Charlie Colombe Keynote Address

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Charlie Colombe Keynote Address, National Cowboy Poetry Gathering 1995 Page 2 of 2

that best leaves said those things by other people. We also have another thing that wedeal with many times, and it translates into, The bird that flies gets shot. And that

means if you rise very high, look out.

[audience laughs]

I think that will tell you more about me than you need to know.

[audience laughs]

I grew up on a reservation in South Dakota, and thats back when they said thenickel was big as a wagon wheel, but we didnt have either, so I couldnt measure that.

But we did have horses, and we had a strong tradition, and I knew about my great-grandfather and his involvement with horses, and wealth was measured by how many

horses you had, and what kind of person you were was measured by how much you couldgive away. Now that sounds a little strange.

In coming into this century, Indian cowboys have, have been measured manytimes by that. Were basically caught in a time when business and good business says

you save everything you can. And yet were pulled back by our people, and they say,Give it away. Thats how you become the, the right kind of person. So its been a

struggle for us. And I may be talking too serious about some things, but I think knowingthat about me is important, and another thing I want to clarify: because this is, as I see it,

an honoring for we Indians, and its certainly a great honor that you would pick ourtheme. But youve all had an accountant write on the bottom of his report, maybe on his

compilation, that this represents the views of what he saw, or youll a its kind of adisclaimer. I dont what you to leave here today thinking that Im speaking for all

Indians, because Im not. Ill just tell you a little about my experience with my friendsand neighbors, and theres many, many tribes of Indians, and a lot of us have a different,

we have different languages, we have different backgrounds, we have differentinvolvements and experiences.

But in Sioux country, its always been real simple. You can be an Indian cowboy,and thats greater than being a jet pilot or going to West Point, so its easy for me to

speak about those people.As I was saying, when I was a youngster, it was just automatic that I was going to

be a cowboy. My grandfather raised many horses, my grandmothers brother was killedon a, a saddle bronc at an Indian rodeo or a rodeo on the reservation, and I always

heard of that. And there was a, that was a single most important thing to me growing up.And we Indians that grew up like that, we were the lucky ones. We didnt have to worry

about anything else. We didnt have to worry about getting rich, we didnt have to worryabout owning any big ranches, we didnt have to worry about going to school much. As

long as you learned how to ride them broncs, you were somebody. And I think theIndians and the cowboys they, they joined hands many years ago, and the true western

people, you know, we crossed the lines many times between Indian and Cowboy. Lately,we see a lot of the Indian motif clothing that people are wearing wherever we go. We see

a lot of the movies that are made, and some of them now are even you know, thewheels go the ride way on the stage coaches and the


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[audience laughs]

-- and theyre, theyre portraying some Indians, strangely enough, as we told them we

were.

But getting back to Indians, horses, cowboys, we, I guess the only cows we knewabout were buffalo cows and we, we dealt with those, and, and we treated them withgreat respect, but from the and this is in our part of the country which was, you know,

traditionally a buffalo society, if you will. And of course, again, different Indians livedifferent ways. I, I think Indian folks on the west coast probably had a different staple.

But anyway, growing up as I did, and watching my friends and relatives trade horses andoccasionally get the best of each other and talk about the, the broncs they rode, and

sometimes we even talked about the ones we were going to but we usually had a few ofthe spirits in us, when that was, when that was happening. But thats not so much

different than all cowboys.I think something thats important for me for you to know is the values that we

live by in our, our part of Indian country, and maybe the most important one there is, iscourage. And it takes a lot of courage at times to pick yourself up off the ground and

walk back to the, the chutes amongst your friends and sometimes you can barely walk,you know, but its important to get up and do that. Anyway, it, it replaced for us some of

those things that we gave up when we gave up this great land. And were but the factthat it was for us, a test of courage made it a great thing for us. We didnt have to go out

and drive cars fast or we didnt have to make a lot of money, we didnt have to get As inschool. In fact, we didnt look at those things as being very important. Those were

things for our, we call them, white counterpart, or really they might just be our neighbordown the road who would not share the same ideas as us, but still be a cowboy and a

friend and all those things, they were our white neighbors. And we, we still have a lot ofthat thats in us, those values. Those, I hope, we never give up.

