Cowboy Legacy & Western Ways

We were headed to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, where they would be inducting the four new 2009 honorees.  Former First Lady Laura Bush would also be present, receiving the Gloria Lupton Tennison Pioneer Award.

Browse through 1 PhotoShow and 11 Video clips in this article!

Cuny Table fascinates both the eye and the mind, a 15 mile long and 4 mile wide gently rolling mesa that rises nearly 300 feet above the floor of the South Dakota Badlands.  The edge, or “the wall”, of this mesa is a steeply creviced cliff, allowing only four natural access locations.  The Stronghold Table is a polyp-like plateau that connects to Cuny Table by a 35 foot narrow neck, measuring 50 feet long.  In all but a few places, “the wall” consists of pinnacle ridges and crevices, some of which drop 50 to 100 feet at a time.  Many head of livestock died when driven over the edge by a blizzard or hailstorm. The blue silhouette of the Black Hills paints the horizons, and sets the stage for some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets of South Dakota.  At mid-day in summer, the parched soil is a barren, unforgiving wasteland. At twilight, it becomes a fairyland of pastel pinks and purples.  In reality, it is a land sanctified by the blood, bones, spirits, and history of its People. 

 “ARIZONA RANCH WOMEN” INTERVIEWS: by Diane Tribitt

A story featuring Georgie Sicking touched the heart of one of our readers, inspiring her to send a four-page letter to the Publisher.  This letter not only set off a chain of interviews of women ranchers in Arizona, but also forged an extraordinary bond between three women who traveled from three different states to do the interviewing.   Rancher, poet and Editor, Diane Tribitt, of Hillman, Minnesota teamed up with Cowgirl Hall of Famer, lifetime rancher, well-loved octogenarian and poet, Georgie Sicking, of Kaycee, WY and rancher Lola Chiantaretto of Kingman, AZ, who had sent the letter.  The three ranch women met at a gas station in Wickenburg to begin a three-day, 500+ mile trek across some of the most remote and beautiful desert mountain ranches of Arizona.  They ultimately discovered a rare and precious gift in the friendships they made, not only with the women they interviewed, but also with one another.   Miles of storytelling, laughter and ranch tales have become the basis of inspiration for all of Diane’s future writings.  She hopes you enjoy reading them as much as she did compiling them!  Her first interview, with Elladean Hays Bittner, of Peeples Valley, AZ, is a precious one.  We were saddened to hear of her passing on June 10, 2008 and hope this article will become another part of the astounding legacy that she spent a lifetime creating.