Cowboys & Indians February/March 2023

6TH C&I MOVIE AWARDS Once again, we are celebrating and elevating films, filmmakers, and film performances of special interest to C&I readers with the C&I Movie Awards. Or as we like to call them, The Cowboys. There are ten 2022 titles vying in the Best Picture category for an award that in previous years has gone to such memorable movies as Wind River, Let Him Go, 12 Mighty Orphans, Badland, and The Divide. See the nominees below, and vote for your faves at cowboysindians.com. BEST PICTURE Corsicana Dead for a Dollar Elvis God’s Country Hostile Territory A Love Song Murder at Yellowstone City The Last Manhunt The Legend of Molly Johnson Prey BEST DIRECTOR Julian Higgins — God’s Country Walter Hill — Dead for a Dollar Baz Luhrmann — Elvis Leah Purcell — The Legend of Molly Johnson Dan Trachtenberg — Prey BEST ACTOR Austin Butler — Elvis Martin Sensmeier —…

CHRIS DOUGLAS, Photographer “Touch The Lightning” on page 82, “Cody Johnson” on page 98 Chris Douglas photographs the authentic West in its modern-day form, from working cowboys to musicians on stage. His clients include Resistol, Wrangler, Stetson, Lindsey Thornburg, Filson, and more. See more of his work at chrisdouglas.photography. SARAH GRIGG, Writer “Cody Johnson” on page 98 Sarah Grigg is a writer who has called the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem home for the last 20 years, but her work has carried her from Montana to Seychelles. Prior to stepping out as an independent creative, she spent a decade in natural resources management and conservation, field-researching trout, grizzly bears, and wolverines, as well as running a cattle ranch and preserve for The Nature Conservancy. See more of her work at sarah-grigg.com. ANTHONY LICATA, Writer “Touch The Lightning” on page…

This is our first-ever “American” issue. And it begs the question, What is American? Trying to find words for something that’s deeply held in our hearts and beliefs, you might start with the U.S. Constitution. There in the preamble begins the answer: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” And the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It can help to get some fresh perspective, which…

Western WaysBy Steve Dickson In this bright land of solitudeWhere mighty forces riseFrom the earth into the cloudsWhere freedom never dies People stop and say helloOld dogs are free to roamWhen you face the setting sunYou’ll know that you came home Let the road take you awayWhere the sky goes on for daysWonder at the majestyAnd learn of Western ways High Plains FuneralBy Ivan Kershner My father was carried on shouldersUnaccustomed to black wool.Foreheads pale without Stetsons.Damp hair.Hands with thin scars and thick fingers.Bowed legs and old limps for cadence.I’ll wager his sleep will be the softerFor the way they dug deep,Eased to be holding handles they understood.Conversations of irrigation, brandings,And other pits for other old men. Life’s Trail RideBy Marcia Nelson As I head down the trail of life’s new dayI see many paths but my…

Katharine Lee Bates wrote “America the Beautiful” after she visited Pikes Peak, the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The lyric “for purple mountain majesties” is a perfect description of Pikes Peak but also many other mountains throughout the West. Western landscape comprises much more than flat plains, red southwestern desert, thick forests, and regal mountains. The hardworking western people who carved out their livelihoods in an untamed land built the West as we know it. The western mountain ranges, with their imposing nature, powerfully provide comfort. We bring a collection of items together with the strength, majesty, and beauty that mirror these awe-inspiring mountains. We hope these items, like the western mountains, provide enduring hope for years to come. ELEVATED WESTERN ELEGANCE OF BLUE AND BROWN…

The Montana winters are what pushed Jeff Nashan to his apprenticeship repairing and servicing clocks. “As a guitar player, gigging on the weekends, working as a carpenter was not tenable,” Nashan explains. So after he finished his apprenticeship, he and a business partner founded Montana Watch Company in 1998. “At the time there was only one other watch manufacturer in the country,” Nashan recalls. “He was making very traditional contemporary Swiss designs at the time and having some success with small custom series. I took note of that, so our initial goal was to see if there was interest in traditional vintage styles and if so to make a complete line of watches.” By 2000 he had his own shop doing restoration work on vintage timepieces. Nashan met an engraver from Cody,…