The Legend of Rawhide. Nebraska or Wyoming???

  

The word Rawhide carries certain grit. It conjures up images of cattle drives, wagon trains, and the vast open prairie of the west. In both Wyoming and Nebraska, it is more than a name. It is a Legend.

The other day I fell in the YouTube rabbit hole learning about lore and legends in different states. While listening to the legends in Nebraska, the Rawhide legend caught my attention. "That happened in Wyoming," I told the television. So, I jumped on Google and looked it up and turns out there are two Legends of Rawhide.

The Legend of Rawhide Creek, Nebraska

Rawhide Creek meanders through, Dodge, Washington, Douglas, and Colfax counties. According to lore, the creek earned its title in 1849, at the height of the California Gold Rush. A young Wisconsin emigrant vowed to kill the first Native American he saw. His victim wasn't a warrior, but a Pawnee woman.

After her murder her tribe demanded justice. The man was captured, tied and flayed alive along the bends of the creek. His skin left as a warning to others passing through. 

Reuben W. Hazen, a former Army captain and Dodge County Sheriff, published a book titled History of the Pawnee Indians in 1893. In the chapter "The Pawnees Flaying a Man Alive" Hazen tells the story. He gives a detailed account of the legend. 

"After crossing the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, thence traveling 22 miles, they came to the Elkhorn River. After crossing the river, the young man saw a squaw sitting upon a log, to make his promise to kill an Indian good, he drew a bead upon his rifle and the squaw rolled off the log. The Wagon train continued to a small stream of water and camped for the night. They had not been in camp but a short time, before the Pawnees began to collect around them, their faces painted in warlike colors in streaks of red and black, to the number of hundreds, and demanded the culprit who killed the squaw... The party saw their situation and thought better that one of them be scarified than the whole party lose their lives... the young man was surrendered to them... stripped of his clothes, then laying upon his back, his hands and feet pinioned to the ground. Then they drew a knife lengthwise of the body, skinning him alive. At the same time, the Pawnee compelled the party to look upon the ghastly and horrid sight. They cut Esterbrook's body to pieces and immersed the man's skin in the little stream and since that event it derives its name, the Rawhide. The man's skin has been tanned and was in the Pawnee's possession when they went to their reservation."

Historians have tracked the location of the skinning three miles due west of Elk City, a tiny unincorporated village just south of Highway 36 about a mile and a half east of the Elkhorn River.

Many saw that the man still haunts that area. Reports of a skinless man screaming in the wind or a skin hanging from a tree have been reported.

The Legend of Rawhide, Wyoming

In Lusk, Wyoming, a wagon train is heading west from Iowa to California during the 1849 gold rush. Among a wagon train traveling west, Clyde Pickett, vows to kill the first Native American he sees. That person was a Sioux princess.

The wagon train is besieged, and the settles face harrowing choices. In the end, Clyde surrenders and meets a violent fate. His punishment, being skinned alive. The event took place near the buttes outside Lusk. They are called the Rawhide Buttes.

The Legend of Rawhide takes on a theatrical form. Every second weekend in July, the little town comes alive with the Legend of Rawhide reenactment. The town hosts parades and events with proceeds supporting local economy.

In 1946 the county didn't have much money, and they wanted to improve the fairgrounds. EvaLou Paris wrote the script for the Legend of Rawhide. The community put on the pageant, and it was a huge success. The written story for the show is about Clyde Pickett, who falls in love with Kate Farley. Clyde vows to kill the first Indian he sees to impress Kate.

Over 200 volunteer actors are involved and the reenactment draws in a large crowd to watch.

Though Nebraska and Wyoming Rawhide legends are basically the same and have no proof it actually happened, they are both frontier morality tales. Rash actions, cultural clashes, and consequences.

So who really knows if these events actually took place, but the legends continue to spark interest.