This Is Why Tyler Childers Played a Benefit for the Blackfeet Tribe

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Editor’s note: To see a review of the Tyler Childers performance specifically, CLICK HERE.

In the tourist towns and picturesque destinations throughout Wyoming, Montana, and other places in the greater American West, they call it “The Yellowstone Effect.” The rabid popularity of the Taylor Sheridan-directed and Kevin Costner-starring modern Western series has resulted in a rabid population injection of monied interests in towns that used to be quiet little backwaters, supported primarily by timber, ranching, and perhaps a moderate level of tourism.

Whitefish, Montana and the surrounding region west of Glacier National Park is one of those destinations. The influx of affluent residents is clogging roads, straining local services, spiking rents and real estate prices, and for some, taking away many of the important things that made people want to live in or visit these areas in the first place.

This is also where Outriders Presents produces their Under The Big Sky Festival every year in mid July, which is considered one the first and one of the biggest independent country festivals in the United States. Talking to long-time Whitefish residents, sentiments on the festival are mixed. The event exacerbates existing traffic issues, crashes the cell phone towers, and brings in some elements of music fans that don’t respect the quiet and slow nature of Whitefish life. It also brings in tons of money, which is the reason many local boosters, business owners, and elected officials are in favor of the event.

Under The Big Sky Fest happens on the 350-acre Big Mountain ranch just east of Whitefish. These days, most ranches don’t make money. Their primary asset is the land they sit atop. Utilizing the land for festivals and other live events is actually a way to help preserve the land from the type of development that is enveloping much of the area surrounding Whitefish.

Under The Big Sky Fest on the Big Mountain Ranch

When it comes to music, “The Yellowstone Effect” has been transformational as well. In lieu of radio play, many independent country, roots, and rock bands have benefited greatly from the show, most notably Whiskey Myers, but also Colter Wall, Flatland Cavalry, Shane Smith & The Saints, Tyler Childers, and many others. Cast Members Ryan Bingham, Luke Grimes, and Lainey Wilson have all played at Under The Big Sky Fest in the past. Even amid a pause in the TV show itself, “The Yellowstone Effect” still remains in full force for the music, and for the region.

Whitefish and the greater Flathead River Basin in Montana is the western gateway to the massive Glacier National Park. There is even an international airport that allows large commuter jets to service the region. The vast majority of the people who go to Glacier come from the West. Leaving Whitefish on Hwy 2 and heading towards the park, there are scores of quaint hotels, RV Parks, cabin rentals, even water slides, go-kart tracks, putt-putt golf, and zip line tours. It’s a vibrant, bustling region in the summer, with national and international tourists flocking to the destination.

But on the east side of Glacier National Park, it’s an entirely different world. Sitting adjacent to the massive Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the town of East Glacier is not much more than a few restaurants, and a gaggle of modest houses and trailers sitting back off of Hwy 2. If you continue further on Hwy 2, you will find the only “town” on the reservation, which is called Browning, population 1,018. Somewhat ironically, it is named for a former Commissioner for Indian Affairs, Daniel M. Browning.

Where Whitefish is trying to deal with the influx of population and money—and the strain this is putting on city services and long-time residents—Browning is going in the opposite direction. The town disincorporated on September 26, 2018 after the local government collapsed financially. There is still a “town” in Browning—meaning a collection of houses and businesses—including a casino with a decent hotel. But it is no Whitefish.

Blackfeet Nation and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation is one of the largest Indian reservations in the United States. It’s about 3,000 square miles and is larger than the state of Delaware. Blackfeet Nation territory also traditionally spans into Canada. The area also suffers from high crime rates and is considered one of the most lawless parts of the United States.


Overdose deaths tend to affect native Americans at a 30% higher rate, and reservations usually have less healthcare resources to deal with addiction issues. “Our treatment facility here, they’re not equipped to deal with opioid addiction, so they’re usually referred out,” Blackfeet Tribal Business Council member Stacey Keller told Montana Public Radio recently.

The Blackfoot Tribe first declared a state of emergency in March of 2022 over the issue. Then in the summer of 2023, they declared another state of emergency for an even more sinister problem.

