B4
CHIEF JOSEPH DAYS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Nez Perce enthusiast promotes tribe for his legacy
Sidney Austin here
for 90th birthday,
CJD, Tamkaliks
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — A
Junction City man with ties
to the Nez Perce and a pas-
sion for promoting the Indian
people has come to Wallowa
County to celebrate his 90th
birthday.
Sidney Austin, a longtime
partisan of the Nez Perce and
other tribes, hopes spreading
information about their his-
tory can be his legacy.
“That’s why I’ve been
involved in promoting the
Indian people,” he said Tues-
day, July 12 — Austin’s
birthday. “It’s something that
I’m really devoted to … to
getting information out there
on Chief Joseph and Jackson
Sundown.”
In fact, he’s even been
“gifted” with the spiritual
name of Jackson Sundown,
a rodeo champion from the
early 1900s.
According to the web-
site of the National Cow-
boy and Western Heritage
Museum, Sundown was
said to be a nephew of Chief
Joseph. Sundown was the
fi rst Native American to win
a major rodeo championship.
Born around 1863 in
Montana, his birth name was
Waaya-Tanah-Toesits-Kahn
(Earth Left by the Setting
Sun). Sundown is believed
to have fought against U.S.
troops in the Nez Perce War
of the late 1870s. After his
people’s defeat, he took ref-
Contributed Photo
Sidney Austin holds a portrait of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
in 1982 at the cave in Joseph Canyon where it is believed
Joseph was born.
Jackson Sundown, a Nez Perce rodeo cowboy, won the world
championship at the Pendleton Round-up in 1916.
uge on the Flathead Reser-
vation, where he married,
raised a family and learned
to “cowboy.”
Sundown entered the
bucking horse competition
at the Pendleton Round-Up
in 1914, 1915, and 1916. At
an age when most cowboys
have long since retired, the
53-year-old Sundown cap-
tured the trophy saddle. He
later competed in a number
of California rodeos.
According to Cowboys
and Indians Magazine’s
website, Sundown was
inducted into the American
Indian Athletic Hall of Fame,
a child. All the while, he’d
been developing a reputation
among the Indian and ranch-
ing communities alike as a
skilled horseman.
Asked why he was
“gifted” Sundown’s moni-
ker, Austin remains a little
puzzled by it, even if totally
overwhelmed.
“That’s a good question.
It kind of came out of the
blue in 2016 (the 100th anni-
versary of the establishment
of the National Museum of
the American Indian in New
York City), I invited seven
people to the museum and
four or fi ve of them were
the National Multicultural
Western Heritage Museum
and Hall of Fame and the
National Cowboy and West-
ern Heritage Museum and
Hall of Fame. He is consid-
ered a Native American and
Pendleton Round-up icon.
Wounded three times in
the Nez Perce War, he even-
tually made his way back to
Nez Perce country in Idaho.
Retracing the route of his
fl ight 23 years earlier, Sun-
down fi nally arrived back
in the Wallowa country and,
in 1912, on the Nez Perce
Reservation, married a Nez
Perce widow he’d known as
Wikimedia Commons
Nez Perce,” Austin said.
The museum now has
a location in Washington,
D.C., as part of the Smithso-
nian Institution.
“It was a wonderful expe-
rience. There were thousands
of people there,” he said. “I
gave (the director of the
museum) $50 of gold and it
was a beautiful, Indian gold
coin … I gifted him with it at
that time. That may have had
something to do with it later
on. They sent me the certifi -
cate and I didn’t argue with it
one way or another.”
He fi nds the gifting of a
spiritual name exhilarating.
“It’s a compliment and
it happens every once in a
while with palefaces,” he
said. “It’s really a thrill.”
The Nez Perce connec-
tion fi rst brought him to Wal-
lowa County in 1982, when
he heard about what is pur-
ported to be Chief Joseph’s
birth cave in Joseph Canyon.
During his visit, “I real-
ized why Joseph and his peo-
ple loved this area so much,
seeing it visually,” Austin
said. “Then I learned about
the cave and I spent a whole
day looking for it. The sec-
ond day, I found it and got
into it.”
He said it’s not hard to get
to and not far from a road.
“While I was there, there
was an eclipse of the moon
that night … It was late
and I stopped and looked
and could see where the
entrance was and I didn’t try
to go in then,” he said. “So
I went down and camped in
Hells Canyon and camped
overnight. I stayed up and
watched the eclipse.”
Now Austin is here again
for Chief Joseph Days and
Tamkaliks. It seems to be a
place he tries to come on a
regular pilgrimage.
“I try to come every year,
but this year it cost $250 for
gas,” he said.
Coming to Wallowa
County to fi nd the cave and
take part in the events have
enriched his live, Austin said.
“I’ve made many, many
friends,” he said. “I think
the Nez Perce people are a
remarkable people and the
Indian people overall are
remarkable and I appreciate
them sincerely.”
