In the early 50’s, I ran into Val Haynes and his brother Bill on Main St. I loved listening to the old timers talk about things that happened in the early days.

Val was the first white baby born in Osoyoos Dec. 21, 1875 so he had a lot of stories to tell. While we were talking, Chief Manuel and his wife Margret walked by and said hello and walked on by, Manuel and Val were very close in age, Manuel was born in 1878 or 1879.

Val tells me the story of Manuel racing a Quarter horse in a 50 yd. Race. He said the guys in Orville Wash. Heard about this Indian who was the fastest runner in the Okanagan, so they challenged him to race a Quarter horse. Manuel was in his early 20’s he agreed.

It was the forth of July the big American holiday. They got Manuel down to Orville, it was just a small mining town then. They started the betting, it was Indian verses horse. They were at the starting line, the gun went off and they were gone.

Val had a ring side seat and told me at 40 yards Manuel was just ahead, but at the 50 yard line the Quarter horse caught up and the Judge said it beat Manuel by a nose.

Now, fast forward 50 years, I was having a sweat house with Manuel and the boys and I asked him about that race, he said if he would of had the white man’s running shoes with cleats he could have won the 50 yard race.
He told me he had on a shirt, jeans and moccasins, he said he would of had a lot more grip with the cleats. Val said he lost a couple of bucks on the race, but it was well worth it. To bad the didn’t have another one the next July the 4th Manuel would have been ready.