Due to their lack of treatment facilities in Montana, Blackfeet tribe members looking to recover were sent to the Phoenix, Arizona area in a fraudulent scheme where they were never given treatment and often ended up on the street while companies collected upwards of $1,300 a day per patient from Medicaid.

Another major issue on the Blackfeet Reservation is missing persons, especially missing women. The case of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner who disappeared on June 5th, 2017 after attending a party in Browning drew national attention, but that is just where the disappearances begin. According to the National Justice Training Center, murder is the 3rd leading cause of death for Native women—an astounding 10X higher rate than all other ethnicities.

Native women are also 84% more likely to experience violence in their lives, 55% of them have been physically abused, and they account for 40% of all sex trafficking victims. There are many reasons for these statistics. One major issue is a lack of resources. In 2022, Blackfeet Law Enforcement had less than 20 officers to patrol the 1.5 million acre reservation.

Another expert told A&E, “Reservations pretty much became pockets of lawlessness, where non-Indians know they can go and commit crimes, and nobody’s going to show up, and nobody’s going to investigate, because that leaves only the FBI to detain and really investigate things.”

Yellowstone director Taylor Sheridan’s 2017 film Wind River starring Jeremy Renner dealt with this very issue in a fictionalized form, with Elizabeth Olsen portraying a lone FBI agent sent out to a reservation to investigate the murder of a Native woman.

Songwriter and Louisiana native Drew Landry moved to Montana in 2015, and eventually married a Blackfeet woman, and now has a six-year-old daughter that is also a member of the Blackfeet tribe. He takes the cause of missing Native women and girls seriously—as well as all of the other ills facing Blackfeet Nation.

Landry is no stranger to speaking his mind, and standing up for what he believes in. In 2010, after the Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Landry went viral by performing his song “BP Blues” for President Obama’s oil spill commission.

Landry has been working to relaunch a database of missing people in Montana called MMIPMT.com, or “Missing & Murdered Indigenous People MT.” The resources it would take to relaunch the database are a drop in the bucket to some. But with so little resources for the Blackfeet Tribe, any advocacy to attempt to address the issues of the tribe feel like a heavy lift.

All of these stories and statistics mask a vibrant and strong culture still alive on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, including traditional drumming, dancing, and dress, along with the 400-year-old tradition of Native American bareback relay races.

Dancer at the Blackfeet Benefit in Whitefish

This is where Tyler Childers comes in, as well as Outriders Presents, which promotes Under The Big Sky Fest in Whitefish and other events throughout Montana and Southern California. On Sunday, August 4th, Tyler Childers headlined a benefit on the Big Mountain Ranch for the Blackfeet tribe. Texas native Vincent Neil Emerson—who is of Choctaw-Apache heritage—opened up the show.

Emerson’s last album The Golden Crystal Kingdom (2023) featured a song called “Little Wolf’s Invincible Yellow Medicine Paint.” For the video, director Mike Vanata of the popular YouTube channel Western AF cast Native American bareback horse race champion Sharmaine Weed from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming (yes, the same reservation that inspired the Taylor Sheridan film) in Emerson’s video.

This in turn became inspiration for Outriders Presents and the Big Mountain Ranch to build a full scale Native American bareback relay race track on the ranch—the same site where the Under The Big Sky Fest is held. This wasn’t just a temporary track for the event. This was a full scale track where a major bareback relay event happened that attracted top teams from around the region, with $75,000 total paid out to the teams in reimbursement, pay, and prize money. It happened to be that the 1st and 2nd Place teams in the relay competition were from the Blackfeet Tribe.


Johnny Shockey of Outriders Presents insists the whole thing was inspired by Tyler Childers. As Childers explained from the stage Sunday night, he came to Montana one March to participate in an exclusive, 8-person taxidermy and tanning course. It was something he’d wanted to do for years, and finally set the time aside to do. One of his classmates was Shawn Old Chief from the Blackfeet Tribe.

“We got to talking about the different places we’d grown up, the similarities and differences,” Childers said. “I am really glad to have made that connection. He promised me a buffalo hide. So I was like, ‘Well, I’ll get you some tickets to some shows. But then I though that what would be better is to just to come up here and play a show.”

Tyler Childers taking in the Indian relay races.


