The American West Part 7: Concerning Native Americans

One of the non-landscape highlights of the trip was our afternoon at the Buffalo Bill Historical Centre in the town of Cody.























We spent an afternoon here mainly concentrating on the galleries depicting the lives of the Plains Indians.

With artifacts, scenic reconstructions, dioramas, eye witness accounts and modern technology the story of the Plains Indians comes vividly to life. In this Cheyenne migration scene we could listen to a C19th family on their seasonal round. You could see the role that dogs and horses played, the essential role of trade and how the migration helped conserve the vast resources of the Plains.

The Buffalo and the People Gallery introduced us to the economic and spiritual importance of the buffalo to the Native people of the Plains. We learned about hunting and warfare traditions, and many of the practical of the buffalo to the Plains People.

Detail of Northern Plains Indians hunting buffalo on a  painted buffalo robe c1875.

Here an extract from a  similar robe shows the massacre at Sand Creek.

These are Hidatsa war shield covers.

Another gallery was devoted to lives of early settlers in the C19th West. Here is the Cheynne and Black Hills Stage.

The business end of a chuck wagon.

There were several other major galleries that we only had time to visit briefly. These included an unbelievable firearms collection, an art gallery and a gallery devoted to the natural history of Yellowstone.