In 1890, Franklin T. Hopkins and his mustang, Hidalgo, are part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, where they are advertised as "the world's greatest endurance horse and rider." Hopkins had been a famous long-distance rider, a cowboy, and a dispatch rider for the United States government; in the latter capacity he carried a message to the 7th Cavalry Regiment authorizing the Wounded Knee Massacre of Lakota Sioux.