Cowboy State Rodeos Boast Major American Indian Precense As Wyoming Prepares to “OUTRIDE THE DEVIL”
To celebrate Cheyenne Frontier Days’ “Year of the American Indian,” we explore the rich history and continuing legacy of American Indian rodeo athletes through the thoughts of Mo Brings Plenty and Derrick Begay from “Outriding the Devil.”
CASPER, WY: “Outride the devil on the way to Cheyenne,” sings Hall of Fame songwriter and country music legend Radney Foster in his theme song for Outriding the Devil. The lyrics reflect the tie that binds the number one-ranked Western docudrama together, how Texas Hall of Fame barrel racer, Angela Ganter, overcame Stage 4 breast cancer and completed what many are now recognizing as the greatest comeback in rodeo history. A journey she completed at Cheyenne Frontier Days.
With its Wyoming Premiere in Casper on the eve of the College National Finals Rodeo on June 13 at the Studio City Mesa + ARQ, Outriding the Devil will achieve a unique honor by being part of both the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) and the CNFR. “Nothing is more beautiful than the story of a determined cowgirl,” states the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA). Which is absolutely true, but among the great strengths of this film is the historical and cultural tapestry that informed Ganter’s heritage and made the West and rodeo what it is.
To celebrate these connections, the film will move chronologically across the Cowboy State for its special showcase events:
THE 2026 WYOMING PREMIERE TOUR SCHEDULE
- CASPER (June 13, 7:00 PM): Studio City Mesa + ARQ. Held during the week of the College National Finals Rodeo.
- SHERIDAN (July 5, 6:30 PM): Wyo Theater. Opening this year’s annual Rodeo Week celebrations.
- CHEYENNE (July 16, 7:00 PM): Capitol Cinema 16 + ARQ. Screening on the eve of the opening ceremonies for the Morning Star Village.
“Visit Casper is excited to partner with the Wyoming Foundation for Cancer Care to bring the Wyoming Premiere of Outriding the Devil to Casper during the week of the CNFR.”
Wayne Stewart
Director of Marketing and Communications for Visit Casper
SHERIDAN WYO: AMERICA’S ORIGINAL EXTREME SPORT
The WYO Rodeo in Sheridan also has a rich history of Native involvement, beginning in 1931 and extending to its “Cowboy Days, Indian Nights” celebrations, where members of the neighboring Crow and Northern Cheyenne Nations made camp and welcomed visitors. Now, the WYO Rodeo is the focal point of Indian Relay, becoming the World Championship Indian Relay Races.
“Indian Relay is America’s original extreme sport,” says Zane Garstad, Executive Director of the WYO Rodeo and World Championship Indian Relay.
One of Indian Country’s finest horsemen of his generation, the late Hermis Tall from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was a three-time world champion at the WYO Rodeo Indian Relay Races. A decade later, Tyler Peasley of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and Chazz Racine of the Blackfeet Nation are the standard bearers for excellence. Racine has lived his own “Outriding the Devil” story to reach the pinnacle of Indian Relay.
A premiere screening of Outriding the Devil at the Wyo Theater in Sheridan on July 5 opens this year’s celebrations.
“The Sheridan WYO Rodeo and World Championship Indian Relay, along with its Gold Buckle Club, are honored to kick off this year’s Rodeo Week Celebration with a premiere of this outstanding documentary. Outriding the Devil embodies the Western way of life we hold dear, while embracing modern advances in rodeo, and highlighting the essential role Native Americans play,” summarizes Garstad.
CHEYENNE FRONTIER DAYS & THE MORNING STAR VILLAGE
While American Indian participation at Cheyenne Frontier Days dates back to 1898 with the Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho, and Lakota Nations, this year marks a monumental milestone for representation.
“I believe that rodeo is a part of our traditional culture,” says Mo Brings Plenty (Lakota) in the movie. “Rodeo has played a vital role.” A fan favorite on Yellowstone and now Marshals, Brings Plenty is one of the principal contributors to Outriding the Devil and has been a prominent advisor and ambassador for the reimagined Morning Star Village at Cheyenne Frontier Days, where he served as the 2025 Parade Grand Marshal.
“I consider the arena at Cheyenne Frontier Days to be sacred ground,” Brings Plenty continues. “Maintaining tradition is so important and I’m super excited for the new Morning Star Village. Positioned right there next to the arena, it’s like two lungs, side-by-side, breathing life and diversity into society.”
The Outriding the Devil Premiere Tour screening at Cheyenne Frontier Days takes place on July 16 at the Capitol Cinema 16 + ARQ in Cheyenne, the night before the opening ceremonies for the Morning Star Village.
