Know your Salford Sioux
Black Elk
Spiritual leader of the Lakota Sioux Indian tribe. Wrote of his stay in Salford in his book ‘Black Elk Speaks’, following an extensive interview with researcher and historian John Neihardt, in 1931. He was ‘left behind’ with a handful of others from the Lakota tribe in 1887, when they missed their departure train, after the rest of their tribe decamped and left the area. They then had to make their own way back to South Dakota. Fought at the Battle of Little Big Horn, and boasted the first name Nicholas.
Surrounded Bytheenemy
Surrounded was a 6ft 7in warrior. He died of a lung infection aged only 22 during the tribe’s stay in Salford. He was the only member of the tribe to die while they were here, and his official records can still be traced today. His body was never recovered or recorded in a church burial, and it could still be somewhere in the Salford Quays area, perhaps in an unmarked pauper’s grave.
Frances Victoria Alexander
The only Sioux to be born in Salford during their stay, she was baptised in February 1888 in Sacred Trinity Church, where registers record her as being daughter of Little Chief and Good Robe.
William Frederick ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody
Former Army scout who led the Wild West show featuring 97 Lakota warriors, 180 broncos, 18 buffalo, 14 mules and donkeys, 10 elk and two deer, which toured Europe in the late 19th century. The circus first came to the UK in 1887 when it spent six months at Earl’s Court, staging several Royal Command Performances for Queen Victoria.
Charging Thunder
One of the first Pony Express riders in America, Charging Thunder was a member of the Blackfoot tribe. He came to Salford aged 26 during the show’s 1903 tour, and stayed on. He was believed to have been the only native American living in the Northwest until his death aged 52 in 1929. With him were Josephine, a sharp-shooting cowgirl with the circus, and their daughter Bessie. The family stayed in the area after Bessie caught diphtheria. He changed his name to George Edward Williams and moved to Thomas Street in Gorton, Manchester.
Rita Parr and Gary Williams
Rita and her brother Gary are Charging Thunder’s grand children. He died before she was born, but her aunt Bessie told her the stories about the Lakota’s visit to Salford. Among items in her dressing box as a child were Charging Thunder’s war bonnet, a bow and arrows and tomahawk. Their mum Gladys was Charging Thunder’s daughter.
Mike Hermanyhorses
Mike is part of the modern-day South Dakota Lakota community, and it Rita’s first cousin.
This page was last updated on 08 June 2006
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