often featured in newspaper reports; these rare interviews provide some valuable insight on Native perspectives. For the most part, Sitting Bull had positive things to say about whites and spoke of friendship in interviews with the press.
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And yet, Sitting Bull was not always received kindly. But while American audiences booed him, most likely because of his role in the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn, audiences in Canada cheered him. This may have to do with the fact that Cody attempted to explain the Indian side of the story to Toronto newspapers and that Canadians viewed Sitting Bull not only as the “star’ of the show but also as a statesman. Furthermore, Sitting Bull, along with other Sioux from Standing Rock, took refuge in Saskatchewan after the battle. Therefore, one can understand Sitting Bull’s comments of friendship in the Canadian context.
The Wild West Show organized in 1883 by Colonel William F. Cody (1846-1917) advertised its performances as authentic, if dramatized, versions of episodes in the recent history of the American western frontier. As the star of his own show, Colonel William Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, exploited his near-legendary fame and regularly re-enacted his personal adventures as Pony Express rider, chief of military scouts, buffalo hunter, guide and explorer for the benefit of his public. Cody made the most of this frontier experience when, in the early 1870s, he entered the world of show business as actor, playwright, producer and organizer of a dramatic company. His show was a homage to the Wild West, and to keep it from degenerating into a masquerade and endow it with credibility, he enrolled native Indians to take part in a succession of scenes and tableaux from the recent Indian wars. In order to be authorized to employ the natives, Buffalo Bill had to apply his tactical cunning yet again, this time to find a way around the US statute which described Indians as 'wards of the government', 1 effectively keeping them captive on their reservations.
This law threatened to deprive Buffalo Bill of his Indian actors and ruin his 1878-79 season. To circumvent his impending financial crisis, he appealed to the Commissioner of the Interior with a petition for the inclusion of Indians as actors in his staged presentations. Cody argued that he was 'benefitting the Indians as well as the government, by taking them all over the United States, and giving them a correct idea of the customs, life, etc., of the pale faces, so that when they returned to their people they could make known all they had seen'.2 It seems that his argument convinced Commissioner Haight, who then appointed the smooth-talking impresario as an official Indian agent. Buffalo Bill's insistence on the inclusion of native actors and extras paid off at the box office, as his newly hired cast endowed his show with authenticity and interest. When, in the final act, the US Cavalry vanquished real Indians, the public was delighted beyond measure:'
In June 1885, Buffalo Bill achieved another major coup de théâtre by recruiting into his cast another famous person whose deeds were part of contemporary history, not to say legend. This was the Sioux medicine man and war chief Sitting Bull (1831- 1889), the fabled Ta-tan-ka I-yo-ta-ke of the Hunkpapas who led his braves into the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 and thus actively participated in the destruction of the 7th Cavalry under the command of General George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876). But the victory did not bring them peace and, soon after the battle, Sitting' Bull and his warriors crossed the 49th Parallel, seeking permanent refuge in Canada. Hopes of an asylum on the Canadian prairies did not materialize and, four years later, manipulated by both governments, the Sioux drifted back to North Dakota.
In 1885, Sitting Bull emerged from his isolation in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation after receiving the invitation from Buffalo Bill to sign on for a four-month engagement with the Wild West Show tour. The contract offered him $50 per week and expenses.4 Sitting Bull accepted, but an additional clause was added to the contract at his insistence. Prudently, he demanded the exclusive right to sell souvenir photographs of himself and to charge a fee to those members of the public who wished to pose with him for tintype portraits by fairground concessionaires.5 Sitting Bull quickly became a central attraction of the show. Mounted in solitary dignity on his mustang, he provoked jeers from American audiences who viewed him as the embodiment of the bloodthirsty savage, now conquered and tamed.6
The image of the native Indian as deadly enemy was highlighted by the role that Sitting Bull and his 52 braves played out daily, in dramatized re-enactments of incidents from the period when the Wild West was being settled by the white man. In fact, 'Sedentary Taurus', as members of the press in Boston facetiously dubbed him/ fitted effortlessly into the show. His admiration and affection for Buffalo Bill, or Pa-he-haska (the Long Hair, as he was called by the Sioux),8 was a well-publicized fact.
