Editing Cowboy (section)

==Regional traditions==
Geography, climate and cultural traditions caused differences to develop in cattle-handling methods and equipment from one part of the United States to another. The period between 1840 and 1870 marked a mingling of cultures when English and French-descended people began to settle west of the Mississippi River and encountered the Spanish-descended people who had settled in the parts of Mexico that later became Texas and California.<ref name=Bennett125>Bennett, p. 125</ref>  In the modern world, remnants of two major and distinct cowboy traditions remain, known today as the "[[Texas]]" tradition and the "Spanish", "Vaquero", or "[[California]]" tradition. Less well-known but equally distinct traditions also developed in [[Hawaii]] and [[Florida]]. Today, the various regional cowboy [[tradition]]s have merged to some extent, though a few regional differences in equipment and riding style still remain, and some individuals choose to deliberately preserve the more time-consuming but highly skilled techniques of the pure ''vaquero'' or "buckaroo" tradition. The popular "horse whisperer" style of [[natural horsemanship]] was originally developed by practitioners who were predominantly from California and the Northwestern states, clearly combining the attitudes and philosophy of the California vaquero with the equipment and outward look of the Texas cowboy.

===California and Pacific region===
{{See also|Vaquero}}
The vaquero, the Spanish or Mexican cowboy who worked with young, untrained horses, arrived in the 18th century and flourished in [[Alta California]] and bordering territories during the [[Spanish Colonial period]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stewart |first1=Kara L. |title=The Vaquero Way |url=http://www.horsechannel.com/western-horse-training/vaquero-way-17722.aspx |website=Horse Illustrated |access-date=July 27, 2019 |date=November 16, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103050504/http://www.horsechannel.com/western-horse-training/vaquero-way-17722.aspx |archive-date=January 3, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Settlers from the United States did not enter California in significant numbers until after the [[Mexican–American War]], and most early settlers were miners rather than livestock ranchers, leaving livestock-raising largely to the Spanish and Mexican people who chose to remain in California. The California vaquero or buckaroo, unlike the Texas cowboy, was considered a highly skilled worker, who usually stayed on the same ranch where he was born or had grown up and raised his own family there. In addition, the geography and climate of much of California was dramatically different from that of Texas, allowing more intensive grazing with less open range, plus cattle in California were marketed primarily at a regional level, without the need (nor, until much later, even the logistical possibility) to be driven hundreds of miles to railroad lines. Thus, a horse- and livestock-handling culture remained in California and the Pacific Northwest that retained a stronger direct Spanish influence than that of Texas. The modern distinction between ''vaquero'' and ''buckaroo'' within American English may also reflect the parallel differences between the California and Texas traditions of western horsemanship.<ref name=free>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vaquero |title= Vaquero. |work= American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language |date=2009| publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company}}</ref>
[[File:Wade Saddle.jpg|thumb|upright|A "Wade" saddle, popular with working ranch Buckaroo tradition riders, derived from vaquero saddle designs]]

====Buckaroos====
Some cowboys of the California tradition were dubbed ''buckaroos'' by English-speaking settlers. The words "buckaroo" and ''vaquero'' are still used on occasion in the [[Great Basin]], parts of California and, less often, in the [[Pacific Northwest]]. Elsewhere, the term "cowboy" is more common.<ref name="Buckaroos">{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ncrhtml/crview03.html|title=Buckaroos: Views of a Western Way of Life|work=Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945–1982
|publisher=Library of Congress|year=1980|access-date=2010-08-06}}</ref>

