I requested this without realizing who the author was. While I have nothing against Stillman, I have tried reading another book or two by her before, and her style just isn't for me. I may give it a shot at a future date, but not any time soon. (Star rating is based solely on what I did skim read and the topic in general.)

An interesting history of the lives of Lakota chief Sitting Bull and Wild West showman William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. It is a bit dry and it seems to flip back and forth between before they met and while they performed the shows, which made it some what a difficult read to follow. But if you're interested in history, this may be something to put on your to read list. I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booknormblog.com/2017/11/04/book-review-blood-brothers-by-deanne-stillman/


Posted on November 4, 2017 by Norm Sigurdson
Book Review – Blood Brothers by Deanne Stillman

There are some public figures who become iconic over time (think Lincoln, Churchill, Queen Victoria or Charlie Chaplin). Instantly recognizable in their unchanging images, forever locked into their easily remembered narratives, to the general public they are known but unknown.
William “Buffalo Bill” Cody certainly fits this category as does the Lakota Chief Sitting Bull. Everyone knows their names and images, but the real people behind their public facades are less famous.
Deanne Stillman has produced an excellent dual biography of Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull, who spent decades on opposing sides of the genocidally-motivated “Indian Wars” before appearing together for four brief months in 1885 in Buffalo Bill’s carnivalesque “Wild West” show alongside hundreds of “cowboys and Indians” on horseback re-enacting recent events from America’s frontier past.
Cody hired real Native Americans, many of them recent survivors of battles or massacres — such as Wounded Knee — to play themselves in warpaint and buckskin. Of course, they were always defeated and died night after night to the delight of the spectators in the bleachers.
“It was through these performances that the American dream time was amplified, advanced, and came to live forever,” says Stillman.
The image of the brave and noble white man vanquishing the savage Indian became reality to the big city audiences in America and across Europe in Buffalo Bill’s spectacular re-imaginings.
By 1885 Cody was a megastar living a rockstar life, constantly on the road away from his wife and children and often in the arms of a starstruck young woman fan.
Between shows, he still took part in the activities that brought him his first fame. He went back to work as an Army scout and buffalo hunter. (In his early days he killed buffalo in such prodigious numbers that even other hunters became queasy.)
The slaughter of the buffalo on the American plains was of course part of the policy of eradicating the Native Americans by depriving them of their main source of food, shelter and spiritual sustenance.
Sitting Bull (who’s Lakota name “Tatanka Iyotake” means “Buffalo Bull Lies Down”) watched his way of life being destroyed by the white settlers.
“Imagine being born into a world where your tribe was the most powerful in all the land and within that being born at the climax of its power,” writes Stillman.
“Imagine that in your lifetime, you witnessed a thing that consumed nearly eveything you loved and were nourished by and that nearly everyone you cherished or parlayed with was destroyed, altered, killed, or locked up.”
After the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, where Sitting Bull was thought to have killed General George Custer (although he was not involved in that part of the battle) Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa tribe went into exile in Canada. After he returned to the United States in 1881 and surrendered he became a virtual prisoner on a reservation at Standing Rock, in what is now North Dakota.
Cody knew that Sitting Bull was as famous as he was and badly wanted him for his Wild West show. Sitting Bull eventually agreed, negotiating very favourable terms and employment for his people in the show. He calmly endured four months of parading around on horseback as the audience jeered and spit at him.
They were billed as “enemies in ’76, friends in ’85” and there is some truth to that. Sitting Bull had become so used to being lied to by white men that he came to admire Cody for his honourable dealings with him and both men came to feel a mutual respect and indeed friendship, even beyond the four-month tour together.
When Sitting Bull was facing the hostilities of the Indian Police in 1890 over his controversial support of the Ghost Dance ceremonies Cody rushed to Standing Rock to defend him, but arrived too late. Sitting Bull was assassinated on December 15, just weeks before the Wounded Knee massacre.
Cody continued his Wild West shows for years but he made some bad investments and became a heavy drinker. He suffered a messily public divorce and tried in his later years to re-invent himself in the new medium of motion pictures. He died in 1917 at the age of 70.
Stillman, who has written extensively about the American West, uses the lives of these two very different men to tell a larger story about what she calls America’s “original sin — the betrayal of Native Americans.”
She makes strong parallels between events in the 19th century and how colonialism is still working today, specifically at Standing Rock, Sitting Bull’s own reservation, the present day site of massive gatherings of native anti-pipeline protesters. She shows how the past is always presenttStillman's writing is clear and evocative and she makes logistically confusing events, such as Sitting Bull’s assassination, understandable.

