When she was five, her father died in a snowstorm. Her mother could not support them, so the children were sent to live with various orphanages. Annie lived for two years at an orphanage. Then she was placed in a foster home. At that home, she was treated very cruelly, often beaten and overworked. She ran away from there after two years. She ran back to her mother.
She stayed on her mother's farm where she learned to use her father's old cap-and-ball rifle. She shot small game to put meat on the table. She soon became a remarkable shot, shooting the animals through the head, so that the meat was unspoiled.
By the time she was 15, she started shooting at the local gun clubs. By then shooting in competition was vary popular. She beat everyone there. One day she shot against Frank Butler, a renowned marksman, and beat him. He had never lost to a woman before and was fascinated by her. Within a year the two were married.
After they were married she changed her name to Oakley, after a Cincinnati suburb. They traveled around the country displaying their talents. He taught her out to shoot at a playing card tossed in the air. He also taught her to stand on a galloping horse and shoot at flames in a revolving wheel.
When she was 25, the pair joined the Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Frank became her manager. Annie was very popular. She displayed her marksmanship in a variety of different ways. One act that always pleased the crowd was when she shot at a target behind her using the reflect in a Bowie knife as a mirror. During the seventeen years she stayed with the show, Annie only missed five shows. Some estimates say she made almost $1,000 a week. Though living on the road she always tried to maintain a neat home.
She was very good friends with the Sioux Chief Sitting Bull. He called her "Mochin Wytony's Cecilia," which meant "my daughter, little sure shot." She became known by that name ever after. She taught Sitting Bull how to write. When he died, he gave her the headdress and uniform he wore in the Battle of Little Big Horn.
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