Acting Out Charlie Russell

It's hard to say if Charlie Russell was there the first time it happened, if he witnessed someone else copy the act of bravery or if he just heard the story in some saloon and decided to paint the scene.  However he learned about it, his painting forever immortalized those crazy, brave, possibly drunk cowboys who roped a grizzly bear.  You can see the painting in bars and restaurants all around Montana.  Tourists are intrigued by it (or appalled if they're PETA members), locals embrace it as a symbol of the wild times that shaped Montana and cowboys.....some cowboys are inspired by it.

A few years ago some cowboy friends of mine acted out such a scene in Montana.  For the purposes of this story we'll call the Gus and Woodrow.  They roped a black bear on the prairie to impress some friends of theirs visiting from the east coast.  At first everything went just like the Charlie Russell painting: horses spooking sideways, the bear snarling and biting at the rope on its leg.  But then came the part where they had to get the rope off the bear.  Although it doesn't explicitly say it in the painting, I'm guessing the cowboys of the 1880s just shot the bear with their six shooters and pulled the ropes off after he was dead.  After all, bears have been known to eat livestock and their was no endangered species act in those days.

My friends didn't have guns with them and somehow shooting a bear seems like a much more punishable offense than roping one.  So Gus dismounted while the bear was down, being held by the rope dallied to Woodrow's saddle.  Gus had just fished the first rope off the hind leg of the bear, when suddenly the bear lunged at him and pulled Woodrow's horse a couple steps forward.  Gus fell back and tripped over some sagebrush.  In rapid succession a series of unfortunate events transpired:  the bear fell on Gus, bit his thigh and was then pulled back by Woodrow's horse.  The injured Gus scrambled back to his horse.  Woodrow eased toward the bear as close as he dared and cut his rope off.  The bear loped off dragging the rope that would soon fall off naturally.  

Forgoing medical attention seemed to be a greater risk than potentially being fined for harassing wildlife, so Woodrow drove Gus into the ER as soon as they got back to the barn.  The words "bear bite" seemed to summon every doctor and nurse in the hospital.  He had a continuous stream of medical personnel looking at the wound and then asking for the story.  Gus did his best not to lie, while still keeping the overall story blurry.  He learned to bow his head forward when he was having trouble keeping a straight face, a gesture his listeners assumed was bash-fullness.  Each time he told the story it became slightly smoother:

"How did it happen?" -Doctor

"Well, the bear was caught in some rope and I was trying to take it off of him.  Then he lunged at me and I tripped over a sagebrush." -Gus

"What a story!  You know, there aren't many ranchers who would do something like that to help a bear." -Doctor

"If you only knew the irony of what you are saying," thought Gus, though not out-loud.

As the real story spread (mostly among Woodrow's friends), a family friend living in a different part of the state heard the story and decided to exploit the situation.  He called the bear-bitten cowboy posing as a reporter for the Associated Press.  He asked a variety of questions that became increasingly difficult to answer without giving the real story away and not contradicting any previous statements.  The "reporter" called every night  for a week and even proposed the idea of doing an on-camera interview at the site of the incident.  Gus became increasingly uncomfortable and stressed and finally the "reporter" had mercy on him and stopped calling.  Gus was much relieved although he couldn't stop Woodrow and his friends from re-telling the story everywhere they went.  So while the wild tale never made it into the papers or onto the easel of a famous painter, it was retold at brandings and horse sales for years to come.

Charlie Russell's paintings capture a time when the west was wilder, much more dangerous and sometimes more entertaining.  Times have changed, but every once in a while you get the chance to rope a bear and go back into the days of Charlie Russell.  That's true Montana.