Navajo Rodeo Traditions

The bulls and the dust and the-and a family tradition

Navajo Rodeo Ties Together a Tough Family, a Traditional Community and the Spiritual Lessons of a Currycomb

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John Boyd Jr. is tall and lean, with nothing on him he doesn't need, and when he strides around a rodeo arena, he conveys an unmistakable belonging. At the moment, the 48-year-old Navajo cowboy is watching his sons, Lance and John III, do what they, like him, were born to do.

They're practicing for the rodeo, in this case wrestling calves. The young animals teeter from the shoot at the family arena in Greasewood Springs, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, and when the boys toss them to the dirt to rope their legs, those babies let out the most pitiful wail you ever heard.

“The boys are getting pretty good, and I think they're ready for tonight,” says Boyd above the persistent bawling. He waves his arm past the arena fence toward the sagebrush flats surrounding it. “Come dusk you'll see the pickup trucks and trailers pulling in, and by dark they'll be parked four deep. Then I can promise you some real action.”

It's a hot Saturday afternoon in May, and one of the colorful rituals of the Navajo spring is about to get under way. In a few hours, under night lights, the 25th annual Keith J. Boyd Memorial Rodeo will begin, turning this middle-of-nowhere arena into the place to be for Indian cowboys.

Some 200 of them, many traveling with wives and kids, will arrive here from all corners of the “Big Rez,” not to mention New Mexico, Oklahoma and even Canada. No written invitations go out, and nobody works the phones announcing dates and start times. Like almost everything else in Indian country, this family-run rodeo comes together mostly by word-of-mouth.

Three generations of Boyds, about 38 of them in all, gather to work the concession stand, run the bull pens and corrals, and do a hundred other jobs required to put on such a large event. Rodeo isn't just part of the Boyds' lives-it forms the center around which everything else revolves.

Sixteen-year-old Lance began warming up horses for his father at age 3, and competed in his first rodeo just four years later. He won $500 in breakaway roping at the 1997 Navajo Nation Fair.

“I was excited when I went to sleep that night, and I was excited when I woke up in the morning,” says Lance, a shy, sweet-natured boy.

But then it was back to business. He turned the money over to his dad to help the family buy hay for their livestock. Clarina Arviso-Boyd, Lance's mom and special education director for the Ganado school district, says the Boyd way allows little time for victory laps.

“I already had high expectations of Lance when he won, so I thought, great, now let's get better,” says Clarina. “You have to keep practicing, keep riding your horses. That's John's way of getting his kids prepared for life.”

As she talks, Clarina stands beside a trailer that serves as the sign-in station for participating cowboys. They come in spanking-clean Wrangler jeans, their best Resistol hats and pointy-toed boots, many proudly sporting oversized belt buckles won in previous rodeos.

The trailer sits on a gentle rise above the arena. Families spread out lawn chairs and tables there, women brush horses while their children play and the smoke rising from the concession stand nearby promises something to delight every cowboy.

“This is the best mutton stew you’ll ever taste,” says Shannan Boyd, as she staples a handwritten sign to the concession stand, announcing that the stew, fry bread and coffee are ready for sale.

“The meat comes from the sheep’s backbone, the most flavorful spot,” she says. “My mother-in-law boils it for an hour, adds dried corn, then boils it another four hours. It tastes unbelievable. You watch these cowboys line up.”

In its 25 years, this event has become a kind of festival of Navajo culture, its namesake a man who served on the Navajo Nation’s governing council. Keith J. Boyd, John Boyd Jr.’s uncle, who died in the mid-1970s, was himself a cowboy from Greasewood Springs, and one of the founders, in 1957, of the All Indian Rodeo Cowboys Association.

But more than that, he was a community leader.

“When I was young in the 1960s, I remember him as such a gentleman cowboy,” says Herbert Yazzie, whose sons compete in the Boyd rodeo. “He wore a Silver Belly cowboy hat and really cared for his people. He was a role model for young and old alike, and he always had a beautiful horse underneath him.”

When it came time to build this arena, word went out among reservation cowboys that the Boyds needed help. Before long you could see dust billowing from the pickup trucks streaming toward the site.

Navajo cowboys came from all over to offer their skills-carpentry, operating heavy equipment or simply providing strong shoulders-and no money changed hands.

Horsemanship has always been part of the Navajo way.

“They came on their own as volunteers,” says John Jr., current president of the AIRCA. “Those cowboys really helped us put this together, and that’s why we work so hard to maintain it.”

Before the 8 P.M. Saturday night start time, John climbs aboard his tractor to spruce up the arena one final time, making sure he fills in potholes and smoothes out the ground. He doesn’t want someone’s prized horse suffering a broken leg in his back yard.

That attitude derives from the emphasis Navajo culture places on caring for livestock, and seeing animals as an extension of people’s lives and happiness. In many reservation homes, children know they’re not allowed to eat dinner until after the horses, sheep or cows have been fed.

