Wyoming Arts Council

Buffalo Bill Historical Center acquires stunning collection of Native American artifacts


The Buffalo Bill Historical Center has acquired a private collection of Plains Indian artifacts that could be valued at more than $22.5 million. The collection belonged to the late artist and ethnographer Paul Dyck, of Rimrock, Ariz. Only a few people have had access to the collection of nearly 2,000 items, which Dyck kept at his ranch home. It has never been available to the general public, officials say.”It’s going to stun people,” said former Wyoming Sen. Alan K. Simpson, the chairman of the museum’s board of directors. “It certainly stunned us.” Even board members with expertise in American Indian culture were awed by the remarkable collection, which includes children’s toys, ghost dance dresses, a peace medal Lewis and Clark may have given to a Mandan chief and huge buffalo-hide tepees, he said. “It’s going to enrich the world, and we’ll do it in a way that will enrich the world,” Simpson said. The heart of the collection dates from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s. Dyck had a longstanding friendship with the museum in Cody and with many associated with it, including Simpson.

Dyck, a rancher, dreamed of building his own museum to display the Buffalo Culture. He died in 2006 at the age of 88 before his dream could become reality. The Paul Dyck Foundation Research Institution of American Indian Culture, the nonprofit organization he founded, decided that the best way to keep the collection intact and to honor Dyck’s commitment was for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center to take possession through a combination gift-and-purchase agreement. After a year of negotiations, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center’s board voted unanimously July 3 to approve the deal. A fundraising drive will be launched to raise about $10 million necessary to complete the purchase and preserve and maintain the collection, Simpson said. American Indian artifacts in the collection were conservatively appraised at $22.5 million a few years ago. The estimate did not include the antique guns or six peace medals that were part of the inventory that went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The peace medals could be ones that explorers Lewis and Clark gave to American Indians during their 1804-06 journey. “We talked to several museums who offered more money, but it wasn’t really about money,” said John Dyck, Paul’s son and president of the Paul Dyck Foundation. “It was about doing what’s right for the collection.

“The fact that Paul Dyck helped design the Plains Indian wing of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center was among the key reasons it was chosen. The foundation was also concerned that sacred objects Paul Dyck had been given for safekeeping, mostly by adoptive relatives among the Plains tribes, be handled properly. “They have the right people in place to do that,” John Dyck said. “It really is a good museum — as good as I’ve been in. They have the right people in the right places. “A few items may be displayed by next summer, but it will probably take at least three years to catalog, document and conserve the entire collection, said Emma Hansen, the curator of the Center’s Plains Indian Museum. Eventually, items from the collection will be displayed in the Paul Dyck Plains Indian Buffalo Culture Gallery within the museum. Lee Haines, spokesman for the Center, said the museum has about 1,700 square feet of display space available in the gallery. Articles from the collection will be rotated each year. The museum also plans to create a large traveling exhibit that can be featured at other institutions in the United States and around the world, Hansen said.


Sort By Category By Month By Year
Cancel