“When I ride, it feels like I’m floating.
I ride between the ears and sky.”
— KT
“What’s special about Indian rodeo is all these tribes have fairs and within those fairs they have horse racing, powwows and rodeos. Your aunts, uncles and family are all in the stands and watching you. It gives you a sense of pride that you’re representing your family. It just brings everyone together like we did one hundred and fifty years ago.”
Troy Heinert - Inter tribal Buffalo council
“Three mile creek is a quiet part of the Pine Ridge Reservation. In summertime, above the chirping birds and the buzz of insects, you can hear the echoes of the Vocu family at work rounding up bulls and broncs. The family are as much part of the landscape as they are the lives of local children. Dale and Mona Vocu from the Three Mile Creek rodeo school are rodeo grandparents to countless Pine Ridge children. Nurtured and trained by the Vocus, many kids have become world champion cowboys and cowgirls. They’re taught to respect the dance between the rider and the bull or bronc. And, although competing with one another, they learn to support each other in and out the arena. Rodeo reinforces the values of humbleness, hard work, and pride in the people they represent. ”
The First Families Now community building is a place of healing, and protection from the winter winds and burning summer heat. It is a sacred place. Alice Phelps, her daughters Ashley, Victoria and Auntie Sonia, look after the dry goods stores, and sort through the boxes of donations to feed and clothe families of Pine Ridge. Life on the Reservation is very tough for family caregivers. High rates of unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse have broken many families. First Families Now helps stitch them back together, repairing hearts sunken by despair, providing a safe place to heal trauma.
‘To be a champion you’ve got to be able to run into a rock eight times and shake it off.”
Allen MadPlume
I met Doug Fitzgerald on his Grandfather’s ranch on the edge of Glacier Park. Watching him ‘catch and release’ a nervous horse I could feel a deepening trust forming between them.
“Rodeo was my way to survive. The joy and excitement in eight seconds brought me close to the old ways two hundred years ago.’
Doug has retired from rodeo and balances a career in film with being a custodian warrior for the Blackfeet nation.