Wednesday, September 13, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Bunkhouse
Chronicle
Craig Rullman
Columnist
This jump’s for
you, Chief
Editor’s note: This is a
reprinting of a July 2016
column in honor of Chief
David Beautiful Bald
Eagle. At age 95, he starred
in the independent film
“Neither Wolf Nor Dog,”
which is premiering Friday,
September 15, at Sisters
Movie House. See related
story, page 3.
“… I can remember
everything: From horses
and cart days right up until
today; jet planes and com-
puters. When I was a boy
there weren’t even any
fences … all just open
prairie. The world has
changed so quickly … It’s
so short a time … I’ve had
a long life, but it seems like
yesterday…”
– Chief David William
Wo u n d e d i n W i n t e r
Beautiful Bald Eagle
The world lost a great
man last week.
Chief David Beautiful
Bald Eagle died on July 22.
He was born in a tipi on the
edge of the Cheyenne River
on April 8, 1919, and he was
the grandson of Chief White
Bull, who some 43 years
earlier had led a memorable
charge against Custer at the
Little Bighorn. In 1936,
Beautiful Bald Eagle joined
the 4th Cavalry, and in 1940
re-enlisted with the 82nd
Airborne at Fort Bragg. He
was decorated for bravery
after his first combat jump
at Anzio, and was severely
wounded and left for dead
on his second, at Normandy,
on D-Day.
After the war, he played
semi-pro baseball. He acted
in movies and served as
Errol Flynn’s stunt dou-
ble in “Flaming Arrow.”
He became a champion
ballroom dancer and is
enshrined in the Ballroom
Hall of Fame. He raised
horses. He raised children.
A lot of them, 25, in fact,
including five that he and
his wife — an actress from
Belgium named Josee,
whom he met at the World’s
Fair in 1958 – adopted. He
raced cars. He went back
to rodeo, forking bare-
back broncs and bulls. He
was a close friend of rodeo
legend Casey Tibbs, and
once danced with Marilyn
Monroe. He acted in more
movies, including “Dances
With Wolves,” and starred
in his final film at the age
of 95.
He was made traditional
Chief of the Miniconjou
Lakota band and the United
Native Nations Goodwill
Ambassador for the
Cheyenne River Sioux, and
he went skydiving.
Skydiving.
I’ve seen a lot of that
lately, while working the
horses or out watering the
garden, I look up and see
the brightly patterned cano-
pies swinging back to earth,
and on some days I can even
hear the delighted shrieks
and shouts of people living
their lives with a dramati-
cally renewed sense of awe.
Surely you know what
comes next.
What better way to honor
a life of service and dedi-
cation to family, friends,
neighbors; a life so well
lived, so perfectly book-
ended by tipis and super-
computers, that it almost
defies articulation? Why
wouldn’t we, after consider-
ing one man’s model, take a
minute to examine the mun-
dane routines that we fall
into so easily, to throw them
out with Monday’s garbage,
and to purposefully aim for
a place completely beyond
our comfort zone?
We did, my wife and I.
We drove down to the
airport and signed up. We
entrusted our lives to a pair
of complete strangers, Ryan
and Steven, strapping into
the harness, and donning
the surprisingly simple garb
of human flight. And it was
not lost on me, as we flew
over the drop zone and Ryan
cinched up our tandem rig,
that Beautiful Bald Eagle
believed that the harness he
wore on D-Day had saved
his life, as he and his broth-
ers from the 82nd were shot,
in his own words, “like clay
pigeons” descending over
Normandy. The harness was
so tight, he said, that it pre-
vented him from bleeding
out from his wounds when
he hit the ground.
I won’t tell you I wasn’t
scared. I was. Ryan, my
instructor, told me just
before the door opened and
we tumbled out — which in
that first few seconds is like
falling in a vacuum of pure
shrieking insanity — that he
could feel my heart beating
above the vibration of the
plane. He wasn’t kidding.
But then, just as sud-
denly, we were flying,
buoyant even, as if the air
were pushing us back into
the sky, and we were carv-
ing our descent in a series
of controlled and rewarding
turns. Fear vanished. It was
true flight, loud, windy, with
all of Central Oregon spread
out beneath us in a vision
of mountain lakes and for-
ests and volcanoes holding
snow in the lees. We could
see St. Helens, Rainier, the
raw power of the Cascade
peaks marching off into the
horizon, and far below, the
little town of Sisters, look-
ing something like a cartoon
hamlet just recently hacked
out of the forest.
And then the parachute
opened and we began to
float, the world gone so sud-
denly quiet it seemed we
were drifting in the primor-
dial. And there is nothing
like hanging lazily under the
canopy, taking in the curva-
ture of a world you might
never quite see again in the
same way, and looking up to
see your wife, still streaking
earthward at 150 mph, in a
pink flightsuit, freefalling.
We could do worse than
to model something of our
drive for life after David
Beautiful Bald Eagle, who
just kept living well when
age and gravity and time
might have forced him to
close up shop. But he didn’t
allow that, and instead
seemed to grow bigger and
stronger with age.
We should do so well.
His example inspired us,
and we were happy to shove
complacency aside, widen
the path, and just get after
the good and sweet busi-
ness of being alive. So …
this jump’s for you, Chief
Beautiful Bald Eagle —
“walk on.”
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Deschutes
County
Fair & Rodeo
Queen 2018
Tryouts
★ Are you interested in being an ambassador
for Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo?
★ Can you talk to and work with people of all ages?
★ Can you ride a horse?
★ Will you be 17 years old by January 1, 2018
and not yet 21 years old by July 25, 2018?
★ Do you live in Deschutes, Crook, or Jeff erson county?
★ Th ings to consider: Application, Reining Pattern,
Flag Run-in & Queen Run-in, Speech, Interview
Tryouts will be held Sunday, October 8 at 1:30 p.m.
Juniper Arena & North Sister Building
Deadline to apply is September 29 at 4 p.m.
For more information contact Carol Shull Zimmerman,
Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo Queen Advisor, at
541-389-2529 / 541-480-2140 or cshull@ykwc.net