Riders switch mounts three times in this fierce, bareback race. Many of these athletic teams – rider, handlers, and horses – are family affairs going back centuries. To be a relay jockey is among the highest honors on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Watch the relays over two days as part of the gritty, colorful North American Indian Days Powwow and Rodeo in Browning the second weekend of July. That's July 9-11 in 2010.

The Indian relay races are included in a full range of traditional rodeo activities and you never know exactly when the relays will begin. So sit tight, be patient, and enjoy the beautiful setting.

Www.reznetnews.org archives include a great 2007 article and video by two Browning brothers, Wayne Smith and Rayne Charette. Check it out at: http://www.reznetnews.org/multimedia/video/indian-relay-4520. A PDF of the article can be downloaded at left.

Reznetnews is a project of The University of Montana School of Journalism.

The rodeo grounds are east of the main pow wow on Hwy. 89, just east of the intersection with Hwy. 2 on the north side of Browning.