Old Friends

One of those comfortable photographs of two old friends in Tacoma in the Spring of 1927. That’s the Puyallup tribal statesman Henry Sicade in the company of his fellow Indian cowboy Will Rogers. As young men they both made livings as cattlemen, storytellers and eventually legendary figures in their respective fields of endeavor. Rogers visited Sicade in Tacoma many times over the years of their friendship, including one last trip by airplane with aviator Wiley Post in the summer of 1935. A few days later Rogers was lost when the plane went down North of Fairbanks. But when this photo was taken you can image the stories they were telling. How Henry met and rode with Calamity Jane and how Will did rope tricks for the Queen of England. And no doubt one of the humorists quips like “Even if you’re on the right track you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”