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Let 'er Buck: The Pendleton Round-Up
The Pendleton Round-Up is celebrating its centennial this year. But even at 100, it's far from the oldest rodeo in the nation. And it doesn't even begin to be the longest or the biggest. But you'll be hard pressed to find another rodeo that's as beloved by whole community that puts it on. As one resident told us, there are two seasons in Pendleton: Before Round-Up and After Round-Up.
Generations have grown up in and around Pendleton volunteering their time preparing for and putting on the rodeo and all the attendant events. It's one of the reasons the rodeo itself has remained largely commercial free — a point of pride for organizers and almost unheard of in the modern rodeo world. Cowboys from all over the country converge on Pendleton for one of the last rodeos of the season. From the professional rodeo events like Tie-Down Roping (calf roping) and Saddle Bronc Riding to the Native American events like the Happy Canyon Pageant to local institutions like the Main Street Cowboys, the city of Pendleton is fairly bursting at the seams with traditions and activities of all sorts.
While you're online, click over to OPB TV's Oregon Experience documentary on the Round-Up: The Wild West Way. Tell us your own memories from the Round-Up, or post your comments and questions below. You can also check out two stories from Oregon Art Beat about a well-known saddle-making family and stories from Oregon Field Guide about rodeo clowns and rodeo livestock.
Have you been to the Round-Up or a rodeo elsewhere? What stands out to you about the Pendleton Round-Up? What fascinates you about cowboy life? What questions do you have about this 100-year-old event or the community that keeps it alive each year?
GUESTS:
- Bob Miller: Long-time Round-Up volunteer
- Ronnie Currin: Former Pendleton Round-up champion
- Josh Peek: Professional Rodeo Cowboy
- Shirley Morris: Filmmaker of Oh, You Cowgirl!
Note: If you're in Pendleton, you're invited to be part of the audience for our show from The Rainbow Cafe at 209 S. Main Street. The saloon opens at 6 a.m. We'll be there at 8 a.m. to greet you, and we'll start the show at 9!
Tagged as: cowboys · cowgirls · history · rodeo
Photo credit: Muffet / Creative Commons
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Father took several of us children to a rodeo when we were quite young. A bull and rider charged out of the chute. After a few wild gyrations the bucking bull broke it's spine and crawled around for a few agonizing moments using its front legs. Rodeo operators tied a rope around the bull's legs, dragged it off the pitch, and ended its life. I'll never forget wincing at the sound of that gun shot. A snapshot of reality frozen in the petrified amber of my 10-year-old mind.
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I learned as a kid way back in the 1950s that a real cowboy never wears his hat indoors, so anyone in that cafe who has a hat on is just a drugstore cowboy, a cowboy wannabe.
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The hoopla surrounding the 100th anniversary of this event overshadows the fact that rodeos are cruel. All of the animals used in the spectacle are treated poorly. Whether the treatment rises to the definition of abuse or not, it is cruel to transport animals long distances in horrible conditions just to watch a "sport" involving them.
I've seen rodeo horses (those used by the cowboys) standing on concrete floors with no food and no water for hours on end. I've seen saddle sores on these same horses. I've never seen anyone brushing them or giving them any kind of affection.
Bulls are not meant to be ridden. Not even for a few seconds.
Wild cows are not meant to be milked. That milk is for their babies.
And, calfs are not meant to be roped.
Also, a TRUE cowboy removes his hat when entering a room.
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Gawd, do I have GREAT memories of the Round Up. Used to go during the 90's. Fav memories revolve around the Happy Canyon pagent and the dances. Learned how to Western Swing just so I could dance with a cowboy. And, the Sunbowl is GONE now? Replaced by a fancy grandstand? Say it isn't so! Loved the rogue behavior in the Sunbowl. Buckets of beer being hauled up to the grandstand's top with twine. Also, appreciated touring the Indian Village. All the teepees and families hanging out. Hope to get back some day. Let'er Buck!
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I remember back in the late 1960s and 1970s that snow ski racers would go bull riding in the summer just to keep in shape for the winter racing season. Henh, it's funny to think of bull riding as just a practice workout to get in shape for ski racing.
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That comment about no drugs around cowboys surprised me, I think he is very naive. Back in the 1960s and through the 1990s, I knew a lot of cowboys who really liked smoking pot and other drugs. From very old, very well known, and long established ranching families. I won't mention any names, for obvious reasons.
Nothing like marijuana to ease those cowboying pains, I guess.
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I agree with those who say rodeos are cruel and that you shouldn't be celebrating 100 years of cruelty at the Pendleton Roundup. Set aside your cultural conditioning for a moment, imagine the animals as conscious living things with emotions (they are), and tell me it isn't cruel to terrorize them for sport. You should at least have been aware enough to recognize that many people have this perspective. You should have represented it on your show instead of just pandering to the cowboys and trying to show how "fun" you are.
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I went to Cheyenne Frontier Days back in the 1950s. Had a neckerchief autographed personally by Casey Tibbs, I believe was his name.
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This fall, PETA gets an extra $100, and OPB gets zip. See you in the Spring. Maybe.
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no worries, I'll cover that $100.00... I think OPB just discovered a new fund-raising tool.
