Dictionary of the American West

T

T tablita (tab-LEE-tuh) A ceremonial headdress of Pueblo people, made of flat wood and carved and painted. taco From the Southwest and now used throughout the United States, a MexicanAmerican food, usually meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and salsa stuffed into a folded, hard tortilla called a taco shell. taiga The moist coniferous forest of interior Alaska; from Russian for “land of little sticks.” tail A verb. The vaqueros made a spsort of tailing cattle, or tailing them down. The rider came alongside a cow on the left and grabbed the tail and twisted it until the critter went down hard. Sometimes other moves are ascribed to the rider. Anglos developed a similar method of tailing for branding—throwing a calf by twisting its tail so you could slap a brand on it. Cowboys also tail cows up—get them onto their feet by twisting their tails. It is used, for instance, to get cows out of bog holes. Tail rider was another name for drag rider. To roll your tail or to tail out is to head out in a hurry. tailings (1) The refuse of the mining process. They’re taken away suspended in water (called tail water) in a tail race. Uranium tailings now litter the canyon country, and sometimes these are called tailings dumps or the tail end. A tail sluice is the end sluice. (2) The stragglers of a cattle herd. Taku In Juneau, Alaska, a hard, cold wind that blows from the valley of the Taku River. The Matanuska, Stikine, and Knik are Alaskan winds named for their regions, but the Knik is a warm wind. (See also chinook, Santa Ana.) talking Westerners have lots of expressions for talking, too much talking, and people who won’t shut up. A talking load is enough whiskey to make a hand talkative . To talk like a Texan, naturally, is to brag. Other expressions include: chew the fat or cud, coyote around the rim, dally your tongue, diarrhea of the jawbone, flannel mouth, giggle talk, leaky mouth, medicine tongue, more lip than a muley cow, powwow, slack in the jaw, talking talent, tongue oil, and wag your chin. What stockmen do most is talk cows or maybe talk horses. For their next favorite, telling big stories, see stuffing dudes. talking stick Among many Indian peoples, an ornamented staff held by each speaker during council. tall timber Wilderness, especially deep wilderness. To head for tall timber is to skedaddle to where people can’t find you. tall timber
385 tallow factory A business establishment where cow carcasses were boiled for tallow. This practice was common in Texas until markets developed for beef and the days of the great cattle drives began. Tallowweed is a forage (Tetraneus linearifolia ) of southern and western Texas known for putting fat on cows. tally hand The fellow who kept count of the calves at branding, often a hand too old, too young, or too stove up to wrestle calves. Sometimes he used knots on a string or pebbles to keep track of every ten calves. The result was called the tally and was kept in the tally book (or on the tally sheet). Counting cows was called tally branding. The sheep world has a different language—the fellow who weighs the wool after shearing is a tallier. tamale (tuh-MAH-lee) A Mexican entree, minced meat rolled in masa dough and (originally) steamed in a corn shuck. Now sometimes prepared in the form of a pie. The real tamale means “the real McCoy.” Borrowed from Nahuatl by way of the Spanish. tamarisk A shrublike tree (Tamarix chinensensis) introduced to the Southwest at the beginning of the twentieth century. Too successful in many people’s view, it now proliferates abundantly, especially along watercourses, choking out native plants. Called tammy for short; also called salt cedar. tame Indian A friendly Indian, as opposed to a hostile; more accurately, a member of a tribe that has accepted a reservation by treaty, rather than an indication of personal attitude. All members of the bands of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull were known as hostiles until they came in to the reservation, friendlies thereafter. tank In the Southwest, a hollow in the ground (often in sandstone) that holds water during the rainy season; sometimes a reservoir made by damming runoff water. Later a stock tank (metal tank for watering stock). (See also tinaja.) Tanner crab In Alaska, two species of crabs of commercial value (genus bairdi and...