For several months, I had hoped for an opportunity to bring Sac and Fox craftspeople to sites where their heritage exhibit was on display. Our first opportunity for this experience occurred at the Sikeston Depot's "Cowboy Up!" festival of cowboy art in connection with the town rodeo.

Andra Harrington and Vera Grant agreed to drive all the way from Shawnee, Oklahoma to Sikeston, crossing Arkansas and driving temptingly close to Graceland, which they hoped to visit on the way. They planned to set up a booth and display and to work on traditional bead art and ribbon decorations of ceremonial clothing.

Beth Felice and I made the two-hour drive on August 10, and to get into the proper mood, I played a CD of the Norman Luboff Choir's "Songs of the West" from the early 1960s. When Beth heard I'm a poor lonesome cowboy, she said it sounded almost like the opening music for an Evensong. Luboff favored a bass-heavy male choral sound, and I could imagine reworking the lyric to go:

I'm a poor lonesome sinner,
I'm a poor lonesome sinner,
I'm a poor lonesome sinner
A long way from home.

Well, it was a hoot and a holler hearing those old chestnuts as we rode the horsepower down the trail. When we got there, we were delighted to see not just Andra and Vera, but the exhibit's curator, Sandra Massey, and her sister, Lisa Fixico. After a lot of hugs, we stepped back to let a camerman from the TV station do an interview for the evening news, and then we spent the afternoon watching people come by the display and interact with the craftspeople. That's Sandra on the left in a ceremonial dress, then Lisa in a ceremonial outfit with a ribbon-work panel on the skirt, and Vera and Andra in ceremonial dresses.

One man in a cowboy outfit was a volunteer at the Depot Museum, name of Larry, and it turned out that when he saw Andra working on beads, he got an idea. She and Larry stepped into a gallery to discuss his idea, and when they returned, she announced that Larry had given her an enormous collection of beads. He had come across a jumble of old necklaces, it turned out, and had taken them apart and sorted all the beads into large glass bottles. The collection of bottles filled the back of the Tribal van that Andra and Vera had driven. For Andra, this was pure treasure. For Larry, it was the most meaningful thing to do with a ton of beads.

We all wondered what "Cowboy Up!" meant, so we started asking every Sikestonian who passed by. It turns out, no one has any idea what it means. They knew all about "listen up!" and "catch up" and "straighten up" and a great many other varieties of "up" as the second word of a two-word phrase, but no one had ever heard anyone say "Cowboy Up!" Partly, that's good. It creates interest out of pure whimsy.

When the display closed for the day, we all went to Dexter Barbeque for what was recommended as "the best ribs in the continental United States." It was great to enjoy that kind of fare after a fun afternoon of cowboy art and Sac and Fox traditional craftsmanship.