#native cowboys

[grogusbuir]

Cowboys, & Where They Started

so @bog-teeth has asked me for some of my (i admit somewhat limited) information on cowboys.

to preface this, i’d like to say where my appreciation for cowboys started. as horse people and rodeo goers on my mothers side, i was young when i first met the great beasts of my obsession and their riders. (one of my special interests when i was young was horses, and it still is). i listened to their wild stories and drank in their advice. i learned to appreciate the animal that humans have bred for work, and now are mostly pets or bought on the whim of those who have enough money to maintain them. (this is also where i learned how queer i was, and how to let insults roll off me, but that is a story for another day).

my father, an immigrant, taught me to love history, but to also look on the non-white side of it. as such, i became somewhat of a terror to have in a high school history class, as i would get in debates with bigots and then have to tell my teacher to research on the argued about topics so i could be proven right. i had two teachers, one from english 2 and the other from statistics, who i’d have long discussions on history and how it has been clouded.

so i was prompted to then research about what i grew up around, and the history of it. this led me down the rabbit hole of cowboys and the romanticism of the west. we all (hopefully) know about the colonizers and their genocides, and how that has still carried on today. so i would like to share some of what i have learned.

my number one rule for anyone who gets into something (be it fandom or history): research on the history of it. learn where it come from and how it came to be.

with that, my articles:

the original cowboys by katie gutierrez

black cowboys at “home on the range” a post in the library of congress

https://www.socialstudies.org/legacy-american-west-indian-cowboys-black-cowboys-and-vaqueros

if you are working and can’t read these articles, there are also some video essays on youtube you can listen to.

[hey-hey-j]

can you believe it's been one whole month since I drew any Flickory art?? This simply won't do

(★ my Kofi) | (★ commission info)

[gwapeiish]

KEVIN as a chicken dancer!! in memories of the powwows i missed this summer :')

[runningoutlaws]

Lone Wolf Charles

[andr0nap]

cowboy au worldbuilding with the thoma

as you can see im taking some creative liberties with the giant emu by making them more diverse bc canon isnt enough for me and i have the brainworms

extra notes below the cut

standard thoma:

the original thoma and most common type available

perfect for travel, can pull wagons or carry light cargo

fast with good stamina, fastest over short distances

friendly, intelligent, energetic and quick to learn

the most diverse in terms of colors, patterns and extra traits

well rounded in all departments (theyre like the AQ horses of trigun)

draft thoma:

uncommon outside of major cities (kept by specialized breeders)

used for construction work and long haul heavy cargo transport

gentle, patient and eager to work

not built for speed but can walk for days at a steady pace without rest

dense feather coat protects them from the heat and sand

expensive to maintain and keep due to their size

theyre a relatively new type that came from selective breeding

"wild" thoma:

actually feral (aka. previously domesticated), not wild

originating from lost/runaways that have not been in contact with humans for generations

rare and elusive with a small population, sometimes spotted living near shipwrecks

people will pay top $$ for their capture

begin to exhibit adaptive mutations that help them survive the wastelands

smaller and less fluffy than their standard counterparts

dont come in many colors, mostly bays, chestnuts and blacks

hardy with incredible endurance

very stubborn, temperamental and intelligent, cant be forced to do something they dont want (like donkeys)

rarely ridden, mostly kept for crossbreeding

cattle-type thoma:

related to the standard thoma but NOT the same species

common pack animal in caravans, sometimes ridden as a cheaper alternative to the standard thoma

mainly bred for meat, hide and eggs

kept in huge open range herds that travel along worm swarms for feeding

sometimes kept as a form for anti-worm pest control

keratin crests are lightweight and used for protection and display

ranchers will paint patterns on their crests as a form of identification

not the sharpest tools in the shed, tend to bite and trample people

[ambusterpm]

Ok, enough people seemed to like my Aragorn from the last post that I felt inspired to do a full body of sorta how I imagine him,,,,, don't expect any consistency with this, I just like to come up outfits sometimes and also can never resist drawing a horse. I love Drawing Horses,,,,,,,

[frenchfry99]

Missed drawing this silly man! ⛅

( @thelone-copper )

A

Inspired by my spelling mistake (T o T)-

[whydousernamesevenexist]

I personally went through phases of sailors, pirates, cowboys, bandits from wild west stories, mafia, and criminals in general.

[softpawssharpteeth]

Mares crossing at the Creek.

[countryboybychoice]

Source: Christopher Douglas

[stacydrumartist]

Ghost Rider. Oils on primed watercolor paper

[pizzagame4000]

we all know human vigilante… but what about… slightly human vigilante

[maulfucker]

Ok so. This is less concrete thoughts and more scattered ideas but.

Dathomirian Zabrak biology speculations/thoughts!