She is also excellent at bringing many of the secondary characters, especially the sharpshooter Annie Oakley, friend to both men, vividly to life.
Blood Brothers is a well written, sensitively presented history that goes well beyond the biographies of two specific individuals, placing them securely in their not so distant time and place. It is a lively and endlessly informative book.

Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship Between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill by Deanne Stillman, Simon & Schuster

Inspiration takes many forms and many artists struggle to articulate how it strikes. Not so Deane Stillman, whose ‘Blood Brothers. The Story of the Strange Friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill’ begins with the following words:

“For each of my books, there has been a precipitating incident that has caused me to venture into that particular story … I can literally picture them [these portentous incidents] … as the consequence of forces and matters that have long been in play, and when this picture begins to form, I know that the incident will become the prism through which I will tell my next story …”.

The “precipitating incident” in relation to the current book was the legend that the white horse which Buffalo Bill Cody had presented to Sitting Bull ‘danced’ as his master was shot, as Indian police attempted to arrest him, although this initial moment of revelation was also supplemented by seeing the 1885 Wild West Show poster (which adorns the cover of the book) depicting its two protagonists with the slogan, “Foes in ’76 [a reference to the Battle of the Little Big Horn], Friends in ‘85”.

This then is a book about the somewhat unlikely friendship between Wild West showman William F. (“Buffalo Bill”) Cody and Lakota chief Sitting Bull. Given that the two men only worked together for four months in 1885, Stillman expands their story to put the meeting of these two mythical figures and white-Native American relations in context, moving back in time to Little Bighorn in 1876 and forward in time to Cody’s funeral, which was attended by some Native Americans, in 1917.

More than that, Stillman regards “the betrayal of Native Americans” as “our original sin” and “the fault line that runs through the national story” and piously hopes that “perhaps the brief time that Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill were together can serve as a foundation upon which this rift can be repaired”.

Whilst sharing this pious hope it seems to be based upon a very thin foundation. Yes, after Sitting Bull’s four months' employment, Buffalo Bull gave him a hat and a horse but although they may represent tokens of genuine friendship they may also merely have been inducements for Sitting Bull to return to his Wild West show, although given how bad conditions were on the reservation it would not have taken much to persuade him to leave, if he could have obtained the permission of the Indian Agent.

Moreover, Cody’s Wild West show hardly presented a very accurate or flattering picture of the Native Americans, parading them at the end as if they were captured animals. In only one respect could their portrayal be seen as rounded: the show was normally presented in a circus ring, and thus wagons were circled and the Indians rode around them so that they could be seen by all of the audience.

I don’t want to give the impression that this is a bad book. On the contrary, it is very well-researched and easy to read but I can’t help feeling that the cynical and satirical 1976 Robert Altman film ‘Buffalo Bill and the Indians’ ultimately gets closer to the truth of the Wild West show and of Cody and Sitting Bull’s feelings for one another than Stillman’s rather romantic interpretation of their relationship.

I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Deanne Stillman and Simon Schuster in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

It is obvious Deanne Stillman put in a lot of hours researching this history of the friendship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. Both icons in their own worlds, they also found much that they shared in each others realm. Miss Stillman takes us there.

