Red Shirt (; c. 1847 – January 4, 1925) was an Oglala Lakota chief, warrior and statesman. Red Shirt supported Crazy Horse during the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877 and the Ghost Dance Movement of 1890, and was a Lakota delegate to Washington in 1880. Red Shirt surrendered with Crazy Horse in 1877. After the surrender he moved to an area that is now known as Red Shirt, SD. Red Shirt was one of the first Wild Westers with Buffalo Bill's Wild West and a supporter of the Carlisle Native Industrial School. Red Shirt became an international celebrity Wild Westing with Buffalo Bill's Wild West and his 1887 appearance in England captured the attention of Europeans and presented a progressive image of Native Americans.
Early life
Red Shirt was born near Fort Fetterman, Wyoming. There are several accounts of Red Shirt's early life. One account is that Red Shirt is the son of a white man and a Lakota mother. Another account, by Red Shirt, is that he was the son of a great warrior chief.In an interview, Red Shirt said his father was a great chief, and that he was eager to prove himself a great warrior in his eyes. The Brisbane Courier, “The Sioux Chief Red Shirt Interviewed”, June 23, 1887. Will Rogers reported that Red Shirt was the son of Red Dog, a progressive headman of the Oyuhpe band who settled at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.Arthur Frank Wertheim and Barbara Bair, ed., The Papers of Will Rogers: Wild West and Vaudeville, April 1904-September 1908, (2000), p. 62. Red Shirt and Red Dog were Lakota delegates to Washington in 1880, served as Pine Ridge Indian Police and sent their children to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Historians agree that by 1877 Red Shirt had emerged as a leader of the Wagluhe at Pine Ridge.Eli Seavey Ricker and Richard E. Jensen, “Voices of the American West: The Indian interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919, Volume 1, p.15 (2005).
In 1880, Red Shirt traveled to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School with Red Cloud and Red Dog and on to Washington D.C. as a Lakota delegate.Herman J. Viola, Diplomats in Buckskins: A History of Native Delegations in Washington City, 1995.
Warrior Chief Red Shirt camped with Crazy Horse and the rest of the Oglala at the Little Big Horn. The Oglala camp was next to the Cheyenne camp near the bottom of what is now known as Last Stand Hill. Chief Red Shirt wore his hair to represent peace and war. One side of his hair was wrapped to indicate he was ready for peace, the other side was worn loose indicating his readiness for war. This was done when he traveled with Chief Red Cloud to Washington D.C. Most of Red Shirt's history has been written down. Living family members of his tell of his bravery in battle. Buffalo Bill Cody was impressed with Red Shirt. “Among the prominent chiefs thus engaged was Red Shirt, a redoubtable warrior and second only in influence to Sitting Bull himself. A short while before his engagement with us he had quelled an uprising among his people, instigated by a pretender to the chieftainship of the tribe, by invading the pretender's camp with only two of his followers and shooting the leader dead before the eyes of his affrighted wife. This fearless act had served to elevate him very much in the eyes of his people, who thereafter accepted him as a leader. When, therefore, he decided to join the Wild West show, under the flattering offers I made him, his influence aided us very much in procuring our complement of Indians, not only from his own tribe, but from others as well.”Buffalo Bill and William Lightfoot Visscher, The Life and Adventures of Buffalo Bill, (hereinafter "Buffalo Bill"), (1917), p. 316.
Carlisle Indian Industrial School It has been said that In 1879, Red Shirt, along with Blue Horse and American Horse, enrolled their children in the first class at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. However, a search in Carlisle Indian School records indicate that no Red Shirt children ever attended Carlisle Indian School. Red Shirt did visit Carlisle, but only as a visitor and never enrolled his children there.
"Those first Sioux children who came to Carlisle could not have been happy there. But it was their only chance for a future."Ann Rinaldi, “My Heart is on the Ground: the Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Native School, Pennsylvania, 1880,” (1999), p. 177. Wild Westing and the Carlisle Indian School were portals to education, opportunity and hope, and came at a time when the Lakota people were depressed, impoverished, harassed and confined. Many Wild Westers from Pine Ridge enrolled their children at the Carlisle Native Industrial School from its beginning in 1879 until its closure in 1918.Alida S. Boorn, “Oskate Wicasa (One Who Performs)” (hereinafter “Oskate Wicasa”), Department of History, Central Missouri State University, (2005), p.131.
