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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2016
Beloved horsewoman rides to the sky
Big-hearted woman
lived up to her Indian
name, Wyassus
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — Among mourners say-
ing goodbye to Etta Conner on Monday
was a horse in full regalia.
The riderless bay stood silently at Olney
Cemetery as Conner’s body was interred.
Family and friends said reluctant goodbyes to
the beloved Confederated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation elder. Conner, who
died May 20 at 82, was buried near her par-
ents, three brothers and a sister.
Those who knew the mother of nine say she
lived up to her Indian name, Wyassus, which
means “dance.” The big-hearted woman had
an omnipresent smile and seemed to have in-
gers and toes in a multitude of community
activities. Though she battled stomach cancer
in her inal months, the longtime Happy Can-
yon volunteer took part in the 2015 Happy
Canyon Night Show.
As a young woman, she raced around the
Pendleton Round-Up oval in the competition
for Indian women.
“She was a good horsewoman,” said Cay-
use Chief Jesse Jones, who is a cousin of
Conner.
“She was someone who looked up to
her big brothers,” said Conner’s daughter,
Camilla El Shoura. “She wanted to be like
them. She wanted to ride like them.”
Etta Conner
A riderless horse
Conner’s nephew, Brian Conner, held the
riderless horse, Hero, in place during the
interment. Hero belongs to Conner’s niece,
Bobbie Conner, who stood nearby. Later,
Conner said the tribute honored her aunt’s
prowess as a horsewoman and spoke to the
void she left behind.
“It’s recognition of the missing,” Bobbie
Conner said. “It’s not just the loss of my aunt,
but to all the women on horseback who have
gone before.”
Riding horses was only one of Conner’s
passions through the years. The high-energy
Conner also excelled in baton twirling as a
majorette at Pendleton High School.
“She was one of the best of the best,” said
Bobbie Conner. “After high school, she went
to Sheridan, Wyoming, and competed in the
Miss Indian America Pageant. Her talent was
baton.”
Conner twirled her way to irst runner-up
wearing a headband, fringed skirt, beaded
vest and moccasins.
A black-and-white photo at the Pendleton
Post Ofice shows Conner presenting a Pend-
leton blanket to then-President Dwight Eisen-
hower during a stop in Pendleton.
Submitted Photo
Etta Conner gives a Pendleton blanket to
President Dwight Eisenhower during one
of the president’s visits to the Northwest.
‘It’s hard to
let her go. We
wanted to keep her
around forever.’
Camilla El Shoura
Etta Conner’s daughter
Downhill and slalom skiing
As a student at the University of Portland,
she competed in downhill and slalom ski-
ing with Ski-ente club. She graduated with
a degree in administration of justice and
worked at the university’s School of Social
Work. Because of the federal Indian Reloca-
tion Act, she moved to several large cites for
employment. In Colorado Springs, Colorado,
she worked as a secretary for a Jewish auc-
tion house; in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she
worked odd jobs; and in Los Angeles, she was
employed by an athletic club.
Eventually, after two divorces, she made
her way back to Pendleton in the ’80s where
she raised her nine children and worked for a
?
9-1-WHAT?
Submitted Photo
Etta Conner poses wearing her Indian regalia as a young women.
time with the Tribes’ Children & Family Ser-
vices. El Shoura said her mother encouraged
each child to ind their own way. El Shoura,
who is now Muslim, received no pushback
from her mother, who was an elder with the
Tutuilla Presbyterian Church.
Teepee village
Conner camped each year at the teepee vil-
lage at Round-Up and also at the Wallowa
Tamkaliks celebration, which her brother Taz
founded. Last year at Tamkaliks, Conner was
named as the oldest rider at age 81.
“She had an ornery horse, but it didn’t faze
her,” El Shoura said. “She handled it like she
always does.”
After the interment on Monday, El Shoura,
Conner, Jones and about 80 other family
members made their way into the longhouse
in Mission for the traditional greeting of the
family. They slowly made their way past
nonfamily members who encircled the large
room, stopping for hugs and handshakes.
One person at the gathering, Jennifer Kar-
son Engum, a cultural anthropologist for the
tribes who had listened to oral history from
Conner, said the elder knew how to mesh her
Indian traditions with modern American cul-
ture. Engum said she often ran into Conner at
the Roundup Athletic Club after the woman
had inished water aerobics. Conner, she said,
would take earthy-smelling dried root used in
sweat lodges into the sauna.
“She was living her identity wherever she
went,” Engum said.
Sushi and movie nights
El Shoura said she will miss sharing sushi
and movie nights with her mom. She and her
husband are adopting Sully, Conner’s Jack
Russell terrier. She and the rest of the family
can’t quite wrap their minds around the fact
that they’ll never see one of Conner’s warm
smiles again.
“It’s hard to let her go,” said El Shoura.
“We wanted to keep her around forever.”
Suspicious man
T
his was the week of the suspicious man.
Like the guy who locked himself in the women’s restroom at
Burger King and refused to leave. Or the man who went into the wom-
en’s restroom wearing red pants, then came out wearing a white jumpsuit
with “jail” on the back. Or the guy in bright orange shorts, acting strange.
Our hero, though, is the suspicious man with a mustache carrying a
shovel, a tree trimmer and a shotgun. If Astoria had a lag, this dude would
be on it ...
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