Rebecca Scofield - Outriders: Rodeo at the Fringes of the American West

OUTRIDERS

RODEO at the FRINGES of the AMERICAN WEST

REBECCA SCOFIELD

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS

Seattle

Outriders was made possible in part by a grant from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University

Copyright 2019 by Rebecca Scofield

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Design by Katrina Noble

Composed in Minion, typeface designed by Robert Slimbach

23 22 21 20 19 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS

uwapress.uw.edu

Chapter 2 is a revised version of Rebecca Scofield, Violence and Social Salvation at the Texas Prison Rodeo, Journal of American Studies , September 27, 2018, doi.org/10.1017/S0021875818001305. Courtesy of Cambridge University Press. Copyright: Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2018.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Scofield, Rebecca, author.

Title: Outriders : rodeo at the fringes of the American West / Rebecca Scofield.

Description: Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2019001684 (print) | LCCN 2019011459 (ebook) | ISBN 9780295746050 (ebook) | ISBN 9780295746067 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH : RodeosSocial aspectsWest (U.S.)History20th century. | Rodeo performersWest (U.S.)History20th century. | CowboysWest (U.S.)History20th century. | CowgirlsWest (U.S.)History20th century. | MinoritiesWest (U.S.)History20th century. | West (U.S.)Social conditions20th century.

Classification: LCC GV1834.55.W47 (ebook) | LCC GV1834.55.W47 S36 2019 (print) | DDC 791.8dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019001684

The paper used in this publication is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI z39.481984.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A community created this book. In order to finish this work, I needed succor from mentors, family, and friends. I express my deepest gratitude to Robin Bernstein, Andrew Jewett, Rachel St. John, and Susan Greenhalgh, each of whom provided unwavering support. Without each of you, I would have foundered before I had even begun. To my cohort and their partners, thank you for becoming my family. John Bell, Carla Cevasco, Chris Allison, and Dan Farbman, you are amazing colleagues and even better friends. Remember: Its gonna alright. Andrew Pope, Amy Fish, Maggie Gates, Aaron Hatley, Mike King, Julie Miller, Charles Petersen, Theresa McCulla, Jennifer Ryan, Adam Sowards, Alyson Roy, and so many more, thank you for your editing abilities, particularly your unflinching grammar correction. Chris Hanson, thanks for always calling. My family, I would not have done any of this without you. To my parents, Clay and Margie, thank you for teaching me how to find adventure, both in books and in the world. And for giving me my own sense of roots to analyze. John, thank you for always listeningI hope I provide you even an ounce of the love, support, and laughter you give me. You are truly the reason I have the luxury of thinking and talking for a living. Here is to another five and a movie. My children, thanks for hurrying me along on this project.

This work has also depended on a great deal of institutional support. I would like to thank the Jacob K. Javits Foundation for four years of financial assistance during the development of this book. This project has also been sustained through grants from the Charles Warren Center for the Study of American History; Harvards Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; the Autry Museum of the American West; Harvards Gay and Lesbian Caucus (The Open Gate); the Center for American Political Studies; the University of Idaho; and others.

Likewise, I could not have conducted my research without the untiring aid of the dedicated archivists. The entire staff at the Autry Museum of the American West deserves my appreciation for their unfailing aid, particularly Marva Felchlin and Belinda Nakasato. In addition, this research would not have been possible without the work of Gregory Hinton, Frank Harrell, Patrick Terry, Roger Bergmann, Brian Helander, and all the people involved with the International Gay Rodeo Association. Thank you to all the archivists working at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, the Okfuskee County Historical Society and Museum, and the town of Boley. I hope that this work stands as an ode to your dedication to history. Lastly, I would like to thank my UW Press reviewers for their insightful comments, my editor, Larin McLaughlin, who pushed me to continue improving and polishing, and my copyeditor, Sue Carter, who got me my edits before I delivered my second child, instead of after. Those days mattered.

Introduction

Rodeo and the Outriders of History

Rodeo is violent, painful theater. In the arena, human beings undertake a series of competitions against and with animals. Speed, dexterity, and strength are all necessary to control another living creature. A tiny mistakea finger misplaced between a saddle horn and a lasso or the over-rotation of a shoulder during a bull ridecan result in financial devastation, permanent injury, or even death. A rider who does not win will not be paid. Money, however, continues to be only part of the stakes. Combining sport and theater, rodeo is both athletic entertainment and the enactment of an imagined past. Often, especially for amateur or hobby riders, the stakes are and have been dignity, respect, and inclusion.

Outriders: Rodeo at the Fringes of the American West chronicles the efforts of several communities at the edges of rodeo to use popular performance to assert their definitions of western, masculine, and American. Examining female bronc riders in the 1910s and 1920s, convict cowboys in the mid-twentieth century, all-black western performance in the 1960s and 1970s, and gay rodeoers in the late century, Outriders illustrates that people who were cast out of popular western mythology and often marginalized from mainstream American life found belonging and meaning at the rodeo, demanding their right to grapple with the symbol of the cowboy in their own lives. As the cowboy has waxed and waned as an icon of national belonging, many communities have staked their claims to national inclusion through performance. These groups challenged the restrictive meaning of the cowboy while also furthering the idea of an authentic western identity.

Rodney Goings at the 1960 Cody Stampede in Wyoming demonstrated the danger of junior bull riding. Uninjured, the youth would lose that days go-round to a female competitor, Kathy Harper, but his photograph captured national attention. The Big Fall , 1960. Photograph by G. C. Kip Hinton, courtesy of Gregory Hinton.