Past Races In On A Horse Coeur D’Alene Indians Revive Dirt-Track Tradition

Perhaps only the dirt clumps and the horses are the same.

But recalling old times was the point.

“When they had races here in the 1870s, this whole valley was full of horses,” said Cliff SiJohn, raising an arm over his acres of blond hayfields on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation south of Plummer.

“I want my children to remember that.”

The pounding hooves of Appaloosa and quarter horses were fewer in number Saturday, as SiJohn hosted an Indian horse race in memory of his grandfather.

Andrew “Red Bird” SiJohn once drove horses from here into Canada just to race.

Saturday, Native Americans from Canada and Colville and Omak, Wash., came here to do the same.

On a half-mile dirt track in a clearing near where his ancestors hid from government agents a century before, SiJohn croaked into a microphone seeking bidders for a Calcutta-style race.

“Do I hear $45? Forty-five, do I hear it?” he called.

“You swatting flies over there or bidding?”

About two dozen horsemen and women took turns racing in pairs and trios, while nearly 100 spectators laughed, whistled, ate and bet.

Children ducked under canopies shielding barbecue pits and stacks of corn, while adults huddled on bleachers.

Despite the number of horses, the link between generations was not lost on riders.

Sixteen-year-old Tony Marchand, whose father died a few years ago following a fall from a horse, kicked his mare Jerry past two other teens to win several hundred dollars in a half-mile race.

“He (Tony) has got a future,” said Tom Best, a former rodeo star who raced with Tony’s father.

“He understands what it’s about.”

An eagle feather tied to the mane on Marchand’s horse symbolized the power of the animal.

“Those horses were the first people here,” SiJohn said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo; Map of Lovell Valley area