Aloha rodeo : three Hawaiian cowboys, the world's greatest rodeo, and a hidden history of the American West
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages [225]-231) and index.

"In August 1908, three unknown riders arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, their hats adorned with wildflowers, to compete in the worlds greatest rodeo. Steer-roping virtuoso Ikua Purdy and his cousins Jack Low and Archie Kaaua had travelled 4,200 miles from Hawaii, of all places, to test themselves against the toughest riders in the West. Dismissed by whites, who considered themselves the only true cowboys, the native Hawaiians would astonish the country, returning home championsand American legends. An unforgettable human drama set against the rough-knuckled frontier, David Wolman and Julian Smiths Aloha Rodeo unspools the fascinating and little-known true story of the Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo, whose 1908 adventure upended the conventional history of the American West. What few understood when the three paniolo rode into Cheyenne is that the Hawaiians were no underdogs. They were the product of a deeply engrained cattle culture that was twice as old as that of the Great Plains, for Hawaiians had been chasing cattle over the islands rugged volcanic slopes and through thick tropical forests since the late 1700s. Tracing the life story of Purdy and his cousins, Wolman and Smith delve into the dual histories of ranching and cowboys in the islands, and the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Cheyenne, Holy City of the Cow.