The word ''buckaroo'' is generally believed to be an anglicized version of ''vaquero'' and shows phonological characteristics compatible with that origin.<ref name=cassidy1/><ref name=cassidy2>{{cite journal|last=Cassidy|first=F. G. and A. A. Hill|title=Buckaroo Once More|journal=American Speech|date=Summer 1979|volume=54|issue=2|doi=10.2307/455216 |jstor=455216|pages=151–153|publisher=Duke University Press}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name=Gonzalez>{{cite journal |last=González|first=Félix Rodríguez|title=Spanish Contribution to American English Wordstock: An Overview|journal=Atlantis|date=December 2001|volume=23|issue=2|pages=83–90|publisher=Aedean: Asociación española de estudios anglo-americanos{{subscription required}}}}</ref><ref name=Smead>{{cite book|last=Smead|first=Ronald K|title=Vocabulario Vaquero/Cowboy Talk: A Dictionary of Spanish Terms from the American West|year=2005|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|location=Norman|isbn=978-0-8061-3631-8|page=30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MR4SY5n3_L8C }}</ref> ''Buckaroo'' first appeared in American English in 1827.<ref name=Merriam>{{cite web|title=Buckaroo|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buckaroo|work=Merriam-Webster |date=n.d. |access-date=August 29, 2013}}</ref>  The word may also have developed with influences from the English word "buck" or [[bucking]], the behavior of young, untrained horses.<ref name=cassidy2/><!-- @ p. 152. --> In 1960, one etymologist suggested that ''buckaroo'' derives, through {{langx|gul|buckra}}, from the [[Ibibio language|Ibibio]] and {{langx|efi|mbakara}}, meaning "white man, master, boss".<ref name=mason>{{cite journal|last=Mason|first=Julian|title=The Etymology of 'Buckaroo'|journal=American Speech|date=February 1960|volume=35|issue=1|pages=51–55|jstor=453613|publisher=Duke University Press|doi=10.2307/453613}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Although that derivation was later rejected, another possibility advanced was that "buckaroo" was a [[pun]] on ''vaquero'', blending both Spanish and African sources.<ref name=cassidy1>{{cite journal|last=Cassidy|first=F. G.|title=Another Look at Buckaroo|journal=American Speech|date=Spring 1978|volume=53|issue=1|pages=49–51|doi=10.2307/455339|publisher=Duke University Press|jstor=455339}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name=cassidy2/>

===Texas tradition===
In the 18th century, people in [[History of Texas#Spanish Texas (1690–1821)|Spanish Texas]] began to herd cattle on horseback to sell in Louisiana, both legally and illegally.<ref name=Bennett362f>Bennett, pp. 362–362</ref>  By the early 19th century, the Spanish Crown, and later, independent [[Mexico]], offered [[empresario|''empresario'' grants]] in what would later be [[Texas]] to non-citizens, such as settlers from the United States. In 1821, [[Stephen F. Austin]] led a group which became the first English-speaking Mexican citizens.<ref name=Geo>{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0814_030815_cowboys_2.html |title=Vaqueros: The First Cowboys of the Open Range |publisher=[[National Geographic Society]]|date=2010-10-28 |access-date=2013-05-17}}</ref> Following [[Texas Revolution|Texas independence]] in 1836, even more Americans immigrated into the ''empresario'' ranching areas of Texas. Here the settlers were strongly influenced by the Mexican ''vaquero'' culture, borrowing [[vocabulary]] and [[attire]] from their counterparts,<ref name=Bennett363>Bennett, p. 363</ref> but also retaining some of the livestock-handling traditions and culture of the Eastern United States and [[Great Britain]]. The Texas cowboy was typically a bachelor who hired on with different outfits from season to season.<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of vaquero |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vaquero |publisher=Dictionary.com |access-date=July 27, 2019}}</ref>

Following the [[American Civil War]], vaquero [[culture]] combined with the cattle herding and drover traditions of the southeastern United States that evolved as settlers moved west. Additional influences developed out of Texas as cattle trails were created to meet up with the [[railroad]] lines of [[Kansas]] and [[Nebraska]], in addition to expanding ranching opportunities in the [[Great Plains]] and [[Rocky Mountain Front]], east of the [[Continental Divide]].<ref name=Vernam289>Vernam, p. 289.</ref>  The new settlers required more horses, to be trained faster, and brought a bigger and heavier horse with them.  This led to modifications in the bridling and bitting traditions used by the vaquero.<ref name=Bennett126>Bennett, p. 126</ref>  Thus, the Texas cowboy tradition arose from a combination of cultural influences, in addition to the need for adaptation to the geography and climate of west Texas and the need to conduct long [[cattle drives]] to get animals to market.