The summer visit of the Wild West Show to Canada in 1885 was a sensational public success. In Ontario, it visited the national capital Ottawa, and the cities of Kingston, Toronto and Hamilton. In Quebec, in the week of 10 August, the show was presented in the Montreal Driving Park, in Pointe Saint-Charles. 9 Advertisements for the spectacle appeared in all local newspapers. The Montreal newspaper Le Nouveau Monde announced the event in glowing temlS, bilingually promising: 'Representation chaque jour: Rain or Shine.' 10 The price of admission was set at 50 cents, with children half-price. There were also public parades through the streets featuring the famous Deadwood stage coach, riddled with bullets and arrows, as it careered along all the important thoroughfares of the city pursued by whooping Indians on their ponies. Such spectacles, as well as the regular shows, were highly praised in the local press. The 'reality' of the scenes was emphasized above all other qualities. So real seemed the staged episodes that they were described by the contemporary press as 'distinctively characteristic of American life'. 11 These simulations were highly rated by newspaper correspondents, convinced that they were witnessing the reality of American history as it was re-enacted before them. 12
In Canada, Sitting Bull was applauded wherever he appeared, and his historical importance was exaggerated out of all proportion. The reception given to Sitting Bull in Montreal was comparable to that accorded visiting royalty. It included a steamboat trip along the St Lawrence river and presentation to chiefS and dignitaries of the local Iroquois tribes. 13 Obviously, the Canadian public was not overly concerned with the fate of Custer.
It is likely that during the visit to Montreal, the stock of souvenir photographs was exhausted, because a new series containing 45 cabinet size (5 X 7 inch) and two large (8 x 10 inch) albumen print photographs was commissioned from the photographic establishment of William Notman. The photographs of Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and some of the entertainers were most likely taken by Notman himself. He was known to give important sitters his personal attention, as it was in his interest to ensure the proper treatment of stars of such calibre and to add them to his ever-growing list of celebrities.
Twenty-two of the photographs feature Sitting Bull alone, eight show him together with Buffalo Bill and eight pictures are of Buffalo Bill alone. There are also seven portrait-photographs of Crow Eagle, another Indian member of the troupe and two group pictures (8 X 10 inches) featuring Buffalo Bill with Sitting Bull, flanked by Crow Eagle, the American naturalist W. H. H. 'Adirondack' Murray, an unidentified interpreter, and the 'phenomenal Boy Shot', Johnny Baker, alias the Cowboy Kid. 14
Unfortunately, copy prints of 21 of the photographs are not included in the Notman studio's picture record-books, housed in the Notman Photographic Archives; the whereabouts of the original glass-plate negatives are unknown. Of the total figure of 47 photographs, 15 numbered blank spaces in the record-books are inscribed with the name of Sitting Bull, two carry the name of Crow Eagle, two mention Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull together, and one names Buffalo Bill alone. These blanks nevertheless attest to the number of photographs taken.
As the collection of props in Notman's studio did not contain any backdrop of the Dakota foothills or the western prairies, the former foes were posed against a hand-painted backdrop of northeast woodland (including birch-trees) with a foreground of straw underfoot.
In all eight photographs of Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull together (figure 1), the two heroes of the Wild West stand side by side, either exchanging handshakes, or jointly clasping Cody's trusty Winchester rifle, and looking out of the frame, towards some imaginary horizon, in a semblance of cooperation and joint purpose. These souvenir photographs were captioned 'Enemies in '76, Friends in '85' .15 Buffalo Bill adopts a dramatic stance, typical of the attitudes struck by Victorian entertainers for their studio portraits, wearing a mixture of theatrical wardrobe and practical riding gear. Set off by the outline of his Stetson hat, his upturned face holds an expression of visionary optimism. His cultivated expression is enhanced by a well-groomed moustache and goatee of the type favoured by Napoleon III.
Cody wears either a sumptuously embroidered satin shirt or a fringed buckskin jacket, with corduroy breeches girdled with a wide leather belt sporting an oversized metal buckle. Thigh-length boots of supple leather complete his costume. His whole appearance seems to have been calculated to express the civilized attitudes of a rough-riding Christian gentleman. Sitting Bull is depicted wearing his befringed show clothes, with a richly decorated soft bag slung over his shoulder, an embroidered sash across his chest and a full eaglefeather war-bonnet, which identifies him as a Plains Indian. His calm and dignified attitude in the pictures could be perceived by the spectators either as that of 'a stoic chief' or 'a blanket Indian' according to the polarized extremes of contemporary bias, which tended to view all American natives either as 'noble' or 'savage', with no intermediate categories.