And it brought other things out in us. And Ive always kind of envied for yearsI did, I guess Im fifty-seven years old now and probably until I was fifty I envied the

non-Indian at times. And one of the things I envied him about was he could go to churchfor an hour on Sunday and the rest of the time he got to do what he wanted to do.

[audience laughs]

And I thought, That lucky rascal. Why did God give us a church, you know, that was

the whole outdoors? We cant get away from it. And you, you never heard anybody tella lie in church, and nobody ever really does a real shaky business deal in church, but here

we are were stuck with this great outdoors that we think is our church. Son of a gun seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day it just is crushing down on you. You cant

go over here for an hour and kind of get rid of it, you got to just live it all the time.So anyway, I, I stayed true to my, my values, and lo and behold, Ive been so

lucky, just so terribly lucky. Ive, sometimes I say Ive got all the friends I can afford.

[audience laughs]


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And I get a kick out of that, I suppose we all do. But I got a great family, and recently, Igot a grandson, and I could talk about him, but I told someone about my grandson or I

asked someone the other day, we were visiting and we were both in a big hurry. And Isaid, By the way, did I tell you about my grandson? And he said, No, and thank you.

[audience laughs]

I really got a kick out of that guy. And it was about ten feet away before it hit me, you

know how that works. Anyway, getting back to the, the subject here about Indiancowboys, if you understand how important our values are to us, then its real easy to

understand that being a cowboy which is a name maybe for a bucking horse rider or ahorse rider, even though we, you know, we didnt have cows, or didnt pen them up much

or brand them and all the things that we now do it gave us such an out to be aroundthose horses and for years I traveled and I might have been kidding a little bit about,

about having to worry about our church being out there. Its always been real easy forme. I thought I better clear that up.

[audience laughs]

Anyway, it did so much for us, having a horse. And it goes back to that, that

spiritual side of us which translates into really who we are. And growing up aroundcowboys, the things that were important to me always seemed to be important to them for

the most part. Yes, some of them went on to become businessmen, one of them that Iknew since I was probably seventeen or eighteen was Sean Davis, he went on to teach

and head up a, a horse program at the College of Southern Idaho. And now he producesthe National Finals, and Sean is still the same, still the same values. And, so over here is

an Indian on this side who opened a brand new casino yesterday thats me on myreservation, and over there is Sean Davis whos still teaching. You know, we almost

crossed each others bridges. And I, Ill call Sean up in a few days and tell him I washere.

But anyway, the difference between what we as Indians have become as cowboysis not a lot, a lot different than I think the cowboys that grow up on ranches and want to

go to rodeos and do those things. We have used riding bucking horses, roping,bulldogging, etc, as a test of ourselves. I dont think the moneys ever been important to

us. But it replaced something that we gave up when we used to go fight Hanks people,you know, for practice

[audience laughs]

-- and see how good each of us were, and it, it really took the place of that. And now, out

of all the things we gave up traditionally and spiritually and culturally, the one thingthats, weve replaced it with is being a cowboy. The one thing that I really like that

weve replaced it with. And an old friend of mine the other day, an old man on thereservation told me, he said, Charlie, its not what we gave up thats hurting us. And

he was looking out across, you know, a pretty poverty-stricken, desolate, area. He said,Its what we replaced it with. And that old man, he taught me something.


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I hope, when you think about us Indians again, Im just one speaking, you know,and dont judge the others by how bad I can be or anything like that. And even for my

own tribe where theres eighteen thousand of us who live together, again, I only speak asone person. And thats important, only to me from a cultural level.

Getting back to the, to the cowboy aspect of it if you understand that it was a

test of manhood, if you will. And it became so important to ride those broncs, and Iremember when I was young, it was just automatic. I think it was probably because wedidnt have money to go to the barber, my hair got about this long by the time I was and

every once in a while wed whack it off if our knife was sharp, and it was kind of funny.My first trek off of the reservation, I was about seventeen years old and somebody said,

That boy can ride. And all we did was ride, you know, so I, I sure had better be able toride.

