Country Living & Cowboys

My weekend had a country theme to it. I watched the Hank Williams biography and discovered a cowboy cooking show called "Campfire Cafe". The chef cooked apple dumplings with a pecan sauce to die for. I thought they would be a cute idea for Halloween. He cooked them in a dutch oven over an open fire. At his website I found these cute apple shaped dutch ovens by Lodge. Those dutch ovens made me wonder how my Mexican grt grandmother cooked her tortillas when she was riding and cooking with my grt grandpa and Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution. I have many famous and infamous vaqueros and cowboys in both sides of my family so I've always been attracted to vintage western and cowgirl stuff. The Halloween edition of Counrty Living Magazine has some cool things in it!!!!!!!!!! I was very impressed. There was a vintage California "Vaquero" label cowgirl shirt in it I want real bad. Not too many people are aware or acknowledge where the "white American cowboy" originated from... where he inherited and took all his skills from. And I'm not talking about the phony and fake John Wayne. They learned everything from the Mexican vaquero who brought their ranching culture to America. In the Southwestern U.S. of the 1850's and 1860's, the riding style and the cattle herding equipment were both of Mexican origin. The only difference was their language. The early European immigrants from the start and to present day have always tried to erase our culture and history (but use for their own novelty) and make us feel like inferior foreigners on our own land. Many Mexicans from the SW have Native American roots from Arizona. My family is Papago which recently has been changed to its original tribal name, Tohono O'Odham in an attempt to De-colonize their tribal name. Many Native Americans were given Spanish names during their Christian ? baptisms and blended into Mexican culture. Here's some cowgirl ephemera....

I forgot to add, that cowboys spent the majority of their time Knitting! contrary to all the gloss behind American history and Hollywood you will hear. It was very boring being left alone with all that cattle on the range so cowboys spent their time knitting clothing to trade and sell. I'm assuming this would include African American cowboys too.

Sometime around the year 1680, a people composed of bands of wandering mountain hunters, aquired the horse from their southern neighbors, the Utes or Camanche who were distant relatives of the Aztecs They became master horsemen in a short time.