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Post by oglallah on Oct 14, 2017 18:35:05 GMT -6
I am writing two articles for our local (Wigan and Leigh) historical and Heritage Centre and as I have had a lifelong passion (obsession) with the American West I thought I would combine the two fields of study. The first article is about the Lancastrians who fought and died at the Little Bighorn with Custer and the second follow-up is about those warriors who had fought in the battle and went on to visit England with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Exhibition. I know that Black Elk wrote of being lost in Manchester before he was able to rejoin the tour at Liverpool.
The show visited Wigan and also Leigh in September and October respectively in 1904 and I am trying to establish if any Lakota, Cheyenne or Arapaho (or even Crow) participants in the Little Bighorn battle featured in the entertainment or were part of the troupe that visited the 2 towns. I would be eternally grateful for any info or nudges in the right direction.
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Post by tubman13 on Oct 15, 2017 5:36:28 GMT -6
You might check with the Cody Museum in Wyoming. They may have some sort of rosters.
Regards, Tom
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Post by noggy on Oct 16, 2017 2:24:31 GMT -6
I am writing two articles for our local (Wigan and Leigh) historical and Heritage Centre and as I have had a lifelong passion (obsession) with the American West I thought I would combine the two fields of study. The first article is about the Lancastrians who fought and died at the Little Bighorn with Custer and the second follow-up is about those warriors who had fought in the battle and went on to visit England with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Exhibition. I know that Black Elk wrote of being lost in Manchester before he was able to rejoin the tour at Liverpool. The show visited Wigan and also Leigh in September and October respectively in 1904 and I am trying to establish if any Lakota, Cheyenne or Arapaho (or even Crow) participants in the Little Bighorn battle featured in the entertainment or were part of the troupe that visited the 2 towns. I would be eternally grateful for any info or nudges in the right direction. Manchester is my second home, and I like the Northeast of England a lot, so this sounds great! Will it be online or is it on paper only?
There were only five Arapahos at LBH; Left Hand, Yellow Eagle, Yellow Fly, Waterman and a Southern Arapaho known as Green Grass or Well-Knowing. (I have seen claims of only 4, I believe due to one of them being part...eh, some other tribe). Should be easy to figure out if anyone of the was With Cody.
I googled and in this link, ormskirkbygonetimes.co.uk/buffalo-bills-wild-west-show-sept-1904/ , the following is stated:
"Oglala Lakota Sioux were a huge part of the show and performed throughout the history of the Buffalo Bill shows giving some thrilling performances that must have had crowds mesmerised and enthralled, especially the young children watching the show. Although Sitting Bull had left the show a decade or more earlier, his son, Young Sitting Bull did apparently appear in this tour. After leaving Southport the tour went on to Leigh and newspaper accounts of the event still survive."
So local papers my have some names, at least of the more famous Indians. there is also a book named "Four Years in Europe with Buffalo Bill", which may or may not be of help. And as mentioned, the Wild Bill Museum is a great tip.
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Post by oglallah on Oct 16, 2017 5:56:59 GMT -6
Not sure about it being published as there is a lot of competition and maybe the issues involved are not local enough. However, I will try to make it available (hopefully through this site) to anyone interested. I think it is a unique angle of local/American history that needs to be studied so I will pursue it further.And thanks for the advice to both you and tubman.
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Post by noggy on Oct 16, 2017 7:14:58 GMT -6
Not sure about it being published as there is a lot of competition and maybe the issues involved are not local enough. However, I will try to make it available (hopefully through this site) to anyone interested. I think it is a unique angle of local/American history that needs to be studied so I will pursue it further.And thanks for the advice to both you and tubman. Indeed, and good Luck With it. I`m stuck in my second year just trying to finish a regular Battle article...
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JoeG
New Member
Posts: 32
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Post by JoeG on Oct 16, 2017 13:47:27 GMT -6
Hi, The excellent website by Peter Russell 'men with custer', biographies of 7th Cavalrymen from the UK and Ireland, may help with the Lancastrians. Look forward to reading your piece, I'm not far way from you, Stockport.
Have you thought of joining the Custer Association of Great Britain? We have a meeting in London on 4th November.
best wishes
Joe
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Post by tubman13 on Oct 16, 2017 19:21:51 GMT -6
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Post by noggy on Oct 20, 2017 5:53:02 GMT -6
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Post by oglallah on Oct 21, 2017 16:35:39 GMT -6
Noggy, sorry I couldn't reply earlier but I have been very busy (and stressed out) with the house move. Thanks for the nudge and yes the link has been of tremendous use to me. There are some familiar names there. Thank you for that.
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Post by noggy on Dec 28, 2017 20:20:35 GMT -6
Noggy, sorry I couldn't reply earlier but I have been very busy (and stressed out) with the house move. Thanks for the nudge and yes the link has been of tremendous use to me. There are some familiar names there. Thank you for that. A very good friend of mine in Manchester just told my recently that her "ancestors" (relatives seem so close in time) attended at least one of these shows, and she heard about fliers or pamflets or something like it being kept as souvenirs. She is not really too much interested in history, but her grandfather was more or less a hoarder when it came to things an do was his father and so on, so there is quite a bit of stuff tucked away in good old Buxton. Shortly after New year I`ll be taking the trip over to see football, and I`ve "ordered" a check if there is anything lying around. Would be rally cool if so, and I would let you know if I find anything of interest. COYR
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Post by oglallah on Jul 3, 2023 8:18:58 GMT -6
This is the article I did for the local history magazine.
