The Elko Raid

It had been 19 years since I last made the nine-hour trek from Sisters, Oregon, to Elko, Nevada, for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. When Craig Rullman asked me if I wanted to grab my guitar and go down there for a special screening of his documentary film The Ouside Circle: A Movie of the Modern West, I said, “Yep.”

It was to be a turn-and-burn lightning raid — down on Friday, back on Sunday. Which means that the ride down and back had better be as much of an event as the event. And it was. Both of us love that austere but beautiful country, so vast and so isolated that you feel humbled and exalted at the same time as you bomb down its two-lane highways.

Honestly, I don’t need much of a mission to motivate a road trip through that country.

The screening was not part of the Gathering — it was a separate event hosted  by the Northeastern Nevada Museum. I played some thematic tunes before the movie; a few originals, — including Charlie Russell Sky, which plays over the credits — and a couple of Ian Tyson songs, because Ian Tyson was, is and will always remain the King of Elko. It was a modest affair amidst all the big doin’s of the Gathering, but a most satisfying one. It was great to see the film connect emotionally with people who have an affinity for the culture it celebrates.

Craig and I connected with buckaroo and musician Ryan Fritz, who was in town to play the Gathering. Fritz is a Canadian — in fact, he lives about a mile-and-a-half from Ian Tyson’s ranch in Alberta. Fittingly, we met in the museum gallery of Will James original work.

If you haven’t seen The Outside Circle yet, get it done — I promise you it is worth your time. You can order a DVD here, or catch it streaming on Amazon Prime.

The museum event was set up by Victoria Jackson of V Hanging Heart Media. Victoria is from Elko and is an enrolled member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribes of Nevada and Oregon.  She is the founder of the Shoshone and Paiute language projects and writes all of the English books, works with the translation of the languages and edits all of the videos. She’s also a skilled cowboy and the author of Cowboys, Indians, and Indian Cowboys, and Beyond the West: Stories of the Dying Art of Cowboying.

Craig and I shared dinner with Victoria and her mother and father, Al and Brenda Jackson both nights that we were there. Fine people. You don’t often get to listen to Paiute spoken casually over dinner, and it was a damn fine thing. The whole family is deeply committed to sharing, preserving and passing on the Shoshone and Paiute languages. You can learn more about that work here.

We hit one Gathering gear show in the Maverick Casino, and one art show — a Native American art show in town. The minute I walked through the door, I was drawn to the work of Micqaela Jones, a Western Shoshone artist. One of her new prints features two of Lady Marilyn’s favorite critters, and there was no question that it was coming home with me:

Micqaela Jones, it turns out, is a really big deal — prolific and prodigiously talented. We discovered that her son’s ledger art had been featured at a recent show at Raven Makes Gallery here in Sisters. A small world.

On Saturday morning, we attempted to push into the Ruby Mountains, but we didn’t get too far due to snow and ice that covered the ribbon of road skirting the wall of Lamoille Canyon. As Al told us, not a safe place in the wintertime (some snowmobilers had to be airlifted out of there a couple of weeks ago due to an avalanche).

The Rubys are often called the Alps of Nevada, serving up a rare portion of alpine magnificence. After seeing photographs, I must go back when it’s more accessible. That said, we did see some purty sights….

We outflanked Old Man Winter and made it home early Sunday afternoon. Now the snow has rolled in here in Sisters, and I’m listening to Ryan Fritz and watching it swirl down outside my office window. We’ll hang Lady Marilyn’s new print tonight, and raise a glass to a damn fine raid — and to plans to return to the Rubys…