It’s a way of setting priorities, says Navajo elder Jack Jackson, and helping young people find a spiritual path in life.

“When kids have the responsibility of taking care of animals, and are committed to them, they become spiritual people,” says Jackson, a retired politician who served a combined 19 years in the Arizona House and Senate. “You have to be a spiritual person to do it. It teaches responsibility and keeps you close to home. Your livelihood and stock sustain you.”

As a boy in the 1940s, Jackson remembers traveling to Winslow from his reservation home, near Dilkon, to compete in horse races. Rodeo was just gaining as a reservation sport, and Jackson says that when he and his buddies heard about the races, they had to compete.

Horsemanship has always been part of the Navajo way, in part out of necessity. With such vast distances to travel, the animals provided a good means of transportation. A love of rodeo grew naturally from that, and today Navajo cowboys rank among the best in the country.

Jackson, now 72, still competes in the Boyd Rodeo’s senior breakaway roping event, in which a cowboy on a stationary horse ropes a calf, and the animal runs until the rope breaks away from the saddle horn.

“I might be getting on in years, but I still like to compete,” says Jackson. Then the old politician adds: “But the best part is coming to see old friends again.”

The party atmosphere gets a boost from a dozen or so huge speakers atop the announcer's booth. During breaks in the action, you get Merle Haggard singing in his classic, dirt-road baritone, followed by the U.S. Marine Corps anthem played in honor of our troops overseas.

It's as American as it comes, this rodeo, like John Jr. himself.

He grew up mostly in New Mexico, his dad a rancher, cowboy and stock contractor, his mom a barrel racer and jockey. The family moved to Greasewood Springs when John was a teenager.

His rodeo career has spanned 27 years, during which he has won a nice bundle of money, boxes of belt buckles and bridles, and more than 60 saddles. In addition to a great deal of pride, the saddles have given him a heck of a storage problem. They're practically busting out of his home and every outbuilding on his ranch.

“I didn't know what else to do with myself but work stock and rodeo,” says Boyd, whose image adorned billboards around the Big Rez in 1995, when he was named Favorite Indian Cowboy of the year. “It's all I've ever done, so I kept going.”

As he crowds 50, John Jr. sounds like most athletes nearing the end of their most productive days. One minute he remarks that he can keep winning, and the next he says it's probably time to step aside to give his boys their shot.

“They've been opening gates for me for a long time, so maybe it's my turn to open gates for them now,” says John Jr.

But son John Boyd III, 22, himself a professional rodeo cowboy, grins broadly when he hears that.

“Dad said he was slowing down until I started doing good on the circuit,” says the ox-strong, 6-foot-2-inch cowboy, known to family members simply as Three (because he is the “third”). “Now he's getting back in shape to beat me. It's all about the competition. That's what I like most. But we help each other, too.”

John III competed in 20 pro rodeos in 2004, winning $3,000 at one, $10,000 at another. Factoring in expenses, he came out $40 ahead on the year, and couldn't be happier.

“I didn't go in the hole and I still had $40 to play with,” he says, grinning from ear to ear.

Only a cowboy born to the rodeo could find so much satisfaction in that. AH

Giddyup and Go to a Rodeo

BY CLINT VAN WINKLE

Prescott Frontier Days PRESCOTT RODEO GROUNDS, JUNE 29-JULY 4. The unique distinction of “World's Oldest Rodeo” goes to Prescott, a city that first hosted “cowboy contests” on July 4, 1888. INFORMATION: (928) 445-3103, or toll-free (800) 358-1888; tickets, (928) 445-4320; toll-free (866) 407-6336; www.worldsoldestrodeo.com.

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros (Celebration of Cowboys) TUCSON RODEO GROUNDS, FEBRUARY 18-26. Nine days of ropes, bulls and the top rodeo cowboys in the world make this event a must-see Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Pro Rodeo event. INFORMATION: (520) 741-2233, or toll-free (800) 964-5662; www.tucsonrodeo.com.

26th Keith J. Boyd Memorial Rodeo GREASEWOOD SPRINGS, APRIL 21-23. One of many rodeos sponsored by the All Indian Rodeo Cowboy Association. INFORMATION: (928) 654-3352; www.aircarodeo.com.

World's Oldest Continuous Rodeo PAYSON MULTI-EVENT CENTER, third weekend of AUGUST. Held continually for the last 122 years. According to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Payson rodeo is the “Best Small Rodeo.” INFORMATION: Toll-free (800) 672-9766; www.rimcountrychamber.com/rodeoPageN.htm.

Gold Rush Days WICKENBURG, FEBRUARY 10-12. A weekend of entertainment and Western fun as well as a world-class rodeo. INFORMATION: (928) 684-5479; www.wickenburgchamber.com/events.asp.

Navajo Nation Fair All Indian Rodeo and PBR Event WINDOW ROCK, SEPTEMBER. More than 1,000 rodeo cowboys try to round up their fair share of the $250,000 in prize money and awards. INFORMATION: (928) 871-6647; www.navajonationfair.com.