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Frederick Brookes, Buffalo Bill and the Indians
From an Australian perspective we have always understood that Earl Stanley ‘warmed up the maid’ on perhaps a cold evening . The Earl was obviously a gentleman and a trust was formed for the resultant son, who was later educated at Kings College London.
His son Frederick also attended Kings College but departed the college for America in about 1870. Because he could ride and shoot well he joined the United States Scout Service which was under the control of Col. Cody aka Buffalo Bill. They became great friends and corresponded until Cody’s death in 1917.
Fred became so disgusted by the deception practised by the whites towards the Indians that he resigned from the Scout Service and became an interpreter and peacemaker for the Sioux Tribes in Montana and North & South Dakota.
When in America in 1935 Frederick’s son Edwin ( E. Stanley ) was at Poplar, an Indian Reservation in Montana where the elderly Chief’s remembered his father, so he was asked to return two evening’s later on March 24th to have the same honour conferred on him as was conferred on his father, who they remembered fondly. He became Chief Red Bear 111 of the Ogallala tribe of Sioux. The ceremony was carried out in front of 300 Chief’s, Indians, squaws and children in a large round house. Edwin then lived for a week ‘with his tribe’ under Indian conditions in a camp of 40 tepees.
His father had recounted to him that when he was in the Platte Valley staying with a friendly party of Sioux a wagon train passed along the trail, and later some of the Indians rode after it seeking food however most of them were shot dead by the whites. When Big Feather, Chief of the Sioux heard of the tragedy he went on the warpath, having Frederick guarded so that he could not betray them.
The Indians encircled the camp in a two mile radius, gradually closing in and forcing everybody into the centre. Then they started shooting from behind their ponies and from underneath while galloping around at a terrific speed. It was soon over and all the whites were killed and their wagons fired. This happened within the view of Frederick whilst he was guarded.
Edwin lectured in the American educational system on the subject of Dickens which took him through 600 schools, colleges and universities in most of the 48 States. He resided in Hawthorn which is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria , Australia. My father ( now 90 ) recalls as a child playing regularly with the beaded feather head gear and Indian outfit present to Edwin and on one occasion my father wore it to a school function. Unfortunately it has not survived.
Frederick left America prior to 1890 and later managed theatres in Melbourne.
My paternal grandmother was Leila Brookes who was born in Ballarat in the 1890’s and who later moved to Melbourne.
Peter Butters
Ballarat 3350
Victoria Australia
xjsapb@hotmail.com
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