In keeping with Cheyenne Frontier Days’ “Year of the American Indian,” Brings Plenty and twelve-time NFR qualifier, Derrick Begay (Navajo), both discuss American Indian contributions to rodeo in the film.
“Native Americans do have a big role in rodeos. It’s always been there,” begins Derrick Begay. “I’m from a little community on the Navajo Reservation called Seba Dalkai. That’s where I was born and raised. Rodeo has just always been a part of my life. It’s always been a part of my family’s life,” he says.
THE DEEP ROOTS: HOW HISTORY SHAPED THE WEST
The contemporary milestones celebrated in Casper, Sheridan, and Cheyenne stand on historical shoulders. In Outriding the Devil, Angela Ganter’s great-grandparents, John and Sylvia Campbell, are the entryway to American Indian representation in the film. Pioneer ranchers on the Brazos in 1850s Texas, the Campbells adopted “pragmatism” with the people who were essentially their hosts, the Comanche. Obscured today by years and pages of rehashed history, the role of the sagacious Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, in the expansion of ranching and the cattle industry and by extension rodeo, is explained by narrator Forrie J.Smith, Mo Brings Plenty’s Yellowstone castmate.
“Quanah was a pivotal figure in the ranching boom that transformed the economy of the West. Quanah became a business associate and advocate for three giants of the cattle industry: Charles Goodnight, father of the great cattle trails north; Samuel Burk Burnett, founder of the monumental Four Sixes Ranch; and the indomitable tycoon, Daniel Waggoner. Quanah was instrumental in securing grazing leases for the preeminent Texas stockmen to fatten up their herds on tracts of reservation land before shipping them to market.”
It began when Quanah surrendered to Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, in 1875. Mackenzie pledged to buy Quanah his first cattle. Quanah pledged to be a successful cowboy. As Forrie Smith says in the movie, “each kept their word.” Quanah became so integral to the aspirations of the cattle barons that Burnett and Waggoner financed the construction of the chief’s famous “Star House.”
“In 1909, at the newly constructed Cowtown Coliseum,” continues Smith, “Quanah led the Grand Entry for the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, now better known as the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.”
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EARLY RODEO GIANTS
Outriding the Devil not only features the only known footage of Quanah Parker, his daughter, Wanada Parker, and son, White Parker, but also several early rodeo giants, including Jackson Sundown.
“If you look at Jackson Sundown, not just him but others, they threw them on the rankest of them all,” reflects Mo Brings Plenty.
Sundown rightly retains near mythic status. A nephew of the revered Nez Perce leader, Chief Joseph, as a boy, Sundown (Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn/Earth Left by the Setting Sun) escaped from a burning tipi and a barrage of gunfire when the non-treaty Nez Perce were attacked by Colonel John Gibbon’s forces at the Big Hole in Montana during their tragic 1,170-mile exodus from their homeland. When the war was long over, Sundown settled on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, became a renowned horse breeder and trainer, and established one of the great unsung sporting rivalries in Western history with fellow Indian Cowboy and bronc buster, Jimmy Grinder (Secwépemc).
“Sundown and Grinder were put on unrideable broncs, but these individuals were so talented that they made those unrideable broncs rideable,” says Brings Plenty.
Sundown returned to the traditional homelands of the Nez Perce in the Pacific Northwest, and at age 49 began to compete on the rodeo circuit. He was, said famed Old West artist, writer, and explorer Colonel Charles Wellington Furlong, “a sight fit for the Gods” when he rode in the arena. After what Brings Plenty describes as “ugly, old-fashioned racism,” Sundown was cheated of numerous titles, including the 1915 World Championship at the Pendleton Round-Up. The following year, aged 53, his performance on three-head was so exceptional that he couldn’t be denied, and he won the title.
“Indian people got on some of the meanest bulls, too. That’s why the Indian rodeos came about; it was a way to bring a sense of fairness and equality to our people,” continues Brings Plenty. If you look back at the history of Indian Country’s involvement in the rodeo world, there wasn’t just Jackson Sundown, there were others as well.”
Among those, the movie spotlights roper and matinee idol Will Rogers (Cherokee) and eight-time PRCA world champion bull rider Don Gay (Choctaw).
“And I’m sure there were guys crazy enough back in the day to get a buffalo caught somewhere and get on it and try it out and see what happens!” Brings Plenty laughs.
THE LINK TO ‘BUFFALO DAZE’ AND MODERN MEDIA
It wasn’t quite back in the day, but in 2019, Derrick Begay rode a buffalo at the Gallup Intertribal Indian Ceremonial Old School Rodeo. It is believed that Jackson Sundown’s friend and rival, Jim Grinder, was considered the first world champion buffalo rider, a status he attempted to solidify at the 1915 Missoula Stampede.
