Wild Westing was the term used by Native Americans for their performing with Buffalo Bill's Wild West and similar shows. Between 1887 and World War I, over 1,000 Native Americans went "Wild Westing." Most were Oglala Lakota from their reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the first Lakota people to perform in these shows. During a time when the Bureau of Indian Affairs was intent on promoting Native assimilation, William Frederick Cody used his influence with U.S. government officials to secure Native American performers for his Wild West. Cody treated Native American employees as equals with white cowboys.
"The Last Great Congress of the Red Man", Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, 1901.
In 1893, over two million patrons saw Buffalo Bill's Wild West perform during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
Chief Red Shirt was popular with journalists and newspapers and was the most quoted Wild Wester celebrity.
Chief Iron Tail was one of the most famous Native American celebrities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Professional photographers circulated his image across the continents.
Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of cowboys, Plains Indians, army scouts, outlaws, and wild animals that existed in the American West. While some of the storylines and characters were based on historical events, others were fictional or sensationalized.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World - Poster showing cowboys rounding up cattle and portrait of Col. W. F. Cody on horseback. c.1899.
Buffalo Bill Cody, Ned Buntline, Texas Jack Omohundro in The Scouts of the Prairie, 1872.
Poster showing Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World battling Cuban insurgents, c. 1898
Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, 1885