Sitting Bull’s 1885 Buffalo Bill Wild West Contract Sold for $168,213
Detail from the Sitting Bull contract
A signed 1885 contract between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show has sold for $168,213 at RR Auction’s The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
The one-page agreement signed June 6, 1885, formalized Sitting Bull’s appearance in the ‘Buffalo Bill Wild West Show’ for a four-month season. Under the contract, show manager John M. Burke agreed to pay Sitting Bull $50 per week and granted him the exclusive right to sell his own photographs and autographs.
The contract was signed at the Standing Rock Agency in present-day South Dakota and countersigned by Indian agent James McLaughlin and interpreter Joseph Primeau as witnesses. The contract dates to the period when Sitting Bull traveled with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show after returning from exile in Canada.
Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa Lakota leader associated with the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1885 after returning from exile in Canada and several years under government supervision at Standing Rock. During his tour with the show, he traveled across the Northeast and Canada, met Annie Oakley, and visited the White House, where he presented President Grover Cleveland with a written appeal on behalf of his people.
No other signed contract by Sitting Bull is known to exist according to the auction house. While he signed many autographs during his time with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, he never signed a treaty with the United States government.
“What makes this contract remarkable is the transformation it represents. Nine years after Little Bighorn, the man responsible for Custer’s defeat is signing a contract with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, negotiating his weekly pay and the rights to his own image," said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction.
Other highlights from the auction included:
- Thomas Hartley Crawford archive documenting westward expansion (sold for $343,750)
- George A. Custer 1876 Little Bighorn campaign archive of Capt. Otho Michaelis letters ($78,993)
- Wild Bill Hickok autograph letter signed four times ($69,595)
- Bat Masterson signed Dodge City sheriff document ($40,528)
- Handdrawn and annotated Battle of the Little Bighorn map by Casper Mayer ($38,246)