[...] Louis Riel
Much of the respectful consideration for Sitting Bull is apparent in the sympathetic treatment which Notman accorded to the portraits of this great historical personality, and handed down to posterity along with the image of the frontiersman-impresario of the Wild West Show. Notman's portraits of Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill contributed to the dissemination of the theatrical image of 'Cowboys and Indians' that was instrumental in the fabrication of the popular idea of the Wild West. This cliche, reinforced through the perceived veracity and realism of photography, became one of the representative images of North American iconology throughout the world.
The large number of high-ranking military men among Cody’s supporters can easily be accounted for: after all, the propagation of myths served their interest better than critical reports on the staggering expense and doubtful benefit of the Indian wars. Cody’s fame in the East thus contributed to his career in the West. In between his performances in the cities Buffalo Bill hurried to the Indian frontier as noble scout to legitimate his role continually anew and to perpetuate the legend once begun. In the meantime, the military confrontation with the indigenous peoples was approaching its climax and end. The battle of the Little Big Horn, in which in June 1876 the 7th Cavalry under General George Armstrong Custer was virtually rubbed out by the joint Lakota and Cheyenne forces under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, was the last attempt of the Natives to ward off the Whites by force of arms. It made Custer, whose own arrogance greatly contributed to his end, a folk hero and caused the army to arrange for a quick solution of the Indian problem. Buffalo Bill, as chief of scouts of the 5th Cavalry, was not himself involved in the battle but still did not return fameless from this summer’s campaign. Shortly after Custer’s defeat, during an operation against a group of Cheyennes, he succeeded in taking the scalp of the Cheyenne chief Yellow Hand—“the first scalp for Custer,” as he had it announced in the press. That Yellow Hand’s name really was Yellow Hair, that he was not an important chief, and that the scalp was not taken at the end of a heroic single combat made no difference.12 The public in this case, too, preferred the myth to the reality.
[...]
As the victor of the battle of the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull possessed more authority in the eyes of the Whites (and in recent times also of “the Indians”) than any other Native person; it is easy to understand that his testimony was universally sought. In 1885 Buffalo Bill’s p.r. man John Burke had succeeded in hiring the hesitating Hunkpapa medicine man (who had already been on tour in the White cities two years before) for the “Wild West” Show,— with the promise, by the way, that the sure-shot Ann Oakley (“Annie, Get Your Gun”) would be one of the party. Besides a weekly pay of 50 dollars Sitting Bull was granted at his request the right to sell his photographic portrait on his own account. For Buffalo Bill he was a much more valuable asset. Although Sitting Bull was only employed with “Wild West” for this one season, his portrait continued to decorate the posters, which Colonel Cody used in 1887 to propagate his show in London. Even years later, David Notmann’s double portrait of the standard-bearers of the white and red races appeared in Buffalo Bill’s program under the title “Enemies in 1876, friends in 1885.”16
At the same time that the full-length figure standing at the left side of the Enquirer poster approximates the role of Buffalo Bill as chief of the Wild West, if not his exact presentation, it also represents the many Indians who received marquee billing with the exhibition and were recognized leaders of their own tribes. American Horse, Red Shirt, Red Cloud, Black Fox, Short Bull, Kicking Bear, Iron Tail, and the legendary Sitting Bull, among many others, achieved celebrity for their roles on the frontier and in the exhibition. They belonged to the esteemed coterie that this figure exemplifies. Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa Lakota chief and survivor of the battle of Little Big Horn, left Standing Rock reservation to tour with the exhibition in 1885.80 He was the premier show Indian. His name appeared only slightly smaller than “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” in newspaper advertisements during the exhibition’s third season and his presence in the arena launched a preference for members of the Lakota tribe as the most highly sought after show Indians. Sitting Bull did not participate in the various mock attacks, but instead rode into the arena alone to be taunted as General Custer’s murderer or hailed as a respected statesman of a great Indian nation.81 Tatanka Iyotake’s single season with the Wild West during a time of considerable hostility between the Lakota people and the United States government, inaugurated an object lesson on the theme “Enemies in ’76, Friends in ’85.” This caption frequently accompanied the most widely distributed cabinet card from a series of eight made by William Notman and Sons of Montreal when the Wild West toured Canada. (Figure 2.28) The photograph featured Cody and Sitting Bull, both participants in the Black Hills War of 1876 and performers in the Wild West, standing side-by-side adorned in their finest performance attire.82 It was often reproduced in Wild West materials, including in the lower left corner of a pastiche poster published by A. Hoen and Company a decade later. (Figure 2.29) In the years to come, even as the Wild West restaged raids on the Deadwood stage coach, just-in-the-nick-of-time rescues of white captives, and Custer’s demise, this simultaneous vilification and expression of allegiance was persistent and broadly applied to characterize white-Indian relations.83
80 For Cody’s intricate negotiations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs for permission for Sitting Bull to travel with the Wild West, see John Polacsek, “The Marketing of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Shows,” Bandwagon 34, no. 2 (March/April 1990): 24; and Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 27. Following his time with the Wild West during the 1885 season, the Bureau of Indian Affairs never allowed Sitting Bull to leave Standing Rock again. Delaney, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors, 31.
