Hehaka Gleska
(Spotted Elk/Peter Lethbridge)
1900- 1991
Peter (Pete) Lethbridge, the son of Wanbli Sunpagewin, was born in Regina in 1900. He attended school in Moose Jaw until he moved to the reserve with his mother in 1914. Peter Lethbridge filed on a homestead in 1916 but he gave it up. He was more interested in being a cowboy than in farming. Besides working for ranchers as a round-up cowboy he also took part in bronc riding, rope spinning, trick roping and trick riding at the Wood Mountain Stampede. In the 1920's when he worked for a Montana farmer he trained himself to do Roman riding, standing with one foot on each of two horses as he went back and forth to the fields. He was an exceptional bronc rider, winning at rodeos across Saskatchewan and in northern Montana.
In the 1920's he began to farm some of the family allottment on the reserve and he also began to make stock saddles and other leather gear. He designed his own saddle for trick riding and before long sold similar saddles across North America. He made several "Sam Brown" holsters for members of the RCMP.
Peter Lethbridge continued to live on the reserve until a few years before his death in 1991. His wife Nancy presently lives with one of their daughters. |
