The skirmishes between tribes were an ongoing part of daily life. The introduction of the horse tipped the scales in that short period in favor the Lakota. But this was not the radical wind that ended 10,000 years and five hundred generations of a way of life. That killing wind blew in ferociously from the east. It was the coming of the white immigrants that in less than two hundred years wiped out a 10,000-year-old way of life.
Those winds deposited two of the characters of our story into the Kearney region, Isom Print Olive and William Frederick Cody. Both of their families had tumbled in from the east, seeking land on which to raise their families. Print’s father established a successful cattle operation in central Texas, his principal tool…the six-shooter. Bill’s father was one of the first to file a claim when the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened up the territory to settlement. His principal tool was a deed, words on a piece of paper.
Viktor Frankl, in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, said, “We often can’t control what happens to us in life. We can only control how we respond to it.”
Tom Robbins, in his novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, took a shot at that idea with these words. “One has not only an ability to perceive the world but an ability to alter one’s perception of it; more simply put, one can change things by the manner in which one looks at them”.
Spoiler Alert…Robbins will show up shortly with another bit of insight, from his novel Still Life with Woodpecker. Interesting where one can find gems of wisdom.
We’ve already witnessed how the Print Olive Theory of How to Be in the World worked out. Short version…there was a pistol in the final scene. Soon we’ll mosey down this trail and see how the Cody World Theory might have impacted Bill’s life.
But first, here’s another bit of folk wisdom contained in this African proverb: Until lions learn to write, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
I suspect that most of us have a picture of Buffalo Bill Cody: the beard, the buckskins, the rifle, the hat, possibly an America flag as backdrop.
William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody, a man quick with a word, describes himself this way: Last of the Great Scouts, Plainsman, Prospector, Trapper, Hunter, Indian Fighter, Civil War Soldier, Union Army Spy, Land Speculator, Hotelkeeper, Justice of the Peace, Pony Express Rider, Dime-Novel Hero, Actor, Showman and Most Famous American of His Age.
I am happy to accept Cody’s self-description, as long as I understand that it was all just words, not things that were real things. Here’s the deal. America was moving west, filling up the spaces that they conveniently had defined as unsettled. Since there was obvious conflict in the making, a ten-thousand-year culture and economy in its path, America needed heroes, righteous figures in white hats, atop a trusty steed, flag flying as backdrop. Cody recognized that opportunity and leapt into the breach, wrapped in words and images.