HOW THE WILD WEST WAS SPUN

Storyteller Dovie Thomason draws on her Indigenous ancestry to weave an epic story that deconstructs the phenomenon of Buffalo Bill Cody’s 1880s traveling pageant “The Wild West: A History Lesson,” which attracted millions and affected perceptions of history to the present day. More than a century later, Thomason challenges the settler colonial perspective of what Cody called “The Drama of Civilization—The Wild West.” 

In her insightful, wise and unsparing performance, Thomason brings 50 years of historical research as an Indigenous storyteller to subvert the phenomenon of Cody’s spectacle, which depicted Indians, buffalo, horses, cowboys, cavalry and publicists seeking a “New World to conquer.”

Thomason says, “I believe there's a hunger for stories today that talk about difficult or unspoken things. These stories that were driven by veiled agenda and manufactured as ‘history’ lack relation and connection. We don’t need manipulative one-dimensional tales. We deserve better stories. I'm seeking new plantings of the old seeds that can fulfill the deep hunger in us all.”