BUFFALO BILL'S DUEL WITH YELLOWHAND BY CHARLES M. RUSSELL
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Charles M. Russell Buffalo Bill's Duel With Yellowhand c. 1917 Oil on canvas 29 7/8 inches x 47 7/8 inches |
| As a boy, Charlie Russell's head was stuffed full of the Wild West heroics personified by William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody. In 1917, the year Cody died, he recreated one of the legendary episodes in the scout's career, Buffalo Bill's Duel with Yellow Hand. Although already an established stage performer, in 1876 Buffalo Bill was back in the West serving as a scout for the Fifth Cavalry at the time of the death of Custer at Little Big Horn. In July of that year he was with the Fifth when they encountered a party of Cheyenne. In his memoirs Cody tells of the leader of the party challenging him to a personal duel during which he killed the Indian in an exchange of rifle shots. Having finished off Yellow Hair (or as it has erroneously been rendered through the years, Yellowhand), Cody "scientifically scalped him in about five seconds" and, waving the trophy over his head, called out for the benefit of the approaching troopers, "The first scalp for Custer." |