[audience laughs]

I mean, thats how we got to school, thats how we made five dollars for breaking a horse

to ride, thats all we did. So, you know, it wasnt any shock to me. It certainly wasnt ashock to my dad, and he didnt think I could ride he expected me to ride better.

But anyway, they took me to the Cheyenne Frontier Days and they had what theycalled the amateur bronc riding, or novice bronc riding. And my hair, like I said was

about this long and I, I didnt know the difference, you know. I didnt know you shouldhave it kind of buzzed up and, and maybe dress a certain way, but other than that there

wasnt much wrong with me.

[audience laughs]

And I won second in the first round. And I remember a friend of mine from NorthDakota, he was a top flight bronc rider. In fact, there was two brothers and a couple of

their neighbors, who were just knocking on the door all the time of the WorldsChampion, and thats how I got there, they took me down there. And this friend of mine,

he said, Charlie, if you get a haircut, he said, you can win this thing.

[audience laughs]

And by the time I got paid for the second round, and Id would have went and got one,believe me. I won second in the second round. And that was, I remember, it was three

hundred and seventy-eight dollars. You cant believe how much money that was. It justa phenomenal amount of money, especially when youre hitchhiking and doing your own

clothes and sleeping in the park, or maybe a stock contractors truck.But from that I learned a lot. And some people say I dont look like an Indian

very much. But I, I have little tiny eagle feathers here, and since that date, travelingaround to Indian rodeos and I went to some big pro rodeos and got to visit a lot of great

places, and rode in the Houston Astrodome, and met a ton of good people. And all ofthat from an Indian boy who, when they I remember the first time I ordered a

hamburger. These guys were hauling me and they, they were over there visiting withsome more cowboys and they didnt bring the catsup, and I was sixteen or seventeen


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years old, and I was too bashful to ask for the catsup. Can you imagine that? And here Iam.

[audience laughs]

Isnt that crazy, huh?But it, its really been fun. And I wont tell you I was a great bronc rider. Heck, Ionly remember the ones I couldnt ride. You know, once in a while someone will jar my

memory and tell me about a good one I did ride, but I never cared about being measuredout there in that, what they call the Big Apple. I went to some big rodeos, but sometimes

Id just go home. And over the years Ive watched that. I mean, I might have someguys said, Charlie, you can go to the NFR. I knew it. You know, it wasnt important.

The thing that was important was being able to beat those rascals at home. You know,that was my world. Small as it may seem, and in Indian country, Indian cowboys yet

today, are like that. And people say why dont they go travel? We, we at home know.A few years ago there was a young bronc rider named Howard Hunter, who went

to the NFR, and he was just absolutely great. And we put on a school, and I got myfriend Sean Davis to come back and help me put this school on. In fact, it took me

twenty-some years to pay him. He came as a friend and two years ago I sent him tworace horse mares. Finally, I got Sean paid.

[audience laughs]

But here was this Howard Hunter, and he could just ride. I mean, you know, its, he rode

so well, it was kind of a shock. When he was eighteen he could just beat us all.Anyway, people over the years, I think Howard went to the NFR maybe three or

four times, and they said, Why doesnt Howard really go get it? They knew I had a lotof influence on him, and I said, He has a wife and he has some little kids, and I think I

might have influenced him too much. You know, I, honestly, I didnt Howard go beatthem all, I just said, you know, go to the rodeo a few times. And he used to rush home all

the time. And I as so proud of him. He raised those kids, he put a little ranch together,and Ill remember him more for that than if hed a got a gold buckle, because he you

know, how soon they forget on those gold buckles. But no one in our country has forgotHoward. He also went on and hes been the Indian Worlds Champion bronc rider. And

its strange that he, he went after that real hard a few times. I mean that, he had to beathis friends and neighbors and brothers, and those people who measured him on a daily

basis.Anyway, Howards back there today and hes forty-one years old I think, and last

year we put on a big match in Pierre, South Dakota. Fort Pierre, South Dakota. Its kindof a Casey Tibbs a tribute to Casey Tibbs, and they call it the Casey Tibbs Match and

