Brian Bastinelli Photography

Hi everyone-

Through out the year I have the opportunity to photograph some events that really mean a lot to me. The one I most look forward to each year is the North American Indian Days Pow Wow on the Blackfeet Nation in Browning, Montana.

The spectacle that unfolds before your eyes is nothing short of breathtaking. Native dancers from across North America converge on Browning for 4 days of dancing, drumming, stickball, horse racing, rodeoing and camaraderie.

Watching the Grand Entires where hundreds of dancers enter the arbor and spiral toward the center takes me to a time that I only wish i could have experienced. The rhythmic beats of the drums along with the voices of the singers slowly lulls you to imagine a time where events like this took place around a fire on the high plains surrounded by lodges made of buffalo hides.

As I shoot the dancers passing by I no longer see the other spectators, the arbor, the bleachers… I see the lodges, and the high grasses of the plains. I smell the smoke of the fire burning mixed with the sweet aroma of the grasses swaying around us. I hear the drums leading the singers beating into the night. I hear the singers honoring the great creator, and those who went before them. You can get lost in these thoughts, imaging what it must have been like.

It’s an honor for me to be able to see let alone photograph these great moments. I hope that you enjoy these images and that I might have done the people in them justice for their efforts and dedication to preserving and living their culture is simply breath taking to me.

Have a great day