Buffalo Bill Cody, who knew?

Who knew when we stopped at the Buffalo Bill Center in Cody, Wyoming that I would end up with such a soft spot in my heart for William Frederick Cody, aka Buffalo Bill. While my previous knowledge of him as a hunter, a military scout, a marksman, a celebrity and a frontier man were confirmed, I was rather surprised to learn that he was essentially a progressive of his time, and a man who wasn’t afraid to change his mind and learn from his mistakes.

His father was an outspoken opponent of slavery, which led to him being stabbed for expressing this in public. Bill, although he had scouted for the army and had several conflicts with the Native Americans, became a strong advocate for Native American rights. He was quoted in the Milwaukee Sentinel as saying “ They were here first, and have a better right to be here than we have.” Buffalo Bill, in spite of his terrible record as a husband, was a suffragette! He firmly supported women’s right to vote and was a pioneer, pun intended, of equal wage: “If a woman does the same work as a man and just as well, she should have the same pay. I pay the women in my show just as much as I do the men, to be sure I do the square thing.”

I left the museum feeling great hope for this country of ours. After all, if a man’s man, a pioneer and expert hunter became a supporter of the indigenous people and women due to his exposure and contact with them, why can’t we all? Thanks for everything Wild Bill.