Innehållsförteckning för October 2025 från Cowboys & Indians

SANTA FE INDIAN MARKET Couldn’t make it to Santa Fe for this year’s Indian Market? No worries! We have extensive coverage of the largest Indigenous art market in the world on our website and social media channels. Immerse yourself in our recaps and highlights this year; then mark your calendars for the event in 2026. WRITING THE WEST C.J. Box, Craig Johnson, Anne Hillerman, and more celebrated Western authors join us on our new podcast, Writing the West. Available now on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and other streaming platforms. FASHION DO’S AND DON’TS Should you take your cowboy hat off when meeting a lady? We cover this unspoken rule and more with the help of Western fashion connoisseur Brianna Purvis. Head to our “highlights” on Instagram for easy viewing. GET…

Take Me Out To The Ball Game — In Alpine! Your article on the best ballparks in the West (“Play Ball!” July issue, page 110) picked the lowest-hanging fruit. How about including Kokernot Field in Alpine, Texas? It’s a beautiful Minor League ballpark and a wonderful small-town Western experience. A friendly suggestion: how about a whole article on the Alpine Cowboys baseball team and the history of Kokernot Field? I used to be a big baseball fan. The Cleveland Guardians and the Chicago White Sox were my teams. After moving from the Midwest to Texas, where I now live in Austin, I fell away from Major League ball. But I visited Alpine and went to a game at Kokernot. It was a beautiful sunny evening, and with the mountains in…

Situated on Montana’s north-eastern shortgrass prairie, the remnants of dubious cattle containment methods present a plethora of ills for Leo Barthelmess and his family. Rusty barbed wire and derelict woven-wire sheep fence litter the century-old Barthelmess Ranch, with some strands dating back to original homesteaders — well over a century ago. It’s not just Barthelmess who deals with this twisted, coiled, pants-grabbing legacy. Across the American West, an estimated 1 million miles of barbed wire is strung from Dodge City to Sacramento and San Diego to Billings. Forgotten wire on the landscape blocks the seasonal migration of prong-horn antelope and mule deer, while tangling up other wildlife regularly. It also injures domestic cattle and sheep that get snared in the strands. For every mile that’s maintained for enclosing livestock, another…

Dennis Ziemienski never wondered what he would do with his life. The painter was displaying artistic talent even in kindergarten and first grade, where for show-and-tell, he entertained his class by drawing exceptional renditions of Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters on the blackboard. His school principal was so amazed by the young boy’s ability, he met with Ziemienski’s parents, urging them to encourage their son to develop his special gift. His mom, who loved to paint in her spare time, and his engineer father, who drew cartoons as a hobby, did just that. After a stint on U.S. Navy submarines during the Vietnam War (where he was the ship’s artist), Dennis earned a degree at what was then California College of Arts and Crafts, where a respected instructor urged…

Through October 12 Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories Celebrating the making of quilts and the lives of their makers, this exhibition from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston features nearly 50 remarkable quilts and coverlets created from the 18th century up to 2021. Made by Americans of European ancestry and by Black and Indigenous Americans, the quilts give insight into the lives of enslaved and immigrant laborers, industrialization, and the country’s emergence as a world power. Contemporary examples show how artists have used quilts as an expressive medium to address issues such as gun violence, racism, and Indigenous sovereignty. Frist Art Museum, Nashville. 615.244.3340, fristartmuseum.org. Through October 26 People, Places, Predicaments: John Clymer’s West Painter and illustrator John Clymer possesses an extraordinary ability to draw viewers into his…

This season in the West: The Prix de West art show, Charley Crockett loves Montana, and more. The Prix deWest Purchase Award is among the top awards a Western artist can win. And the reticent Utah painter James Morgan was clearly moved to receive the prestigious honor at the 53rd annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. “This award is the high-water mark of my life,” said Morgan, who won for his oil of swans in winter, White on White. “I’m so proud to have my work hang in the hallowed Prix deWest gallery just down the hall.” Morgan was among more than 90 artists exhibiting 27-plus works of art, and the show’s opening weekend sales topped…

