NATIVE AMERICANS AND WESTERN ICONS HAVE BEEN THE TWIN PILLARS OF OKLAHOMA’S CULTURE SINCE WELL BEFORE STATEHOOD. WE ASSEMBLED TWO PANELS OF EXPERTS TO DETERMINE WHICH BRAVE, HARDWORKING, JUSTICE-SEEKING, FRONTIER-TAMING INDIVIDUALS DESERVE A PLACE IN OKLAHOMA’S WESTERN PANTHEON. THE RESULT IS THE FOLLOWING LIST OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL NATIVE AMERICANS, COWBOYS, AND COWGIRLS IN THE STATE’S HISTORY. BY SUSAN DRAGOO OklahomaToday.com 41 BILL ANOATUBBY BEUTLER FAMILY (b. 1945) Their stock was considered a CHICKASAW NATION CHICKASAW Bill Anoatubby grew up in Tisho- cowboy’s nightmare, but that mingo and first went to work was high praise for the Elk City- for the Chickasaw Nation as its RANDY BEUTLER COLLECTION based Beutler Brothers—Elra health services director in 1975. (1896-1987), Jake (1903-1975), He was elected governor of the and Lynn (1905-1999)—who Chickasaws in 1987 and now is in 1929 founded a livestock in his eighth term and twenty-ninth year in that office. He has contracting company that became one of the world’s largest worked to strengthen the nation’s foundation by diversifying rodeo producers. The Beutlers had an eye for bad bulls and its economy, leading the tribe into the twenty-first century as a tough broncs; one of their most famous animals, a bull politically and economically stable entity. The nation’s success named Speck, was successfully ridden only five times in more has brought prosperity: Every Chickasaw can access education than a hundred tries. The Beutler legacy lives on in a Roger benefits, scholarships, and health care. Mills County operation run by Elra’s grandson Bennie and great-grandson Rhett. ORVON GENE AUTRY (1907-1998) BLACK KETTLE (c. 1812-1868) “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Rein- deer” may be his most enduring As chief of the Southern contribution to pop culture, but Cheyenne, Black Kettle pursued the Christmas classic is only a OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY diplomacy with the United small piece of the legacy of Amer- States, moving his people ica’s favorite singing cowboy. In multiple times to comply with 1929, Gene Autry was “Oklahoma’s Yodeling Cowboy” on Tulsa’s treaties. But in 1868, U.S. armed KVOO Radio, and by 1934, he was working in Hollywood. forces undertook a winter campaign against Indians who they During his career, he appeared in 93 movies, made 640 records, believed were responsible for raids against settlers. George and recorded major hits including “Rudolph” and his trademark, Armstrong Custer and his Seventh Cavalry tracked a Kiowa “Back in the Saddle Again.” But he never forgot his Oklahoma raiding party to an encampment on the Washita River. On roots: In 1941, Autry established a ranch near Ardmore, where November 27, Custer’s troops charged into Black Kettle’s he raised stock for the rodeo circuit. The same year, the nearby village, killing more than a hundred people, including the town of Berwyn changed its name to Gene Autry. chief and his wife. Jose”Mexican Joe“ Barrera (c. 1876-1949) “Mexican Joe’s legacy as a pioneer in the Western art of rop- ing cannot be overstated,” says Erin Brown, curator of col- lections at the Pawnee Bill Ranch in Pawnee. Barrera joined Gordon W. “Pawnee Bill” Lillie’s Wild West Show in 1894 and gained worldwide fame as its star roper. He elevated the cowboy skill to an art form, performing tricks like roping six or more horses with one throw. He even caught bison and once roped a runaway elephant. A lifelong friend of Lillie, Barrera worked as foreman at the Pawnee ranch after retir- ing from show business in 1921. 42 July/August 2016 ACEE BLUE EAGLE RALPH CHAIN (b. 1927) (1907-1959) BACONE COLLEGE “It’s all on loan from God, and NANCY SALSBURY Acee Blue Eagle, Muscogee we’re here to take care of it,” says (Creek) and Pawnee, was born near Ralph Chain of the Chain Land Anadarko and studied under Oscar and Cattle Company near Can- Jacobson at the University of Okla- ton. The sixth-generation ranch- homa. He later helped establish the ing operation is distinguished art department at Bacone College by its owners’ stewardship of the in Muskogee and served as its director until 1938. That year, he land: In 1893, Chain’s grandfather, Oscar, traded fifty dol- showed his work at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York lars and a shotgun for the original plot. Since then, those 160 City. After World War II, he joined the art staff at the Oklahoma acres have developed into an enterprise of more than 50,000, A&M College School of Technical Training in Okmulgee. His using farming methods that produce high-quality beef and work is in collections at Tulsa’s Gilcrease and Philbrook museums leave the land suitable to host wildlife for hunting. Today, the and at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman. Chain