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Well Emily, your producers put you into a nest of Conservative Republicans.
I think it was offensive the way they slandered people who are not cowboys, trying to present themselves as the only people who have good values, morals, and spirituality.
I believe they ought to get out of their little narrow minded towns and go visit other people in other places. I've lived in a lot of different places and I even found wonderful people in Las Vegas who have good morals, values, and even spirituality. Even an exotic dancer who was married to a surveyor and brought me zuchinnis she had grown in her own garden, a wonderful upstanding moral woman who danced to support her family.
Get off your high horse, Pendletonians, and stop slandering other people.
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It's called balance Tom... and without it OPB becomes another Fox News (albeit perhaps with a different political tilt)... I've found that I can usually learn something from viewpoints across the spectrum of people's beliefs, positions, politics, lifestyles and appreciate OPB for having the stones to share that spectrum.
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This was a one sided "balance", rethomas.
Real balance requires views from both and or all sides. There actually exist moderate politically centrist cowboys and I would suspect even some on the left of the political spectrum.
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Of course it was one-sided... but you need to take the broader view of OPB programming... every program can't be balanced, nor is it realistic to expect it to be if one wants to get past a sound-bite debate and really hear people out regardless whether I agree or disagree with them.
The one thing I really appreciate about OPB is that they're willing to take those deeper dives so that I have a chance to develop an understanding of perspectives I'd never have a chance to encounter on my own. It broadens and deepens us collectively and (sometimes) can chip away at those pre/misconceptions we all carry... but then what am I telling you for... you've been around and (judging by your commentary) are an intelligent person, I know you already know this (meant sincerely).
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Balance, blinders, information, advocacy – I could talk about these things for hours. I have found I often learn something when I go deep inside someone else's world for a little while.
For a peek into my world, here's the backstory on some of the behind the scenes craziness today!
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I don't expect each program to be balanced, all I did was recognize and point out who was in that crowd. And then complain about the slander.
I like that Conservatives get heard, back in the 1970s I consistently voted for local plumber and hardware store owner, Conservative Chet MacMillan, to be on the Bend School Board for two reasons, one, I knew that the Liberals on the board would outvote him, and two, I believe that it is far better to keep those extremists out in public where they can be recognized for what they are and how they act, than to let them go underground and do their dirty work out of sight. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant".
And I am sure that there are other places in Pendleton where the crowd would be more politically centrist.
I just stated what I saw as the facts on the ground.
One other thing, what tipped me off that they were Conservative Republicans was the slander, all of the rest of the rodeo talk and talk about families and volunteers and such is common to cowboys, and pretty much everybody else in the world.
Geez, you ought to have dinner with a Mexican-American hard rock miner and his family in Silverton, Colorado, like I did years ago, talk about a hard worker and fine upstanding man, I'd put Ensamuel Sanistevens (SP?) up beside anyone as a fine human being. He worked hard so his kids became Medical Doctors and College Professors, and such, and I hold him in high honor for that. And he didn't have to be a Conservative to do it.
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I have never been to a rodeo, nor under normal circumstances would I go. It seems like a type of entertainment that in my personal view is a bit brute, and a bit pointless. Admittedly this view is to be expected, many people feel as I do and many people have said as much on this page. But, I find myself wondering, or perhaps I am just sick of my own inner voice, how bad is it exactly?
It is after-all one hundred years old, is there anything worthwhile in the tradition or the sentiment itself? And how does it stack up with other atrocities? For example, much of popular entertainment, like American Idol, where the success of the show is predicated on making asses of people. Or the Biggest Loser---is it really about the weight loss or the humiliation? The contestants on the Biggest Loser seem a lot like the animals in a rodeo, all are rats in a wheel. All these things seem like a desperate form of entertainment. Of course, as they say, two wrongs don’t make a right, but I am not sure we have improved our options.
Is the joy of the event worth anything in itself? So much of the world seems to be willing to slaughter animals, and keeps them in barbaric conditions before the guillotine. And, the eating is generally not for sustenance anymore, because in most developed places there are many other options. They like the taste, and they like the show---and, it all comes with a sacrifice. Is the torture of the rodeo any less severe then the confinement on so many farms? Or the killing itself? Is torturing and humiliating yourself in front of a viewing audience, different because humans are up the chain and can make these decisions, allegedly for themselves---a kind of ‘they asked for it.’ But we sit there and let them, and sometimes even watch them. Aren’t we complicit in the act? How many of our friends are cut open to have their stomachs sealed shut in an attempt to loose weight; or have their faces lifted in an attempt to look better, to bring joy to themselves? Do the defenseless truly require greater protections? Is it not possible that we are all a kind of ‘defenseless?’
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I'd recommend going at least one time to see what it's like. And make it a small local show like a county fair with a kids greased pigs race and the other kids activities. It can be pretty family friendly and without much real harm to animals.
What it really is is a romantic going back to something like 4 or 5 years before 1900 when cowboys did trail rides and rode the range and such. That only lasted for a very few years but it has a very powerful hold on the imagination.
Now we know we don't need to "break" horses, and other such abuses of animals, we know how to "gentle" them into doing what we want.
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Comments are now closed.
The Rainbow will provide the perfect atmosphere!