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6 Famous Figures on Buffalo Bill's Contact List

An army scout turned consummate showman, Cody knew practically everyone worth knowing in the West.

By Allison Williams February 26, 2020 Published in the March 2020 issue of Seattle Met

Annie Oakley

The female star of Cody’s Wild West show whose marksmanship skills supported her family from her teens.

Photography by Everett Collection / Shutterstock

Wild Bill Hickok

A Pony Express rider at the same time as Cody, the lawman and gunfighter (real name James) performed on stage with his show business buddy, but then retreated to Dakota Territory’s gold fields where he was shot in the fourth episode of Deadwood.

Photography by Everett Collection / Shutterstock

Sitting Bull

The Native American chief that united Sioux tribes and defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn; after later surrendering to protect his people, he was allowed off his reservation to appear in Cody’s show.

Photography by Everett Collection / Shutterstock

Kit Carson

Cody named his only son Kit Carson Cody, after the frontiersman, trapper, and soldier made famous from dime novels, then wrote a myth-building biography of him after both the boy and the original Carson died.

Photography by Everett Collection / Shutterstock

Geronimo

As a warrior during the nineteenth century period of forced relocations and military campaigns, the Apache leader was eventually made a prisoner of war but allowed to appear in a show similar to Cody’s, one Bill later partnered with.

Doc Carver

Cody’s early collaborator launched a competing Wild West show when the two feuded, then moved on to a diving horse act, one immortalized in the Disney movie Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.

History, Native Tribes, Wyoming

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