Ranch Sportsman’s Club makes hunting and fishing adventures available to the public. WARREN G. “FRECKLES” BROWN WOODROW WILSON (1921-1987) “WOODY” CRUMBO (1912-1989) BACONE COLLEGE At the 1967 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, cham- A painter, musician, and cer- pion bull rider Freckles Brown, emonial dancer, Woody Crumbo already legendary after a thirty- was a prolific artist of Muscogee year career, drew the “unrideable” (Creek) and Potawatomi ances- NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE NATIONAL Tornado, a bull that had thrown every one of the 220 cowboys try. Born in Lexington, Crumbo who had tried him. In a performance immortalized in song studied at the University of Oklahoma with Oscar Jacobson. by Red Steagall, the forty-six-year-old Brown rode out the At twenty-one, he was appointed Bacone College’s director required eight seconds in front of a crowd roaring so loudly of Indian art and in 1938 succeeded Acee Blue Eagle as the that Brown couldn’t hear the whistle. He didn’t know the time school’s art director. During his career, Crumbo exhibited had passed until the clowns moved in on the bull. widely and worked in many media including silk screening, etching, and oil painting. Today, Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum owns the largest collection of Crumbo’s work. TOMMY WAYNE “T.C.” CANNON (1946-1978) SAM DAUBE (1859-1946) His artistic works represent a turning point in Native American Sam Daube came from Germany JOYCE CANNON YI COLLECTION painting in the mid-twentieth at twenty-six to seek his fortune, century. Along with Native ARCHIVES DAUBE FAMILY settling in Ardmore in 1885 and American artists Fritz Scholder building businesses in merchan- and Oscar Howe, Cannon’s style dising and ranching. Daube first confronted stereotypes of Native American imagery. Many of registered his well-known Double his works portrayed Indians in the modern world as opposed to O Bar (OO) brand in 1886 and in the past, and his signature style represents an incorporation of the 1900s was one of the first ranchers to breed Hereford cattle European, Asian, and African painting motifs with that of In- commercially. Today, the breed is a mainstay of the Daube herd dian culture. Of Caddo and Kiowa heritage, Cannon was born in a tradition continued by Daube’s grandson Sam (b. 1945) and in Lawton, and his works are in collections across the state at great-grandson Dave (b. 1975). They run 1,000 head on more the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, the Southern Plains Indian than 20,000 acres in southern Oklahoma, and since they still work Museum in Anadarko, and the National Cowboy & Western livestock from the saddle, they raise their own quarter horses to Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. suit the ranch’s tough Arbuckle Mountain terrain. OklahomaToday.com 43 DRUMMOND FAMILY ETBAUER BROTHERS The term “cattle empire” is no For the Etbauer brothers, success exaggeration when applied to GREG WESTFALL/PRCA means sticking together. These the Pawhuska-based Drummond Goodwell-based bronc riding family’s enterprise. Patriarch siblings—along with close family Frederick Drummond (1864- friend Craig Latham—shared ex- 1913) came to the United States penses early in their careers so they from Scotland in 1882 and settled could ride out the tough times. in Pawhuska. The ranch began with 160 acres in Osage County They dominated the ranks of professional saddle bronc riding in and grew to encompass more than 400,000. Frederick Ford the 1990s, winning seven titles among them. Billy (b. 1963) is Drummond, pictured (b. 1931), grandson of the original owner, the only roughstock cowboy in pro rodeo history to surpass $3 is a founding member of the Oklahoma chapter of the Nature million in a single event. The last of his five world championships Conservancy and helped establish the Joseph H. Williams came in 2004 at age forty-one, making him the oldest world Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. In 2015, the family was the nation’s champion saddle bronc rider in rodeo history. Robert (b. 1961) nineteenth-largest land owner in terms of acres. won two bronc riding world championships, and Dan (b. 1965) is a ten-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo. ROY DUVALL (b. 1942) THOMAS FERGUSON PRCA Born in Hitchita and raised (b. 1950) on the banks of the Deep Fork River, Roy Duvall was inspired Constant practice and good by cowboys like Jim Shoulders horses were the keys to being to learn to rodeo. When he was a the world’s number-one cowboy teenager, Duvall and his brother according to Tom Ferguson, Bill built an arena, bought some who was in a position to know. NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE NATIONAL steers, and started bulldogging.