[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18] [Senate] [Pages 26454-26455] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]TRIBUTE TO IKUA PURDY Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, this past Sunday, eight rodeo stars were inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City. Included among the honorees is one of Hawaii's most legendary paniolos--paniolo is Hawaiian for cowboy--the late Ikua Purdy. Ikua Purdy was born in 1873 at Parker Ranch, one of the largest and most famous ranches in the world, on the Big Island of Hawaii. As a boy he learned to ride and rope, working as a paniolo in the cattle industry, a large and important enterprise in Hawaii at the time. Ikua Purdy secured his place as a rodeo legend for his exploits in 1908 at the World Championship Rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Purdy, along with Eben ``Rawhide Ben'' Parker Low, Jack Low, and Archie Ka`aua traveled from the Big Island to Cheyenne and borrowed horses to compete in the world roping championship. This was their first competition outside of Hawaii. At the conclusion of the two-day competition, Jack Low placed sixth, Archie Ka`aua finished third, and Ikua Purdy won the won roping championship with a record time of 56 seconds--an amazing time that is all the more incredible since it came after an arduous 3,300-mile trek and accomplished with a borrowed horse. Mr. President, I ask that two articles from The Honolulu Advertiser detailing the remarkable achievements of Ikua Purdy be printed in the Record. The articles follow: [From the Honolulu Advertiser, July 5, 1999] Bid Made To Give Paniolo His Due (By Dan Nakaso) In 1908, three Hawaii paniolo set off for Cheyenne, Wyo., where they heard the best ropers and riders in the land were gathering. Just to get to the World Championship Rodeo, Ikua Purdy, Jack Low and Archie Ka`aua had to take a boat from the Big Island to Honolulu, catch a steamship to San Francisco, then hop a train to Cheyenne. When they arrived 3,300 miles later, the other cowboys didn't know what to make of their dark skin, floppy hats and colorful clothes. And for a while it looked as if Purdy, Low and Ka`aua had made their journey for nothing, because nobody would loan them horses to compete. But when the dust of competition settled after two days of roping and riding, Low had finished sixth, Ka`aua third and Purdy stood alone as the world roping champion. The story became the stuff of paniolo lore. In the 101 years that followed, Purdy's legend has been remembered in Hawaii through paniolo songs, such as ``Hawaiian Rough Riders'' and ``Walomina.'' He was among the first people inducted into Hawaii's sports Hall of Fame. What happened in Cheyenne has also inspired a modern-day quest by a pair of California cattle ranchers to give Purdy-- and Hawaii's paniolo lifestyle--their rightful places in the history of the American West. Purdy's name on the Mainland is only now spreading in cowboy circles, mostly through cattlemen Jack Roddy and Cecil Jones. They're trying to get Purdy inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame, a wing of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City. Later this month, the historical society that runs the Rodeo Hall of Fame will send its 400 members ballots containing Purdy's name. If Purdy is voted in when the ballots are counted in September, Roddy and Jones believe it will be just the start toward recognizing Hawaii's place in cowboy and cattle history. ``Purdy's just the beginning,'' Roddy said. ``We need to tell the whole story of Hawaii, how cattle showed up in Hawaii first (even before Texas) and what Hawaii did for the rest of the West. The cowboys over there view Hawaii a people wearing hula skirts on beaches. They don't realize it's huge cattle country.'' If Purdy doesn't make it into the Hall of Fame this summer the historical society might not consider him again for years. He missed induction last year by 60 votes, a fact that gnaws at Billy Bergin, a Big Island veterinarian who grew up working as a paniolo. Bergin established the Paniolo Preservation Society 18 months ago and is pushing people in Hawaii to pay $25 to the historical society so they can become voting members and get Purdy inducted. In just the last three months, 87 people from Hawaii have joined, according to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Before the Hawaii