January 9: Buffalo Bill's Last Ride

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is January 9th, and our story is Buffalo Bill's Last Ride. William Buffalo Bill Cody was many things. A trapper, a bullwhacker, a pony express rider, a wagon master, a stagecoach driver, a hotel manager, and a Civil War soldier. He was also a Catholic, for all of one day.

Born in LeClaire, Iowa, in 1846, Cody spent most of his childhood in Kansas, where his father's outspoken opposition to slavery earned the family few friends. In the years immediately following the American Civil War, Cody gained a reputation as an Indian fighter. He also gained a reputation as one of the finest shots in the West, a reputation bolstered by his claim to have killed 4,280 American bison over an 18-month period while fulfilling a contract to supply meat to railroad workers.

In 1872, that reputation earned him an invitation to appear in the Chicago stage show, The Scouts of the Prairie. The show toured for ten years before it evolved into Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a traveling extravaganza featuring the likes of Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Lillian Smith, and Sitting Bull.

Between 1883, when the show made its debut, and 1907, more than two million people across Europe and America, including Queen Victoria, watched Cody and company show off their sharp shooting skills and reenact skirmishes between American settlers and the country's original inhabitants. Although Cody profited off depictions of Native Americans as savages, in private, he lamented that, Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government. In 1917, while visiting his sister in Denver, Cody fell deathly ill from kidney disease.

On January 9, 1917, the day before he died, he summoned a Catholic priest, Father Christopher Walsh, to his bedside. He told Walsh that he had never belonged to a religion, but he believed in God and wished to die a Catholic. Walsh examined him, administered the sacraments, and received him into the church.

Cody died the following day. Buffalo Bill's story reminds us that faith can touch anyone at any stage of life, even at the very end. His life was adventurous and complicated, full of glory, contradiction, and struggle. Yet, on his last day, he turned to the church for solace, recognition, and peace. It is never too late to embrace God or to seek his mercy. Faith is not measured by a lifetime of perfection, but by the sincerity of the heart when we turn toward him.

Consider spending a few moments today reflecting on your own spiritual journey. How can you leave a legacy of faith in the lives of those around you, even in small, everyday ways? Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader Podcast. Join us tomorrow, January 10th, for another story of faith and courage in America.