GORDON W. "PAWNEE BILL" LILLIE - AUTOGRAPH - HFSID 167646
Sale Price $680.00
Reg. $800.00
GORGON W. LILLIE (PAWNEE BILL). Signature: "G.W. Lillie/'Pawnee
Bill'", 4½x2¾. Gordon W. "Pawnee Bill" Lillie (1860-1942) had traveled west
to Oklahoma as a teenager, quickly learning the ways of the Pawnee
Indians. By 1879, he was a teacher and a cowboy and had learned the
Pawnee language. In 1883, William S. "Buffalo Bill" Cody hired Pawnee
Bill, under government stipulations, as interpreter and overseer of the Indians
in his show. Lillie liked show business, and, by 1888, he started his own
show with his new wife, May Lillie, the Rifle Shot. From that time, he
became known as Pawnee Bill, the White Chief of the Pawnee Indians. His
show peaked in popularity by 1900, and as the novelty of Wild West shows
diminished, Pawnee Bill joined forces with Buffalo Bill (1908). With
Cody's death in 1917, Lillie had little interest in carrying on the show. The
last of the Wild West frontiersmen, he semi-retired in Oklahoma, where he
built Old Town (1930), a Pawnee Indian village and museum in which
he displayed many of his souvenirs and mementoes. Although some items were lost
in a fire (1944), Pawnee Bill's Trading Post remains in business today. Slightly
soiled. Fine condition. Framed in the Gallery of History style:
17¼x19¾.
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