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In "Cowboy dreams" posted on the Guardian Unlimited website, June 11, 2004, Philip James writes, "When Ronald Reagan declared the Soviet Union an "evil empire", it was a dramatic, grand gesture. Finally a US president introduced moral clarity to the cold war, after decades of accommodation and stalemate. But he did not follow by preparing to invade East Germany. Reagan may have sounded like a cowboy, but he acted like a diplomat. Dispatching George Shultz to Moscow countless times was the embodiment of the doctrine 'walk softly and carry a big stick'...The pretender to Reagan's legacy sounded like a cowboy when he lashed out at the 'axis of evil' in his 2002 state of the union address and then proceeded to act like one. He had been preparing for war for two years before he made the speech." |
| Cabinet photograph Connor Boys Unknown photographer, ca. 1900 1995.039.08 Gift of William N. Pirtle |
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| Allison Fuss Mellis in her 2003 book, Riding Buffaloes and Broncs: Rodeo and Native Traditions in the Northern Great Plains, writes, "After 1889, the various bands of Lakotas that settled on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation forged a new collective identity as Cheyenne River Sioux. For many this new identity came to include a sense of themselves as cowboys...By this time [1900], many Lakotas had already begun to forge a new Indian identity as both Cheyenne River Sioux and cattle ranchers, because they chose to keep working as cowboys on both remaining tribal and recently sold non-Indian ranches." | 
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| From Ann Nolan Clark's
The Singing Sioux Cowboy Reader, 1954: "lak'ota pte'ole hoksila hemaca....sunk' akanyanka mak'oc'e o'unyanpi ekta omawani." translated "I am a Sioux cowboy....I ride the range." |
Photographic postcard Two Lakota Sioux working cowboys Unknown photographer, ca. 1918 1998.023.1 Purchase by Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center |
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Rufus S. Zogbaum in his article, "A Day's 'Drive' with Montana Cowboys," appearing in the July 1885 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, wrote, "A picturesque, hardy lot of fellows, these wild 'cowboys' as they sit on the ground by the fire, each man with his can of coffee, his fragrant slice of fried bacon on the point of his knife-blade, or sandwiched in between two great hunks of bread, rapidly disappearing before the onslaughts of appetites made keen by the pure, invigorating breezes on these high plains. See that brawny fellow with the crisp, tight-curling yellow hair growing low down on the nape of his massive neck rising straight and supple from the low collar of his loose flannel shirt, his sun-browned face with the piercing gray eyes looking out from under the broad brim of his hat..." |
| Carte de visite Studio portrait of an unidentified cowboy Joseph M. Collier, Denver, Colorado, ca. 1882 2000.064.6 Gift of John H. Thillmann |
At the Back Fence "So Many Cowboy...So Little Rope" posted on www.likesbooks.com, Issue #93 (April 15, 2000): "Whoa, there. Maybe it's time to wake up and smell the manure. What are 'real' cowboys like? 'More Gabby Hayes than John Wayne,' says Harlequin author Julie Kistler (who'd rather write about men in tuxedoes than men in chaps), bringing to mind a scruffy, bewhiskered, bowlegged, tobacco-chewing cow puncher with bad skin, bad teeth and creaky arthritic joints. Not a character we'll see on the cover of a romance novel any time soon!" |
| Many historians agree that the myth, legend and heroic concepts of the cowboy have their origins in the years of the open range cattle industry during the last part of the 19th century, more specifically the years from 1865 to 1895. It is estimated that six to nine million head of cattle were driven by cowboys from Texas to Kansas between 1867 and 1886. Most of these cowboys were in their twenties. Lonn Taylor wrote in his 1983 book, The American Cowboy, "Cowboying was not an old man's job, or even a middle-aged man's job, and ten years of hard riding was about all the human body could take.... Cowboying was almost exclusively the work of one generation: the children who were born just before the Civil War, grew to maturity in the Reconstruction South, and entered manhood in the 1870s and 1880s." |  |
| Cabinet photograph Group of nine cowboys in studio Photographer unknown, ca. 1880 2000.064.7 Gift of John H. Thillmann |
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In an excerpt from her 2003 Rough Rider in the White House: Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Desire, Sarah Watts writes, "In 1885, returning East after a bighorn hunting trip to Montana, Roosevelt had another studio photo made. This time he appeared as a self-consciously overdressed yet recognizable Western cowboy posed as bold and determined, armed and ready for action. ‘You would be amused to see me,' he wrote to Henry Cabot Lodge in 1884, in my ‘broad sombrero hat, fringed and beaded buckskin shirt, horse hide chaparajos or riding trousers, and cowhide boots, with braided bridle and silver spurs.' To his sister Bamie, he boasted, ‘I now look like a regular cowboy dandy, with all my equipments finished in the most expensive style.'" |
| Tintype Unidentified pair of cowboys in studio Photographer unknown, ca. 1882 2000.064.8 Gift of John H. Thillmann |
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| In describing cowboy characteristics, Alfred M. Williams in an article entitled "An Indian Cattle-Town" appearing in the February 1884 issue of Lippincott's Magazine wrote, "It is needless to say that they are all hardy, bronzed by the sun to a deep red unless nature has given a darker pigment to their skin, keen-eyed, and of the free and reckless carriage natural to their manner of life, long-haired flaphatted, and dressed in the rough-and-ready garments of the frontier. Not infrequently there is a border-dandy among them, who is as punctilious in regard to his dress and accoutrements as a fashionable exquisite, and quite conscious of the elements of picturesqueness in his appearance. Such a one will show a set of white teeth through his moustache, and will very probably carry a toothbrush in his bootleg, while his locks are carefully oiled and his slouched hat is set on at an accurate angle." |  |
| Cabinet photograph Unidentified cowboy sitting in studio chair J. Serdinko, Fargo, Dakota Territory, ca. 1890 2001.073 Purchase by Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center |
