OREGONSCAPE

IN 1877, DURING THE NEZ Perce War, fourteen-year-old Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn fled to Montana with the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce, which was led by his uncle, Young Chief Joseph. He eventually reached Canada, where he stayed for around two years, probably with Sitting Bull and the Sioux, before moving to Washington Territory. Later, he returned to Montana, where he married and raised two daughters.	1
His rodeo career began around 1912. A striking figure, he was six feet tall, wore brightly colored shirts, and tied his braided hair beneath his chin. He favored orange shaggy chaps with black spots. He won so many events that other competitors began refusing to ride against him. Instead, rodeo managers would hire him, at fifty dollars a day, to perform special exhibition rides for the crowd.	2
In 1915, having taken the name Jackson Sundown, he entered the Pendleton Round-Up. When Sundown finished only third, he decided to retire from competitive riding. He was asked by noted sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor to pose for a statue, which was later displayed at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Proctor convinced Sundown to compete one more time by paying his 1916 entry fee. In an exciting contest against two excellent riders only half his age, Sundown rode to victory on a horse named Angel. The Pendleton Round-Up proclaimed him World Champion Bronco Rider and presented him with a hand-carved saddle trimmed in silver. He was fifty-three years old.	3
This portrait was taken around the time of that victory. Pendleton photographer Lee Moorhouse's image shows Sundown dressed in the colorful clothes he preferred for competition riding.Sundown died of pneumonia seven years later, at his home at Jacques Spur, Idaho.	4
SOURCES: Rowena L. Alcorn and Gordon D. Alcorn, "Jackson Sundown, Nez Perce horseman," Montana, the Magazine of Western History (Autumn 1983): 46–51; and www.nezperce.org/History/Jacksonsundown.htm (accessed November 18, 2008).

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