Oregon Experience: The Wild West Way

Stories from the Round-Up

"We came home for Round-Up."

Roberta "Bobbi" Conner
Director, Tamastslikt Cultural Institute

Excerpt taken from an interview with Executive Producer Nadine Jelsing for the Oregon Experience Pendleton Round-Up documentary

My earliest memories of the Pendleton Round-Up are coming home with my mother to see my grandparents. And, when I came home, during Round-Up, I got to see all of my cousins. No matter what direction we were all scattered to - we came. We came home for Round-Up.

There are roughly thirty-eight first cousins in my generation, on my mother's side. I got to see most of them, during Round-Up time. I got to see all of my aunts and uncles. I got to camp with my grandparents. We got to dress up. We got to ride horses. We got to do all kinds of things that I didn't get to do living in Los Angeles, or Portland, or wherever we were.

And so, coming home for Round-Up was always an adventure. And it was a reunion, and an adventure and it was always fun. There were parts of it that were a little dangerous sometimes. And even that was fun.