Mother Nature’s children: The charming Native American kids of the Blackfeet Reservation
Growing up on the Blackfeet reservation in northern Montana is a unique experience in today’s modern world.
The reservation is slightly larger than the state of Delaware but has a small population with less than four people per square mile.
Due to its remote location and extreme winters, the reservation is largely cut off from the world with no large stores or industry.
Sixty-nine per cent of the population is unemployed, with many dependent on welfare.
But in spite of the hardships, the children of the reservation live fuller lives than most.With no personal X-boxes, iPads or computers to distract their attention, they spend most of their time interacting with nature - riding horses, training for the youth rodeo or picking local berries.
‘In the absence of material excess, the children’s imaginations flourish. Without tightly packed schedules of extracurricular activities or the latest video games, children are drawn outdoors to explore and adventure,’ said photographer Rebecca Drobis.Ms Drobis has been visiting the reservation for the last decade and in her photo series Grown Up West, she focuses her lens on the tribe’s children.
She says her goal for the project was to ‘honor the enduring strength, resilience and wisdom of these youth.’ 'These children have tremendous physical confidence, strength and a spirit of fearlessness, ’ she says. 'Youth race down pothole covered roads on bicycles, bounding from a trampoline into a neighbor’s car, sledding down a hill at top speed in sub-zero temperatures and running barefoot through deep woods.’The gross Rousseau noble-savage type commentary is unnecessary as fuck (hello, there are kids on the rez who have electronics, and in the fucking cold of winter in Glacier County you bet there are kids being couch potatoes inside) but these pictures are rad.
The title is pretty gross. “Mother Nature’s children: The charming Native American kids of the Blackfeet Reservation” I’m really damn sick of outsider’s coming in and telling what they think are our stories. Her pictures are beautiful, but how she frames them and talks about them is pretty disgusting.
(Source: whitewolfpack.com)