August 4th’s benefit on the Big Mountain Ranch in Whitefish starring Tyler Childers wasn’t just a “show” though. It was an opportunity to raise money, and hopefully, raise awareness. It was also a unique opportunity to bridge the affluent community of West Glacier with the depressed economy of East Glacier and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Marine, Silver Star recipient, and Native American from South Dakota, Jayson Brave Heart, was brought on by Outriders Presents to help with the benefit, and to coordinate with the Blackfeet Tribe.

“Just getting off the reservation and getting to somewhere like here, especially Whitefish where there’s millionaires all over the place, these young guys that are on these horses are going to hopefully see something that triggers them and motivates them,” Brave Heart says.


Jayson Brave Heart works with tribes to try and help craft long-term solutions to their economic problems.

“Oglala Lakota County [where I’m from] is the poorest county in the United States,” he explains. “It’s 80% to 92% unemployment. The reservation itself sees $95 million yearly funding for schooling and other things. But that money doesn’t stay on the reservation. There is no economy there. In a place like Whitefish, a dollar gets spent three or four times before it leaves. On a reservation, as soon as the money is spent, it’s gone within 12 to 48 hours. They don’t bank on the reservation. They don’t have enough infrastructure, grocery stores, a workforce.”

Songwriter Drew Landry helped wrangle Blackfeet youth to work on the stage and site crew so that they could benefit directly from the event.

For Drew Landry and others, they worry about “The Yellowstone Effect” coming to the east side of Glacier National Park, which many consider one of the last remaining pristine areas in the United States. Ironically, it’s the wary nature that many approach the Blackfeet Indian Reservation that has kept tourists and transplants from swarming the eastern region of the park.

Drew Landry pointing out the peaks in East Glacier

If you want to enter Glacier National Park from the west, you need a reservation. From the east, you simply drive right in. Arguably, the east of Glacier National Park is also the most impressive. The community of East Glacier may be quaint compared to West Glacier, but it’s also near the historic Glacier Park Lodge built in 1913, which officially sits on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. A Blackfeet Tribe flag flies at the lodge, right beneath the American flag.

Perhaps the most impressive views in the entire National Park system can be seen from the windows of the Many Glacier Hotel, which was constructed in 1914. It is near Babb, Montana, which is another tiny unincorporated community on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. These grandiose hotels with breathtaking views contrast with the depressed reality of the Blackfeet Tribe. But even in East Glacier, you can see the AirBNB cabins going up as people start to seek out more affordable options to Whitefish and West Glacier, which in turn threatens the affordability for the region’s indigenous residents.

Many Glacier Hotel in East Glacier National Park

Hopefully the 2024 benefit for the Blackfeet Reservation is just beginning of an annual partnership, and more bilateral efforts to make sure both east and west of Glacier National Park can prosper, yet in a sustainable manner that can respect the indigenous residents, protect the natural resources, and preserve the region as a place future generations can go to be in nature and get away.

“Hopefully it’s something we can do again in the future,” Childers said during his performance Sunday night. “That would be amazing.” After all, the Big Mountain ranch now has a full-fledged relay horse track on its grounds to go along with the rodeo grounds it utilizes each year during the Under The Big Sky Fest.

And it happened to be that music is what helped make it all possible. The Yellowstone TV series has focused an incredible amount of attention towards independent and grassroots music that is not used to receiving it, and the same goes for communities throughout the American West, some of which that were once overlooked or forgotten.

But making sure the opportunities and revenue this emphasis has created are allocated in the right directions is the challenge, and the goal. That way these communities and the beautiful landscape they’re surrounded by can remain sustainable well after the Yellowstone television series concludes.

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All photos by Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos. For more photos and media from live events, follow Saving Country Music on Instagram.

Tyler Childers hung out with Blackfeet Tribe members throughout the benefit
Tyler Childers attending the opening ceremonies that included a prayer, presentation of colors, dancing, drumming, and the National Anthem. It has been raining all day. After the ceremony, the rain subsided.
In Indian Relay Races, the rider is like the baton, and it’s the horses that change out each lap.
Relay Race winner Chazz Racine
Songwriter Drew Landry was Saving Country Music’s tour guide to East Glacier and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation



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