Dixie Dixon, “The Collectors” and “Queen Cowgirl of the Prairies,” page 102 & 112 Dixie Dixon is an internationally renowned fashion, lifestyle, and commercial advertising photographer and film director based out of Dallas. She travels world wide working with brands ranging from Disney to Virgin to Elle and has spent the last decade bringing creative visions to life. As a Nikon Ambassador of the United States, she brings a wildly positive energy to set that creates a one-of-a-kind experience. Dixon’s style embodies an idealistic approach to photography and motion work with a touch of soulful realism. At the “Queen Cowgirl” photoshoot in the FortWorth Stockyards, Dixon captured Stacie McDavid as she braved below-freezing weather while wrangling longhorns and horses at 6 a.m. Working with stylist Andrea Thorp, Dixon also shot…

“We’re making shirts for the best days of your life.” In the hyper-saturated world of performance outdoor apparel, that’s one catchy claim—and even better if it actually holds up. What shirt-shopping adventurer lighting out on his next Kenai Peninsula fly-fishing trip, Saw tooth Valley horseback holiday, or Gates of Lodore rafting run wouldn’t give any handsome shirt backed by this pledge a fair shot? The boutique brand behind the claim: Poncho Outdoors. Since its launch eight years ago with The Original—a re-conceptualized fishing shirt that swiftly caught itself a big fan base—the small Austin, Texas-based company has remained focused on creating the most comfortable, functional, fitting, durable, all-around-wearable performance shirts made for many of our favorite pastimes in the great outdoors. If you veer toward cleaner, simpler-styled outdoor attire (and…

Last November, film historians were happily surprised to learn of the discovery of an extant print of The Scarlet Drop, a 1918 western directed by John Ford that has not been seen in its entirety since its original release. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this news was the location of the print’s discovery: a warehouse in Santiago, Chile, that was scheduled to be demolished the day after the property’s owner discovered a collection of film canisters that belonged to a local collector who died 40 years earlier. Previously, only about 25 minutes of the 50-minute The Scarlet Drop was known to exist. “The film is 106 years old. It was stored in conditions we don’t know about,” said Jaime Cordova, the director of Chile’s Valparaiso Recovered Film Festival and…

Chula Beauregard has spent most of her life in Colorado’s mountains. And, yet, the Western impressionist landscape painter still can’t get over the stunning, unspoiled scenery that surrounds her on a daily basis. From her home in the Rockies, Beauregard ventures out to capture the authentic spirit of the American West with her paintbrush. Though she’s traveled all over the world, she continues to find inspiration right in her backyard—in golden-yellow aspen leaves dancing on the breeze, in the Yampa River winding its way through the valley, in cattle grazing against a backdrop of snowcapped peaks.. “The more I’m out there, the more deeply in love I am with it—the ranching culture and heritage, the cowboy thing, all of it … I just appreciate it even more every time I…

Rodeo runs deep in the Mad Plume family, and it runs deep on this dirt along theTwo Medicine River near Browning, Montana. Raised by his grandfather Shorty, Nugget Mad Plume grew up on horseback in this dust. “It’s in our bloodline to do this,” he says, looking up at the historic buffalo jump that looms over the family’s land. “This is where we originated from.” He gestures over toward his home, where his family’s tipi is set up, a bison skull painted above the door and silhouettes of ravens circling the top. “My people ran some buffalo off these cliffs.” The origins of Hell’s Half Acre on this land are a bit murky. The Mad Plume family started the rodeo in 1939 on their ranch just southeast of Browning, in…

Red Steagall heads to Oliver’s Saddle Shop in Amarillo, Texas, to talk with one of the best saddlemakers of all time, RICHARD OLIVER. RED STEAGALL: I know that your family spent quite a bit of time in Prescott, Arizona. … Do you have some fond memories of that? RICHARD OLIVER: I was small, but I remember a lot of the names of the cowboys out there. Virgil Maxwell, Billy Brown. Shel Dunbar owned the Palace Bar at that time — it was right next door to our shop. RED: So your family came back to Texas. Was that because you knew the market was better? RICHARD: My granddad kinda wanted my dad back in Vernon, and it didn’t work out family wise. So Dad started his own shop there in Vernon,…

Indian relay-racing champion Chazz Racine had a guess why the exciting and fast-paced event is the hottest sport in the West right now. “People love to see the thrills and spills,” the Blackfeet rider from Carlson Racing told me between heats on his way to winning the competition at his hometown event, North American Indian Days, in Browning, Montana, on the Blackfeet Nation. After having attended Indian relay races across the West this season, I can tell you the rough and physical nature of the sport is definitely one of its draws. However, what really blows you away is the raw speed and athleticism of the horses, bareback riders, and brave handlers. If you’ve only seen a few clips of the sport online, it may look like a chaotic free-for-all.…

