The “Wild West” Goes East: Finding Missing Pieces in a Portrait of 1900s America

Riley Bowers* and Bonnie M. Brown, Native American Studies Program, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26506

Field (Broad Category): Native American Studies (Human Engagement)

Student’s Major: History 

Western society’s fascination with Indigenous American peoples, cultures, and artifacts expanded following territorial warfare, forced tribal land cessions, and relocation of North American tribes onto reservations. The desire for performances, memorabilia, and symbols of the, “noble, stoic Indian,” became an international phenomenon. This research examines this collective fascination, as evidenced by materials housed in the West Virginia and Regional History Collection at WVU Libraries, and discussed by visiting scholars, including the grandson of a World War One veteran from the Blood Tribe, Blackfoot Confederacy. The research includes historical detective work investigating: the veteran’s buffalo horn-eagle feather headdress, which was last seen in England during World War One; ledger art drawings purportedly drawn by Lakota Chief Sitting Bull, which are part of the WVU Libraries’ Collection; an archival photo documenting a parade of Plains Indians riding on horseback down Morgantown’s High Street; and published letters written by an Austrian woman who married a Lakota man after seeing him perform in Europe in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. 

Funding: 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course