Kansas History - Winter 2025-26
Winter 2025-2026
(Volume 48, Number 4)
“Buffalo Bill’s Civil War: The Civil War in the West in History and Memory”
By Nicole Etcheson
In his autobiography, William F. Cody (“Buffalo Bill”) spun tales of a western boyhood as well as one impacted by the violence of Bleeding Kansas. In the post-war period, Cody is best known for mythologizing a West of settlers and Natives, but he never forgot his connections to the sectional conflict. In this article, Nicole Etcheson demonstrates how Cody’s life story contributes to our understanding of post-Civil War reconciliation and the Civil War in the West. Themes of North-South sectionalism and post-war settler expansion appeared in Cody’s life, his autobiography and Wild West show, and in the many dime novels about his purported adventures. By looking at Buffalo Bill’s childhood during Bleeding Kansas, we see not just the particular nature of the Civil War in the West, but we can also understand how Cody reflected post-Civil War ambivalence about reconciliation and race.
“The Flint Hills Revisited”
By James Malin, with a foreword by Julie Courtwright
In 1941, pioneering environmental and Kansas historian, Dr. James Malin, gave a talk about the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas at the annual meeting of the State Historical Society, that published in the Kansas Historical Quarterly the following year. This region has been called many names. Malin used the term “Bluestem-Pasture Region,” an apt description of the tallgrass and its function as a premier grazing area, a middle ground between the cattle ranges of the southwest and the feedlots in the Cornbelt to the north. The Flint Hills are the largest remnant of unplowed tallgrass prairie left in North America, a small window to one of the most altered ecosystems on earth. An environmental historian ahead of his time, Malin details how the Flint Hills were used by Kansans, ancient and modern. No pristine time capsule, despite its unplowed status, the Hills are a point of state pride but are often misunderstood and in constant flux. Malin’s message, eighty-five years later, is still valid. Dedicate ourselves to responsible management of the Hills. Meet any challenges with vigilance and selflessness. Whatever their name, the Hills deserve our commitment to their well-being.
“The Rediscovery of America and the Significance of Native Americans in U.S. History: A Book Forum”
By Paul Conrad, Melissa Greene-Blye, Eric Anderson, and Ned Blackhawk
Since the publication of Ned Blackhawk’s groundbreaking The Rediscovery of America in the spring of 2023, Indigenous scholars and historians of the American West have discussed its overarching premise, that the history of Indigenous America is inextricably intertwined with the history of the nation itself. These conversations at conferences and around college campuses, unfortunately, are not always accessible to the general public. We arranged this book forum in order to bring them to a wider audience. Here, three scholars of Indigenous America reflect on Blackhawk’s work, and then the author offers his response.
Book Reviews
Book Notes
