Larry McMurtry’s Oh What a Slaughter, mentioned just below, does make at least one interesting claim:
The movies, by their nature, favor only a few stars, and only a few national heroes. Of the thousands of interesting characters who played a part in winning the West, only a bare handful have any real currency with the American public now. Iconographically, even Lewis and Clark haven’t really survived, though Sacagawea has. With the possible exception of Kit Carson, none of the mountain men mean anything today. Kit Carson’s name vaguely suggests the Old West to many people, but not one in a million of them will have any distinct idea as to what Kit did.
The roster of still-recognizable Westerners probably boils down to Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, Billy the Kid, and perhaps Wild Bill Hickok. …
Skimpy as the image bank is for white Westerners, it is even skimpier for Indians. My guess would be that only Sacagawea, Sitting Bull, and Geronimo still ring any bells with the general public. Crazy Horse, who never allowed his image to be captured, is still important to Indians as a symbol of successful resistance, but less so to whites. Even a chief such as Red Cloud, so renowned in his day that he went to New York and made a speech at Cooper Union, is now only known to historians, history buffs, and a few Nebraskans.
At the broadest level, only the white stars Custer, Cody, and Bill the Kid, and two tough Indians, Sitting Bull and Geronimo, are the people the public thinks about when it thinks about the Old West.
NewMexiKen would add Wyatt Earp, but otherwise thinks McMurtry is correct. Anyone feel differently?
Well, if you’re going to add Wyatt Earp, you might as well add in his partner and best friend, John Henry “Doc” Holliday. Ever since Kilmer’s portrayal of him in Tombstone, I’ve been learning more and more about the man. And really liking what I’ve been learning.
Fifty years ago I moved to Arizona. One could still find old adobe bldgs scarred with bullets from Geronimo and his followers. Now instead of learning about the native Americans from books I was able to meet them and form my own first hand opinion. I caught a fleeting glimpse of what their life must have been like. Hardly anyone lives in hogans any more and I am glad their lot has improved but I am also glad I was able to catch a glimpse of history before it faded.
If McMurtry’s right that’s a real shame, but I think the roster of known figures of the West tends to change by generation, & that sadly depends more on media depiction than on any real sense of history. Thanks to her complex depiction in the series “Deadwood” (& a great actress), Calamity Jane may be remembered for another generation, just as Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall Gang were remembered via that movie for a generation or so.
The inept outlaw Elmer McCurdy’s still remembered among certain Hollywood Babylon types for the bizarre tale of his “afterlife” — killed in 1912 (or so) his corpse was passed from sideshows to movie sets to amusement parks & wasn’t given proper burial until the late 70s. And Chief Joseph’s words are still on tee shirts sold in Afrocentric shops back east.
But what about NM’s own Po’pay? I worked with lots of Native people back east & by McMurtry’s standards I’m better informed than his “typical Americans,” but not once in 10 years did I hear a mention of Po’pay from them. What with the new statue in D.C. & all the focus he’s gotten this year it’s remarkable that one of the earliest resistance figures in Indian history is so little known outside our state.
PS, how’d you end up on Roger Ailes’ Enemies’ List, BTW?
New! Improved! Comment. If possible, delete, or at least ignore, the previous posting by me.
History has never had much more than a small following, which is why our country seems intent on making many of the same mistakes as the Soviet Union and the Third Reich… even Saddam’s Iraq. For example, domestic spying, torture, denial of due process, overreaching, and so on.
But to the matter at hand, I find it hard to imagine that Lewis & Clark aren’t considered to have survived “iconographically.” I don’t even have a TV and I feel like they’re getting saturation coverage.
But I figured everyone knew about Coronado and Cortes, George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, Sam Houston, Cochise, Zebulon Pike, and the pre-civil was western adventures of U.S. Grant and George McClellan, Jim Bridger, and so on. I guess not. I hear most people don’t even know who their elected officials are. But then again, I don’t know anything about what is currently playing on America’s (the world’s?) drug of choice, television.
Thank you for letting me rant.
Muddy