Jim Grinder’s late-frontier, larger-than-life saga is the subject of the current Amazon streaming hit “Buffalo Daze,” which stars Mo Brings Plenty and was written and directed by Outriding the Devil director Raen LeVell. Buffalo Daze was the first Western feature since Shane in 1953 to depict Wyoming that was actually shot in the Cowboy State. Brings Plenty was the first to speak of the similarities between LeVell and Taylor Sheridan, describing them both as “visionaries and amazing storytellers” who are committed “to depict our history and culture accurately.”
LeVell recently won three categories at the prestigious 2026 Accolade Global Film Competition, alongside the likes of Emmy and Golden Globe winner Sir Idris Elba, whose Western roles include The Harder They Fall and Concrete Cowboy.
THE LIVING LEGACY: RESERVATIONS TO THE MODERN CIRCUIT
Today, the All Indian Rodeo Cowboys Association (AIRCA) oversees a vibrant and growing circuit, and the Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) is one of the highlights of the rodeo calendar.
“Rodeo is something that people on the reservations love,” says Derrick Begay. “It’s important. I don’t remember how old I was when I first competed, but I was probably riding a sheep or something like that,” he smiles.
“I give a lot of credit to the Indian rodeo circuit. I learned a lot from that experience. Not just how to compete and win, but it also prepared me for the business of rodeo, and understanding that rodeo is a worldwide sport. You have to travel to different places and meet different types of people,” Begay recalls.
With Shorty Garrett winning big at the recent Music City Rodeo, and the likes of Jayco Roper, Jacob Lees, Aaron Tsinigine, and Erich Rogers among the world’s best in the PRCA standings, Danielle Lowman and Erin Jones lighting up the WPRA, and PBR stars Keyshawn Whitehorse and Cody Jesus continuing the legacy of Navajo bullriders epitomized by the late Spud Jones, there’s no doubt that American Indian rodeo athletes continue to inspire and excel. It won’t be long before saddle bronc rider Jackson Ford and barrel racer Quinley Inman, who became a world champion at the 2024 INFR at 9 years old, become household names on the rodeo circuit.
It’s fitting that one of the most effective contemporary ambassadors for American Indian rodeo competed at the CNFR while at the University of Montana Western. A top-class PRCA saddle bronc rider, Dougie Hall, has become almost as well known as a motivational speaker who trades in relentless positivity. From Browning on the Blackfeet Nation, a community that endures severe socio-economic hardships, Hall harnessed the power of social media early to inspire, entertain, and educate with his window to the world. Many of his reels are shot at his Good Medicine Bucking Horses stables, where he raises high-quality broncs. “Dancin’ Dougie” is living proof of his message of positivity. You’re doing something right to be a stuntman for Kevin Costner on Horizon. To have the recurring role of Russ “King” Fisher in Taylor Sheridan’s Landman speaks for itself.
A TRADITION OF COMMUNITY
“When you rodeo with someone, my family is kind of like their family,” explains Derrick Begay. “We all have our hardships, we all have our good times, and we all try to live our lives the best we can with what we got and how we got it. We all understand each other because we all kind of come from the same place and have the same values. The rodeo community, they’ll do anything for anybody,” Begay concludes.
Outriding the Devil represents those values, that community, and Western heritage through a multitude of authentic voices, many being the superstars of the sport, supported by others from the “Yellowstone” franchise and country music. There’s a reason why ProRodeo.com/the PRCA describes it as “one of the great rodeo movies.” The Wyoming premieres offer one of the last opportunities to see the movie on the big screen. You shouldn’t miss it.
Raen LeVell will be present at each premiere to introduce the movie and hold a Q&A. Due to a partnership between Visit Casper, the Wyoming Foundation for Cancer Care, the WYO Rodeo, and the Gold Buckle Club, the premieres are free and open to the public.
“The Arizona Outriding the Devil premiere was faboulous. What a truly moving movie. I feel blessed to be one of the first to have seen it by attending the premiere!”
Patrick O’Donnell
CEO and Founder – Cowboy Lifestyle Network
AZ Premiere of Ourtiding the Devil. Photo credit: CLN
WYOMING PREMIERE TICKETING LINKS
College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR): Studio City Mesa + ARQ, Casper – June 13, 7 pm.
WYO Rodeo: Wyo Theater, Sheridan – July 5, 6.30 pm.
Cheyenne Frontier Days: Capitol Cinema 16 + ARQ, Cheyenne – July 16, 7 pm.
Tickets are first come first serve on the day of the events, but can be reserved in advance at the respective box offices.
**Article created in conjunction with material from Gypsy Life Films archives**
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