Howard jumped out there and there was twenty of the top thirty in the world were there.And then they, they asked some people and Howard was Indian Worlds Champion, so

they asked him and lo and behold he won second. He had to ride in the, make it out ofthe thirty, he had to make it back in the top twelve then, and he had to come back in the

high six. And one judge had him marked, I think, eighty, where he would have beeneighty-three points, the other judge had him at eighty-one. Or, you know, I suppose this


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was forty, forty-some points on one side and a couple points less on the other side, but Iknow how much that meant to Howard to win second there at that age. And I was

thinking how lucky can a guy be and still get on a bronc at that age? Yet he does, like alot of us, he rides every day. And from a, in his community, Howards about this high,

but hes a, probably as the song says what is it? ten foot tall and bulletproof? Hes all

of that. Anyway, back in our area, and all across Indian country, cowboys have been greatbig guys on the block, and we hope, we hope to expand on that again in the part of the

country I come from. Some of the things weve, we gave up or weve replaced thingswith that we gave up are not so good for us, but you just imagine how good it is if you get

to bounce your head on the ground a few times, or it just has a tremendous way ofsmartening you up and

[audience laughs]

-- as they say, you find yourself real quick and you find where you fit. Ive watched that

over and over again. And just a little note about my grandson. I know youre all on edge.

[audience laughs]

Ill save that. I do have one, though, so look out. And hes two years old. Like the guysaid, There you go again. Who was it said that?

Anyway, in our area, I know from my personal experience, and we shouldnt talktoo much about that, but I will. Ill share that with you. I traveled all over, and I tried

doing a lot of things. I mean, I owned a big bar, I had a construction company once thatthree hundred people working for me. I had, oh, six, seven, eight, businesses sometimes

going on at the same time. But always, whatever I tried to do and its just a challengeof doing things, you know, that makes us all do it, I think. And sometimes they keep

score by how much money you make. Id always give mine away because I had all thesefriends.

[audience laughs]

But anyway, I watched all of that, and everywhere I went, it always seemed like I

just couldnt quite get my spirit to go all the way with me. And I know lifes supposed tobegin at forty, but it didnt really hit me until about fifty. I went home, and I started

putting together more horses. And just, right now, I got a couple hundred of them. Andthe first year I was there, I, like all guys with a line of credit, I think I had about five

hundred that first year. And you know, somebody, people can tell you things, but you gotto really bump your own head before you learn about it. And I took all these horses and I

thought Im going to have some fun with this deal, and Im going to make sure everylittle kid thats having all these problems growing up is going to maybe get the same

opportunity that horses and rodeo gave me. I mean, its tremendous. Heck, I would havebeen in jail when I was eighteen just for, for proving who I was or, or finding out who I

was without those horses.


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Anyway, I put together this big herd of colts and we started playing around on thereservation and a lot of them had a little different ideas. You know, now theres, theres

three wheelers, theres bicycles, theres motorcycles, theres all these things, and theresNintendos and you name it. They got all these other thoughts, and all these other things

that they can do, I guess. Anyway, I put together a big bunch of these horses and we, we

started playing and letting some of these horses buck and Id loan them to these kids toride, and they, they had a lot of fun. And anyway, in all my travels I found out what theheck I was missing everywhere I went. You know, I made, sometimes Id make a lot of

money, and sometimes I wouldnt but I was always out there thinking I was enjoying that.But I left my darn spirit back there behind me, I guess it was, or whatevers inside of us.

It just always pulled me back. It pulled me back.And I had this great big old house one time. In fact, it was the last big one I had

that was off the reservation, and I guess the best way to describe it, everyday at twelve-oh-one AM, the taxes on the thing were thirty bucks.

[audience laughs]

And thats kind of a tribute to South Dakota and the system we have, but believe me, it

was big and a little fancy. And that didnt mean a thing to me, you know? It was justanother it could have been the Holiday Inn or wherever.

