Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 61

The Menace of the Wild West Shows

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frontiers of the United States widened, Buffalo Bill correspondingly
turned his attention to the concerns of the nation.
Not solely because of Buffalo Bill, but certainly assisted by his
recreations, the Frontier Myth and its corresponding symbols have
become an indelible part of our national culture. The western movie,
which Buffalo Bill helped to foster in its infancy, also did much to
reinforce the images of cowboys and Indians that influence
contemporary thought and policy. Phrases such as "The Last Stand,"
"Indian Country," and "the Lone Ranger" all conjure up preconceived
notions that "do not require an explanatory program." As Richard
Slotkin points out in his most recent book, comprehension of these
myths and their origins is essential to understanding a culture's moral
and ethical values.
These metaphors not only define a situation for us,
they prescribe our response to that situation . . . .
Myth is invoked as a means of deriving usable values
from history, and of putting those values beyond the
reach of critical demystification. Its primary appeal
is to ritualized emotions, established beliefs,
habitual associations, memory, nostalgia.
Its
representations are symbolic and metaphoric,
defending for their force on an intuitive recognition
and acceptance of the symbol by the audience.^^
Despite the px)st-world war recognition of the inevitable horrors
and consequences of racial extermination and grandiose imperialism,
outbreaks such as the Vietnamese War were discussed and negotiated
using the same terminology and mental attitude exploited by the
Wild West Exhibition. Richard Slotkin uses this as evidence that
the Frontier and its brutal realities have shaped the American
consciousness to its present violent state. Whether "credit" for this
can go to Buffalo Bill or not is a matter for debate. Violence, the
superiority of the white man and pride in American civilization were
all constant themes of the Wild West Exhibition. Though a healthy
cynicism towards these attitudes has altered the potency of their
appeal, it is undeniable that the myths and legends perpetrated by
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Exhibition continue to shape the forms of
American dreams.