Taking Stock of Indian Ranching
Glossary
American West
The American West is generally
considered the twelve western states west of the Dakotas, including
Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada,
Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California, and Texas.
annual agricultural cycle
All ranch work for the year follows
an annual cycle that corresponds to the season. Round-ups generally
happen twice a year, once for branding, vaccinating, and castrating,
and once for sorting through the herd prior to shipping weanlings
and culled cows to market. The timing of calving, branding,
and selling is largely determined by the local climatic cycle.
brand
A brand is a symbol that is registered
to a certain person, showing ownership of a cow. It is applied
on a certain place on each cow and the entire herd should have
nearly identical brand marks and always in the same location.
branding
Branding is the activity that
happens once per year in which ranchers round up all their stock
and apply brands to the calves as well as inspecting all the
others. To apply a brand, a hot iron is applied to the hide
of the animal, which leaves a scar on the hide that will grow
in with white hair.
brand inspector
The brand inspector is a person
responsible for attending cattle sales and visiting feedlots
and sometimes ranches, ensuring that no one is altering brands
and stealing cattle.
bull
A bull is a male cow. Generally,
each herd of cattle in any given location will only have one
bull. The herd is mostly made up of heifers, since each year
male calves are sold. Purchasing a high quality breeding bull
is a common way to improve one’s entire herd.
Cahuilla
The Cahuilla are a California
Indian people living in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
One can learn about their culture at the Malki
Museum at the Morongo Reservation in Banning.
“California”
cattle
California cattle were descendants
of the Spanish cattle; their closest living descendant breed
is the Texas Longhorn. Such cattle are different from other
domesticated breeds; they are extremely hardy and behave quite
like they are wild. Longhorn cows protect their calves from
predators and the entire herd will aggressively defend their
young. Far more unpredictable and dangerous than other cattle
breeds, they are also very good at surviving on their own, needing
little protection. To
find out more about Longhorn cattle, click here.
calving
Cows have their calves during
a specific season, all within a few months of each other. Ranchers
now run their bulls in with their cows for a limited time so
that it limits calving season. This way, when it is time to
round up the weanlings and sell them, they are all approximately
the same age.
cow
Of course, we all know what a
cow is! But “cow” can also mean specifically a female
cow and not a bull.
cow-calf operation
A cow-calf operation maintains
a herd of heifers and sells its calves each year. This can be
opposed to a stocker operation, in which ranchers buy calves
each year and fatten them until they are older and bigger to
resell on the market.
cull
Each year during the round up
prior to the annual sale, ranchers will select cows from their
herd that are not pregnant or are too old to be productive and
sell them with the calves. This process is called culling the
herd.
earmark
An earmark is a distinctive mark
applied to the ear of each animal in a herd. It is now often
used with a brand, but in the past at some points it was the
only identifying mark on some herds. It is a small, unique cut
made on one or both ears.
feedlot
One destination for cattle after
they are sold. A feedlot uses grain to fatten the animals.
fence-in policy
The policy that ranchers must
fence-in their herds and must pay for the damages their cattle
do to other people’s property. This policy is common in
places of relatively high population, especially in areas where
ranching is not the primary industry. California is under a
fence-in policy altogether.
fence-out policy
The policy that ranchers’
herds can be free-roaming. Non-ranchers must fence in their
property if they do not wish it to be grazed, thus “fencing
out” the cattle. This policy is common in places where
the primary industry is ranching, there is a low population
density, and most people own cattle. Nevada still has areas
with a fence-out policy. This is not the same as open range,
however, because individuals can still own pieces of land, whereas
the open range was not owned by anyone.
heifer
A female cow.
hides
The hide of the cow yields leather,
which was in extremely high demand early in the cattle industry
as people from the Eastern cities needed leather for a variety
of products, such as shoes, for which we have synthetics today.
hunter-gatherers
Most California Indians were originally
hunter-gatherers, a nomadic lifestyle in which all sustenance
was derived from wild plants and animals. A complex and detailed
knowledge of plant and animal species, as well as the climate
and land, are necessary to be a successful hunter-gatherer.
