At the Buffalo Bill Museum artifacts from William Cody's various careers, such as guns, gifts from European heads of state, billboards, clothes and dime novels, trace the years of the Pony Express, Civil War, Indian Wars and Wild West shows. The lives of western Native Americans are celebrated in the Plains Indian Museum : many of the ceremonial garments are in stunning condition; one prize exhibit is a brightly decorated shirt that belonged to Red Cloud, a Lakota Sioux chief who visited Washington in the 1870s to petition for peace on behalf of his people. A superb bear-claw necklace is another standout, and there's also a poignant display of Ghost Dance shirts, worn for the ritual song and dance that would hasten the day when all whites would be buried by a heaven-sent fall of soil. The US Army condemned Ghost Dances as unacceptable shows of resistance, and mobilized troops to disrupt ceremonies.
In the beautifully laid-out Whitney Gallery of Western Art , the contrasting styles of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell command the most attention. The propagandist Remington dwells on conflict, depicting the Indian as a savage in the path of progress, while Russell's work shows a consistent respect for the Native American way of life.
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