But I was drawn back there five years ago, and I see now where I belong. Andwhat Im going to work on doing, is weve, we let this bunch of cowboys that should be

there, and you know, there ought to be ten times more of them in our area, because its soimportant to us from a value point of view. And theyre going to need, theyre going to

need those tests to grow up. I mean, it, otherwise I guess you have to go hit somebodyover the head or do something wrong, something that will affect other people. So Im

going to work on that over these next few years, and in order to afford that, that kind of ahobby and a habit, I also got to work pretty hard at something else, because this, I can see

this going to get expensive.But Im going to give back, if I can, some of the things that were gave to me.

And I, the first thing I did, there was a big old, blue eyed cowboy that lived north of uswhen I was a kid that started me out, and I named my oldest boy after him, and recently

he moved back there, and hell help me. Were going to probably get more of our kidsinvolved in rodeo and in being cowboys.

We, like I said earlier when I was telling you about going to this big rodeo andthey said you could win, you know, if you get a haircut. Only now, like I said, with these

two little, almost hidden eagle feathers, thats the first thing I wore for years and years.And like Hank said, there wasnt any doubt I was an Indian. Where I came from, nobody

doubts who you are and those things. But I didnt, I didnt get the opportunity to do asmuch at home while I was gone. And like you folks do, you give of yourself, and you

belong to an organization like this. Im going to go home and I hope sometime I Illmake sure of it Ill run into some of you again, and Ill see if I can possibly do some

good and give back some of what was gave to me and basically, all it was was thathorses spirit that I couldnt get away from. And I dont really know if you really

understand that maybe its not important but our closeness with the Earth of course,you know, we had thousands and thousands of years of that, and all of our legends and


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our oral histories in our country, they all seem to have horses in them. And the horses,his spirit is built right into us. And Im really fortunate I think to have had that.

When I was growing up, you know, your horse was always your best friend, heprovided all these tests for you. Just imagine how important that would be in a culture

where it looked like most other things were gone. I mean theyd, I can remember my

grandparents talking to my dad and said my grandparents spoke our language to us andwe spoke back to them and my dad, when we were little rascals, he said, he told mygrandmother his mother, he said, Mom, you shouldnt do that. Those guys are going

to have a tough enough time with English.So we, we gave up some things along the way. But that thing we didnt give up

and I guess its up to people like me is we didnt give up that horse culture. We mighthave put it on the back burner, and we might have neglected it for a while. And even in

our legends, were not real sure that when we crossed that Bering Strait, as they talkabout us having done we dont always believe that.

[audience laughs]

Why in the heck would we have walked over here? Huh?

[audience laughs and applauds]

I always get a kick out of that. You know? Good Lord, they know were we a, we were a

force to conquer. And they think they conquered us.

[audience laughs]

Anyway, common sense will tell you we would have rode our horses over here, and ourlegends tell us that. You know, we, we think that Coronado, when we read the books,

that Coronado brought the horses here. Heck, weve got carvings in caves at home,where us Sioux have been for thousands of years, and they show some of our ancestors

riding horses. I wonder where in the heck that Coronado was maybe, maybe he just gothere earlier than the books tell us, huh? You suppose?

[audience laughs]

And those oral histories that we deal with, again, therere stories of the horse. And thats

kind of, kind of strange, but I get a kick out of it. Its, horses become a, a part of who weare, where we been, and all these things, and I joke about all these things.

You know, theres a watch up here and it stopped.

[audience laughs]

I told Meg, I said I probably need a watch. I quit wearing one when I could afford to.

[audience laughs]


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And I sit at home, we, we Indians when we get up to, to talk, I said sometimes we set acup of coffee there and when you can stick your finger in it and leave it there and it, you

know, its time to start wrapping that up. And finally when its cold, youve been theretoo long. Anyway what time is it? Does anybody know?

Hal Cannon:[off microphone] You got my watch.

CC: Its not working. A lot of what the white people have gave us hasnt worked, you

know?


Uh-oh.

HC: [off microphone] Youre right.

