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Sakakawea: A Good and Best Woman
Published in The Cowboy Chronicle, July 2021, Volume 25 Issue 4 Much of what we accept as historical fact is often interpretation and legend created from a few known and recorded truths. It is frequently difficult to separate fact from fiction for many of the famous historical figures in our western heritage. The passing of one such person on December 20, 1812, was sadly noted by clerk John Luttig at Fort Manuel, a short lived (1812-1813) fur trading outpost along the Missouri River in what is now South Dakota. He wrote, “This evening, the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake squaw died of putrid fever. She was a good and best…
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The Cowboy Doctor
Printed in North Dakota Horizons Magazine Winter 2020 https://www.ndhorizons.com/articles/88/the-cowboy-doctor.aspx On a warm day in late July 1927, all of Dickinson shut down. Stores and businesses were empty, their doors closed. There was no heart to carry on business as usual. Crowding the cemetery people were saying goodbye to their beloved “Cowboy Doctor.” He didn’t just heal and console, he was a friend to almost every family in the region. He was remembered with overwhelming gratitude for his gift of love and 44 years of dedicated service to the people he came to cherish. The “Cowboy Doctor,” Victor Hugo Stickney, was born April 13, 1855. He was raised on the family…
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Returning Home: the Tragedy and Triumph of the Great American Buffalo
Published in: The Cowboy Chronicle Volume 24 Issue 6 November 2020 Publication of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame With profound joy and a great sense of a spiritual connection they watched the animals step out of the trucks and onto Tribal lands once again, greeting them with traditional welcoming ceremonies. The buffalo and their way of life had been gone for generations, but the longing remained in the people’s souls. The relationship between the buffalo and native people is deep, personal, and ethereal. While the stories and sacred ceremonies had been retained, the youth could not completely understand the kindred relationship because they had not been able to…
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North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Podcast
I was interviewed by Bill Palanuk, Media Director at the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, after my article- “Little Misery”: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Badlands Town, was published. This aired on October 21, 2020 North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Any time you pick up an issue of The Cowboy Chronicles newsletter, you have undoubtedly read articles written by Mary Pat Martell Jones. Mary’s passion for history is very evident in her articles and also on her fabulous website writinforthebrand.com which is maintained by her son Michael which she greatly appreciates.We’ll get to know Mary just a bit better today here on Cowboy Chronicles – The…
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“Little Misery”: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Badlands Town
Published in the Cowboy Chronicle Publication of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Volume 24 Issue 5 Newspapers from New York to Paris and London in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s were abuzz about the Dakota cattle boom on the northern plains of America. Books, such as James Brisbin’s The Beef Bonanza or How to get Rich on the Plains (1871) and Trans Missouri Stock Raising; the Pasture Lands of North America by Hiram Latham ( 1881), fueled the excitement for the expanding cattle industry. In 1879 The Bismarck Tribune proclaimed that that western North Dakota possessed “the best grazing lands in the world”. A writer for the…
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Just a Bit About the Bit
A good relationship between the horse and his rider is all about communication. A horse can sense fear, anger and competence, and will react accordingly. However, a good ride whether for work or pleasure, requires effective communication between the horse and rider. Since ancient times the bit, in one form or another, has been the instrument to help send these messages. The horse is the only animal we control by putting something inside their mouth. The ancient man’s experience of controlling a pack or riding animal before the domestication of the horse, was by various forms of nose pressure. This method would not work for the equine as its…
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North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Celebrates Twenty-five Years
The North Dakota Horizons magazine published a shorter version of “Sentinel on the Prairie” in their Summer 2020 edition and online. https://www.ndhorizons.com/articles/86/north-dakota-cowboy-hall-of-fame-celebrates-25-years.aspx The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of fame is celebrating its 25th anniversary. One man’s dream of preserving the stories and character of the state’s forebears has become a renowned center of western culture. Phil Baird thought about this for a long time. So many stories and moments were passing through time, drifting like the wind across the prairies. Countless hours were spent embracing all the memories and history he could. He hated the thought these stories would be lost to time. Those moments wove together the fabric of…
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Sentinel on the Prairie: Celebrating Twenty-five Years of the Preservation and Protection of North Dakota History
He had been thinking about this for a while now. So many stories and moments, friendships and connections were passing through time. They drifted like the wind across the prairies, and he hated the thought they could all be lost. Countless hours were spent visiting with folks and embracing all the memories and history he could. The stories they told may not have been notable markers in history, but they embodied the character and the essence of the generations. These moments in time woven together were the fabric of America’s western history and an important part of a great national epic. Those who built North Dakota, who dreamed, sacrificed and…
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Rex
Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent, there is nothing so quick, nothing more patient. England’s past has been borne on his back. All history is his industry; we are his heirs, he our inheritance. The Horse, poem by Ronald Duncan Rex was indeed noble; in stature and disposition, but he was not haughty or conceited. He knew without fail what to do, how to do it, was willing and…
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Branding Across Time
When thinking of the American West the image of a laconic individual with the requisite boots, chaps, and hat comes to mind. We envision him on long cattle drives, riding along miles and miles of fences or on a great roundup. In our minds we can see the cowboy chasing down a hapless calf, roping and wrestling it to the ground by a campfire with branding irons in the flames. Another cowboy grabs it and burns the owners mark on its hip. It’s all part of the mystique of the cowboy, some of it romanticized in art and the movies; all of it based on reality and much of it…
