Clara Caufield: Ranching: A matter of sweat, blood and tears

Wednesday, February 19, 2020  

The Indian Great Plains is vast: Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Idaho and Utah. Tribal Governments there are generally not affluent, having few resources such as huge Casinos or manufacturing outfits to bring in mega bucks, although some have highly coveted water resources.

What they have is grass supporting cattle, horses and wildlife. Thus, ranchers are the backbone of those tribal economies leasing grass from the Tribes and individual landowners. At Northern Cheyenne, for example, annual grazing fees make up the vast part of ‘general fund monies’, the rest being Federal or State grants, highly restricted.

Most ranchers there are tribal members now third and even fourth generation. It takes time, sweat, blood and tears, occasional good luck and surviving bad luck. Many got started in the early Reservation era when government encouraged Indians to become farmers. While that was not appealing, many tribal members quickly took to ranching, raising cattle, and especially good horses, a trait they are still well known for today. They have, by sheer will and love of the lifestyle, hung on through both the good and bad years. Others did not.

One of my best friends is a lady rancher, Chris –a tall, well sun-tanned white lass, cowgirl to the bone. Born and raised at “Rotten Grass,” very remote in the mountains of the Crow Reservation to a hard scrabble ranching family, she was seriously tutored by her father and several older brothers about cowboying. Until the first grade, she thought she was a Crow! So, did they. Not much difference – all poor.

As a young woman, Chris ventured off the reservation: Big Horn County deputy sheriff, secretarial school and then Washington, D.C. working for the Pentagon. That lifestyle did not suit, so she returned, meeting and marrying the love of her life, Butch Small, bulldogger, roper and ‘full-of-himself’ kind of feller. The perfect ticket and apparently a good match as they now go on 50 married years. Butch is a hard scrabble Cheyenne rancher on Kirby Creek, where she has been his partner and will now no doubt die in the saddle there – a pretty good way to go, she thinks. And now, many Cheyenne think that Chris is one of us, lobbying her for votes when running for Council.

Some people believe ranchers have the life of Reilly, no doubt because they drive big 4-wheel drive pickups, ride nice horses with good saddles, wear 10X Stetsons and expensive boots. Those are just necessary tools of the trade, and except for the hat and boots, everything else is generally mortgaged to the hilt.

Thus, I get a kick out of hearing the daily adventures of Chris, 71, but still cowgirling. Butch, Vietnam Vet, suffers serious health problems, still game, but when it comes to saddling up to get those ‘darned’ bulls back where they belong, or contortionist to clean out the swather after a hot day of haying, it now falls to Chris, who regularly gets herself into some kind of "fix’. She sees the humor in it – an absolutely essential attitude for ranchers.

“The feeder pickup never breaks down in the summer,” she recently laughed, “but yesterday, the 4-wheel drive went out.”

Clara Caufield can be reached at acheyennevoice@gmail.com

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today