Active8 issue 206 April 2020

ACTIVE8
A copy of Paul
Eagle Star’s
death
certificate
indication that he was mourning he wore around his head a band
of white silk.
A report says that when he saw the body of his late cousin, Bull
Stands Behind burst into tears, being consoled by one of the
other chiefs who told him with what exceeding kindness the
deceased had been treated at the Infirmary.
Explained a report in the ‘Sheffield and Rotherham
Independent’ newspaper: “Throughout the inquiry the four
Indians maintained their accustomed stolidity, the only time
when they showed more than ordinary interest in the proceedings
being when the members of the jury were sworn in and kissed
the testaments. Probably the ceremony puzzled them as much as
some of their ceremonies
puzzle the white people.
“They were accompanied by
Major Burke, the general
manager for the Buffalo Bill
Wild West Company; Mr
William Laugan, supply agent;
Mr George C. Crager, Sioux
interpreter who has charge of
the Indians; and John
Shangren, a native interpreter.
Mr B. Folsom, United States
Consul, at Sheffield, also
attended.
“Mr Crager identified the
body, and said he had known
the deceased about six
months. He was a healthy man
and had been with the
company about five months. He
did not see the accident occur, but he saw the deceased
immediately afterwards, and he was brought to the Infirmary
within an hour.
“The accident happened while the deceased was riding a horse
out of the arena. He had ridden the horse daily for a considerable
time. The horse slid with all his four feet out, and then fell, and
slid on its belly. The deceased’s right foot was under the horse’s
belly and his right ankle was dislocated. This was the explanation
given by the deceased, who did not blame anyone.”
Mr Crager stated that the treatment Eagle Star had received
had been perfectly satisfactory. Wherever he went, he would
always think of the Sheffield Infirmary with feelings
of intense gratefulness. He told the inquest that the manner in
which the surgeons, nurses and all connected with the institution
had cared for a stranger and a foreigner had so impressed him
that his command of words entirely failed him in his efforts to
give expressions to his feelings. The deceased was a favourite in
the camp, and the news of his death had made Col Cody ill.
Paul Eagle Star is shown here in 1890,
second from left on the back row
In a further acknowledgement of the treatment the deceased
had received at the Infirmary, Mr Crager said he could not have
received more attention had he been a king. The doctors and
nurses had spared no pains in ministering to his comfort, and
thought nothing of leaving their beds in the middle of the night to
grapple with any symptom that threatened him with suffering.
He spoke of the generosity and courtesy with which he himself
had been treated in Sheffield by all with whom he had come in
contact. He had travelled in all sorts of countries, and had mixed
with almost all grades of society, but in Sheffield he had received
kindness which had quite taken him aback and which he
previously thought did not exist in this world. He intimated that a
bust and pedestal of Col Cody
in white marble and ebony
was being made at Munich,
and that Col Cody intended to
present it to the staff at the
Infirmary.
The coroner, Mr D.
Wightman, replied that in
Sheffield they were proud of
the Infirmary, and he was
pleased to hear its excellence
had been appreciated.
Once the inquest had
reached a verdict of
“Accidental Death”, Eagle
Star’s body was transported
by Messers Tomlinson and
Sons to the Midland Railway
Station, the Indians and others
connected with the show
following in carriages. The funeral party was met by Mr Wheen,
the station master. The presence of the Indian chiefs on the
platform in Sheffield caused much interest amongst other people
at the station and the train for Nottingham departed at 11.35am.
Other members of the show, including Col Cody, met the train at
the station, with a cowboy band, which played appropriate music.
The coffin was unscrewed and each person was allowed to have
a last look at their comrade. The body was then taken forward to
West Brompton, London, by train, to an Indian burial ground
there. He was buried in the same plot as Surrounded, an Indian
who had died in Manchester during the show's fist visit to the UK
in 1887.
More than a century later, Paul Eagle Star’s unmarked grave
was located and contact was made with his surviving
grandchildren, both of whom were elderly by this time. His
casket was exhumed and in March, 1999, his body was
repatriated across the Atlantic and a reburial took place on May
31st that year.
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