Page 10A
East Oregonian
SUNDOWN: His personal
guardian spirit was a horsely
Continued from 1A
United States Cavalry after
an attack on their Indian
encampment. Trapped in
a burning teepee, the boy
survived by huddling under
a thick buffalo robe.
“Another time he escaped
by clinging to the side of a
horse, making it appear to
the cavalry that the horse
was riderless as he rode
out of the encampment and
escaped,” Thomas said.
The teenager made it to
Canada. With a price on his
head, he stayed put until
things calmed then returned
to the United States, where
he eventually bred, trained
and sold horses at his ranch
near Lapwai.
“He was very excited
when he came back to ind
out that money was being
paid for people to ride
horses in competition,”
Thomas said.
Sundown also rode
bulls. One story tells of an
especially bodacious bull
known for sending riders to
the hospital. Legend has it
that Sundown stayed aboard
until the bull quit in exhaus-
tion and never bucked again.
The cowboy drew a crowd
wherever he went.
Sundown’s weyekin —
his personal guardian spirit
— was a horsely, Wildbill
said. The bronc rider tied
one to his braids in a leather
pouch. The only way for a
horse to dislodge a horsely
is to lip over on its back. It
took much the same effort
to remove Sundown.
In 1911 came a famous
and multi-racial showdown
between Sundown,
Pendleton’s George
Fletcher (who was black)
and white cowboy John
Spain. Sundown came in
third after his horse crashed
into a judge on the ield
and the rider went down.
Spain got the win, though
the crowd believed Fletcher
was the victor and roared
its disapproval. Sheriff Til
Taylor cut up Fletcher’s hat
into pieces and sold them
until there was enough to
buy a duplicate of Spain’s
trophy saddle for Fletcher.
Sundown again took
third in 1915 and, discour-
aged, decided to call it quits
at age 52. He spent some
time posing for interna-
tionally known sculptor
Alexander Phimister
Proctor, who encouraged
Sundown to give the title
one more shot and offered to
pay the entry fee. Sundown
agreed.
Again, he made the
inals. A 2016 East Orego-
nian “Out of the Vault”
column describes his wild
ride aboard Angel.
“Sundown rode irst,
using an old saddle with
a slick tree and the stan-
dard-issue halter and rope
provided by the Round-Up.
He constantly spurred
Angel throughout the ride,
waving his large hat in
the air, long woolly chaps
lapping like lags. It was
an all-or-nothing ride and a
huge gamble.”
Seven years later,
Sundown died of pneu-
monia, but the memory of
his feat hasn’t faded away.
This year’s oficial
Round-Up poster by artist
Bob Coronado features
Sundown. Tamastslikt
Cultural Institute also show-
cases Sundown in its current
exhibit “Legend & Legacy:
Jackson Sundown and
Happy Canyon A Century
Later.” Admission is free
throughout Round-Up week.
The rodeo crowd during
each of four performances
will view a three-minute
video about Jackson
Sundown created by Cedric
Wildbill.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
EOTEC: Wants occupancy cap
of 2,7000 people for entire project
Continued from 1A
Despite concerns that
the contract was awarded
months behind the original
schedule, Smith said he felt
Hendon Construction would
be “aggressive” in trying to
meet the 2017 deadline and
still had the ability to do so.
During the special meeting
the board also made plans to
attend a Hermiston Planning
Commission meeting on
Wednesday at 7 p.m. at city
hall, when the commission
will
discuss
EOTEC’s
request for a variance on
parking requirements.
As things stand now,
fair week will be the only
time that more than one of
EOTEC’s main components
(event center, barns and
rodeo arena) can be used at
the same time. The board
plans to ask the commission
to instead set an occupancy
cap of 2,700 people for the
entire project, meaning that
a meeting in the event center
could happen at the same
time as a high school rodeo
as long as the total combined
attendance does not exceed
2,700 people.
The planning commission
held a public hearing on
the matter in July, but after
concluding that the applicant
had not presented enough
evidence to justify the vari-
ance, continued the hearing
to Wednesday in order to
give the board more time to
gather evidence.
Don
Miller,
who
represents the Umatilla
County Fair on the EOTEC
board, said that the fair board
was beginning to make plans
to move all of its equipment
and other possessions out of
the current fairgrounds, which
will be turned over to the
Hermiston School District on
Jan. 1. He said it was the fair
board’s understanding that
those items could be stored at
the new fairgrounds, which
means that the EOTEC board
needs to start thinking about
a secure storage location on
the site.
The EOTEC board’s next
regular meeting will be Sept.
30 at 7 a.m. in the EOTEC
event center.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
When they say “It’s getting cool!”
and you say “I am a fool?”
541-567-4063
405 N. 1st St., Suite #107,
Hermiston
Ric Jones,
BC-HIS
Verna Taylor,
HAS
Forrest Cahill,
HAS
541-215-1888
246 SW Dorion, Pendleton
Com e and enjoy M ain St. w ith us!
Book Signing with Rick Steber
Friday September 16th from 5pm-7pm
Extended Round-up hours:
M-F 9:30 am - 7:00 pm;
Sat. 9:30 pm - 6:00 pm; Sun: 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
125 S. Main, Pendleton, OR 97801
(541) 276-9292 • penbkco@eotnet.net
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
OFF PAGE ONE
Poll: Support for Measure 97 erodes with pros/cons
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
An
overwhelming
majority of Oregon voters
support a corporate sales tax
measure on the November
ballot, according to a new
poll by icitizen, a nonpar-
tisan survey irm.
