The Value of Money

I was reading something the other day that mentioned that Chief Sitting Bull's pay while with Buffalo Bill's Wild West was $50 per week plus all the oyster stew he could eat. That's about $2500 per year. I vaguely wondered how much that kind of money bought back in 1885, but I didn't bother doing any research. However, from other books I'm reading today I see that a quarter century later, $10 per week was a decent wage for unskilled labor in Columbus, OH and that a two passenger Ford could be had for $500. From that, I think I can conclude that Sitting Bull was being paid pretty well to ride around the arena on horseback a couple times per day.