Buffalo Bill and the Mormons

“Well, who the hell would care about [Buffalo Bill's ties to Utah and the Latter-day Saints?]” (xii). Brent M. Rogers faced this question as he was researching and writing Buffalo Bill and the Mormons. Rogers responded, “I do,” and having read his book, I do too. Buffalo Bill and the Mormons follows the pattern of several other Buffalo Bill monographs by focusing on a particular aspect of the larger-than-life figure. This focused biography tracks the history of Buffalo Bill and the Mormons in the West. As Rogers writes, “Like two parallel tracks of a railroad that meet at occasional junction points, the interlocking histories of these two . . . provide insights into more than sixty years of U.S. political, cultural, economic, and environmental history” (11). Although seemingly disparate, the two narratives converge and reveal how Latter-day Saints went from anathema to ideal pioneers in the West.Buffalo Bill and the Mormons contains seven chapters. The book takes place over two separate acts that are chronological. Act I covers a general history of William Cody and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the nineteenth century. Chapter 1, “Setting the Stage,” begins with Cody's birth in Iowa and the Latter-day Saint flight from Nauvoo in February 1846. The rest of the book follows a similar structure, juxtaposing Cody's life with developments in the church from the mid-nineteenth century to 1917.The first act presents Mormon polygamy as a threat to the American household. Alongside this anti-Mormon sentiment, Rogers examines Cody's “alleged participation in the Utah War, his anti-Mormon stage performances and their contexts in the 1870s and 1880s, and his visit to Utah and interactions with Utahns in the 1890s” (11). Throughout Act I, Rogers paints Cody as a savvy businessman who used anti-Mormon imagery to bolster his public persona. However, the 1890 Woodruff Manifesto “opened the door for reconciliation of the Latter-day Saints with the American family” (95). Two months later, Cody traveled with a group of Mormons to the Grand Canyon. After that trip, Cody changed his tone, describing Latter-day Saints as pioneers and “good American citizens.” Cody was especially captured by the Mormons’ experience with irrigation. After purchasing lands in the Big Horn Basin of northwestern Wyoming, Cody extolled Mormons as peoples “who conquered the arid lands and made them ‘blossom as the rose’” (138). From villains to fellow pioneers, Latter-day Saints were now the most desirable type of settler for the Big Horn Basin.Act II turns to a dedicated examination of Cody's relationship with Abraham O. Woodruff and Mormon settlers in the Big Horn Basin. During this period, Cody interacted closely with Woodruff and the Church on the settlement and development of the Big Horn Basin. Sometimes, these interactions were friendly, and other times, both groups saw to their own self-interests. Rogers concludes his final chapter by showing the mutual admiration and respect Cody and the Mormons held for each other.A strength of Buffalo Bill and the Mormons is Rogers’ ability to weave these narratives together to create new historical perspectives on gender, masculinity, and whiteness. Rogers makes this point clear in Chapter 4, “Buffalo Bill and the Mormons on the World's Stage.” The 1890s is the watershed moment where Mormons transitioned from being enemies of the domestic sphere to exemplary American pioneers. Rogers situates the transition in the racial and gender hierarchies of late nineteenth-century America. He writes, “Latter-day Saints were white men who directed their families through industriousness, intelligence, hardiness, and self-reliance . . . They deserved to be celebrated among the nation's pioneers, those western individuals celebrated by Buffalo Bill and Frederick Jackson Turner” (120). Rogers also makes the point that before the 1890s, Mormons were seen as un-American, and it was their “physical whiteness” that allowed for easy incorporation into the rugged yeoman image. Irrigation and agriculture brought Buffalo Bill and the Wyoming Latter-day Saints together, but ultimately, the transformation from undemocratic-polygamists to patriot pioneers relied on whiteness, according to Rogers.Historians interested in Buffalo Bill, Mormon history, and agricultural history will want Buffalo Bill and the Mormons on their shelves. The book is well-written and researched, and overall, a fun read.