81 Moses, “Interpreting the Wild West,”168–70; and Vine Deloria, Jr., “The Indians,” in Buffalo Bill and the Wild West (Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Museum, 1981), 51.
82 Cody was a scout for the Fifth Cavalry during 1876 and Sitting Bull was notorious for his participation in the Battle of Little Big Horn. See Louis Pfaller, “‘Enemies in ’76, Friends in ’85’—Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill,” Prologue 1, no. 2 (Fall 1969): 17–31. For an analysis of the set of cabinet cards created by William Notman and Sons, see Kasson, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, 178 –79.
Sitting Bull’s participation in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West offered a complex web of meanings for white spectators, ratifying their sense of superiority and triumph in the wars against the Plains Indians, but at the same time transmuting that life-and-death struggle into the realm of harmless entertainment and transforming old enemies into providers of pleasure and excitement. A remarkable series of photographs taken during the tour in Montreal by the photographer William Notman shows these meanings, and the images were deeply significant for both Sitting Bull and Cody in following years.
Eight different pictures show Cody and Sitting Bull standing before a painted backdrop in Notman’s studio. Both are elaborately dressed, Cody in thigh-high boots, a wide-buckled belt, an embroidered shirt, and a broadbrimmed hat, all of which he wore in other souvenir photographs produced around this time. Cody the consummate showman was clearly experienced at this. Sitting Bull’s elaborate clothing also seems to be a costume he is wearing for the occasion. We know from the accounts of reporters who interviewed him that his ordinary dress was more hybrid and Europeanized. “Over a figured calico shirt he wears a waistcoat of plush brocade,” wrote one Montreal reporter, “and his trousers are of blue broadcloth, with a wide welt standing out from the outer seams, bordered with fancy braid and dotted with brass buttons. His feet are remarkably small and well formed thrust in moccasins with india rubber soles.” Another reporter commented that “he usually dresses in a print shirt, black pants and beaded slippers. He wears a red or loud necktie, massive rings and sleeve links.”** In the Notman photograph, rings are visible on his hands and his trousers hang like broadcloth, but the fringed jacket, floor-length headdress, and beaded bag slung on a band across his chest are his stage clothing. He is an actor every bit as much as Cody.
In the photographs, the renowned Sioux leader and the struggling showman seem to meet as well-matched equals. The two figures divide the picture plane, separated by the vertical line of a rifle, barrel pointed upward, between them. In one pose, the two men look directly at each other across the gun; in another, they shake hands; and in a third pose Buffalo Bill stands slightly behind Sitting Bull, gazing with him off to the right.?? But the most widely distributed one, sometimes captioned “Enemies in '76, Friends in ’85,” places them in a pose that speaks volumes. Here the balance of power seems to tip toward Cody. Sitting Bull stands in three-quarters profile, his face impassive and his eyes in shadow as he looks off to the right, with one hand hidden in the fringes of his jacket and the other grasping the rifle lightly on the barrel. Cody stands more frontally, one hand resting at the top of the rifle barrel hovering a finger’s-breadth above Sitting Bull's, the other pointing toward the right of the picture as if directing the Sioux chief's gaze. Cody's face, below the broad-brimmed hat, is flooded with light, and his eyes are wide open, his gaze attentive and firm. While the photograph shows both men in a dignified light, Cody seems active and masterful, pointing the way to the acquiescent warrior. “Enemies in ’76” reminds viewers that Sitting Bull was widely regarded as a dangerous and powerful opponent. “Friends in ’85” suggests that Wild West viewers need have no fear of him. But the “friendship” offered in this photograph —and in Wild West performances— honored American Indian dignity only at the expense of surrender to white dominance and control.
