Alternate names

Buzz Trottier Cowboy Hat

Description

Wide brimmed hat, tall pinch, matching band

History of Use

Eldon Trottier was born in a little shack in the bush not far off the no. 4 highway by the Red Pheasant reserve on February 16, 1932. An old Native mid-wife delivered him. Eldon wasn’t called by his real name very often; everyone knew him as Buzz or Buzzo. His father was John Trottier. He used to ride for the 76 ranch. John’s father (Buzz’s grandfather) was Patrice Trottier. He was Métis and he died around 1939. Buzz’s grandmother, Talia Rose Whitford, died in 1931. Like Patrice, she was Métis. Buzz was the third generation of his family to ranch in the White Mud Valley. John married Buzz’s mother, Anna Gladeau, around 1924 in Malta, Montana. Anna was from Fort BelKnap and raised at Gros Ventures, an Indian reserve south of Malta, Montana. In the 1950s she got Tuberculosis. She was always thankful that none of her children got sick. John and Anna had twelve children: Lloyd, Laura, Joan, Ruth, Eldon (Buzz), Dolly, Shirley, Betty-Ann, Kathleen, Deanna, Irene, and Jerry. Betty-Ann and Kathleen died when they were babies. Sometimes John and Anna would speak Cree with Buzz so he could understand a little of the language. The family came to Val Marie around 1912. Buzz went to school in the Little Brick Schoolhouse and the Convent in Val Marie. The people in the community sometimes treated the family differently because they were Native. In addition to the large family, some old cowboys, drifters, and bachelors stayed at the Trottier home sometimes. Ben Desreal and Cliff Olson were always over at their place. The homesteaders from Orkney stopped for meals on their way to Ponteix. The 70 mile crossing was just by their place and the trail from the south went right by. Buzz married Mary Gardener of Climax in 1954 and had six children: Carol, Brian, Kathy, Monty, Beverly-Ann, and Rocky. Beverly Ann died when she was a baby. At first he worked for Doc Dixon. Next he went to work on an oilrig and drilled all over Mankota and Wood Mountain country. Then he went down to Wyoming and started building highways. When his father moved to town, after he got his veteran’s pension, Buzz took over the ranch in 1965. Buzz owned about 1435 acres of land. He ranched approximately 100 head of mostly Hereford cattle. The ranch sold to Douglas Lang in 1988. In 1990 Buzz moved to Swift Current and pursued a career as a country singer and was involved in a dance band called Grassland Country. Buzz died of a massive coronary heart spasm on March 15, 1995. He was cremated and the ashes were scattered by his family on the ranch where he grew up. May he rest in peace.

Materials

beaver felt