A CHAMPION

The shell of his ranch house is still on the flatlands
just below the St. Mary's Dam spillway on the
southeast portion of the Blood Reserve.

The barn is gone. just a pile of old sun-greyed siding
remains.

But the memories of the first Indian world champion
saddle bronc rider are still vivid in the minds on Blood
residents.

The legend of Tom Three Persons is as alive today as
the day he won the saddle bronc riding at the Calgary
Stampede in 1912.

Three Persons was six-foot-two, handsome, lithe, athlete,
the hero of his people.

Born in 1896, a year before the signing of Treaty 7,
Three Persons was 26 when he went to Calgary to enter
the saddle bronc riding at Guy Weadick's first-time
extravaganza - The Calgary Stampede, billed as the
greatest outdoor show on earth.

He went there virtually unknown - known only to family
and friends as a good bronc rider. He left the Stampede
as world champion and established a name that would
live forever in rodeo history.

Three Persons had done reasonably well on his first
broncs at the Stampede, but on the final day he drew
the great bronc Cyclone, owned by the Blanchard
family. Cyclone ranked right up there with Midnight
and Steamboat as the best of the best.

Cyclone was said to be unrideable and had left about
130 top riders sitting in the arena dust, attesting to
the fact he was one rank bronc. The big black bronc's
favorite move was to rear wildly, balancing on his
hind legs seemingly about to topple over, and
then return to the earth with a bonejarring thud as
the front legs hit the ground. He would sun fish,
dip and dive, shedding riders as he went. Until he
met Tom Three Persons.

In 1912 the broncs were snubbed and held as the
cowboy climbed on in mid arena. They were not
saddled and mounted in bucking chutes as they
are today.

Three Persons checked the cinch, pulled it tight,
swung his long legs over the bronc's back,
secured his highcrowned cowboy hat and said
"Let him go."

A ride wasn't eight or ten seconds then; it lasted
until the cowboy was bucked off or the bronc
quit bucking.

That September afternoon, Tom Three Persons
took everything Cyclone had to offer and rode
the great bronc to a standstill.

Weadick was quoted in the Canadian Cattleman
magazine years later as saying Three Persons
"hit him (Cyclone) in both shoulders with his spurs
- and hard. "Cyclone wasn't used to such treatment.
He reared high and went into his usual pattern of
bucking. But Three Persons kept applying the steel.

"Cyclone got mad and really started in to buck and
did everything on his list to try and unseat the rider
who kept hitting him with his spurs at every jump.
The horse finally quit bucking and stood still,"
Weadick said.

The ride was over. The crowd erupted. A new world
champion saddle bronc rider and hero, was crowned.

Along with the standing ovation and adulation that
lasted the remainder of his life, Tom Three Persons
received $ I ,000.00, a medal, a hand-made trophy
saddle, a championship belt and a gold and silver
mounted buckle.

He returned to the Stampede again in 1923 - Weadick
did not produce another "greatest show on earth"
until that year - but he never did match the success
he attained at the first Calgary Stampede.

Father time had taken his toll.

Tom Three Persons

TOM THREE PERSONS
AN OLD TIME COWBOY

Tom Three Persons is an Indian who made his people
proud. He was the World Saddle Bronc Champion in
Calgary in 1912.

During his career as a cowboy he stayed glued to the
back of many horses, according to his son, Wilton
Frank. "I guess he had natural ability. It was natural
for Indians in those days."

One of the feats was to ride the wild horse, Cyclone,
to the finish. The horse had thrown 129 previous riders.
Frank said he didn't ever remember his father getting
bucked off.

Three persons was named to the Cardston Hall of Fame
during the Cardston centennial as an automatic inductee.
He is also the first contestant inductee in the Canadian
Cowboy Hall of Fame. His induction was held July 11,
1983.

Three Persons started out in the Indian residential
Dun-bow School in south-east Calgary. His ability
with stock determined his direction in life, according
to Frank. "He tried to get some cattle but the Indian
agent (on the Blood Indian Reserve) was against him."
Frank said he went across the line and worked for
Jack Galbraith where he saved some money. "I was in
school (St. Paul's Mission, Old Agency) then." Three
Persons returned to Canada in 1923.

Frank said Three Persons bought some cows when he
got back from the States, about 300 to 400 head. He
said they also ran race horses and some bucking stock.
Some of the stock was used in Lethbridge and Cardston.
"I was against it. I was using them to work."

During this time Three Persons also worked for the RCMP
in Standotf. Frank said there used to be a detachment just
north of Standoff where the Standoff Hutterite Colony
now stands. Frank said Three Persons had a uniform.

Frank said Three Persons was a good father. "He came
to visit me one evening just after he came back from
the States. He raised me. We were in boarding school.
" Frank said Three Persons would take him home during
the summer holiday, which lasted only a month.

