Buffalo Bill the most famous American in the World

Conveniently located about an hour’s drive along scenic byways from two Yellowstone National Park entrances, the historic community of Cody, Wyoming, appeals to all ages with a wide range of fun things to do.

Only have a few hours in town? The Buffalo Bill Center of the West houses five world-class museums and is a must-see. During the summer, Cody, known as the Rodeo Capital of the World hosts a nightly rodeo featuring experts in roping, bull riding and barrel racing.

Extend your stay to explore Cody’s natural beauty on a horseback or rafting trip and stay at the charming Buffalo Bill Cabins.

The buyer of a Pennsylvania home that served as a filming location for Buffalo Bill‘s house in 1991 movie Silence of the Lambs is now being converted into a bed and breakfast.

The Cheyenne people or, more properly, the Tsétsêhéstaestse, are a Native American group of Algonquin speakers whose ancestors came from the Great Lakes region of North America.

They are known for their partially successful resistance to the United States government’s attempt to move them to a reservation far from their home territories.

Their name, Cheyenne, is a Sioux word, “Shaiena,” which roughly means people who speak in a strange tongue. In their own language, they are Tsétsêhéstaestse, sometimes spelled Tsistsistas, meaning the people.

Oral history, as well as archaeological evidence, suggests that they moved into southwest Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas, where they planted corn and built permanent villages.

Possible sites have been identified along the Missouri River, and they certainly lived at the Biesterfeldt site on the Sheyenne River in eastern North Dakota between 1724 and 1780.

An outlier report is that of a Spanish official in Santa Fe, who as early as 1695 reported seeing a small group of “Chiyennes.”

As more and more emigrants began to pass through Wyoming on their way west, the Native Americans who called the region home or used it as hunting grounds began to resent the traffic through their lands, especially after the California Gold Rush.

As a result, the U.S. government began negotiating with the Plains tribes living between the Arkansas and Missouri Rivers to ensure a protected right-of-way for the many travelers.

To accomplish this, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed with representatives of the Cheyenne Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations on September 17, 1851.

The treaty set forth the Indians’ traditional territorial claims, guaranteed safe passage for settlers and allowed the government to build forts and roads across the territories.

In return, the government was to provide annuities of $50,000 for fifty years to the tribes.

Later, the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, adding Article 5, which adjusted the compensation from fifty to ten years if the tribes accepted the changes. All tribes accepted the change except for the Crow.

The treaty produced a brief period of peace, but several tribes did not receive the commodities promised as payments, and the government chose not to enforce the treaty to keep out the emigrants.

Especially during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush of 1858, the tribes began to retaliate. As attacks began on settlers intruding upon their lands, the military presence along the trails increased, and several forts were established.

When the Bozeman Trail was blazed in 1864, more emigrants intruded on Indian lands resulting in more attacks. As a result, Major General Grenville M. Dodge ordered the first Powder River Expedition to attempt to quell the violence in 1865.

The expedition ended in a battle against the Arapaho in the Battle of Tongue River.

However, the fighting escalated again the following year in what has become known as Red Cloud’s War which was the first major military conflict between the United States and the Wyoming Indian tribes.

The second Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 ended the war by closing the Powder River Country to white settlers.

This treaty was also broken by miners who flocked to the Black Hills after gold was discovered. This land, sacred to the Sioux, led to the Black Hills War, fought mainly along the border of Wyoming and Montana.

Several skirmishes, battles, and massacres occurred during these turbulent years.

Fort Phil Kearny saw some of the most dramatic incidents, such as the Wagon Box Fight and the Fetterman Massacre.

The state of Wyoming’s rail network has only slightly declined since the 1920’s. The decline has only been 50 miles and actually peaked in 1995 at 2,065.

As a result, there are few abandoned railroads here. The most notable is the original routing of Union Pacific during its building of the Transcontinental Railroad during the 1860’s.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was born just west of the Mississippi River near LeClaire, Iowa, on February 26, 1846.

At age 12, he worked for a wagon train headed to Fort Laramie, Wyoming; the next year, he participated in the gold rush to Colorado; and at 15, he reportedly rode for the Pony Express. By the end of his life, he had come to symbolize the American frontier itself.

In 1867, Cody hunted buffalo for the Kansas Pacific Railroad work crews, earning his moniker “Buffalo Bill” and his reputation as an expert shot.

The next year, he was employed by the U.S. Army as a civilian scout and guide for the Fifth Cavalry. His experience and skills as a plainsman made him an invaluable tracker and fighter.

On April 26, 1872, Cody became one of only four civilian scouts to be awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars for valor in action.

He was later declared ineligible for the medal and stricken from the roll in 1917, but his name was reinstated in 1989 by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.

By the turn of the twentieth century, William F. Cody was arguably the most famous American in the world. No one symbolized the West for Americans and Europeans better than Buffalo Bill.

Every American president from Ulysses S. Grant to Woodrow Wilson consulted him on matters affecting the American West.

ABC Flash Point History News 2023.