This work takes us into the heart of the Lakota tribe, and their decision to return from their retreat into Canada to their historical lands despite possible US repercussions. And it takes us into the heart of the Wild West as the frontier was tamed by farmers and miners and shopkeepers.

This work brings to life both the Hunkpapas and the pioneers, their hopes and heartbreaks at the closing of this era.

I received a free Kindle copy of Blood Brothers by Deanne Stillman courtesy of Net Galley and Simon & Schuster, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I have read a previous biography of Sitting Bull, but nothing about William "Buffalo Bill" Cody and I have an interest in the history of the American Wewst. It is the first book by Deanne Stillman that I have read.

This book is well researched and well written. It covers the brief time period covering the relationship between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody, although Annie Oakley also plays a major role in the book. The author starts with alternating chapters on each of the two main characters laying the groundwork for later chapters detailing their relationship.

I found this book to be engaging and a fairly quick read. I recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the history of the American West or an interest in learning more about the relationship between two of the main characters in the late 1800's.

I enjoyed this book. The writer paints a picture that I feel was excellent and look forward to telling my friends and family about this book. I loved learning the history of two unlikely friends and how this friendship developed

Well-researched biography of two icons of the American West, Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody, and how their lives intertwined in a meaningful way. Both were celebrated and misunderstood, their names linked together by the buffalo, symbols of the American West.

The author has a definite viewpoint on the betrayal of the Native Americans, which she illustrates through an account of the lives of these two men (and one woman, Annie Oakley). Buffalo Bill is shown, in the 1870’s, as part of the problem, taking part in wiping out the buffalo and killing scores of American Indians. Around the same time, in 1876, Sitting Bull participated in the Little Big Horn battle where Custer met his end. Many thought Sitting Bull killed Custer (he didn’t). Thus, Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull started out on opposing sides as enemies.

Once the Hunkpapa tribe of the Lakota were forced onto reservations, Sitting Bull became less of a threat, and Buffalo Bill experienced a change in perspective. In establishing his Wild West show, Cody attempts to right the wrongs of the past. These shows were intended to help Native Americans preserve the spirit of their culture while also conveying its essence to the rest of society. It also played a part in the early efforts to preserve the buffalo. The two men became close friends during the few months after Sitting Bull had joined the Wild West show. This dual story of Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull portrays the significant changes to the American frontier during the lifetime of these two extraordinary men.

The author has done extensive research, drawing on many historical accounts to set straight many misconceptions. I found the book very interesting, particularly the description of the assassination of Sitting Bull and the subsequent massacre at Wounded Knee, along with the part played by the Ghost Dancers influenced by Wokova (an obscure Paiute Indian). I did not feel compelled to read it, but enjoyed it when I picked it up. Recommended to those interested in the history of Native Americans or the American West.

An advance copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in return for a candid review.

I knew little about Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill before reading this, and had no idea that they worked together at a Wild West show, so this was an eye opening and interesting read, and very well told. I enjoyed it.

Stillman uses one of my favorite historical writing structures--taking an event, and then fanning out to show how the participants arrived at that pivotal moment. In this case, it is the four month intersection of Buffalo Bill Cody and Sitting Bull (with a significant appearance by Annie Oakley, who had to be carved out of the limiting title) in Cody's Wild West Show. The posters for the show proclaimed a triumphant “Foes in ’76, Friends in ’85”, and in a strange way foreshadowed the "ritual of reunion" civil war veterans performed, but was this really the case? Stillman argues that both men knew that their frontier was closing, and forged some intense bond in shared displacement from their environment, but doesn't quite get into the version of the "wild west" and "savages" the show promoted, and how it likely acted at odds with Cody's intent to give Native people jobs to support themselves and exposure to the wider world. Cody and Oakley left extensive records of how *they* felt about their relationship with Native people, who ceremonially named and adopted them, but we've little from the other side. To her credit, Stillman uses whatever Native sources she could find, including new information from Sitting Bull's descendants, but it in no way bears out the "blood brothers" relationship, even if that's what Cody wanted it to be.