Program Synopsis Relay is such an unpredictable sport that every race you don t know what you re going to be up against. Kendall Old Horn, Apsaalooke Nation, MM Express Owner/Holder Indian Relay follows multiple teams from different tribes as they compete throughout the Indian Relay season. Many of the teams consist of families with Indian Relay roots stretching back generations. Bragging rights and money are at stake for the teams that compete in the Indian Relay circuit. Each team expresses their pride in their culture by adorning the horses with colors and paint. Photos from top left: Indian Relay rider Willy Kirkaldie takes care of the team s horses near Hays, Montana. Photo by Charles Dye; Ivan Zack Rock, rider for the MM Express team, aboard Rabatash, at the Indian Relay National Championships. Photo by Aaron Pruitt; Cinematographer Rick Smith captures the action in super-slow motion during the Indian Relay National Championships. Photo by Aaron Pruitt. visionmakermedia.org 1
Producer s Notes Charles Dye INDIAN RELAY was a once in a lifetime project for a documentary filmmaker. It s incredibly rich culturally and visually and it prompts its audience to reexamine their stereotypes about Indians, a population often misunderstood in this country and around the world. Few people outside of the high plains region have ever heard anything about Relay but after three years of documenting this sport I m convinced that it s one of America s greatest. I came across the idea for this film via Angie Murray, the daughter of Carol Murray, one of the Blackfeet elders I was interviewing for my previous film, Before There Were Parks (BTWP). The moment she suggested it, I knew this was a project that had incredible potential. Aaron Pruitt, MontanaPBS s Director of Programming, agreed and together we decided to co-produce the film. Early funds came in from the Friends of MontanaPBS, the Montana Department of Tourism, the Greater Montana Foundation and Humanities Montana. Vision Maker Media then gave us a huge boost when they decided to partner with us. With their crucial support we were able to bring onboard the Pacific Mountain Network and finally, ITVS a documentary filmmaker s dream come true. Fundraising for this project took us two years and in the middle of that we started production. In Browning, John Murray, the Blackfeet Tribal Preservation Officer and chair of this project s advisory board, helped us a great deal by facilitating ceremonies for the project, letting me and my crew often stay with him and his family, and introducing us to many elders and many local relayers, including his grandson, Myles, who is featured in the film. Also in Browning, early on, I worked with Wayne Quig Smith Jr., a Relayer, teacher and photographer who helped me produce and even appeared in the film s 6-minute preview elements central to this project s eventual success. During actual production, I was greatly assisted by Darren Kipp, a talented Blackfeet filmmaker in his own right, who among other things, brought in local cameramen, housed this project s core crew when we were in town to cover the Relays during Browning s North American Indian Days, and closely followed one of our main teams for several months. In Crow Agency, Dr. Tim McCarthy, a Little Bighorn College professor who I d worked with on BTWP, introduced me to Kendall Old Horn and his incredibly hardworking MM Express relay team. The importance of Kendall s belief in and steadfast support of this project cannot be understated. In many ways, this is MM s film. In Ft. Hall, Marcia Racehorse-Robles, another of my contacts from BTWP, introduced me to her uncle, Leo Teton, a legendary Relayer still deep in the Ft. Hall relay scene. With Leo s help I met JonMarc Skunkcap, Alonzo Punkin Coby and Lance Tissidimmit. All of these guys, their families (and many more!) deserve the highest praise for their amazing openness, honesty and constant willingness to be such a central part of this wonderful project. Indian Relay Production Still Photo Courtesy of Charles Dye visionmakermedia.org 2
By the Numbers 1. Indian Relay teams are made up of four people and three horses. One person is the rider, one is the mugger who catches the newly dismounted horse, and the other two are holders who keep the other horses under control throughout the race. 2. There is no requirement for what kind of horses to use in Indian Relay but many are from thoroughbred stock, and the horses are ridden bareback. 3. The rules about starting vary slightly from nation to nation. Sometimes the riders begin the race mounted and start when a flag is dropped, at other races the riders must mount the horse at the starter s signal. 4. Floyd Osborne, a former jockey from the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming says that in the early days they only ran one heat. This is true at only the smallest events nowadays. Most relay races are now multi-day meets where one team might compete in four qualifying heats before the final consolation or championship race. 5. The exact origins of Indian relay races are uncertain, but some believe that the earliest competitions were connected to both sending long distance messages or horse stealing between warring tribes. Whatever the case, relays are a natural part of showing off one s horsemanship and have been done in various ways by various tribes since they had horses. The current method was arguably standardized by the Shoshone-Bannocks in the 1960s, but the eastern Shoshones (and Crow and Blackfeet) were racing relay races where they had to move the saddle from horse to horse long before WWII.. 6. Horses were brought to North America in the 1500s by the Spanish. Rancheros near Santa Fe and Taos had horse herds numbered in the thousands, but during the 1680 Pueblo Revolt the Spanish were forced out of New Mexico and left their horses behind. Within fifty years tribes throughout the great plains and into Canada had acquired horses. 