The Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon Hall of Fame introduced the four new inductees for 2012 at a membership meeting on Tuesday.
George Richmond and Frank McCarroll were inducted in the rodeo contestant category, and Caroline Montanic Davis and the first Round-Up chiefs were inducted in the Native American category.
• George Richmond was born Feb. 6, 1920, at Stetler, Alberta, Canada. At age 7 he began working with horses; at age 8 he saw his first movie, starring trick roper Tom Mix, which inspired him to teach himself to rope.
Richmond joined the Army Remount Core at Fort Robinson, Neb., in 1936. He roped the horses and mules for vaccinations and care and trained them for their jobs.
Richmond was a loyal competitor at the Pendleton Round-Up from 1946 to 2004. He competed in calf roping, steer roping and team roping. He won the Gold Card Steer Roping in 1997 and 1998 at age 77 and 78. At 84, he won fourth in the Gold Card Steer Roping, the last time he roped in Pendleton.
He won the competition on Sunday Glory, the same horse he trained and that Dale Smith won the calf roping title on at Pendleton in the same year.
• Frank Leo McCarroll was born Sept. 5, 1891, in Morris, Minn. At age 12, he struck out on his own, drifting to North Dakota and Montana. He eventually ended up in Idaho, where he took up wrestling and boxing. In 1911 while in Jackson Hole, Wyo., he wrestled his first steer, winning a dollar bet.
McCarroll broke the world’s record for bulldogging at Boise, Idaho, in 1913. There he met Mary Ellen “Bonnie” Treadwell, a bronc and trick rider, who he later married.
The McCarrolls competed on the rodeo circuit together after their marriage; they were seen competing at Madison Square Garden, Chicago, Fort Worth, British Columbia and Wembley, England. Their home base was Boise, Idaho.
McCarroll won the Bulldogging Championship at the Pendleton Round-Up in 1916 and 1931. Bonnie was killed at the Round-Up in 1932 while riding a bucking bronc, and after her death, McCarroll became more active in film than rodeo.
From the early 1930s until his death, McCarroll played in over 100 movies as a stuntman, equestrian rider and as a double for many of the movies leading men including John Wayne.
• Caroline Motanic was born March 26, 1938, in Pendleton and attended Pendleton High School, Blue Mountain Community College and Oregon State University.
She has been involved with the Round-Up and Happy Canyon for most of her life. She began camping at the Indian Village when she was 6-months old and paraded and danced in the arena as soon as she was old enough. From 1960 to 1964, Motanic Davis was involved in the women’s horse races at the Round-Up.
In 1952, she won the American Indian Beauty Contest at age 14. In 1955, she was named the first Happy Canyon Princess and served again in 1956. She was a three-time winner for best dressed Indian in the Westward Ho! Parade — in 1985, 1997 and 2010. She first took part in Happy Canyon in 1959 when her mother-in-law bestowed her part in the wedding ceremony on her. She was honored with the Happy Canyon Appreciation Award for her long years of service.
Her father, Art Motanic, sang the Love Call in Happy Canyon to her mother Myrtle. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984.
• The First Round-Up Chiefs: Gilbert Minthorn, Poker Jim, Amos Pond and No Shirt.
The Four Chiefs led the move to the encampment at the first Pendleton Round-Up in 1910. Roy Bishop and Major Lee Moorhouse attended a council of the three tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla, to encourage them to be a key element at the Round-Up. They agreed this would be a way to show the community and other visitors their culture. They would bring their racing horses and show many of their traditional dances. They would also display their war bonnets, dress and horse regalia.
Gilbert Minthorn, born in 1872, died in 1943 at age 71. A traditional Cayuse Indian of the Willamootkin Band from the Grande Ronde Valley, he taught rodeo stars George Fletcher and Hoot Gibson to ride bronc horses. He managed his own cattle ranch on the reservation until his death.
Poker Jim was born near Wallula around 1843. He was a very influential chief and leader from the Walla Walla tribe. In 1910, he was assured he would be Round-Up chief as long as he lived, and he was. Poker Jim’s friendship with the Bishop family led directly to the traditional Indian dance contests held on Saturday. After his death, his son Clarence Burke served as Round-Up chief for more than five decades.
Amos Pond, born in 1848, died in 1934 at age 86. He was chief of the Umatilla tribe and an an elder of the Tutuilla Presbyterian Church.
No Shirt, chief of the Walla Walla tribe, was born in 1845. He was one of the first chiefs to bring his people to the Round-Up Grounds. He passed away in 1917 at age 72.
The four inductees will be inducted into the Hall of Fame the at annual banquet on Sunday, Sept. 9th.
Category: Features, News & Updates, People & Volunteers