Notman also produced several individual portraits of Sitting Bull. One, depicting the Sioux chief in the same costume in front of the same backdrop, shows him grasping the now-upraised rifle in both hands. Although his expression is still impassive, perhaps detached and resistant, its solemnity may have represented an assertion of dignity and power for Sitting Bull, who deeply resented the lack of respect with which he was treated by government and military leaders and Indian agents. While it is hard to know whether he could control the poses he assumed in the Notman portraits, he did later put the photograph to uses of his own. In 1890, Sitting Bull became friendly with a Brooklyn widow and educator named Catherine Weldon, who moved into his home with her young son and supported him financially. She served as his secretary, taught classes for the women of his household, and painted his portrait in oil. The painting, which was found in his cabin after his death (and was damaged in the struggle in which he was killed), was said to be a favorite possession, “the pride of his vanity,” according to the soldier who snatched it from the house.” Clearly, Weldon’s painting was based on the Notman photograph, suggesting both that Sitting Bull kept a copy of the photograph and that he valued it. An image of an image, the painting suggests Sitting Bull’s struggle for dignity and control in the years after his surrender.
Both Cody and Sitting Bull had reason to be pleased with the results of the 1885 season, and both wanted to repeat the experience the following year. However, Agent McLaughlin, perhaps aware that Cody had helped Sitting Bull make independent contact with government officials, had hardened in his attitude. He resented the Sioux chief’s generosity on the reservation, and feared that the money he had earned on his tour was enhancing his power in the tribe. In McLaughlin’s view, Sitting Bull was “a consummate liar and too vain and obstinate to be benefited by what he sees.”*!
In some ways, Sitting Bull’s successful tour with Buffalo Bill became a liability. His ability to assert some control over the fruits of his celebrity (distributing his earnings according to the Sioux custom of gift-giving) and his efforts to establish independent channels of communication with government officials provoked McLaughlin to see him as a symbol of continuing, incorrigible resistance. In fact, it could be argued that Sitting Bull’s fame, enhanced by his appearances with Buffalo Bill, contributed to his death five years later.
William Notman & Son, Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, Montreal, 1885, silver salts on glass, gelatin dry plate process, 17 x 12 cm, McCord Museum.
Notman’s studio grew through the 1860s and beyond, so much so that it is difficult to establish which of the photographs were taken by Notman himself. It is reasonable to assume that when celebrities came to the studio, Notman would have been involved in the session, if not operating the camera, then in a directorial position. In 1885 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West made a stop in Montreal. This was a circus-type show that debuted in 1883 and toured consistently for almost thirty years in North America and Europe. The performers included Sitting Bull, a famed Lakota Sioux holy man and Indian rights activist. Like most celebrities visiting Montreal, Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull included a session at Notman’s studio, probably at Notman’s invitation.
The utterly simple format of this image was rather unusual for Notman. His studio portraits made full use of the props in his well-equipped studio rooms. A double portrait of Sitting Bull and William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody pictures them against a painted outdoor scene in full regalia with hands clasped one on top of the other over the barrel of a rifle. The effect is decidedly awkward. Buffalo Bill stands rigidly, right hand hovering at his chest and left foot stepping out, and gazes off to the left of the camera. Sitting Bull makes none of these active, almost preening, motions. He is turned slightly toward Bill and gazes downward.
Pictured on his own, Sitting Bull cuts a decidedly different figure. The solo portraits of Sitting Bull are all half-length and against a neutral backdrop. In several he is wearing a large headdress, which creates lyrical lines and textures in the finished print. By contrast this pared-down portrait is even more striking. This is the only pose in which he looks directly at the camera. Without the distractions of props, backdrop, or headdress, we are left to contemplate his calm, weathered face.
The format here is very similar to the one Edward Curtis (1868–1952) would later use for many of the portraits in his famous and controversial book The North American Indian, published in 1907. (This photograph was taken the same year the young Curtis became an apprentice in a photo studio in St. Paul, Minnesota.) It is tempting to read Sitting Bull’s emotional state in this image, to see pride, weariness, and resignation, but these are more likely to be our own projections. What Notman has captured is a visually and compellingly human image of his sitter, presumably a record of his own encounter with Sitting Bull in that moment.
Après ces événements, les réactions sont très vives aux États-Unis, et Sitting Bull et son clan trouvent alors refuge au Manitoba pendant 4 ans. Mais les conditions de vie y sont terriblement difficiles, et lui et 186 membres de son clan reviennent aux États-Unis et acceptent de vivre dans une réserve. Sitting Bull est très aimé au Canada, sa réputation de guerrier et son apparence digne en font même une vedette. En 1884, les autorités américaines acceptent qu’il parte en tournée avec le spectacle très populaire de Buffalo Bill, intitulé le Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
Sitting Bull voyage alors partout en Amérique. Il est payé 15$ par semaine et demande 1$ pour les photographies. Il vient à Montréal en 1885, où il est une véritable vedette! D’ailleurs, une de ses photographies les plus célèbres a été prise dans le grand studio montréalais William Notman & Son. Ces photographies sont d’autant plus importantes puisqu’elles sont parmi les dernières prises du grand chef sioux.