campaign, ``no one had ever heard of Ikua Purdy,'' said Judy Dearing, who coordinates the rodeo program part of the Hall of Fame. ``Now we have such an interest from the Hawaii folks that we have a nice file an inch-and-a-half thick on Ikua.'' Jones vaguely remembered reading ``about some guy who came to Cheyenne and showed everybody up, set some records that were unbelievable and beat all the hotshots.'' Last year ``the nominating committee wondered how come his name hadn't come up before. Unfortunately, not enough people were aware of him. I said, `We need to get the word out. He's long overdue.' '' Purdy's descendants lean toward the humble side of life, just like Ikua, and the push to elect him into the Hall of Fame makes some of them uncomfortable. ``Most of us feel he should be in the Hall of Fame because of his merits and not by buying a vote,'' said Palmer Purdy, one of Ikua's grandsons. ``Don't get me wrong, I want to see him inducted. I just don't want to get him in that way. I want him to be inducted because he was a competitor and he was good at it and he was the best that Hawaii had to offer.'' Ikua was born on Christmas Eve, 1873, at Mana on the Big Island's Parker Ranch. He died on the Fourth of July, 1945, at Ulupalakua on Maui, where he finished out his paniolo days as foreman of Ulupalakua Ranch. He's buried at Ulupalakua. As a boy, Palmer Purdy, now 52, never heard a word from his father, William, about Ikua's victory in Cheyenne or his status as a legend. It wasn't until Palmer became a teenager that he got curious about his dead grandfather. ``All my uncles and aunties are very humble and didn't openly discuss Ikua's greatness,'' Purdy said. ``They didn't want to brag. But I would overhear other people talking about Ikua Purdy being a famous cowboy.'' The more he heard how Purdy taught paniolo to train horses in the ocean--not ``break'' them--and about Purdy's victories in Hawaii rodeos, the more Palmer filled in the gaps. ``The first thing that came to my mind was, `Wow, I missed a lot growing up.' We sure would have liked to see him in action. When people start writing songs about you, you put a dent in people's minds. So he must have been a great, great individual for that to happen.'' the early days Purdy's life is just one chapter in the history of cowboys, horses and cattle in Hawaii, Bergin, Roddy and Jones said. It begins in either 1792 or 1793 when British sea Capt. George Vancouver brought cattle to the Big Island as a gift to King Kamehameha I. Some of them died soon after, so Vancouver convinced Kamehameha to impose a kapu on killing cattle to give them a chance to breed. The herd grew so successfully over the next three decades that cattle terrorized people and overran crops and forests. Rock walls in parts of urban Honolulu and other islands still stand as testament to the crude efforts to gain control over the bovines. In 1830, Kamehameha III turned to Spanish California for help. Three vaqueros came over and showed Hawaiians how to ride horses that had been imported here 30 years before, and how to handle cattle. Hawaii had its first working cowboys by 1836--some three or four decades before America. They called themselves paniolo, and Island-ized version of the word Espanol, or Spanish. Raising cattle soon grew into a major export industry and helped Hawaiians pay off debts they had racked up by not filling orders for sandalwood. Among the big cattle operations was the Parker Ranch on the Big Island, founded in [[Page 26455]] 1848 by John Palmer Parker. Purdy was one of his great- grandsons. In 1907, Eben ``Rawhide Ben'' Parker Low went to Cheyenne's Frontier Days and thought Hawaii's paniolo would be able to hold their own in competition there. Rawhide Ben had recently sold Pu`uwa`awa`a Ranch on the Big Island and financed the trip to Cheyenne in 1908 for himself, his half-brother Purdy, his cousin Ka'aua and his brother Jack Low. ``He felt they were the top ropers in the Islands,'' said Tila Spielman, Rawhide Ben's granddaughter. The horses that Purdy, Low and Ka`aua borrowed were rough. And on the second day of competition, Low downed his calf in record time, but an asthma attack kept him from tying it up. His time from the first day was still good enough for sixth place. Ka`aua's time of 1 minute, 28 seconds, got him third place. And Purdy was champion with an astounding 56 seconds. According to some accounts, it might have