Wild Westing
On March 31, 1887, Chief Red Shirt, Chief Blue Horse and Chief American Horse and their families boarded the SS State of Nebraska in New York City, leading a new journey for the Lakota people when they crossed the ocean to England on Buffalo Bill's first international to perform at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria and tour through Birmingham, Salford and London over a five–month period. The entourage consisted of 97 Indians, 18 buffaloes, 2 deer, 10 elk, 10 mules, 5 Texas steers, 4 donkeys, and 108 horses. Buffalo Bill treated Native American employees as equals with white cowboys. Wild Westers received good wages, transportation, housing, abundant food and gifts of clothing and cash from Buffalo Bill at the end of each season. Wild Westers were employed as performers, interpreters and recruiters. Men had money in their pockets and for their families on the reservation. Female performers were paid extra for infants and children and supplemented wages by making and selling Lakota crafts.Calls the Name and other women supplemented wages by making and selling Lakota crafts. Women served important community roles in camps backstage. Augmenting their show wages was common among Show Indians, especially "'bead work' made into moccasins, purses, etc.," which earned them "very large prices," according to Nate Salsbury. Cody and Salsbury often purchased goods at wholesale prices and sold the goods to Indians at cost, allowing them to create souvenirs for tourists. Show Indians created and sold goods to museums, collectors, and customers across Europe and the United States. Jason Heppler, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the Progressive Image of American Natives”, . Performers’ newborn babies became part of the villages set up outside show areas. Oskate Wicasa, p.164. Shows hired venerable elder male Natives to appear in the parades to ensure that young men acted with consideration and politeness when visiting host communities, and rules were self-policed by traditional Oglala Lakota chiefs and former U.S. Army Native Scouts.Oskate Wicasa, p.6, 54. The number of police chosen depended on the number of Natives traveling with the show each season, a usual ration being one policeman for every dozen Natives. Native policemen selected from the ranks of the performers were given badges and paid $10 more in wages per month. in 1898, Chief Iron Tail managed the Native Police. Michele Delaney, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Warriors: A Photographic History by Gertrude Kasebier, Smithsonian National Museum of American History”, (2007), p.32. Known as “Show Natives”, Oglala Wild Westers referred to themselves as "Oskate Wicasa" or "Show Man", a title of great honor and respect.Oskate Wicasa is a colloquialism meaning “one who performs.” Its usage began in the early days of the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West shows. Oskate Wicasa, p.1. The phrase "Show Natives" likely originated among newspaper reporters and editorial writers as early as 1891. By 1893 the term appears frequently in Bureau of Native Affairs correspondence. Some believe that the term is derogatory describing the "phenomenon of Native exploitation and romanticization in the U.S." Arguments of a similar nature were made by the Bureau of Native Affairs during the popularity of Wild West shows in the U.S. and Europe. L.G. Moses, p. 219. Since 1887, Wild Westing has been family tradition with several hundred Pine Ridge families, and the tradition of the Wild Wester community is not unlike the tradition of circus families and communities.American Horse’s sons Ben American Horse and Samuel American Horse were Carlisle Wild Westers and interpreters. Between 1906 and 1915, 570 individuals from Pine Ridge went Wild Westing with Buffalo Bill and other shows. Oskate Wicasa, p.164. L.G. Moses, “Wild West Shows and the Images of American Natives, 1883-1933,” (1996), pp. 33, 242.
Crossing the ocean Before starting on the trip to England in 1887, several of the Indians expressed grave fears that the great waters soon overtake them and bring a horrible death. Red Shirt explained that these fears were caused by a belief prevalent among many tribes of Natives, that if a red man attempted to cross the ocean, soon after beginning his journey he would be seized of a malady that would first prostrate the victim, and then slowly consume his flesh day after day, until at length the very skin itself would drop from his bones, leaving nothing but the skeleton and this even could never find burial. On the day following the departure from New York, the Indians began to grow weary and their stomachs became both treacherous and rebellious. Their fears were now so greatly intensified that even Red Shirt, the bravest of his people, began to feel his flesh to see if it were really diminishing. Buffalo Bill, "used his utmost endeavors to cheer them up and relieve their forebodings. But for two days nearly the whole company was too sick for any other active service than feeding the fishes, in which I am not proud to say that I performed more than an ordinary share. On the third day, however, we all began to mend so far that I called the Natives together in the main saloon and gave them a Sunday address, as did also Red Shirt, who was now recovered from his anxiety about the future.Buffalo Bill, p. 318-319.
Red Shirt in England
Chief Red Shirt was lionized by the British press and photographed by reporters wherever he went. His handsome features and stately bearing caused reporters to hang on his every word and he became the most quoted Wild Wester celebrity of Cody’s trip to England.Oskate Wicasa, p.67. By the Columbian Exposition (1893) he was the most famous Wild Wester in the world. p.43-44. Red Shirt explained to a reporter from Sheffield: “I started from my lodge two moons ago knowing nothing, and had I remained on the Native Reservations, I should have been as a blind man. Now I can see a new dawn. I have seen the great houses (ships) which cross the mighty waters, the great villages which have no end where the pale faces swarm like insects in the summer sun. Our people will wonder at these things when we return to the Native Reservation and tell them what we have seen.”
Statesman