25 years ago this week — 1999

PENDLETON — E.J. Salcedo raced around the plastic barrels riding a stick horse with a little help from cowboy volunteer Tygh Campbell.

Salcedo and Campbell were two of the participants at the 12th annual Children’s Rodeo Wednesday, which groups 40 cowboys with 20 special needs children and 20 invited friends or classmates.

Smiling, E.J. was lifted from his noble steed and carried to the next event.

E.J. suffers from a disorder similar to cerebral palsy, which means he cannot walk or talk clearly.

As he mounted a real horse, his father yelled, “Let’er Buck,” and E.J. threw up one hand like a cowboy.

Campbell provided support for E.J. while he rode the horse.

“Once a guy thinks he has it rough, you come down here and see these kids. It humbles you. They are enjoying themselves so much,” Campbell said.

In addition to steer wrestling in the Pendleton Round-Up, Campbell plans to pursue a degree in elementary education. This is his first year as a volunteer, but he plans to do it again.

The pair high-fived their goodbyes as E.J. took his prize of a donated belt buckle and shiny silver trophy.

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PENDLETON — When the bulls were loaded in chutes at the north side of the Round-Up arena Thursday afternoon, adrenaline began to fill the air.

Bull riders behind the chutes began to pace back and forth nervously, twisting and stretching and shaking their arms. One cowboy slapped his own face repeatedly, heightening his senses in preparation for the explosive ride he was about to take on 2,000 pounds of flying beef.

As the chute doors were yanked open, one by one the bulls burst into the arena, kicking, twisting and jumping five feet in the air, trying to shake the cowboys off their backs.

Everyone in the fenced area quickly backed away whenever the raging bulls came at them – everyone except bullfighters Loyd Ketchum and Joe Baumgartner. Dressed in baggy shorts, colorful shirts and running shoes, they moved in closer, slowly circling and doing everything they could to get right in the bulls’ faces.

“My job is to protect the cowboys,” Ketchum said. “A lot of times a cowboy will be a little disoriented when he gets bucked off, or the whistle blows. So if I can distract that bill for just one split second, it gives the cowboy a chance to get to safety.”

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PENDLETON — The biggest cheers were saved for the last at the 89th annual Pendleton Round-Up Saturday.

Tom Sorey once again brought the crowd to its feet in the final event on the final day of Round-Up as the Pendlton roper won his second steer roping title in the last four years.

“This is just as good as the first win,” said Sorey, who also captured the 1996 Round-Up title. “I’m proud to win in my hometown.

You don’t get the chance to do that often. The fun thing about this is that I get to see everybody that’s helped make this happen and that makes me pretty happy.”

Sorey came into Saturday’s final sitting second in the average, 2.3 seconds behind Jason Evans of Huntsville, Texas.

Before Sorey’s run, only four others were able to rope their steers. And two of those, first Justin McKeen of Lenapah, Okla., and then Jim Ward of Heppner, had times in all three rounds. Ward’s run gave him the overall lead at 49.1.

But then Sorey roped his steer in 16.6 seconds for a three-round time of 46.1 and only Evans stood between Sorey and another Round-Up win.

“I wished Jason a lot of luck,” Sorey said. “My run didn’t really go that well. The steer came out and lurched to the right and then I collided with him but everything worked out. It was just one of those things. Getting lucky is part of winning at Pendleton.”

50 years ago this week — 1974

The new superintendent of the Umatilla Indian Agency told a Pendleton audience Monday Indians living on the Umatilla reservation are “a pretty progressive group,” all can speak English, and have little in the way of tribal, economic resources.

Manny Carpio, who succeeded Harold Duck as superintendent, outlines to Pendleton Rotarians efforts to build back the reservation to what it used to be.

Carpio said half of the land of the Umatilla reservation is in non-Indians hands, as result of sales over the years. If any of the 1,400 members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation wants to sell reservation land he owns, the government can do nothing but get him a fair appraisal of the land, said Carpio.

The superintendent, an Indian who is originally from New Mexico, said he will help oversee long-range planning and development of the reservation. He listed some of his duties administering tribal trust lands and Bureau of Indian Affairs lands on the reservation. Carpio told of a revolving credit fund from which members of the tribes can borrow at low interest rates. And he mentioned a bull in Congress that would set up a program which would enable Indian tribes to borrow money to buy lands, and a program which administers forest land management.

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Revolutionary ideas were being forged at Pionerer Hall on the Blue Mountain Community College campus in Pendleton Wednesday night.