Two-year queens value experience with Chief Joseph Days
Wecks, Micka,
Harrod got extra
service because
of pandemic
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — Last year’s
royalty for Chief Joseph Days
had a special opportunity
serving two consecutive years
instead of the usual one year.
As the 75th CJD came
around Brianna Micka, Des-
tiny Wecks and Casidee Har-
rod had the unique chance to
be royalty for an extra year
because the 2020 festivi-
ties were canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Chief Joseph Days Rodeo queens, from left, Brianna Micka,
Destiny Wecks and Casidee Harrod reigned in 2020 and 2021.
They are seen here during the CJD Grand Parade on Saturday,
July 31, 2021.
The girls came to a mutual
agreement, they said, to
jointly serve as co-queens for
two years and the CJD board
of directors agreed.
Although the reason they
DISCOVER
YOUR TRUE
NATURE
THE EASTERN EDGE
eou.edu
OREGON’S
RURAL
UNIVERSITY
•
•
•
•
On campus and online
11 regional centers
Nationally recognized programs
Top transfer school
NOW OFFERING:
AGRICULTURE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND SUSTAINABLE RURAL SYSTEMS
DEGREES!
La Grande, Oregon
got the extra time in the sad-
dle wasn’t a positive, the
horsewomen took to it like
they were made for it.
Wecks said she found the
extended time because of the
pandemic both an advantage
and a disadvantage.
“We got to spend more
time with other court queens
and learn more about the
rodeo,” she said. “But it
aff ected everybody in that we
couldn’t go to events in per-
son and had to talk over the
phone most of the time.”
Harrod found the experi-
ence largely an advantage.
“It was a unique opportu-
nity to learn about the rodeo
and Chief Joseph Days,” she
said.
Micka, too, found the two-
year option the best, rather
than serving for only one
year.
“I’d planned for only doing
it one year,” she said, but
when 2020 was canceled and
the directors decided to keep
the girls on for another year,
“that was the best option. …
It was a great opportunity to
do it for two years.”
Also, the court has regu-
lar chaperones for each event
they attend and as it turned
out, the board members
rotated as chaperones.
“We got a lot of good per-
sonal experience with them,”
she said.
She agreed that serving as
co-queens rather than a queen
and two princesses was also
the best option.
“That was a good way to
have us be all three queens
with what we went through
with the pandemic,” she said.
Wecks, too, liked being
one of three co-queens.
“Chief Joseph Days is
super unique as one of the
few (rodeos) to pick their
queen later in year,” she said.
“It was cool that us three girls
got to reign equal to each
other.”
Harrod said it allowed
the girls to become part of
a greater sorority of Chief
Joseph Days royalty.
“The biggest thing for me
was … being a part of a huge
family of women who’ve
served Chief Joseph Days
and the beautiful county,” she
said.
She also said she believes
the experience helped her
grow as a person.
“It was a very awesome
experience and I’m glad that
I did it,” she said. “It gave me
a lot of great character traits
that I wouldn’t have gotten
anywhere else.”
Wecks noted there was
a diffi cult time the fi rst year
simply because of the rodeo
being canceled. But the 2021
festivities made up for that.
“The second year was
amazing being queen for our
hometown rodeo,” she said.
The end of their reign as
CJD royalty doesn’t mean the
end of rodeo royalty for the
girls.
Micka will be a Tucker-
ette, one of the hard-riding
group of young women ded-
icated to making the rodeo
exciting. She also has started
giving riding lessons and
serves as an unoffi cial judge
at various horse clinics.
Harrod, who hasn’t served
in any court since, did serve
as a member of a previous
Elgin Stampede court.
Wecks went on to the big-
gest honor in the rodeo roy-
alty world, winning the title
of Miss Teen Rodeo Oregon
last summer. As such, she’s
been traveling around the
Northwest and as far away as
Florida to professional rodeos
and events.
Since hanging up their
rodeo crowns, the girls are
moving on with their lives.
Micka is working on a
double degree in elementary
education and agriculture
education at Eastern Oregon
University, where she’s also
the reporter for the Agricul-
ture Club.
Wecks is attending Trea-
sure Valley Community Col-
lege to study agricultural
business management and
equine science.
Harrod has been studying
to be a dental hygienist at Ore-
gon Institute of Technology.
WALLOWA VALLEY
FESTIVAL
annual
40 th ARTS
OF
josephy
center for
arts and
culture SEPTEMBER
©Alisha Whitma, Snow Canyon Sky 2019 watercolor on aquabord 22" x 30"
CLASSES. EXHIBITS.
CONCERTS. LECTURES.
LIBRARY of WESTERN
HISTORY & CULTURE.
SCULPTURE GARDEN
FESTIVAL of ARTS.
ART SHOP FEATURING
en plein air
LOCAL ARTISTS
live music & awards
quick draw competition
silent auction
opening receptions
aummer arts concert
josephy.org
16-18, 2022
Welcome Chief Joseph Days and Back Country Bash Fans
P.O. Box 658 Enterprise, OR 97828
Office: 541-426-4071 • wellensgc.com
admin@wellensgc.com • CCB #166728