Historian [[Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov|Terry Jordan]] proposed in 1982 that some Texan traditions that developed—particularly after the Civil War—may trace to colonial South Carolina, as most settlers to Texas were from the southeastern United States.<ref>Terry Jordan. ''Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Cattle Ranching''. Pg. 90–94. University of Nebraska Press, 1981{{full citation needed|date=May 2013}}</ref><ref>Terry Jordan, with John L. Bean, Jr, and William M. Holmes; Westview Geographies of the United States. Pg. 74</ref><ref>"Origins of the Free Immigrant Population of Texas, 1850" U.S. Census Bureau.{{full citation needed|date=May 2013}}</ref><ref>Raymond Gastil. "Cultural Regions of the United States" Pg. 199. University of Washington Press. 1975</ref> These theories have been questioned by some reviewers.<ref>Sandra L. Myres. Review of Terry Jordan's Trails To Texas. 1982. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2645&context=greatplainsquarterly.</ref>  In a subsequent work, Jordan also noted that the influence of post-War Texas upon the whole of the frontier Western cowboy tradition was likely much less than previously thought.<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of vaquero |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vaquero |website=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company:2000 |publisher=Dictionary.com |access-date=July 27, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Jordan |first1=Terry |title=North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers: Origins, Diffusion, and Differentiation |date=2000 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-1422-2 |edition=1st |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2049&context=greatplainsquarterly}}</ref>

===Florida and the southeastern US===
[[File:Remington A cracker cowboy.jpg|thumb|''A Cracker Cowboy'' by [[Frederic Remington]]]]
The Florida "cowhunter" or "[[Florida cracker|cracker]] cowboy" of the 19th and early 20th centuries was distinct from the Texas and California traditions. Florida cowboys did not use [[lasso]]s to herd or capture cattle. Their primary tools were [[bullwhip]]s and dogs. Since the Florida cowhunter did not need a saddle horn for anchoring a [[Lasso|lariat]], many did not use [[Western saddle]]s, instead using a [[McClellan saddle]]. While some individuals wore boots that reached above the knees for protection from [[snake]]s, others wore [[Brogan (shoes)|brogans]]. They usually wore inexpensive wool or straw hats, and used [[poncho]]s for protection from rain.<ref>Tinsley, Jim Bob. 1990. ''Florida Cow Hunter''. University of Central Florida Press. {{ISBN|0-8130-0985-5}} pp. 42–3.</ref>

