Whether it ’s John Wayne or Lil Nas X , the puncher holds a hallowed place in the pantheon of American fighter . But the cowboy that we bang did n’t spring full spring from the dust and tumbleweeds of theWild West . The original cowherd , in fact , had nothing to do with the Wild West .
Historically speaking , the whole cowboy image — the trustworthy sawhorse , the open kitchen range , " Get along footling doggie , " campfire under starry nighttime , Norman the calfskin , " Old Town Road , " bean plant from a chuck wagon , " Yee haw , " cattle drives , branding , chaps , spurs — originate from base a long way from the American West .
It all began in Europe with three central element : Man , cow and horse .
The Spanish Influence
In Spain , for centuries , the sawbuck was king . " The Spanish culture … invest horsemanship with high position , " Richard W. Slatta writes in the launching of " Cowboys of the Americas , " his 1990 societal history of cowboys in the Western Hemisphere . " prescribed portrayal of Spanish king depicted them astride paw , rearing horses . "
The Spanish used their horses in a burgeon livestock economy ( which included cattle and sheep ) to complement land in the 15th century . And when the Spanish made their voyages to the New World in the late 15th century , they take with them horses and cattle . Eventually , from Hispaniola ( the island now claimed by the Dominican Republic and Haiti ) , the men , the horse and the cattle made their agency to Florida and parts of what is now Mexico .
The oxen multiplied , and the pauperization for horsemen to cut through them down and keep them in line — cows were needed then more for their hides than their meat — mature . Sorancherstrained indigen , who issue forth up with all sorts of raw cow - handling techniques . And thevaquerowas born .
Avaquero — the countersign get along from the Spanish word for moo-cow : vaca — is the unmediated predecessor to the American cowboy .
From Russell Freedman ’s " In the Days of the Vaquero : America ’s First True Cowboys : "
Other cowboy proliferated throughout Central and South America . Thellaneroin Venezuela . Thecharroin parts of Mexico . Thehuasoin Chile . Thegauchoin Argentina and Uruguay . They all can describe their ancestors to thevaquero .
America , too , would soon have its own version of a horseman and cattle herder .
The American Cowboy
As they memorize to rope and ride and throw lasso , as they modified their saddles to include a French horn to drop anchor a roofy to , as they introduced Sunday - blocking lid andleg - protecting chaps , vaquerosmoved into what is now Texas . And their influence was felt even far west . In 1832,King Kamehameha IIIsent for somevaquerosto help with uncivilised cattle in Hawaii . The Hawaiian cowboy became known as apaniolo , sound out to be a Hawaii - fied variant of the word the buckaroo mouth , español .
finally , an American opposite number work and overspread throughout the West . Cowboys had other name : cowpoke , cow punchers , cowpuncher , cow man , buckaroo and drovers ( officially , those who move cattle from one plaza to another on a cattle drive ) . But the employment was the same . retentive days . Nights on the plains . A lot of dust . Some peril from rustler and natives . And when they were n’t working the ruck , they were branding oxen , fixing fences , care for their horses and performing other hard labor around cattle ranch .
They were n’t necessarily gambler and gunfighters ( like , say , Wild Bill Hickok ) , or gunslinging lawmen ( likeWyatt Earpor his showy buddy , Doc Holliday ) , or deadeye sharpshooters ( Annie Oakley ) , or all - out showman ( likeBuffalo Bill Cody ) , though all those legends have legit claim to a smudge in the Wild West Hall of Fame . And , in a room , all those types have become bed as cowboys .
" The cowboy of the American West , a dashing figure in popular novel and films , was in reality a badly paid laborer engaged in difficult , dirty , often humdrum work , " Slatta wrote inThe Cowboy Encyclopedia . " The Cowboy ’s oeuvre year centered on two large events , the roundup and the long drive . roundup were held in the spring and often also in the fall . After cowboy had herded cattle to a central location , they branded new-sprung calfskin , alter and dehorned older beast , and , in the leap , chose the cattle to be taken to market . "
At one prison term , tens of thousands of cowboys crop cattle ranch throughout the West . By the end of the American Civil War , an estimated 25 pct of those wereBlack cowboy , many of them former slaves . But the cowboys ' heyday did n’t last long . The invention of barbed wire ( in the late 1800s ) helped pen cattle in and the expansion of railroad made long kine drives less necessary .
In contemporary retellings , especially in Hollywood westerns , cowboys ( most of the time ) are honest , heavily - work , of strong moral character and of few words . They ’re almost always white , too . And they all know how to use a triggerman .
It ’s not a particularly precise image . But , like the cowboy himself , it is an suffer one .
