Cowboy Poets pt. 1 (neg)

Year Published: 1986

Creator: Western Folklife Center

Complete Record: 16mm A&B rolls, silent, negative. This documentary celebrates the literary tradition of American cowboy poetry and introduces three working cowboys who write about their life and the land. Waddie Mitchell, the youngest of the three poets, is seen on the Tonight Show reciting one of his poems and at home on his Nevada ranch with his wife and children. He recalls the older cowboy poets and the century-old oral tradition which began around the campfire. Although Mitchell could give performances full-time, he is loathe to relinquish the ranch life he loves. Living in Chino Valley, Arizona, poet Slim Kite recalls life on the frontier and the journey he made as a boy to New Mexico in a covered wagon. Working as a cook on a chuck wagon and a fence builder, Slim, now in his eighties, recites a poignant poem about the demise of cowpunching. Wally McRae works the ranch his grandfather established in 1882. His activist poems decry the death of the land by stripmining and reinforce the cultural values of the cowboy rancher in the face of industrial expansion