Cowboys & Indians: How did the name Poncho originate? Clay Spencer: After a lot of thinking. It’s not easy to name a company. We started with what we love and gravitate to: the great outdoors, whether it’s hunting, fishing, ranching, ro-deoing, or barbecuing — and we wanted the name to somehow reflect all of that. Poncho is a nod to St. Francisco [aka St. Francis of Assisi], the patron saint of animals and the outdoors, whose nickname in Spanish is Pancho. We traded the “a” for an “o” — so, it’s sort of a doubly hidden meaning but points to all those things that are most important and meaningful to us. C&I: Style-wise, what’s Poncho’s version of kryptonite for an outdoor performance shirt? Hook and loop fasteners? Spencer: We haven’t…

“I am not a painter. I’m a storyteller who uses paint.” Judith Lowry’s quote greets visitors to her exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, a collection of intensely colorful paintings that tower over viewers with overwhelming scale. Lowry (Mountain Maidu/Pit River/Washoe) is an accomplished artist and activist whose works share stories of her community and family traditions. Living pictures depicting vivid stories, her larger-than-life yet deeply personal canvases add meaningful insight to the broader narrative of American art. On view through November 16, 2025, The Art of Judith Lowry brings the artist’s oral histories to vibrant life through her evocative figurative style and gemstone colors. The enormous, visually striking tableaux elicit a powerful dramatic effect that plays on the eyes and emotions. “These paintings are not to…

As murder trials on the Western frontier go, this one’s about as congenial as it gets — at least during filming breaks. In a compact timber-walled courtroom, the presiding judge is yukking it up with the prosecuting and defense attorneys by the bench. Jurors in formal 1880s attire casually chit-chat in the wings. Even the accused—the imperious Marquis de Morès—seated up front looks relaxed, more like a debonair guest of honor than a menacing French cattleman being tried for shooting a 24-year-old rancher over a fence dispute. Right now, the only solemn expression in the courtroom—aside from a C&I correspondent studiously observing the making of Elkhorn, Season 2, Episode 5 (“Trials and Tribulations”) from a back bench, well off camera — is a framed portrait of President Grover Cleveland hanging…

STYLISTICALLY, the West was won on function, but the story has always been preserved through artistry. Heritage Western fashion is largely influenced by artisans of generations past. Their legacy of engraved silver, tooled leather, traditional textiles, and handpicked turquoise stones continues to set a timeless fashion standard. As the world turns its eyes to the West, we showcase our history and heritage through Native American finery and cowboy essentials. Straight from the fashion frontier — a contemporary nod to the Western and Indigenous artisans carrying forward the torch of tradition. STATEMENTS Where contemporary craftsmanship and heritage design meet. Just let the bag do the talking. ARTIFACTS IN MOTION Heirloom pieces are treasured finds with stories spanning generations. As the center piece of style, they're sure to spark conversation. THE RICHEST…

IT’S 1851 IN CALIFORNIA, AND THE GOLD RUSH RAGES. The country is on edge—expanding, dividing, and teetering between ambition and chaos. The recent war with Mexico has added vast new territories, but the Compromise of 1850 struggles to hold together this increasingly fragile Union. All the while, railroads are creeping west and Manifest Destiny drives crowds chasing fortune, land, and power. It’s a simpler story here in Northern California: Gold is calling. But California Dreamin’ be damned — this ain’t that place. The sovereign siren call has drawn half a million rapscallions, ne’er-do-wells, schemers, dreamers, and speculators, flooding the brand-new state, grunting through mud, muck, and murder, hunting their way toward wealth, wisdom, and wondrous whereabouts. At the moment, this land is a beautiful nightmare—a wild, untamed expanse where rugged…

JOE DON BAKER earned his spurs in two western films, Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and Wild Rovers (1971), and episodes of such series as Iron Horse, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Lancer, The High Chaparral, and The Big Valley before he was cast in his breakthrough role as wrestler-turned-lawman Buford Pusser in Walking Tall (1973). The film, inspired by real-life events, depicted Pusser as a sheriff who frequently broke rules, and bones, while battling the Dixie mafia that had taken control of his Tennessee town. Produced on a reported $500,000 budget, Walking Tall was phenomenally successful at the box office and went on to gross $40 million. Among Baker’s other notable roles: the entrepreneurial brother of Steve McQueen’s rodeo competitor in Sam Peckinpah’s Junior Bonner (1972); a hit man hunting for a…