En effet, ce dernier est assassiné le 15 décembre 1890 sur sa réserve de Standing Rock dans le Dakota du Sud, après un événement quelque peu confus qui a provoqué la peur des troupes américaines. Les photographies de William Nortman & Son ont figé son image de grand chef à tout jamais.
ting Bull had expressed a desire to join the Wild West. McLaughlin, the showman explained, approved the idea. Cody offered endorsements from Generals Philip Sheridan, Nelson A. Miles, George Crook, and Alfred Terry to strengthen his application. "Please answer;" he closed the tele-gram, "as bull [sic) is anxious to come at once." Secretary of tim Interior Lamar found the proposition unacceptable. He wrote on the telegram
"Make a very emphatic No" (underlining the word three times).18 Commissioner John D. C. Atkins told Cody of both his and the secretary's opposition. Indians should be engaged in civilized pursuits and not in "roving through the country exhibiting themselves and visiting places where they would naturally come in contact with evil associates and degrading immo-ralities." 19 Rebuffed again, Cody forwarded endorsements from General William T. Sherman and Colonel Eugene A. Carr (commander, Sixth Cav-alry) who expressed their confidence in the showman. In his own letter to the commissioner, Cody emphasized his long experience in "the management and care of Indians." He guaranteed that, once employed with the show, Sitting Bull would "receive the kindest treatment," 20 Secretary Lamar relented and, on May 18, wired Agent MeLaughlin that Sitting Bull and a few of his followers and family would be permitted to appear in Cody's Wild West show.21
Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa Sioux joined the show in Buffalo, New York, on June 12. The 1885 season confirmed the success of Cody's Wild West both financially and artistically. Cody and company toured more than forty cities in the United States and Canada.? A part of the show's success is explained by the presence of Sitting Bull.
When performing, he wore his buckskin, paint, and feathers. In the parade of performers at the opening of the show, he wore a red tunic. When not in the arena, his usual dress included a plush brocade waist-coat, black flowered pants, a scarlet tie, a printed shirt with its tails hanging down outside his trousers, and beaded, rubber-soled moccasins. He adorned himself with jewelry and sometimes wore a crucifix, mostly because he liked its design. Introduced to the audiences simply as Sitting Bull, the famous Hunkpapa chief, he endured the taunts and boos of the crowd who associated him with Custer's death at the Little Bighorn. From all reports, he bore the insults impassively — or with greater dignity than those who screamed their insults. He made considerable money selling his photographs, perhaps gaining some measure of revenge upon the unfriendly crowds.?
4 : Sitting Bull ar Buffalo Bill, 1885. One in a series of cabinet photographs made by William Notman during the visit of Cody's Wild West to Montreal. The more famous pose from this series — at least the one that is most frequently reproduced—has Buffalo Bill pointing to an imaginary horizon with his right hand. Both he and Sitting Bull rest their left hands on the Hunkpapa holy man's Model 1873 Winchester. (Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming)
1 photographic print ; photo 14 x 9.8 cm, on mount 16.5 x 10.9 cm.
Photograph originally taken by William Notman studios, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, during Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, August 1885. Later copyrighted by D.F. Barry in June 1897.
parle pas de la photo en tant que telle, mais décrit le spectacle à Montréal, fait des parallèles avec Louis Riel
Admission was 50 cents (children, half-price).
The show opened Monday, Aug. 10. Every day through the following Saturday, people flocked to the Driving Park in Point St. Charles, not far from where the Club Price store now stands.
As people filed into the parks grandstand, they could see bison, elk and Indian ponies grazing on the infield grass.
The show consisted of troupes of Indians, Mexican vaqueros and Texas cowboys galloping past. There were rodeo tricks, as well as displays of marksmanship by 16-year-old Johnny Baker, little Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody himself.
There were Indian attacks on the original Deadwood stage and on a settlers cabin. Cody, a former Indian fighter and U.S. army scout, took centre stage to re-enact his slaying of the Sioux chief Yellow Hand in 1876 to avenge Custer. The famous Cow Boy Band provided music.
And there was Sitting Bull himself, known to his own people as Ta-tanka I-yotank.
In summer 1885, he was about 49 years old. He didnt actually do much. For most of those attending the Wild West show, simply to gaze on his countenance seamed and wrinkled as becomes a chief upon whose head war and wrong have beaten for half a century, as a Gazette columnist known as Chips put it, was thrill enough.