Cloth Caps and Cowboy Hats; the Day the Wild West Came to Wigan
On the 29th of September 1904, a small army invaded the cotton manufacturing town of Wigan in Lancashire. Nearly a thousand strong it was a mixture of veteran US soldiers, Lakota Indians, American cowboys, Mexican vaqueros, Arab Spahis (light cavalry), japanese acrobats, wives, consorts and other camp followers. There was also a contingent of teamsters, horse wranglers, carpenters, stage hands, electricians (for the special electric light plants), armourers, cooks and butchers. Together with a convoy of fifty wagons, including a stagecoach, carrying supplies and equipment, they made the trek through the town to Lamberhead Green, a semi rural area just over a mile to the south. It was pure spectacle with the Sioux warriors resplendent in warpaint and eagle feathers, the vaqueros in gaily coloured ponchos and sombreros and the darkskinned Spahis mounted on their spirited chargers. Then came the cowboys wearing stetsons and silver spurred high heeled boots amusing the spectators with rope tricks. And in the vanguard waving gallantly to the crowds lining the roadside, rode Col William Frederick Cody, six feet four and clad in buckskins, thigh length black riding boots and wide brimmed white sombrero. Ex army scout, showman and self-styled killer of Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hair, with cascading curls and well waxed moustache and goatee, at fifty eight still erect astride his prancing horse. It was an entry to make even Caesar blush. Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show was in town.
Arriving at their destination, an area stretching from Lamberhead Green to present day Worsley Hall, an encampment of canvas tents and tipis was erected. Then came the main tent and a number of marquees around a central horseshoe shaped arena. Inhabited by peoples of many nations, it was a town within a town. Two weeks before the Shows arrival hundreds of posters had magically appeared in shop windows, on billboards and vacant walls, heralding the imminent arrival of BUFFALO BILL AND HIS CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS OF THE WORLD! The frenetic schedule included two shows, afternoon and evening (hence the new fangled electric lighting). Admission was priced at one shillings upwards to four with box seats costing five shillings and seven shillings and sixpence. Children under ten were admitted at half price. For a ha'penny you could have a cone filled with popcorn. Programmes and other souvenirs were also on sale. Locals were even allowed to visit the tipis of the Native Americans. Some of those who attended later recalled how they had dressed up in their Sunday best for the once in a lifetime occasion. Some may even have remembered earlier visits to Lancashire by Bill and his Wild West. The famed frontier scout had whooped them up on three previous tours. He had even met Queen Victoria, a huge fan. So the ground was well ploughed.
The Show opened with a review of the entire company who, to the accompaniment of William Sweeney and his Cowboy Band, galloped and paraded around the arena. Then, as the music morphed into The Star Spangled Banner, Buffalo Bill made his dramatic entrance. Mounted on a handsome black steed wearing a silver bridle, a present from Edward Vii back when he was Prince of Wales, with a flourish of his white sombrero he introduced the Congress of Rough Riders of the World who, at his signal entered into a dazzling, kaleidoscopic routine of interspersing concentric circles. Then came the entertainment proper. A panoply of riding and roping and shooting exhibitions performed by the troupe - Cody included. Edwardian Evel Knievel George C. Davis did death defying feats on his bicycle, one of them involving a fiftysix foot jump across a chasm. There were also acrobatics and other spectacular feats. The cavalry and infantry drilled and marksman Johnny Baker showed off his considerable shooting skills. But these were only curtain raisers for the melodramatic main events - frontier vignettes featuring Buffalo Bill as Pony Express rider, Buffalo Bill as buffalo hunter, and Buffalo Bill as the thrilling last minute rescuer of a settlers cabin surrounded by Indians. There was also an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage. Buffalo Bill to the rescue again! And then the high point of the whole spectacle - a re-enactment of Custers Last Stand, the finest hour of Lakota and Cheyenne resistance to white encroachment on their land. The arena echoed with gunfire and the war whoops of triumphant Indian warriors as they wiped out the wasichus. Johnnie Baker, wearing built up boots and a blonde wig, played Custer. The Indians played themselves. Some of them may have even been present at the actual battle. Sitting Bull jnr, son of the chief who had, played the role of his father. For him, like the rest of the Native performers, it was a temporary escape from the grim realities of reservation life. And the pay was good. But of greater importance though, was the opportunity it gave them to present a culture and lifestyle that was fast disappearing, and to relive again the old ways and old victories.
Then it was over. The last shot fired, the last Indian felled, the last settler saved. Buffalo Bill bade the crowded stands farewell and they filtered home with their programmes and souvenirs and memories. In the just dawning century a new medium, made of flickering images, would take on the role of storyteller of the American West, presenting an image that the old scout, both in real life and in fiction, had had a major role in developing. He would even appear before the camera himself. But the movies, captivating as they were, could never deliver the excitement, the experience of being there. You were in the presence of REAL Indians and REAL cowboys and a REAL western hero - Buffalo Bill, attesting to the authenticity of his Frontier tableaux. For Cody himself, the show presented America's, and his own, take on the conquest of the Plains and it's native peoples. He was the most famous American of his day, and the world was wild about the West. But to the hundreds who crowded the canvas covered stands on that long ago day in Wigan, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was never anything more than entertainment and spectacle. A temporary bolt hole out of a coal mine or cotton mill and into another world, albeit one long gone.
References
Gallop, Alan. Buffalo Bill's British Wild West. Sutton Publishing Limited, 2001. Kasson, Joy S. Buffalo Bill's Wild West; Celebrity, Memory and Popular History. Hill and Wang, 2000. Sell, Henry Blackman, and Victor Weybright. Buffalo Bill and the Wild West. Oxford University Press, 1955. Stillman, Deanne. Blood Brothers; Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. Simon & Schuster, 2017. Warren, Louis S. Buffalo Bill's America; William Cody and the Wild West Show. Vintage Books, 2006.
Newspapers.
Blackburn Times The Guardian The Northern Daily Telegraph The Rochdale Observer The Southport Visiter The Wigan Observer
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