Frank said although there are no records Three Persons
claims to be his father. Three Person's first wife was
Frank's mother.

Frank said Three Persons had one problem, he liked his
whiskey. It was the root to most of the problems he
experienced in his later life, according to his son.

Frank said he won his championship because Guy
Weadik, trom the Calgary Stampede. bailed him out
of jail so he could ride in 1912.

Part of his life he spent as part of the the Wild West
Show in Winnipeg and Toronto.

Frank said Three Persons owned three places on the
reserve. One near Bullhorn, one near St. Mary's and
one near Spring Coulee. which Frank still runs. The
moves were made to accommodate the larger herds
Three Persons raised. Frank said they have been in
Spring Coulee since 1929 which was before he finished
school in 1931.

Frank said he and Three Persons went to Calgary some
summers to take in the Calgary Stampede. He said his
father roped and acted as a a pick-up man in the later
times. He also acted as a judge at some smaller rodeos.

Frank said he remembers one time when he was 15 or 16
years old and he had the horses all bedded down for the
night when he got the message his father wanted him to
enter the Indian race at the Calgary Stampede. He said
for entering, the person got $2.00 and for winning, it was
$15.00. He said he didn't want to enter but the message
was, "Tom said you have to."

He entered the race and won but he said he never saw
the prize money. When he asked about it the next day
he was told the money went to his father. He laughed,
as he told the story, and said that was where they
were wrong.

Frank said the last time he remembers seeing his father
ride a bronc was in Raymond in 1928. He said although
his father was drunk he managed to stay on his horse.
He said it was yet another example of his father's
ability on a horse.

Frank talked about four of he and his father's horses,
Kicking Star. Flying Devil, Two Bits and Goldy. Kicking
Star and Flying Devil were bucking horses while the
other two were race horses. Frank said Goldy was
blind in one eye and as a result hugged the rail.

Frank said Three Persons was an exceedingly kind
person. He was generous to a fault. Frank said many
of the things his father won have long-since been
given away or sold for whiskey later in his life and
are now lost to not only the family but the rest of
the rodeo world.

One exception is, Charlie Ivins, another old-time
cowboy, has Three Persons' bridle and spurs hanging
in his livingroom in a place of honor.

Frank said his father bled to death in 1949 when he
was 69 years old. "He was strict with us but I wish
I'd listened to him more."

What greater praise can a son give his father?

Tom Three Persons

It's the big high-heeled cowboy boots and the way
Tom Three Persons carried himself as Lyman Turner,
76, of Magrath remembers best.

Three Persons would regularly visit Magrath Trading
Company store, where Turner was hardware manager,
years after the tall straight-backed Indian bronc rider
had made his mark at the famous Calgary Stampede.
"He was very striking to look at," says Turner. "Tom
used to come into Magrath a lot back in the 1940's."

In 1912 Three Persons was just one of many native
bronc riders, calf ropers and steer riders from the Bloods,
Stoney, Peigan, Sarcee and Siksika nations invited to
take part in the first Calgary Stampede.

Three Persons grew up riding wild broncs and he was
always partial to wearing almost knee-high cowboy boots
with high heels, pants tucked into the tops of the boots.
He also liked to wear bright neck scarfs and when riding
donned red angora chaps.

After taming the great Cyclone to win the world saddle
bronc championship at Calgary, Three Persons continued
to compete in rodeo and won almost every rodeo he
attended during his prime. He was making good money
in rodeo and had invested wisely in cattle and made a
profit at horse trading.

Turner says the wild grass on Three Persons' home ranch,
just below the St. Mary's Dam spillway today and a few
kilometres west of Spring Coulee, was ideal for the large
cattle herds he raised. The corrals were the best quality,
the house was large for its time and the barn was ideal.

Rodeo and ranching were dangerous occupations, though,
and Three Persons was always being treated for broken
arms, ribs and other assorted aches and pains. Despite
the injuries, he was one of the most successful raisers
of thoroughbred horses and purebred Herefords in
southern Alberta. At the time of his death in 1949 his
cattle holdings alone were worth $80,000.00.

In 1946 Three Persons suffered a serious accident from
which he never recovered, leading eventually to his
death in 1949 at the age of 63.

"There was a horse stampede on his ranch and the
horses knocked down a gate on top of him,'' says
Turner. "Many of the horses jumped or galloped
across the gate and when they were finished, Tom
was broke up pretty bad. That was the beginning of the
end for Tom as far as his health was concerned."

The rodeo champion never really recovered from the
broken pelvis and other injuries. Most of his final
years he carried a poplar staff to serve as a walking
cane.

In the summer of 1949, he took ill and Blood Indian
Agent Ralph Regan took him to a hospital in Calgary.
A month later he was dead.

Hundreds of people, white and Indian, attended his
funeral at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Cardston,
laying to rest one of rodeo's great legends.

Native History