Did Calamity Jane really existed?

Question

Or is she a creation of Hollywood ? If she existed, did she kill some native americans ? I want references.

Answer 1

Calamity Jane was a name given to Martha Jane Canary by the soldiers who served with General George Armstrong Custer. She was born in 1852 in Princeton, MO., and signed on as an army scout when she was a young woman.

She gained her original fame fighting Indians. Although there is no record of her actually being a "soldier," she wore a soldier's uniform. Still, when men made passes at her, she warned them by saying that she was a "dead-eye" shot and that they were "courting calamity."

In the 1880's, she rode with Wild Bill Hickok and his party. They became lovers (and at one point in her life, she claimed that they had been married -- but, again, there is no record of this event). However, she had a baby and gave it up for adoption. She always claimed that Will Bill was the father.

When she finally got married in Texas, she appended her husband's last name to her own. This is supported by records that cite "Martha Jane Canary-Burke."

In 1896, she joined a traveling Wild West show, and stayed with it until she came down with pneumonia in 1903. Her death was attributed to complications from the disease.

Answer 2

Calamity was a real person, but she was nothing like the American celebrities of today. She went through years of alcoholism and casual prostitution, was filthy most of the time, as were her clothes, which like her smelled pretty bad. Am not in anyway disrespecting Calamity, that was just the reality of Fronteir life back then. Calamity was not popular in Deadwood for a long time, probably some local dispute. But she won back the hearts of the people there by doing voluntary work during a Smallpox epidemic. The snooty people on Fox News would probably sniff at any interview with Calamity if she was alive today, and even NPR would have trouble editing any interview with her, she was drunk during most interviews and sprinkled her sentences with a wide variety of obscenities. Press people could also have been unnerved by Calamities habit of firing her gun into the ceiling when drunk, she did this during one interview with a reporter, she began shouting some cheery words to some local prostitutes and blasted six bullets into the roof.

Answer 3

She really existed in Deadwood South Dakota and was a friend of Hickok. Dont think she ever killed anybody.

Answer 4

look in the history under calamity jane and you will see the records.

Answer 5

Yes. www.cowgirls.com I learned about her from books and t.v. as a young lad. Peace.

Answer 6

she realy existed and on the history channel which has western tech with david carradine, they have talked about her.

Answer 7

yes...she was a real person