The Yakama Nation’s Enduring Legacy at the Ellensburg Rodeo
The Yakama Nation has a century-long history with the Ellensburg Rodeo, a four-day event in historic Kittitas Valley where tribes have practiced their traditions since time immemorial. Families today can trace their ancestry to Craig’s Hill, Naneum, and Chelohan, a northeast Ellensburg intertribal meeting ground.
The fairgrounds at Craig’s Hill and the rodeo arena are a significant place called Lymuwt’w Wishpoosh, where the Yakamas lived, harvested, and played Waluksha and stick games. Tribal Leaders known as Saluskin, Meninick, Owhi, Yallup, and Sohappy were all connected and associated with the Kittitas also known as the Pshwanapam.
Ida Nason Aronica, one of the great-granddaughters of Yakama Chief Owhi, and her family participated in erecting what would become the rodeo’s Teepee Village on that very ground. This village was also associated with the Meninick family. Jim Meninick was a key figure at the Ellensburg Rodeo along with his grandson Johnson Meninick, an Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Famer who was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation for his dedication to protecting cultural resources.
Similarly, Ida dedicated her life to preserving and sharing her tribe’s culture, heritage, and traditions. She traveled throughout Kittitas Valley as a storyteller and teacher. At her ranch at the mouth of Naneum Canyon, she nurtured a sanctuary for family, friends, and indigenous passersby, helped homesteaders with their work and raced her winning horses at their “Sunday Rodeos,” precursors of the Ellensburg Rodeo. She was a bridge between the Yakama and the growing population of white settlers.
In 1923, “Sunday Rodeos” evolved into the Ellensburg Rodeo. Dr. H.E. Pfenning proposed that it be modeled after Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show to memorialize the vanishing frontier way of life and fuel commerce. For decades, Ida, her family, and the Yakama Nation were mainsprings in the rodeo’s clockwork.
With support from business and agricultural communities, the county, and the state, 500 volunteers built the Ellensburg Rodeo Arena adjacent to Craig’s Hill. In September 1923, a sellout crowd christened a rodeo reverberating with competing ranch hands and the traditions of the Yakama Nation.
Since then, the Yakamas have opened each rodeo dressed in full regalia for a procession of horses into the arena to symbolize their annual return to the meeting ground at Craig’s Hill. In their Teepee Village, Yakamas share their traditional foods, dancing, and storytelling to fair and rodeo goers.
In 2010, the late Ida Nason and her surviving family were inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame for perpetuating the Yakama Nation’s traditions.
In 2023, the rodeo celebrated its 100th year and the partnership with the Yakama Nation imbued with traditions that will continue to educate and inspire generations to come.