Some tribes also cultivated native plants, and later adopted
corn.
improved acreage
Land improved with structures,
irrigation systems, and so forth.
Luiseño
A tribe of California Indians
primarily in Riverside and San Diego counties. Reservations
now include Pechanga and Soboba, among others. One can learn
more about the Soboba band and their culture by visiting the
website for their cultural center, Cham-Mix
Poki’.
mountain pastures
In many areas of California, cattle
are sent up to mountain pastures during the summer and return
to desert areas in the winter. This is an optimal system, since
the cattle can escape the heat of the desert in the summer and
retire to the cooler, greener pastures in the mountain ranges,
and in the winter they can escape the cold and snow of the mountains,
returning to the desert for the wet season and the annual desert
grasses.
packing house
Another destination for cattle
when they are sold. The packing house is where cattle are slaughtered
and processed for consumption.
pasture rotation
Pasture rotation is a range management
technique in which the land is fenced into smaller pastures
and the cattle are moved continually among them so that each
is grazed for a while and then rested so that it can recover.
public land leases
Some ranchers lease land from
federal agencies. The Bureau of Land Management and the United
States Forest Service are the two most common agencies managing
public land that lease land to ranchers. The public can still
go on the land for recreation, but ranchers pay a certain fee
by AUMs, or Animal Unit Months, to graze their cattle on the
land. They are told by the agency how many cow-calf units (an
animal unit) can graze for how many months.
rodeo
A rodeo during Mission and Rancho
times was a round-up that was held fairly often since the cattle
were free ranging and fairly wild. Eventually, rodeo became
a stylized version of the everyday chores of ranching and a
fun community event. Rather than simply a round up, cowboys
and cowgirls participated in sporting events such as bull riding,
bronc riding, and barrel racing. Some events, like roping, are
still tests of ranching skills. Now, rodeo is a symbol of the
American West and is for many the only experience they have
with the cultural heritage of ranching. To learn more about
rodeo, you can visit the websites for: the International
Professional Rodeo Association, the Professional
Rodeo Cowboys Association, and the Indian
National Finals Rodeo.
round-up
Cattle are typically rounded up
twice per year now, an event in which a number of cowboys must
locate all the cattle and herd them to corrals where they can
be sorted, inspected, and have routine work done (such as branding
or vaccinating). Depending on the management of the ranch, this
can mean one big cattle drive or rounding up many smaller herds
in various pastures. During the open range period, ranchers
often did not know where their cattle were, and so they all
participated in locating their cattle and sorting them from
other ranchers’ herds. Additionally, during this time
round-ups were much more frequent, sometimes every week, to
remove wild cattle from the open range. Today, ranchers monitor
their herds fairly closely and ranchers often keep their herds
separate from other ranchers, so the round-ups do not have to
be frequent.
subsistence farming
Farming primarily for home consumption.
supplemental feeding
Sometimes, particularly during
drought years, the cattle must receive supplemental feeds in
the form of hay or grain. Also, in some areas there are nutrient
deficiencies, and the cattle must receive a mineral or protein
supplement to maintain health.
tallow
Beef fat can be rendered into
tallow, which was used before electricity to make candles. Tallow
was thus in high demand in the early cattle industry, providing
candlelight to the cities back East.
vaqueros
The vaquero tradition is a culture
that was brought into California from Mexico by the Spanish.
The dress and equipment of vaqueros, common throughout California
and Mexico, is quite different from some of the other regional
areas in the American West, such as the Northern areas.
weanling
A weanling is a calf that is approximately
six months old. The calf is ready to be weaned from its mother
and can survive on grass at that point. Each year, cow-calf
operations sell their weanlings to stocker operations, feedlots,
or packing houses. Sometimes, if the year is very good and the
grass very productive, some ranches keep the calves and put
weight on them themselves.
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