Cowboy Culture, Alive and Well

Given the historic relevance of cowboys and ranchers to the settlement of the American West and to American cultural identity generally, it is curious that art depicting cowboy life tends to be looked down upon in a way other regional forms of artistic expression—Appalachian bluegrass, Delta Blues, Amish and Shaker culture—are not. One reason may be that ranchers, open-range cattle, and working cowboys are seen as creatures of a hazy, bygone era straddling the fence between history and fantasy, swallowed up long ago by the maw of industrial agriculture. Consequently, the art associated with them is often reckoned to be naive, little more than kitsch. Anyone who holds this view should take themselves to Elko, where every year, during the last week in January, working cowboys, ranching families, and a passionate following of rural and urban folk descend to celebrate the arts and folkways of the American cowboy at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Now in its 31st year, this seven-day event—produced by Elko’s Western Folklife Center—originated as a collaboration between folklorists, working cowboys and ranchers to showcase traditional cowboy poetry and music, which are still among its main attractions. But the Gathering has evolved over the years to stage an extraordinary variety of events—storytelling, humor, folk crafts, film, dancing, culinary arts—all deriving from the numerous and variegated ranching traditions of the western U.S. and countries beyond. This event is a revelation—an immersion course in the culture of the rural West. The ethos here is not one of old-timey nostalgia, however. It celebrates a living, pulsing artistic tradition. Through their chosen artistic mediums, the performers and artists at the Gathering document the stark beauty and challenges—as well as the frequent absurdities—of a lifestyle still integral to hundreds of small, rural communities across today’s Western states: raising livestock, working on horseback, depending on neighbors, and arranging schedules according to weather and the seasons. Many of the artists at the Gathering have spent their lives raising cattle and sheep on the western ranges, while others may simply be rural denizens or even city folk. But “authenticity” isn’t measured at the Gathering by how many cattle you own or how many years you’ve buckarooed. What is valued is the clarity and passion with which a performer or artist interprets cowboy culture...more