Veteran cowboy still champ in pro Indian rodeo

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Tsuu Tina Nations Gordon Crowchild has to be one of the oldest cowboys still competing in the professional Indian rodeo circuit, as well as in the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association of Canada.

The 63-year-old veteran cowboy has been in the rodeo game since 1944 when he entered his first rodeo at the famous Calgary Stampede at age 14 in the boys steer riding event.

"As a young boy I used to look up to Indian Cowboys like Jimmy Wells, Fred Gladstone and Frank Many Fingers. They were good in their prime and I wanted to grow up a cowboy. Even my dad Dave, who was driving his own chuckwagon in the 50s, influenced me. I used to think 'Gee, he's got lots of nerve. I hope I can be a man like him some day,'" said Crowchild.

In 1954 while out riding in the chuckwagon race, his mount ran into the stove rack of another wagon. The horse went down, pitching Crowchild to one side just as a third wagon came pounding down upon them from behind.

Unable to swerve, the team and wagon ran right over him and his horse, leaving them motionless on the track.

"That horse saved my life - he took the full weight of the wagon. I came out of it with a broken leg, my right arm was in bad shape, my face was cut up also and I still have the scars today," Crowchild said.

He eventually drove his own chuckwagon outfit at Calgary along with his half-brother Edwin Crane. Then Crowchild moved up to the steer decorating event, plus the wild cow milking and the wild horse events. To this day he still competes annually in the wild horse race at Calgary.

In 1967 the steer decorating event was replaced by the steer wrestling or bulldogging event. The most satisfying season for Crowchild had to be in 1978. That year he was runner-up to Clarence Black Water Sr. for the Steer Wrestling event and completed against Black Water Sr. at the Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) at Salt Lake City, Utah, representing the IRCA.

He was a founding member of the IRCA, at the time the All Indian Rodeo Cowboy Association (AIRCA). He along with Montana's Alex Sherman, Blood's Fred Gladstone, Rufus Goodstriker, Ken Tailfeathers, Frank and Floyd Many Fingers, helped form the association back in the early 50s.

His advice to young cowboys coming up i the sport of rodeo is to keep fit. Crowchild also condemns drug and alcohol abuse.

"I drank quite a bit back in my younger days. Back then it was the thing to do at rodeos, but I put it aside. I take the odd beer now and then, but to young people I always tell them don't go overboard. It will only drag you down and you won't achieve your goals in life."