Art of the American West. William Cary. A-Z Challenge

Buffalo Bill on Charlie. nd. William Cary.  (1840-1922)

 Dover Publications

Buffalo Bill, the symbol of the imagined West, partly myth, and folk hero.  His real name was William F. Cody, born in Iowa in 1846. During the Civil War he served as an Indian Scout in campaigns against the Kiowa and the Camanche Indians, and was part of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry. In 1867 he hunted buffalo for the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad and by his own count killed 4,280 head of buffalo in 17 months, which gave him the name, Buffalo Bill.

He was the hero of the dime novels of Ned Buntline which led him to star in plays written by Buntline, embelishing the myths of the West. In between acting, he escorted wealthy Easterners and European nobility on Western hunting expeditions.

In later years he created a Wild West show in 1883 which highlighted frontier life:  a buffalo hunt with real buffalo, and Indian attack on the Deadwood stage with real Indians, a Pony Express ride, and a presentation of Custer's Last Stand with Indians who had fought the actual battle, the Lakotas. This show was a huge success and toured for 30 years here in America and in Europe. 

Not all was celebrity life, in 1890 he helped restore peace after the massacre in Wounded Knee bringing some of the Indians from his troupe who helped restore order. 

Indian Scout, Army Veteran, actor, entrepreneur, Buffalo Bill died in 1917 and is buried on Lookout Mountain near Denver, Colorado.
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William Cary, the artist, was known as one of the last artists to portray Native American themes before railroad development opened the West  He had first-hand knowledge of the Plains Indians way of life before the Indians were confined to the reservations.