When the town of Pendleton, Oregon, held its first large-scale rodeo, it introduced a new kind of rodeo queen not a traveling cowgirl performer but a young, middle-class woman from its own town. Riding Pretty examines the history, evolution, and significance of the community-sponsored rodeo queen, from the introduction of this new phenomenon at the 1910 Pendleton Round-Up to the advent of Miss Rodeo America in 1956, and places the main theme connection of queens to community within the context of the evolution of rodeo as a spectator sport and the changing concepts of gender relations...

The first comprehensive view of women on the North American Plains, these essays explore the richness, variety, and complexity of their experiences. From prehistory to the present, the Great Plains have played a significant role in the lives of women who moved to or across them, cleaving to cultural ideas and patterns while adapting to the rigors of the region.Twelve essays--arranged chronologically within sub-regions--draw upon innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, including gender/transgender studies, decolonization of Native peoples, and the influence of nation states....