Later, as I was well along that path, I came across another image that also captured my attention. It was taken for publicity purposes while Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill were on tour in Montreal, and its caption was "Foes in '76, Friends in '85." I began to imagine these two men on the road, Sitting Bull on that horse, criss-crossing the nation, visiting lands that once had belonged to the Lakota, appearing as "himself" on crowded thoroughfares that were built on top of ancient paths made by animals and the people who followed them, with William F. Cody, another mythical figure of the Great Plains, re-enacting wartime scenarios that had one outcome—the end of the red man and the victory of the white—leading the whole parade in a celebration of the Wild West that became the national scripture. What were the forces that brought these two men together, I wondered, and what was the nature of their alliance? Theirs was certainly an unlikely partnership, but one thing was obvious on its face. Both had names that were forever linked with the buffalo, and both led lives that were intertwined with that animal. One man was "credited" with wiping out the species (though that was hardly the case) and the other and his fellow Lakota were long sustained by it. They were, in effect, two sides of the same coin; foes and then friends, just like the photo caption said. Here were two American superstars, icons not just of their era and country, but for all time and around the world. What story was this picture telling and how was it connected to the dancing horse outside Sitting Bull's cabin?
La plus célèbre photo de la légende de l’Ouest, celle où l’on voit Buffalo Bill avec sa veste à franges en daim debout à côté du grand chef Sitting Bull a été prise à Montréal !
Sitting Bull was infamous for his involvement with the massacre of U.S. Cavalry troops at the Battle of Little Bighorn in the summer of 1876. He and his tribe then fled American soil for Canada for approximately four years, during which hardships plagued the group. With little food or resources, Sitting Bull eventually decided to make the trip back to his homelands, and surrendered to United States officials on July 20, 1881. As a prisoner of war, he would, for the rest of his life, be a ward of the American government. Sitting Bull was made to live and farm at the Standing Rock Agency, and report to Indian agent James McLaughlin. His efforts and that of his devoted Sioux could no longer prevent the advances of the U.S. military who sought final control of all the Indians’ western homelands. Although forced to remain on the reservation, Sitting Bull had established himself as a notable figure among Native Americans. Cody immediately recognized the possibilities for Sitting Bull’s celebrity stature.
Initially, the secretary of the interior was opposed to Sitting Bull joining Cody’s tour. But Cody and his general manager, John Burke, relentlessly pursued the contract for Sitting Bull’s services, finally arranging for Sitting Bull’s appearances in the show's parade and in the arena but not in the dramatic segments. His pay was set at $50 per week, with a bonus of $125. His interpreter, William Halsey, and five men and three women would also be allowed to travel with the show at smaller salaries. Sitting Bull also was granted the right to sell his portrait photographs and autographs during the tour. Once on opposite sides of war, Cody and Sitting Bull performed together for the one season. Huge crowds flocked to the performances. Ticket sales soared and Cody’s finances stabilized to ensure the future of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.*
Like all Indians with the troupe, Sitting Bull was exposed to the Euro-American lifestyle and culture while sharing tribal culture with audiences. Indians received thunderous applause and ovations for their appearances and participation in each program segment. Viewing the thrilling battles and painted warriors from the safety of their grandstand seats, visitors encountered, most for the first time, the skills and strength of the American Indians.‘°
The 1885 contract, while satisfying both Cody and Sitting Bull, would be the only one ever allowed. Sitting Bull’s status concerned the Bureau of Indian Affairs and agent McLaughlin. Sitting Bull was never again allowed to leave Standing Rock. His interest in the Ghost Dance movement of his people and religious missionaries led to his death in December 1890. Sitting Bull was shot by Indian police attempting to arrest him at his home.
Another historical event, the Battle of Little Big Horn, was both a pivotal moment during the so-called Indian Wars and a central performance in the Wild West show. The actual event was fought on June 25, 1876 and was perceived to be a victory by the Native Americans against General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry Regiment of the Unites States Army. The conflict began as a result of government pressure to push Lakota off the Black Hills in order to preserve miners’ interests from the Lakota people.205 The Lakota did not have any interest in mining, but they did want to keep their land, not only because the Black Hills belonged to them and were considered sacred, but also because their source of food and shelter, the buffalo, roamed on those Hills. The US government, unhindered by the woes of the Indian, ordered the Lakota to appear at the US Indian Agencies by January 1st, 1876, or be considered a threat. The Lakota were unaware of this order from the government and so they did not make an appearance at the Agency. Therefore, the US government twisted the incident into an act of war by the Lakota and declared “all ‘free’ Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to be hostile.”206 The true combatants were the leaders and politicians representing the US government, who distorted any action by the Indians, even in defense of their lands and their people, as acts of unprovoked aggression against the US government and the American people themselves. This political cartoon from 1890 (fig. 72) attacks the corruption of government Indian Agents, who were supposed to be helping the Indians to adjust to reservation life. Even though this cartoon is from 1890, the corruption began much earlier and can be clearly outlined from the outcome of the Lakota trying to defend their lands, lands that had been “protected” under an American-based Treaty.