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In the May 17, 1901 Arapaho Bee, "LYNCHED. A Free Grass Mob Hangs Herd Law Man. Mr. J. L. Chandler, a resident of Ioland, Day county, was taken from his home by a posse of cattlemen and hanged. The lynching party was composed of Day county cattlemen. There has been trouble between the farmers and cattlemen of for some time. During the past few weeks the trouble has been growing graver and many cattle have died of poisoned water. Mr. Chandler was suspected of being one of the party who has been poisoning the water and he was lynched as a warning to others...This is the first lynching that has occurred in Oklahoma since its organization as a territory...The lynching of this man at Ioland will probably mould sentiment very rapidly against free grass and we can look for those in authority to say a man's farm is his own and if you want his grass or anything else on that farm go and get it from the owner." |
| Cabinet photograph Five unidentified cowboys on horses associated with the Benton Ranch Photographer unknown, McCoy, Colorado, ca. 1914 2001.087.09 Purchase by Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center |
Andrew Bernstein in his article "In Defense of the Cowboy" in the February 26, 2003 Ayn Rand Institute's MediaLink writes that those opposing the war with Iraq believe America "is acting like a 'cowboy.'" He writes that a New York Times article explained that "to some Europeans the 'major problem is Bush the cowboy.'..U.S. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut agrees, stating that America must not 'act like a unilateral cowboy'...But to most Americans, the cowboy is not a villain but a hero. What we honor about the cowboy of the Old West is his willingness to stand up to evil and to do it alone, if necessary. The cowboy is a symbol of the crucial virtues of courage and independence." |
| In the Texas Live Stock Journal of October 14, 1882 an article entitled, "The Cowboy" describes the cowboy: "In the use of the lasso and profane language the cowboy has no equal. He can rope a steer, throwing the noose on either foot of the animal as it runs at full speed, at the same time showing a choice in the matter of selecting appropriate anathemas, which he can deliver equally well, either in Mexican or United States language." |  |
| The October 7, 1872 Denver Daily Times reported, "A herder near Pueblo, named Albert Jones, a few nights ago, became sleepy and tied himself on his horse with his lariat. He was found dead, having been dragged and jumped over the prairie for a long distance." | Stereograph Cowboy, Broncho Corral and Camps, Banks of the Yellowstone, Montana Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1934 [ca. 1890] 2002.018 Purchase by Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center |
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From the Trinidad Weekly News, March 12, 1886 in an article titled, "Facts for Would-Be-Cowboys," the author explains to those thinking of "trying a season's riding" that "Your 'outfit,' or bed, clothing and equipments, will cost you half your earnings and if you smoke freely and do not try to save money, the end of the season will leave you neither richer or poorer. You will often have a wet bed and thank Heaven for getting to it wet as it is; you will eat coarse food, everything fried in lard; you will be in saddle from 12 to 18 hours a day; you will often suffer for the want of food and water during a long day's work in the hot sun; you will expose yourself to some peril of life and more of limb;...you will vow three times a day that when you strike the ranch again you will quit; you will be sore and bruised, cold at night scorched by day; wet to the skin one hour and parched with thirst the next; and for the rest of your life you will look back to your life on the range with longing thoughts of its charms." |
| Stereograph Riding the Range - Cowboy in Wyoming Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1934 [ca. 1890] 2002.065 Purchase by Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center |
The Cattlemen's Advertiser of Trinidad, Colorado, reported on December 2, 1886, "A cowboy named Baker, herding near Bozeman, Montana,...conceived the idea of running a race with a freight train just passing. Putting spurs to his bronco he caught up with the flying cars, and for awhile the race was an even one. While galloping along side the train, by a sudden lurch the horse and rider were thrown against the cars with fatal results. The poor horse was instantly killed. The cowboy also." |
| From Harry E. Chrisman's 1982 book, The 1,001 Most-Asked Questions About the American West: "The originals [cowboys] were basically herdsmen, with a loyalty first to the animal they tended, second to the boss who paid them, and last to themselves and their best fortune...They smelled of cow and horse dung, and seldom bathed. They wore beards that easily became nests for lice, fleas, or other vermin and provided secure foci of infection for barber's itch. Their underclothes were changed periodically, spring and winter, and were washed when occasion permitted. They also wore the burns and scars from the sun's rays and the blisters from the cold as we today wear our pallid complexions from indoor work throughout the changing seasons." |  |
| From parentcompany.com
as part of "A Science Kit about Design": Section 1: Design in Nature: Predation and Defense: "The cowboy fungus. An earthy example of intelligent and purposeful design in living creatures is that of the predatory molds. There are many species of soil mold which capture and feed upon the tiny, exceedingly numerous nematode worms which inhabit the soil. Some of these molds grow sticky knobs with which they entrap the worms. But the star predatory mold species is Arthrobotrys dactryloides, which lassos its prey like a cowboy lassos steers. It is only when nematodes are present in the soil that this mold grows tiny loops, each one formed of three cells. When a worm chances to stick its neck into one of the loops, within one-tenth of a second the loop cells swell and the loop clamps shut on the worm, strangling it. The worm is then digested at leisure. The cowboy fungus has struck again!" |
Cabinet photograph Log cabin and New Mexico cowboys on the Gila Unknown photographer, New Mexico, ca. 1890 2002.165 Purchase by Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center |
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