7. The introduction of the horse into tribal culture brought many changes to the way the people hunted, traded, traveled, made war, and lived. 8. Over twenty different tribes and bands of Natives lived within the region and lived off the land and the buffalo, hunting and trading for their livelihood. The three tribes featured in the film, the Shoshone/Bannock Nation, The Blackfoot Nation, and the Apsaalooke Nation are all located in the northern and western plains where the horse culture flourished. Production still Photo by Charles Dye visionmakermedia.org 3
Ideas for Action 1. In the library or on the Internet, research how the horse came to be a part of the Northern Plains Indian culture. What impact did the horse have on previous traditional and social practices? 2. Use the Internet to learn some of the rules and regulations for Indian Relay and the different theories about where Indian Relay originated. How do they vary according to the sources you find? White Calf team rider Narcis Reevis in the middle of the action during the Indian Relay World Championahsips. Photo by Daniel Schmidt. Reflect & Relate 1. Horses arrived on the northern Great Plains sometime during the 18th century. What changes do you imagine came about within the many tribes living on the Plains once they obtained horses? Consider social practices, travel, hunting, trading, etc in your exploration. 3. As a group or class, write an essay on the relationship between horses and humans. Do you think they have a connection, a way to communicate, a link? Explore and identify all the ways that horses and humans come together in our modern culture. 4. Do you have a special relationship with an animal? Write a personal essay about the give and take between you and your special animal. If you don t have an animal, chose one and write a fictional story about you and your animal. 2. Indian Relay is a highly competitive horse race in which many Native American Tribes participate. During the race a rider must race around the track mounting and dismounting his horses three times. What part of earlier life do you imagine this skill and this practice emerged from? 3. In the film we see many of the people adorning their horses with paint, colored tape, etc. as a way of honoring them. Compare the way Native American people honor the horse with earlier practices with the bison, the eagle or other animals. Explore the spiritual and cultural reasons that these animals or nature in general were honored. 4. Indian Relay teams are often family teams. Horses seem to pull the family closer together. They must care for the horses, practice, ride daily, etc. Compare this way of building family relationships with the typical American family. What are the similarities? What are the differences? 5. A successful Indian Relay team must have many skills. Explore all of the elements that must work together to make the race a success. Luke Rock (Crow) watches the action from an earlier race. Photo by Christi Cooper. visionmakermedia.org 4
Resources Internet Resources http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/xieed/documents/text/ idc010176.pdf http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/xieed/documents/text/ idc010176.pdf http://www.native-languages.org/plains-culture.htm http://www.montanapbs.org/indianrelay/ http://www.thefurtrapper.com/indian_horse.htm http://www.shoshonebannocktribes.com/shoshonebannock-relay-races.html http://www.americancowboy.com/culture/indian-relayracing http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/earlysettlements/essays/impact-horse-culture Indian Relay team owners Lance Tissidimit and Alonzo Coby cool down one of their horses after a mid-summer training session in the sandy hilles near their home in Ft. Hall, Idaho. Photo by Charles Dye. http://www.blackfeetnation.com All content in this Viewer Discussion Guide may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational use. Indian Relay is produced by Charles Day and is a co-production of KUSM-TV/MontanaPBS and Vision Maker Media with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This Viewer Discussion Guide was developed by Jamie Lee, an author and former instructor at the Oglala Lakota College, where she taught for five years. Lee has a Master s in Human Development and has been a communications trainer and an educator for the past 30 years. Her stories and articles have appeared in The South Dakota Review, Winds of Change Magazine and several other anthologies. She has published three nonfiction books along with one novel and a collection of writings from Oglala Lakota College students. Her first novel, Washaka: The Bear Dreamer, was a PEN USA finalist in 2007. Lee has written over 70 documentary programs including Public Radio s landmark 52-part Native music series, Oyate Ta Olowan: The Songs of the People. Funding for this Viewer Discussion Guide was provided by Vision Maker Media. Vision Maker Media supports Native stories for Public Broadcasting. For more information, please visit www.visionmakermedia.org. Educational resources for this film are available at www.visionmakermedia.org/education/indian-relay. 2013 Vision Maker Media. All rights reserved. visionmakermedia.org 5