It’s the second poll in
less than a week to show
Measure 97 with a big
lead, but the icitizen survey
included several follow-up
questions, which indicate
that voters’ opinions change
when they learn more about
arguments for how the gross
receipts tax would work.
“This suggests messaging
about the effect on an
Oregonian’s
pocketbook
can make for a tighter race
in November, depending
on either camp’s ability to
market the measure in their
favor,” said icitizen polling
analyst Cynthia Villacis.
The measure, backed by a
coalition of public employee
unions, would levy a 2.5
percent tax on certain corpo-
rations’ Oregon annual sales
exceeding $25 million.
The poll, taken from Sept.
2-7, found that 59 percent of
610 respondents favor the
tax and 21 percent oppose
it. After voters heard argu-
ments against the measure,
that support dwindled to 40
percent while opposition
spiked to 31 percent. The
poll has a 4 percent margin
of error.
For instance, 65 percent
of respondents said they
would be less likely to
support the measure if they
had to pay $600 per year
in the form of higher prices
and lost job growth resulting
from the tax. That igure is
based on a May estimate by
the nonpartisan Legislative
Revenue Ofice.
Similarly, 59 percent
of respondents were more
likely to vote for the measure
if the revenue were to ill
a $2 billion annual gap in
funding needed for quality
education in the state. That
igure comes from the
nonpartisan Quality Educa-
tion Commission.
When asked how the
money should be spent, the
most common response
— from nearly a quarter of
those polled — was educa-
tion spending.
The icitizen poll mirrors
another
independent
survey, this one by DHM
Research
taken
from
Sept. 1-6, which found
60 percent of respondents
support Measure 97, while
30 percent opposes it.
“At 60 percent (support)
in back-to-back polls,
Oregonians are clear they
want corporations to pay
their fair share,” said Kath-
erine Driessen, a spokes-
woman for Our Oregon,
the nonproit advocacy
group backing the measure.
“When we share with voters
that large and out of state
corporations pay little or
no taxes, they’re eager to
hold them accountable.
They support 97 because
Oregon voters know great
schools and quality care for
our seniors makes Oregon
strong.”
DRONE: Pendleton is home to two RMAX drones
Continued from 1A
the technology is capable
of helping farmers better
manage their ields.
Speciically, agriculture
drones like the RMAX are
built with equipment that
allows growers to spray
crops more precisely, which
not only saves money on
herbicides and pesticides but
also helps the environment
by placing fewer chemicals
into the soil. Other types of
drones — like the experi-
ment station’s own “Octo-
copter” — can ly different
types of cameras and remote
sensors over ields to deter-
mine where there might be
a problem, or predict yields
even before harvest.
Young Kim, CEO of a
Virginia-based
company
called Digital Harvest,
coined the term “digital
agriculture” to describe this
convergence of technology
in the world of farming.
Kim is now one of the
leaders behind the Oregon
Unmanned Aerial Systems
Future Farm in Pendleton,
a real-world testing ground
for how drones can be used
to help farmers across the
country grow more food,
cheaper.
Staff photo by George Plaven
The Yamaha RMAX Type
II agricultural drone took
light during a demon-
stration Monday at the
Columbia Basin Agricul-
tural Research Center
north of Pendleton.
With
the
gover-
nor-appointed Board of
Agriculture in town for its
quarterly meeting, Kim
said Monday’s test light
at the experiment station
north of Pendleton is part
of the ongoing research and
discussion of how drones
will ultimately it in agri-
culture, and what exactly
they’re capable of doing.
“Those are the kinds of
things we want to test right
here in Pendleton,” Kim
said. “We’re in the market to
learn.”
Pendleton is now home to
two RMAX drones, one of
which is operated by Digital
Harvest on the Future Farm
and the other by Yamaha,
which has opened a local
ofice at the Eastern Oregon
Regional Airport. Working
as strategic partners, the
two companies are trying to
igure out how the vehicles
can be used to safely and
reliably spray crops at night,
when there’s less heat and
wind that could cause some
applications to go to waste.
Jeff Lorton, director of
the Duke Joseph marketing
agency and project manager
at the Future Farm, said the
RMAX is the most advanced
agriculture drone in the
world. Yamaha already
has 2,500 of the aircraft
operating in Japan, though
Lorton said U.S. agriculture
is where the opportunity for
the industry lies.
“Make no mistake, we
are the market,” Lorton said.
The RMAX is the product
of 35 years of engineering. It
weighs approximately 200
pounds, and with a 250-cc
engine, Lorton jokes it’s
more like a snowmobile
with a propeller. The Oregon
Department of Agriculture
is already interested in what
the drone industry has to
offer, Lorton said.
“Essentially, ODA is in
kind of a period of transition.
Digitization of agriculture is
creating a whole bunch of
new things for them to think
about,” he said.
Katy Coba, ODA director
and incoming Oregon Chief
Operating Oficer, admitted
there are still hurdles to clear
with operations and regula-
tions of agricultural drones
in Oregon, but the agency
is well aware that this kind
of technology represents the
future of the industry.
“We know how agri-
culture is adopting new
technology on a day-to-day
basis,” Coba said.
Lorton said demon-
strations like the one held
Monday are a reminder to
“wake up, pay attention and
get invested.”
“Agriculture is the last
great human endeavor to be
digitized,” he said. “It’s the
biggest thing people do.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.