About 100 people gathered for the third of 28 statewide workshops on Oregon land use development. The meeting was on the second round of discussion which began last spring and will conclude in January of 1975 when the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) reports to the state legislature on the future of Oregon’s land.

Wednesday night’s workshop complimented an afternoon session held at the Pendleton City Hall with regional city and county officials.

Workshop coordinators said the purpose of the second round of statewide meetings aws to gather more detailed information on specific goals and guidelines. Meetings were held in the spring to get basic opinions on land use.

Out of the spring sessions, a “laundry list” of about 80 concerns was drawn up, coordinators said. Eleven topics were presented Wednesday night – the most pressing of the 80.

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A public hearing has been set Oct. 10 on the proposed merger of the Weston School District into the Athena School District. The date was set Thursday night by the Umatilla Intermediate Education District after it accepted a petition requesting the IED to merge the two two districts.

Weston School Supt. Ruddel McCollister presented the petition that stipulated the organization of the district if the merger is approved.

Following the hearing set in Weston the IED board can make a determination to make the merger valid in accordance with state law. However, if there is any remonstration within 20 days of the board’s decision the issue will be put to a vote of the people in the two districts.

McCollister said that even if there is no citizen reaction to the board’s decision, members of the Athena and Weston school boards have indicated they will take action to insure the issue is put to a vote. “We are trying to show the board is not trying to push anything on to anybody,” McCollister told the IED board members.

100 years ago this week — 1924

Actor, song writer, author, Texas ranger, soldier, newspaper man, professional baseball player, all-round athlete, and above all, motion picture director, is Edward Sedgwick, director for “The Ridin’ Kid from Powder River” and “Let’er Buck,” starring Hoot Gibson.

And to these may now be added another title – that of “Pendletonian” for Mr. Sedgwick during his stay here has indeed become “one of the boys,” being accepted into that fellowship for which the password is “Let’er Buck.”

“I always lapse into my old baseball vernacular when I get really enthused,” said Mr. Sedgwick, “and I want to say that Pendleton is big league. The town is full of people whom I class as big league stuff. Of course it’s the customary and expected thing for a visitor today “I’m all for you town; I’m crazy about this burg.” That’s what he’s supposed to say.

“But this is different. I’ve been on location in hundreds of towns and I’ve never before felt that I was really one of the people. That’s the way I feel here. The song ‘Oregon Trail’ which I wrote shortly after I got here was inspired by that spirit of hello-glad-to-see-you-stay-a-long-time everybody shows. That’s why I wrote the lines about ‘smiling friendly faces put the stranger at ease.”

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How the Indians of the Umatilla Indian reservation of the Umatilla ness to join in the Indian uprising of 1878 helped to stem the time of redmen led from southern Idaho and Oregon, in the vicinity of Snake river, by Buffalo Horn, who hoped to cross the Columbia river and joining the Yakimas, is told by Alex Oliver, Pendleton pioneer who was among those to volunteer his services as an Indian fighter.

Mr. Oliver, engaged in farming at Nolin, in 1878, well recalls when the news came that the Bannocks, Piutes and Snakes were on the warpath. On July 6, 1878, Mr. Oliver went to Umatilla landing where governor S. F. Chawick was organizing troops to combat the Indians’ onslaught.

Robert Stanfield, Umatilla county pioneer for whom Stanfield was named and whose son is now a senator from Oregon, was captain of the company which consisted of 28 men. Mr. Oliver relates how the governor took things into his own hands and began breaking open crates of guns which had been shipped to Umatilla. J. H. Kunzie, prominent Umatilla resident, questioned the action whereupon Chawicj made himself known to Kunzie thus:

“Do you know whom you’re talking to? I’m the governor of Oregon.”

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Yakima Canutt won a bulge in his race for the Roosevelt Hotel trophy in the first day of the Round-Up when he won second honors for the day’s time in the bulldogging while Paddy Ryan, who is ahead of Canutt on points made at the Cheyenne show to count on the trophy, failed to qualify in the steer roping. Both then were scheduled to ride today, and their race was expected to get under way with a vengeance before today’s show is history.

The bucking in the world’s championship event was the best ever seen here on the first day. Four world famous riders were disqualified, either by being thrown off or by grabbing too much rope. The really spectacular ride of the day was made by Frank Smithon I Wonder when he rode that sunfishing, twisting bucker and scratched him at every jump. The riders disqualified included Howard Tegland, 1922 champion here and at Cheyenne, Dave Whyte, veteran rider, F.D. Studnick and Red Pruett.