Indigenous Americans were drawn from the earliest stages of the show , first hired from the Pawnee tribe ( 1883 - 1885 ) and then from the Lakota tribe . Native Americans were drawn from the earliest stages of the show , first hired from the Pawnee tribe ( 1883 -- 1885 ) and then the Lakota tribe . Native Americans were hired from the earliest stages of the show , first drawn from the Pawnee tribe ( 1883 -- 1885 ) and then the Lakota tribe .