The American public considered General Custer’s death during The Battle of Little Bighorn a national tragedy, but because of the “heroic” action taken by Cody in killing Custer’s killer, Custer’s death was avenged. The legend, as told by Cody, was that he hunted down Custer’s supposed killer, then killed and scalped him. Of course, he enacted his “heroic deed” in his Wild West show before the cheers of an audience. But, who was Custer’s killer and who would play the part of Custer’s killer at the climax of the show during the recreation of the Battle of Little Bighorn? Buffalo Bill attributed Yellow Hand as having killed Custer and even had his supposed scalp on display among his other souvenirs in his tent (fig. 73) at the performances in Paris.208
Although Cody claimed Custer’s killer was Yellow Hand, another Native American came forward claiming to be Custer’s killer. Rain-in-the-Face (fig. 74) was thought to have killed Custer by many Americans including poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote a poem, entitled “The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face:”209
The Wild West shows of the late 1800s and early 1900s provided the biggest source of images of Indigenous people for mass consumption prior to the introduction of Hollywood movies. Performances included live animals and "real Indians" such as Sitting Bull and Black Elk. The Wild West shows established the image of the Plains Indian as "the" Indian who wears a feathered headdress, rides a horse, and lives in a teepee. Indigenous peoples from diverse cultures were merged into one universal cultural image, the Plains chief. This stereotype so effectively established the image of the pan-Indian that real "Indians" were not acknowledged as such. In 1886, a group of nine Kwakiutl people from British Columbia on tour in Germany wearing their traditional dress, disappointed their audiences when they were mistaken for Oriental people ─ they did not have the facial features nor the feathered headdresses of the Imaginary Indian (Francis 1992, 94).
The Wild West shows also reinforced the idea that Indigenous peoples were a conquered race, representing the triumph of civilization over the wilderness. The cowboys always won. There were many Wild West shows, but the most famous was Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show which began in 1883 and lasted until the advent of World War I in 1913. Operated by Colonel William Cody, also known as Buffalo Bill, he capitalized on his storied activities on the western prairies as a Pony Express rider, a military scout, guide, and buffalo hunter. The show toured across Canada in the summer of 1885, stopping at Ottawa, Kingston, Hamilton, Toronto, and Montreal. The Toronto Globe newspaper reported at the time that the enormous show required eighteen train cars to haul the 150 actors and assorted animals which included: Sitting Bull and fifty-two braves, Annie Oakley, and a large herd of buffalo (ibid, 87−88). The show was dramatically previewed by the famous Deadwood stage coach, pierced by bullets and arrows, parading through the streets of the city, pursued by shrieking Indians on horseback. Newspaper articles of the time reported on the "authenticity" of the spectacles and conveyed the belief that the audience was experiencing American history being reenacted in living colour (Bara 1996, 153). Displays of cowboys defeating Indians provided comfort to a White audience that had been receiving reports of the North-West Rebellion of 1885 in Saskatchewan, led by Métis leader Louis Riel.
Sitting Bull signed a four-month contract to tour with the Wild West Show, with his contract including the exclusive right to sell souvenir photographs of himself and to charge a sitting fee to pose for photographs with members of the general public (ibid, 153). During the visit to Montreal, Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull, and other members of the troupe commissioned a series of souvenir photographs at the studio of William Notman, examples of which are shown in Figures 3.2 and 3.3. The photographs of Sitting Bull with Buffalo Bill convey a message of cooperation, as both men are standing in a relaxed pose, gazing in the same direction, and holding Cody's rifle. Each man is dressed in the symbols for his dramatic role: Cody with a Stetson hat, riding gear, and a knife on his belt; Sitting Bull with a full-length Plains feathered headdress, a woven sash, and beaded pouch. The Notman Studio provided a woodland setting for the "outdoor" photographs, more representative of central Canada than of the western prairies.
