Dime Library

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack, the White King of the Pawnees.  The title references Jack's association with and fondness for the Pawnee tribe, which he joined on the annual summer buffalo hunt in 1872.  Jack often referred to the Pawnee as "my tribe" or "my Indians," occasionally boasting that with a dozen Pawnee warriors, he could take out any number of Sioux warriors. Jack's family may have had some French ancestry, but he wasn't the heir to a grand castle as Buntline fancies here.  According to Jack, the Omohundro name was actually Powhattan, and meant "the place where fresh and salt waters meet." --- Support this podcast: ht