- Buffalo Bill presented the real Lakota Indians that people had read about in the dime novels who would attack the stage coach and then Buffalo Bill started recruiting more and more cowboys.
He presented dramatic reenactments like the Battle of Summit Springs and, of course, then the cowboys save the day.
Not only was Buffalo Bill conveying this idea to Americans but Buffalo Bill also took the show overseas and was an international hit.
He appeared before Queen Victoria, he appeared in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
So a lot of Europeans were exposed to the cowboy as the ideal American.
- So why would somebody named Bill Cody call himself Buffalo Bill Cody rather than cowboy Bill Cody?
- He wasn't really a cowboy.
- What is a cowboy?
- A cowboy is basically a common worker, no different than a coal miner or a lumberjack.
But with this difference, they were given a lot of trust.
They were really independent workers.
They did not have a foreman breathing down their neck.
A lot of people thought that cowboys were just these ruffians that came into town and shot the place up.
I don't think they really realized the important role cowboys were playing and feeding the growing United States.
So we're going into the Buffalo Bill vault where we keep our Buffalo Bill collections.
So this is about as close as you'll ever come to rummaging through Buffalo Bill's closet.
This was worn by Buffalo Bill Cody while he was performing in the Wild West.
- [David] This was actually worn by him?
- Yes and all of the bead work was completed by the Lakota women who were traveling along with the Wild West.
You can see it's really quite cross-cultural because you have the bead work as well as the European style, but the fringes, the bead work all reflective of the Plains Indian culture.
But you can imagine when he rises into the arena, all the sunlight would've been reflecting off of the buttons, the bead work.
The other thing too about Buffalo Bill was he was quite interested in recreating some of the more contemporary events.
So here you'll see in the back of the jacket, the American flag and the Cuban flag.
He was quite a supporter of the Cuban revolutionaries and the independence movement there.
In fact, he brought in some Cubans to travel with the Wild West in the 1990s.
- Where did you get this?
- This came from the family and this is one of the few objects that we will allow visitors to handle.
So this is actually a hat that belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody.
You could put this on and say you've actually worn Buffalo Bill's hat.
- Wow, all right, here I am with Buffalo Bill's hat.
I hope he's not turning over in his grave as I... - I think you're ready for the rodeo.
- I should have been a cowboy.
I always had it in my mind to be a cowboy.
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