Equestrian Network Magazine

National Day of the Cowboy Tribute and Resolution

by M. Y. Mim

All of the men and women pictured here are inductees into the Hall of Great Westerners, of the National Hall of Fame and Cowboy Museum, located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73111 www.nationalcowboymuseum.org, with the exception of Frances La Due who was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, www.cowgirl.net.

The pin for members of The National Day of the Cowboy Association. www.nationaldayofthecowboy.com Photo courtesy National Day of the Cowboy.

The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum honors and memorializes the men and women who have, through their

exemplary lives, careers, and achievements, embodied and perpetuated the heritage of the American West. Every inductee, whether a real cowboy in the Hall of Great Westerners, a "reel" cowboy in the Hall of Great Western Performers, or a rodeo cowboy in the Rodeo Hall of Fame, perpetuates and enriches facets of this Western heritage. By honoring them, the Museum, in a sense, provides a generational continuity with the past, present and future and bears witness to an evolving American West.

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum(C) 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73111 (405) 478-2250

The National Day of the Cowboy Association's official flag. www.nationaldayofthecowboy.com Photo courtesy National Day of the Cowboy.

Cowgirl Hall of Fame

The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, in Fort Worth, Texas, is the only museum in the world dedicated to honoring and documenting the lives of legendary women who have distinguished themselves while exemplifying the pioneer spirit of the American West. The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to preserve the history and impact of western women living roughly from the mid-1800s to the present - the pioneers, the artists and writers, the tribal leaders, the entertainers, the social activists, and the modern ranchers and rodeo cowgirls.

California's first land grant recipient, Don Manuel Dominguez,1803-1882, received in 1782 the 75,000-acres Rancho San Pedro, later known as Dominguez Ranch. The area covered present-day Torrance, Carson, Redondo Beach, and the L.A. Harbor (all the way from the Los Angeles River to the Pacific Ocean). The Spanish governor rewarded Dominguez as a retiring Spanish soldier who became a prominent rancher and businessman. Photo courtesy www.museumoftheamericanwest.org and the Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum, dominguezrancho.com, Carson, CA.

Souvenir logo from the National Hall of Fame and Cowboy Museum. Photo courtesy National Hall of Fame and Cowboy Museum. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum(R) 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73111 (405) 478-2250

This half-plate daguerreotype, circa 1850, of New York editor Horace Greeley , as taken by Matthew B. Brady.

Best known for his directive, "Go West, young man," Greeley personified the ebullient spirit of American Republican politics in the 1850s in his hobnail boots, long coat, and stove-pipe hat.

This work is from an archive of over 300 Brady Studio daguerreotypes acquired by the Library in 1920. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Bose Ikard, 1847-1929, born a slave, rode for many years after he gained his freedom. Ikard served the Texas cattle barons Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. Novelist Larry McMurty turned their real-life adventures into the book, Lonesome Dove , which, in 1989, became a television miniseries. Danny Glover played Ikard as the character Joshua Deets.

Photo courtesy of Long Island University, B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library. "African-Americans and the Old West" appeared in an issue of C.W. Post Campus, www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/west/w est.htm#love

Flores La Due, 1883-1951, became a Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductee in 2001. The Cowgirl Hall of Fame explains La Due was "the only cowgirl to claim three world championships for trick and fancy roping." Flores was undefeated in that event.

Growing up on a Sioux reservation (in Alberta), she began her career with a wild west show and there met her husband, Guy Weadick. Together, they organized and produced the first Calgary Stampede along with operating a dude ranch and producing smaller rodeos. Flores is reputed to have been the first trick roper to perform the trick known as the Texas Skip.

		Levi Strauss, 1829-1902, invented the Blue Jean and created a Blue Jeans Empire. A former Jewish peddler who became a Gold Rush merchant, his 1873 creation was the garment of choice for Forty-Niners and cowboys.

		A Reno, Nevada, tailor named Jacob Davis designed heavy cotton work pants in 1870, hammering rivets onto the pocket corners to make them more durable. Davis proposed

a partnership with Levi Strauss & Co.

"The secret of them Pents," he wrote, "is the Rivits that I put in those Pockets and I found the demand so large that I cannot make them up fast enough."

Their "waist high overalls" quickly gained favor among the region's miners, teamsters, lumberjacks, and farmers. By the end of 1873, thousands of San Franciscans were wearing Strauss and Davis's pants.

Even today, Levi jeans remain a social phenomenon: a worldwide symbol of youth, independence, ruggedness, and freedom.

Photo and history courtesy of PBS, www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/strauss_hi.html.

Chief Charles Rich Washakie, 1798 (1804?)-1900 led the Flathead/Shoshoni and was also a well-respected artist.

On January 29, 1863, Army troops engaged and massacred about 400 Shoshones, including women and children, near the present-day town of Preston, Idaho. This massacre, one of the worst ever in the American west, created a wide-spread fear of the whites among the area Indians.

The land around Bear Lake was still the territory of Chief Washakie's people, and the Chief and Brigham Young had formed a relationship of mutual respect. With the lessening of Indian

tensions, Young settled in the Bear Lake Valley the next year.

Photo and history courtesy the Special Collections and Archives, Utah State University.

National Day of the Cowboy 2006 - Senate Resolution 371

Senator Craig Thomas-WY, introduced Senate Resolution 371 in the United States Senate on February 14, 2006. The resolution passed the Senate in April. Senate Resolution 371 had nineteen co-sponsoring Senators and passed unanimously, thus establishing the Second National Day of the Cowboy.

The National Day of the Cowboy organization is a nonprofit entity dedicated exclusively to contributing to the preservation of our Cowboy and Western heritage by bringing awareness to the National Day of the Cowboy as proclaimed in the United States Senate in 2005. Please visit www.nationaldayofthecowboy.com.

RESOLUTION

Designating July 23, 2005, as "National Day of the American Cowboy".

Whereas pioneering men and women, recognized as cowboys, helped establish the American West;

Whereas that cowboy spirit continues to infuse this country with its solid character, sound family values, and good common sense;

Whereas the cowboy embodies honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect, a strong work ethic, and patriotism;

Whereas the cowboy loves, lives off of, and depends on the land and its creatures, and is an excellent steward, protecting and enhancing the environment;

Whereas the cowboy continues to play a significant role in America's culture and economy;

Whereas approximately 800,000 ranchers are conducting business in all 50 of these United States and are contributing to the economic well being of nearly every county in the Nation;

Whereas rodeo is the sixth most-watched sport in America;

Whereas membership in rodeo and other organizations surrounding the livelihood of a cowboy transcends race and gender and spans every generation;

Whereas the cowboy is an American icon;

Whereas to recognize the American cowboy is to acknowledge America's ongoing commitment to an esteemed and enduring code of conduct; and

Whereas the ongoing contributions made by cowboys to their communities should be recognized and encouraged: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate--

(1) designates July 23, 2005, as "National Day of the American Cowboy"; and

(2) encourages the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

About the Author: M. Y. Mim is a free-lance journalist based in Santa Barbara, Ca. She may be reached at mymim3@cox.net, or through her agent R. Almqvist, 805-705-5349.