While at first glance it looks like males are the only ones who have different skin colors and the females are all pale, we do see at least one Nightsister with darker skin (the one whose facial markings are white and resemble a skull), meaning skin pigmentation is present in both but manifests differently in males vs females!

(This is much like birds where the females are the neutral-colored ones while the males have more vibrant colorations and are expected to impress the females to be picked as a mate)

And it's very curious to me that iridonians have very human-like skin tones, while dathomirians ended up having two extremes, either having very vibrant skin ranging from yellow to red, or very pale skin ranging from white to dark gray, both outside the human (and iridonian) range

I think if a transgender dathomirian had HRT their skin color would gradually change with it (much like how birds can change coloration depending on their hormones)

The fact that males have no hair and females have no horns seems very random to me and I will not be thinking about the hair thing but I will say:

Have you looked at Mother Talzin's head shape. Have you seen how strangely tall it looks. What if. What if females "lack" horns because instead of growing at just a few specific points their entire skulls grow and elongate over their lifetimes.

This makes sense if you consider that they live in a "dense jungle" type environment where things (fruits, branches, predators..) can fall on their heads all the time. Having a thicker skull would probably help avoid a cracked skull from constantly getting hit in the head by falling stuff

(No idea what about the hair thing though. Maybe it's something to do with gene interactions. Like whatever gene makes their skin so saturated also deactivates the "have hair" genes. or maybe nightsisters are all wearing wigs and none of them actually grow hair)

Speaking of the geography of the planet, I think it's pretty sad that we never really get a good look of what the Nightbrothers' region looks like outside the village and some mountain terrain around it. Is it more sunny than the Nightsisters' side and that's why their skin adapted to have more color while the females' adapted to lose color? Or is it a seasonal thing and we just never got to see another season in the shows? Or is the village just built in a place that's so high the mist doesn't reach it? We get the sense that it's cold, at least at night, so why are they dressed in such light clothes? In fact, is it hot where the Nightsisters live, or is the entire species more adapted to colder temperatures and that's why they all wear so little?

What would happen if you crossed a dathomirian zabrak with a species that also has non-human skin tones but not linked to sexual dimorphism. Like what if you had a pantoran-zabrak cross, since pantorans are on the opposite side of the color wheel. Do you think they'd be an extremely vibrant blue or yellow-orange-red, or a middle ground, like green? Or perhaps an extreme outside both species' range, like purple? Do you think the "no saturation" gene would take over and make them gray no matter the gender?

[animatejournal]

Lucky Luke: Ballad of the Daltons (La Ballade des Dalton) Directors: René Goscinny, Morris, & Henri Gruel | France, 1978

[beyondtheadobe]

[neechees]

Hi! I saw your post about how the cowboy aesthetic appropriates many native cultures (thank you for your informative posts btw) and saw the anon asking if there are parts of the aesthetic they can partake in without appropriating, and I thought if a white person buys the stereotypical cowboy clothing from a native owned shop would that be appropriation? Genuinely curious, as on the face of it someone would still be perpetuating the image of the white cowboy, which in itself is harmful as I understand it. Hope you have a good day!

I think it potentially depends on what it is and how it's being done. "Cowboy" fashion pulls from a lot of different sources and Native tribes (but tends to lean into a mix of Plains Native, Southwest Native, and Indigenous Mexican), so like I can't speak for other tribes I'm not familiar with on what is or isn't appropriation on their end. Like, the store I showed with the Native Ledger art ""inspired"" clothing? I'd definitely consider that appropriation. Or if someone bought like a beaded hide vest from a Native artist, I'd also consider that appropriation. I think the cases where it WOULDN'T be is like, if say someone was gifted turqoise jewelry from a Navajo friend, that's likely fine. For certain things, across many tribes, the census is that if you're gifted a piece of clothing from a Native American, you are free to wear it (although again, it can depend on what it is).

Where the thing came from also itself isn't the problem, it's wearing or doing x thing that is. Like if a White person bought white sage from a Native store and burned it claiming to have "smudged" then it's still appropriation, it doesn't really matter that the sage came from a Native store. Or if a White person bought a war bonnet from a Native American specifically to wear it, even though the war bonnet is authentic and Native made, them wearing it is still appropriation. (so, like the beaded hide vest example I gave earlier).

like I said before I can't force people to do anything, and if somebody's gunna wear cowboy fashion then yeah they'll do it. But I think those who do are gunna have to come to grips with the history of appropriation and Native influence in the fashion AS WELL as the fact that (even if you do everything you can to not wear anything Native influenced in Native fashion), the history of cowboys themselves are steeped in colonialism and violent racism towards Native Americans. I know a lot of Native people are kind of... put off towards White cowboys (who are a little TOO into it) for this reason. I know for me, as an Albertan (where cowboy culture and racism is VERY prominent), I certainly am. White people into cowboy shit have to think "am I okay with being associated with that & people potentially being uncomfortable with me if I wear this?" because they will be.