CC: Maybe were just lucky, huh? Anyway. This is genuinely an honor. I just cantimagine getting paid to, to talk to people. Heck, I guess theyre captives. They probably

lock the doors, huh?What I think is something important that you folks can do, is exactly what youre

doing: your, your message and not just with the Indian theme in all of the themes thatyou pick, and you visit those, right? I mean its kind of like leaving town for the

weekend. Thats very important. Thats very important to me as an Indian person. It, itreally is, again, important that you understand and Im just one person, and again, we

come out of a horse, horse area, and a buffalo area. And our neighbors up north, theywere always, you know, real close to us, the Crows. And the gentleman that come out

here and spoke about the, the spiritual aspect of those things and the prayer.Yesterday I was, I was honored by my people at home, and, and seldom do we

give anybody an eagle feather, and I shouldnt even tell this. I almost wore it and Ithought Im not real sure that I, that I didnt have too good a press agent or something,

you know? But my tribe honored me with an eagle feather, and back there you only seethat a few times in your lifetime. And it was a, people from the land where I grew up,

you know. Five miles away, ten miles away, and I thought, Good Lord, Im, I may have,I may have told somebody something that wasnt true, you know? How else would you

get that done?And I thought about that all the way out here yesterday. But those things like that,

I hope it doesnt make the newspapers too much. Again, that old saying, you know, thebird that flies gets shot. Boom. That coming down is what hurts you.

Anyway, the cowboy poets and western folklore, to have us be a part of that,thats a tremendous honor for us as Indian people. Can you imagine how important that

is? You know, were still out there, its still the West, and sometimes we fight with theUnited States government over this, that, and the other, and we, now theyve turned us

loose, and were employing a few people in these casinos that seem to be cropping up inIndian country. When its all done, you know what were going to do with our money? I

think were going buy more horses.


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And maybe the government, maybe they ought to let us do things like that. Weve beenbasically placed in a little area, and those of you whove seen Grand Canyon know what

the Badlands of South Dakota look like. And my grandmother, in 1889, they passed what

they called the Allotment Act, and thats where they divided the land up amongst us, andthey started picking specific tracts and they say, Were going to give you this land backthat we took from you, and were going to make a farmer out of each one of you. And if

youve ever seen the Badlands.

[audience laughs]

you know, I know what my grandma did, she just went east a little ways, and she threwher plow away on the way, and strangely enough, she went on a horse when she did it.

What I see coming for us is maybe the, maybe the, the thing that Im going to try to do athome, I think what Ill try to do is Im going to try to make enough money to get every

kid there a horse not so hell turn out like me, but so he can have the same, the samewrecks I had. Wouldnt that be fun, huh?

[audience laughs]

You know, I supposed to this clock works and it says, Shut up, Indian.

Again, Im, I want to thank you and tell you that Im truly honored, not becauseIm here, or so much the theme, but the, the friendship that I can just feel here. You

know, amongst you folks, you look out there and I dont need a bright light to feel this.And I hope that more, more good feeling that you folks have amongst yourselves. And I

can see that its not the money that brings you here. That what do we call that? I guessmaybe good feeling would do it. Its hard sometimes to get things into one word. That

friendship that you, you seem to share I hope you look at me that way. And if any ofyou are ever back in the south central part of South Dakota, where us Siouxs have, you

know, we pulled the blanket up right there and said were not leaving. Any of you wouldbe welcome at my place. I, I truly

[audience applauds]

I would truly show you that I mean that. And again, I came out here not knowing what

this is, but when I go home Im going to tell them about you folks. Tremendous, warmfeeling, Ill tell them. With that, you want to hear about my grandson?

[audience laughs]

I do have one and were going to give him a name this summer. Hes two years

old, and I think Im going to, Im going to call him Many Ponies. And then when he getsa little older well give him another name maybe. But the little rascal, I dont know if I

influenced him. Hes, he must have, hes got at least ten rocking horses.


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[audience laughs]

So Grandpa could see the power of that horse, and hes going to make sure that littlerascal learns to love the West right from the beginning. I dont give a darn about cars and

three wheelers and all that. I, I think Im going to make darn sure that he gets that

experience and that spirit thats in all the animals and all things, but that comes out somuch in the horse. I want to make sure that that little rascal becomes part horse.And with that, Im going to hush up here, and Im going to tell everybody that

again, the biggest thing that I could come out of here with hopefully Id be a credit tomy people. Thank you.

[audience applauds]

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Charlie Colombe Keynote Address