Tom Three Persons (March 19, 1888 – August 13, 1949) was a Niitsitapi (

Blackfoot Confederacy The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'', or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or "Blackfoot language, Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up ...

) rodeo athlete and rancher and a member of the

Kainai Nation The Kainai Nation () (, or , romanized: ''Káínawa'', Blood Tribe) is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in southern Alberta, Canada, with a population of 12,965 members in 2024, up from 11,791 in December 2013. tra ...

(Blood). Best known for winning the saddle bronc competition at the inaugural

Calgary Stampede The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, fair, exhibition, and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year a ...

in 1912. An Indigenous athlete, he was the only Canadian to win a championship at this historic rodeo competition.

Early life

Tom Three Persons was born on March 19, 1888, to Double Talker (Ayakonhtseniki) a Kainai (Blood) woman, and Fred Pace, a white trader and bootlegger. He was raised on the Blood Reservation after he was adopted by his mother's Kainai husband. This assured his’ ‘Indian’ status. The Blood Reserve was his childhood home. He lived there until he ‘enrolled’ in St. Joseph's Indian Industrial School, a Catholic boarding school, in May 1903. Following his release from residential school in 1906 Three Persons set about his dual careers as a rodeo athlete and rancher/cowboy.

Rodeo achievements

Guy Weadick George Guy Weadick (February 23, 1885 – December 13, 1953) was an American cowboy, performer and promoter. He and his horse Cyclone quickly became well known in the Calgary area. Today, he is best known as the founder of the Calgary Stampede in ...

, the promoter of the first Calgary Stampede, sought to secure the best cowboys for the rodeo events. After contacting Blood Reserve Indian Agent W.J. Hyde, the Indian Agent wrote to Weadick endorsing Three Persons’ entry in the two bucking horse contests. Three Persons won the saddle bronc contest by overcoming the previously un-ridden Cyclone, winning $1000, a saddle, and a gold belt buckle. An injury prevented him from defending his title at the 1913 Winnipeg Stampede. Although he remained active in local rodeos such as the Gleichen (Alberta) Stampede in 1914, and the 1918 Lethbridge Stampede, Three Persons never regained his Calgary form. Through the 1920s and 1930s, he remained involved in rodeo as an organizer and judge.

Ranching,

Tom Three Persons, although living under the restrictive Canadian laws governing Indigenous peoples, was well known in southern Alberta as a rancher on the Blood Reserve. He raised cattle and horses and farmed grain. By the late 1930s, he was reported to own over 200 head of

Hereford cattle The Hereford is a British List of cattle breeds, breed of beef cattle originally from Herefordshire in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It was the result of selective breeding from the mid-eighteenth century by a few famil ...

. He left an estate estimated to be worth $100,000. Obituaries focused on his rodeo accomplishment at the 1912 Calgary Stampede. In 1983, he was inducted into the

Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame The Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame (CPRHF) was founded in 1979 to honour and distinguish outstanding contestants, builders, and animals in the Canadian rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practic ...

. In 2007, he was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum. In 2024 he was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame as a Rodeo Pioneer.

References

External links

Alberta Settlement website

{{Authority control Kainai Nation people 1888 births 1949 deaths Canadian ranchers Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame inductees Saddle bronc riders