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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 12, 2019)
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 11 Commentary... A Western story Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief The band they played the anthem then The clowns fell down in jest All the people saw again The winning of the West& 4 Ian Tyson, <Old Cheyenne= The 79th Sisters Rodeo is history, with the roar of the crowd, the pageantry of the Parade and Grand Entry, the drama of record-breaking rides fading into the warm collective memory of Sisters9 longest-running event. Rodeo is a modern sport and entertainment enterprise, but one with roots that wind right down into the founda- tions of the American psyche. As Ian Tyson suggests, it is, in a sense, a passion play that represents the <winning of the West= 4 and reflects the virtues and character traits required for that winning. Rodeo is a test of skill and the will to dominate (if only for a handful of seconds). The rodeo way of life demands commitment and phenom- enal physical, mental and spiritual toughness 4 which is usually found alongside tremendous exuberance and an ever-hopeful outlook on the future, where the next go- round will, by golly, put us in the money. It9s hard to find a more quintessentially American ideal than that. I was served a double-bar- reled blast of Western history, myth and legend last week. Before going to the Sisters Rodeo, I was in Buffalo, Wyoming, for a newspaper conference. Buffalo, located in north-central Wyoming, is in the heart of high plains country on the edge of the Bighorn Mountains, con- tested between the Lakota (Sioux) and the Absaroka (Crow), then the Lakota and the U.S. military, then between small-holding ranchers and cattle barons. I spent Thursday after- noon on a lonely, windswept ridge 15 miles northwest of Buffalo, where, on December 21, 1866, a massive force of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors lured 81 men away from the protec- tion of Fort Phil Kearney and rubbed them out to a man. Walking ground where a young Crazy Horse led his party of decoy warriors in a deadly, taunting dance created frisson that felt like a lightning bolt shot down the spine. Other than interpretive signs and a stone cenotaph built where many of the sol- diers fell, the site is undevel- oped and looks just as it did 153 years ago. It is easy to see the way the short, vicious ambush and running fight developed. The past is very much present there. I stayed at the historic Occidental Hotel, built in 1879 and opened in 1880. Everyone from Calamity Jane to Butch Cassidy, from cattle- detective-turned-killer Tom Horn to Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway stayed there at one time or another. I sat at the bar in the Occidental Saloon lis- tening to Waylon Jennings, where over a century ago the Harvard-educated Easterner Owen Wister soaked up cow- boy culture. Wister created many of what we think of as the classic tropes and arche- types of the Western in his 1902 novel <The Virginian.= The mythic West has lived alongside the historical West right from the git-go, and both myth and history are constantly being revised as we define and re-define who we are and want to be as a people and as a culture. Some of that revision is healthy and beneficial, deep- ening and broadening our understanding of the fron- tier experience and our own identity. Some revision is corrosive. Since the mid-20th PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS The lonely ridge where 81 men under the command of Captain William Judd Fetterman were rubbed out by a force of 1,000 Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors on December 21, 1866. century, there has been a trend toward a crude and crass revisionism that seeks to leach out every bit of heroism and romance from the story of the West and to downgrade the qualities of stoicism, self-reliance and grit and gumption that are exemplified in the character of the American Cowboy. There is another kind of revisionism that recognizes the real virtues and values contained in the bedrock mythology, but expands the story of the West to make it deeper and richer than sim- ple Cowboys & Indians or Lawmen & Outlaws melo- drama. The story of the West is the story of men and women, of people of great wealth and of hardscrab- ble poverty, of an ongoing and often violent struggle between capital and labor, and a conflicted and compli- cated relationship with land- scape and environment. A wild diversity of creed and ethnicity was present in the frontier West from the earliest days: indig- enous peoples, Anglo- Saxons, Basques, Chinese, Irish, Scots and Scots-Irish, Japanese, Hispanics, African Americans, Pacific Islanders, Jews, Gentiles, Mormons, Catholics, Protestants and atheists& The story of the West is a multi-faceted human drama played out across a vast, for- bidding, yet beautiful land- scape, far more compelling than any game of thrones could ever be. And when we embrace it in all its con- tradictions, in all its hero- ism and heartbreak, we can all rise in the bleachers at Sisters Rodeo as the Stars and Stripes stream by, doff our hats in respect and honor for all who have gone before, and be proud to be a part of the pageant 4 proud to be an American. CREATE THE SCENE PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK Sisters Rodeo is rich with Western heritage. Some of the greatest memories of home happen outside the walls. We can help give them the perfect backdrop. Cub Cadet lawn tractors and walk-behind mowers are built to turn your lawn into the ideal site for special moments, big and small. POWER OWER AND PRECISION FOR THE BIGGER CHALLENGES XT ENDURO SERIE SERIES ES E S LAWN TRACTORS ZERO-TURN ZERO TURN RIDING MOWER RZT ® SX $ XT1 LT42 $ 50 EFI 3,699 99 We’ve pioneered the advancement of steering- wheel-controlled mowers. No fi guring out how to drive traditional lap bar zero turn. 1,699 Enduro exceptional mowing performance, engineered to support a wide variety of attachments for all-season versatility. XT2 LX46 EFI 2,399 $ Enduro high level of power, control, and durability. Tackles challenging terrain and offers more power. Stop by and check out the new Cub Cadet mowers today at 541-549-9631 SISTERS RENTAL, 506 N. Pine St., Sisters www.sistersrental.com facebook.com/sistersrental