Julia Ike-Andrews sits on a blanket surrounded by tipis, arranging the hair ties, necklaces and animal skins laid out in front of her. She wears a pastel-pink dress decorated with strawberries and green-and-blue accents, a color scheme she says was intentional.

“Everything from head to toe truly does, I would say, mean something,” she says.

The Yakama Nation member made her own dress for this year’s Pendleton Round-Up, the largest rodeo in Oregon. Beyond the skill and showmanship of its adrenaline-fueled events like barrel racing, calf roping, and trick riding, this week the grounds are teeming with hundreds of more quiet spectacles: what rodeo goers choose to wear.

From glitzy golds to subtle pastels, and new hats studded with rhinestones to old ones stained with dirt, Round-Up style serves as yet another form of personal expression and storytelling at one of the most significant cultural gatherings in Eastern Oregon.

From Ike-Andrews’ spot in the tipi grounds, the bellowing of the arena and the packed grandstands are distant enough to hear the glasslike clinking of her jewelry.

She holds up a necklace made of imitation elk ivories that signifies a rich hunting family that provides not just for its own, “but for the community, for other families,” she says.

Her moccasins are fitted with strips of buckskin hide, while she chose the cheerful colors of her dress hoping they “would bring out more of a happy me.”

Ike-Andrews is in the fifth generation of her family to attend the Round-Up, and this year she’s there with her mother, Rayenell Tom, who corrals her grandchildren playing between the tipis.

“She made her own dress and she’s self-taught,” Tom says of her daughter. “I would say that was her inner spirit. Her hands knew what to do. She knew the design she wanted. She knew the color before she even made it.”

‘This hat’s seen everything’

Rodeo contestant and army veteran Quincy Cole stands out for the gold jewelry that glints up and down his tall rancher’s frame in the tangerine, afternoon sun.

“You know, most of my life I spent as an army guy down south in Alabama,” Cole says. “I moved out here [to Pendleton] and I love it — just absolutely love the rodeo world.”

Cole grew up in Enterprise, Alabama, where his parents worked in the jewelry business.

“I just have a real high taste for fashion, and that’s all that boils down to, honestly,” he says. “I got an eye for it, so I love it.”

A shiny cow tag bearing his initials and a Cuban link necklace — a nod to the hip-hop era he grew up in — shine around his neck.

Each item, no matter how small, has a story behind it. There is the gold watch an old boss sold Cole in his days working at a pawn shop, or the turquoise ring his aunt gave him before she fell ill and passed away.

Even his hat holds more stories than he has time to tell.

“This hat’s seen everything — blood, sweat, tears,” Cole says. “It’s been in the mountains, it’s been in the woods, it’s been in dirt, it’s been stepped on … So it’s flimsy, but it still wears, you know, so that’s why I keep it on.”

Pieces of home

The Round-Up draws people from across the country who are deeply involved in the rodeo world, many of them there to represent professional rodeo and Western style.

Miss Rodeo Arkansas ambassador Falyn Cordeiro is dressed for business.

“As a state title holder, we are kind of to promote our sponsors, so Wrangler jeans, Wrangler shirt and a Resistol hat,” Cordeiro says.

Her outfit also includes pieces that reflect her affection for her home state. Each of her earrings are a wooden razorback hog, the mascot for the Arkansas Razorbacks, and her intricate silver belt buckle and sash are both made in Arkansas.

Cordeiro — who says she first sat on a horse when she was two weeks old — also sports accessories that bring her back to her childhood, like a silver cuff with pieces of her horses’ hair braided into it.

“I have my childhood horse that has passed away, and then my current horse who’s actually on a break from injury, but that’s a pretty special piece that I bring with me,” she says.

Cordeiro says people can use the rodeo as a place to experiment with their own style.

“Rodeo very much welcomes all aspects of fashion,” she says. “And so definitely go as crazy and as out there as you can. But if you want to come comfy and subtle, just do that too.”

‘Modern cowboy’

Dozens upon dozens of vendors display their Western wares in a sea of tents and trailers packed with boots, hats, bolo ties, jewelry, leathers and bandanas.

Alan Sanchez, a hat vendor from Texas, says his business is creating space for Hispanic people to feel welcome in the world of Western fashion.

“There’s a huge Hispanic community out here, and they feel very welcome coming into our stand,” Sanchez says, as his employees steam and fit hats for a line of customers.

Sanchez has been going to rodeos all his life. Before he became busy with his company, he competed in team roping events at Texas rodeos.

With his hat operation in full throttle, he’s establishing his priorities as a small vendor in a big industry.

“To have people express themselves whenever they wear their own cowboy hat, that’s the most important part to me,” Sanchez says. “If you don’t like it, or the comfort ain’t there, you ain’t gonna wear it, and it’s gonna sit in your closet the rest of the time.”

Sanchez’s outfit is simple: denim jeans, a shiny belt buckle, cowboy boots and a gray hat with a red-tailed hawk feather jutting off the brim. For him, each piece has a story, but together they send a single message.

“I feel like I’m that modern cowboy.”

OPB’s Eli Imadali contributed to this report.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/09/19/pendleton-roundup-style-storytelling/