Cattle and horses were introduced into Spanish Florida in the 16th century,<ref>{{cite book|title=Florida Cattle Ranching: Five Centuries of Tradition|date=2013|publisher=Florida Cattleman's Foundation|location=Kissimmee, Florida|isbn=978-0-9860337-0-4|pages=10, 11}}</ref> and [[Cattle ranching in Spanish Florida|flourished]] throughout the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Arnade|first=Charles W.|date=1961|title=Cattle Raising in Spanish Florida, 1513-1763|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3740622|journal=Agricultural History|volume=35|issue=3|pages=116–124|issn=0002-1482|jstor=3740622}}</ref> The cattle introduced by the Spanish persist today in two rare breeds: [[Florida Cracker cattle]] and [[Pineywoods cattle]].<ref name="Ekarius2008">{{cite book |title=Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Pigs |last=Ekarius |first=Carol |year=2008 |publisher=[[Storey Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-60342-036-5 |pages=87–88 119 }}</ref> The [[Florida Cracker Horse]], which is still used by some Florida cowboys, is descended from horses introduced by the Spanish.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.floridacrackerhorses.com/history.htm |title="History of the Cracker Horse" Florida Cracker Horse Association. Accessed January 4, 2010 |publisher=Floridacrackerhorses.com |access-date=2013-02-28}}</ref> From shortly after 1565 until the end of the 17th century, [[Cattle ranching in Spanish Florida|cattle ranches]] owned by [[Spanish people|Spanish]] officials and [[Mission (station)|missions]] operated in northern Florida to supply the Spanish garrison in [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] and markets in [[Cuba]]. Raids into Spanish Florida by the [[Province of Carolina]] and its Native American allies, which wiped out the native population of Florida, led to the collapse of the Spanish mission and ranching systems.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bushnell|first=Amy|title=The Menendez Marquez Cattle Barony at La Chua and the Determinants of Economic Expansion in Seventeenth-Century Florida|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|date=April 1978|volume=56|issue=4|pages=407–431}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bushnell|first=Amy Turner|title=Spanish Pathways in Florida/Caminos Españoles en La Florida|year=1991|publisher=Pineapple Press|location=Sarasota, Florida|isbn=1-56164-003-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781561640034/page/118 118–139]|editor=Ann L. Henderson and Gary L. Mormino|chapter=Thomas Menéndez Márquez: ''Criolla'', Cattleman, and ''Contador''/Tomás Menéndez Márquez: Criolla, Ganadero y Contador Real|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781561640034/page/118}}</ref>

In the 18th century, [[Creek people|Creek]], [[Seminole]], and other Indian people moved into the depopulated areas of Florida and started herding the cattle left from the Spanish ranches. In the 19th century, most tribes in the area were dispossessed of their land and cattle and pushed south or west by white settlers and the United States government. By the middle of the 19th century white ranchers were running large herds of cattle on the extensive open range of central and southern Florida. The hides and meat from Florida cattle became such a critical supply item for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] during the [[American Civil War]] that a unit of [[1st Florida Special Cavalry Battalion|''Cow Cavalry'']] was organized to round up and protect the herds from [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] raiders.<ref>{{cite web |title=Raid on Gopher Ridge |url=http://www.explorenaples.com/raid_on_gopher_ridge.php |website=explorenaples.com |access-date=July 27, 2019}}</ref> After the Civil War, and into the 20th Century, Florida cattle were periodically driven to ports on the [[Gulf of Mexico]], such as [[Punta Rassa]] near [[Fort Myers]], Florida, and shipped to market in [[Cuba]].<ref>Tinsley, Jim Bob. 1990. ''Florida Cow Hunter''. University of Central Florida Press. {{ISBN|0-8130-0985-5}} pp. 47–51.</ref>

The Florida cowhunter or cracker cowboy tradition gradually assimilated to western cowboy tradition during the 20th century. [[Babesiosis|Texas tick fever]] and the [[Cochliomyia hominivorax|screw-worm]] were introduced to Florida in the early 20th century by cattle entering from other states. These pests forced Florida cattlemen to separate individual animals from their herds at frequent intervals for treatment, which eventually led to the widespread use of lassos. Florida cowboys continue to use dogs and bullwhips for controlling cattle.<ref>{{cite book|title=Florida Cattle Ranching: Five Centuries of Tradition|date=2013|publisher=Florida Cattleman's Foundation|location=Kissimmee, Florida|isbn=978-0-9860337-0-4|pages=26, 30, 62, 76, 78}}</ref>

