Adversity and Renewal: Buffalo Bill Museum of the Plains Indian

Who would have guessed that the small north-central Wyoming town of Cody would house a museum complex with the name “Buffalo Bill” that includes likely the largest museum in the country dedicated to the Plains Indians? The Plains Indian museum is one of five at the Buffalo Bill complex (also a museum dedicated to Bill himself, plus Natural History, western art, firearms, and a rescue raptor center thrown in). The museum’s strengths are its multifaceted description of the lives of the Indians with rich detail on cultures, traditions, spirituality, values, primarily in the 19^th and early 20^thcentury and its inclusion of many of the Plains Indian nations in its exhibits. Here is the story of the peoples and their art, richly detailed and clearly told in a number of separate exhibits and galleries, as well as a sculpture garden.

The gallery on “Adversity and Renewal” is especially important. It describes how Indians have sought in the post-reservation period and especially in recent years to overcome years of oppression, and attempts to eradicate their culture and even physical survival. This process of renewal is manifest in myriad ways, including through spirituality, strengthening of Indian identity and community development. Examples include the development of elaborate intertribal annual  Powwows (gatherings for the purpose of singing, dancing, dance competitions, celebration and socialization, all of which serve to celebrate Indian heritage); revival of the Sun Dance ceremony (suppressed by the U.S government and only revived in the middle of the 20^th century); attempts to preserve Indian languages; flowering of tribal art work; restoration of the bison to tribal lands; development of the Indian college system; recent economic gains by some Nations; reinforcement of Indian sovereignty over their land and natural resources (reflected recently in the Standing Rock protests with supportive resolutions from almost 100 separate tribal governments and the presence of Indians from hundreds of Nations); and some political gains.

Crazy Horse