'Jackson Sundown'

Perhaps it might happen, a long dream that I or someone else, would write a book about "Jackson Sundown." A lady from Cody, Wyo., is scheduled to visit this week for help in doing that work. Have talked to her on the phone and she seems sincere and competent.

When I was growing up in the 1930s world of cowboys and Indians, there was white prejudice against our red brothers. On the Flathead Reservation, my grandparents were homestead ranchers, so interest in horses was a vital part of life. By age 10 I knew the names of famous bucking horses and the men who rode them. In spite of existing prejudices, when professional cowboys like my uncle, "Hughie", talked about Jackson Sundown, there was respect to the point of awe.

His real name was Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn, which in Nez Perce means "Earth Left by the Setting Sun." I've spent hundreds of hours researching his unbelievable life. To find if the stories were real, made trips to Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Purchased rare old books, interviewed descendants of people who knew him. Found a personal letter he had written and original photos taken the day he won the World Championship at Pendleton. Flew to Denver to study one of finest statues of him which stands in front of the Colorado State Capitol building.

It is strange! Nobody seems to remember Sundown except for a few western history nuts like me. For reasons unknown, some descendents on the Flathead Reservation wouldn't talk to me. Twenty years ago, while of one of his daughters was still alive in her 90s, I was kept from visiting her. On the Nez Perce Reservation at Lapwai, Idaho, all my inquires were stonewalled. I eventually found an old Nez Perce buddy from army days who helped me find Sundown's grave. Used my axe and cut away decades of brush and weeds to read the plaque.

Jackson was probably born around 1863, a nephew of Chief Joseph. He was painfully burned when the U.S. Calvary torched the teepee where he was sleeping during the ambush at The Big Hole, August 9, 1877. Joseph's followers were on their 1,300 mile death march fleeing the Idaho battle at White Bird Pass. When Joseph surrendered to General Miles in the Bears Paw of Montana that September, Sundown escaped with rifle wounds and made his way to Sitting Bull's Sioux camp in Canada.

After two years he stealthily rode to Nespelem, Wash., where Joseph and his surviving followers were confined to a small reservation away from their beloved hills of Wallowa. Joseph warned him not to go there so Sundown went to the Flathead Reservation, trained horses, married a Salish woman and raised two daughters. In 1910 he risked returning to the Nez Perce Reservation established for Chief Lawyer and his followers who where not involved at White Bird.

On dares during a rodeo at Culdesac, Idaho, Sundown rode a notorious bronc, did a standing dismount and them calmly dusted off his blue serge suit. His rep for riding skill spread like wildfire. White cowboys would not enter rodeos if he was riding and he was cheated from winning at the big shows like Calgary and Pendleton.

In 1914 his regal bearing and presence attracted America's most famous sculptor, Alexander Phimster Proctor, who hired him to pose for many statues including one for Stanford University, the RCA Building in New York, as well as the heroic Colorado Capital piece. He also met a noted British writer, Charles W. Furlong, who wrote that Sundown was, "A sight for the Gods. Long braids of crow-black hair tied in front looped and wafted against cinnamon brown cheeks of the rider: his colored shirt and kerchief flattening and billowing against his muscle-articulated torso to the movements of the wind…."

At age 53, a discouraged Jackson said he was through with competitive riding where he was not judged fairly, but Proctor talked him into "one more" and paid entry fees for the 1916 Pendleton Roundup. His rides there are still called the most exciting and unbelievable in rodeo history. Jackson Sundown became the oldest cowboy ever to win The World Championship. The crowd threw money into the arena, roaring "Sundown-Sundown-Sundown."

Sure hope that lady from Cody … writes the book.

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national-award winning Hungry Horse News columnist.