even been as low as 52 seconds. Purdy never returned to Cheyenne, or even left Hawaii again. He is on the verge of being immortalized in Oklahoma, but the attention he is getting today is exactly the kind that would have made him nervous. Whenever he was asked about his accomplishments, Purdy would simply say: ``Other things to talk about besides me.'' ____ [From the Honolulu Advertiser, Oct. 18, 1999] Rodeo Hall of Fame Adds Isle Paniolo A Hawaii paniolo who is remembered in song and story was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame yesterday in Oklahoma City. The late Ikua Purdy was one of eight people honored during a ceremony at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center. Twenty of Purdy's relatives and friends made the journey from Hawaii for the program. One of the ceremony's highlights was the group performing the hula to a reading of Purdy's life story. Purdy, who was born on Christmas Eve 1873 on the Big Island's Parker Ranch, learned to ride and rope on grasslands and upland forests of Waimea and Mauna Kea. In the 1908 world roping championship in Cheyenne, Wyo., he snagged a steer in a record 56 seconds. Such songs as ``Hawaiian Rough Riders'' and ``Waiomina'' recounted his victory. Purdy, who never returned to Wyoming to defend his title, worked as a paniolo until his death July 4, 1945. Purdy missed induction last year by 60 votes. So Billy Bergin, a Big Island veterinarian who grew up working as a paniolo, established an organization that encouraged people in Hawaii to join the Rodeo Hall of Fame so they could vote for Purdy's induction. Mr. AKAKA. Ikua Purdy went home to Hawaii and resumed his work as a paniolo until his death in 1945. He did not return to the mainland to defend his title, in fact he never left Hawaii's shores again. But his victory and legend live on in Hawaii and the annals of rodeo history. His achievements are immortalized in song and hula in Hawaii, including ``Hawaiian Rough Riders'' and ``Waiomina.'' Yet, during his lifetime, Ikua Purdy avoided drawing attention to his roping mastery and world record performance. I am pleased to join Ikua Purdy's family and friends in honoring the legacy and talent of one of Hawaii's and America's greatest cowboys. This weekend's well-deserved induction into the Rodeo Hall of Fame enshrines a sporting feat that continues to amaze rodeo fans and highlights the long, proud history of Hawaii's paniolos. This well-deserved honor for a paniolo whose talents were matched only by his humility and quiet dignity follows on the heels of renewed interest and appreciation of Hawaii's illustrious paniolo traditions. The Hawaiian cowboy played an important role in the economic and cultural development of Hawaii and helped to establish the islands as a major cattle exporter to California, the Americas, and the Pacific Rim for over a century. Paniolo history is frequently overlooked in Hawaii and is largely unknown beyond our shores. Yet, this is an important part of Hawaii's history and of American history. Indeed, Hawaii's working cowboys preceded the emergence of their compatriots in the American West. Paniolo came from Spain, Portugal, Mexico, California, and throughout South America to work Hawaii's ranches. They brought their languages and culture, including the guitar and ukulele. As they shared their culture, married and raised families, they embraced the Native Hawaiian culture and customs. In many ways, this sharing and blending of cultures is the foundation for the diverse and rich heritage the people of Hawaii enjoy today. The paniolo experience is part of the distinct historical narrative of our nation's history. It illustrates how differences have developed into shared values and community. By illuminating the many currents and branches of our history and society, we acquire a better understanding and appreciation of our national landscape. The rediscovery of paniolo history was further encouraged when Governor Ben Cayetano declared 1998 the ``Year of the Paniolo'' in Hawaii. An excellent documentary film by Edgy Lee, ``Paniolo O Hawaii-- Cowboys of the Far West,'' that premiered at the Smithsonian captures the essence of the Hawaiian cowboy and highlights the economic and cultural significance of the paniolo in the islands. I encourage all students and enthusiasts of the American West and cowboy lore to learn about the Hawaiian paniolo. ____________________