===Hawai'i===
[[File:Loading Cattle at Kailua, Geography of the Hawaiian Islands (1908).jpg|thumb|Loading cattle at [[Kailua, Hawaii County, Hawaii|Kailua-Kona]], at the start of the 20th century]]
[[File:Hawaiian Paniolo (PP-97-1-008).jpg|thumb|Photograph of Hawaiian Paniolo]]
The [[Native Hawaiians|Hawaiian]] cowboy, the ''paniolo'', is also a direct descendant of the ''vaquero'' of California and Mexico. Experts in Hawaiian etymology believe "Paniolo" is a Hawaiianized pronunciation of ''español''. (The [[Hawaiian language]] has no /s/ sound, and all [[syllable]]s and words must end in a vowel.) Paniolo, like cowboys on the mainland of North America, learned their skills from Mexican ''vaqueros''.<ref>Slatta, R. W. (1996). ''The Cowboy Encyclopedia''. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 275. {{ISBN|0-393-31473-1}}.</ref> Other theories of word origin suggest ''Paniolo'' was derived from ''pañuelo'' (Spanish for handkerchief) or possibly from a Hawai'ian language word meaning "hold firmly and sway gracefully".<ref name="Ediger"/>

Captain [[George Vancouver]] brought cattle and sheep in 1793 as a gift to [[Kamehameha I]], monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom. For ten years, Kamehameha forbade killing of cattle, and imposed the death penalty on anyone who violated his edict.  As a result, numbers  multiplied astonishingly, and were wreaking havoc throughout the countryside. By the reign of [[Kamehameha III]] the number of wild cattle were becoming a problem, so in 1832 he sent an emissary to California, then still a part of Mexico. He was impressed with the skill of the vaqueros, and invited three to Hawai'i  to teach the Hawaiian people how to work cattle.<ref name="Ediger">{{cite journal|last1=Edinger-Marshall|first1=Susan|title=Hawai'i: The California Connection|journal=Rangelands|date=October 2000|volume=22|issue=5|pages=15–16|doi=10.2458/azu_rangelands_v22i5_edinger-marshall|url=https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/download/11481/10754|access-date=21 March 2017|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The first horses arrived in Hawai'i in 1803. By 1837 John Parker, a sailor from New England who settled in the islands, received permission from Kamehameha III to lease royal land near Mauna Kea, where he built a ranch.<ref name="Ediger"/>

The Hawaiian style of ranching originally included capturing [[Hawaiian wild cattle|wild cattle]] by driving them into pits dug in the forest floor. Once tamed somewhat by hunger and thirst, they were hauled out up a steep ramp, and tied by their horns to the horns of a tame, older steer (or [[ox]]) that knew where the [[Pen (enclosure)|paddock]] with food and water was located. The industry grew slowly under the reign of Kamehameha's son Liholiho ([[Kamehameha II]]).

Even today, traditional paniolo dress, as well as certain styles of Hawaiian formal attire, reflect the Spanish heritage of the vaquero.<ref name="GenegabusPanioloWays">{{cite web |url= http://starbulletin.com/2003/03/17/features/story1.html |title= Paniolo Ways: Riding the range is a lifestyle that reaches back 170 years in Hawaii |author= Jason Genegabus. Photos by Ken Ige |work= [[Honolulu Star-Bulletin]] |date= 17 March 2003 |access-date= 15 October 2007 |archive-date= 24 June 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080624233722/http://starbulletin.com/2003/03/17/features/story1.html |url-status= dead }}</ref> The traditional Hawaiian saddle, the ''noho lio'',<ref name="KaheleCecilHanaHou">{{cite web |url= http://www.hanahou.com/pages/Magazine.asp?Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=467&MagazineID=28 |title= Way of the Noho Lio |author= Rose Kahele. Photos by Ann Cecil |work= [[Hana Hou!]] Vol. 9, No. 3 |date= June–July 2006 }}</ref> and many other tools of the cowboy's trade have a distinctly Mexican/Spanish look and many Hawaiian ranching families still carry the names of the vaqueros who married Hawaiian women and made Hawai'i their home.

===Virginia===
On the [[Eastern Shore of Virginia]], the "Salt Water Cowboys" are known for rounding up the [[feral horse|feral]] [[Chincoteague pony|Chincoteague Ponies]] from [[Assateague Island]] and driving them across [[Assateague Channel]] into pens on [[Chincoteague, Virginia|Chincoteague Island]] during the annual [[Pony Penning]].