I’m deeply honored to share that two of my portraits from the Boley Rodeo exhibition featuring Danell Tipton and Marilyn LeBlanc have been selected for the permanent collection of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. @nationalcowboymuseum

These portraits are part of a larger effort to recognize and preserve the stories of Black cowboys and cowgirls whose contributions are woven into the history of the American West.

Danell began his career of bull riding at age 11, he entered the professional world of bull riding in 1992 at 19 when he became a member of the International Professional Rodeo Association. The following year, he made the finals finishing 7th in the world. By 1995, he earned the title of World Champion Bull Rider, making him only the second African American in the world to achieve this title.

Marilyn is one of only two African American women to quality for the International Finals Rodeo. A celebrated barrel racer, she captured multiple championships through the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo and earned numerous victories at the Okmulgee Rodeo. During her late twenties, she also competed in the historic Boley Rodeo, building a legacy that helped expand opportunities for future generation of Black women in Rodeo.

Big thanks to Danell and Marilyn for trusting me to share their stories and to Karen Ekuban + the Project 2020 Foundation for the initial Boley Oklahoma exhibit and certainly to the Museum for ensuring their legacies will be seen and remembered for generations to come.

The Museum’s Rodeo Exhibition opens
November 13. See ya’ll there!

Nelson Jackson carries the kind of legacy that can’t be separated from skill, grit and devotion
to the horse.

Originally from Bixby, Oklahoma, Jackson started competing in steer wrestling and calf roping at the Boley Rodeo in 1965. From there, he traveled across the country competing in both events, building a name for himself in the arena and beyond it.

He eventually made Tulsa home, where he became deeply respected as a horse trainer and farrier. Cowboys and ranchers brought horses to him from across the nation, trusting his hands, patience
and knowledge across multiple rodeo disciplines.

Over the course of his career, Jackson won the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo multiple times in both calf roping and steer wrestling, leaving a lasting mark on the legacy of Black rodeo.

When the conversation turned to showing these images at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for BOLEY DAY, his nephew replied with ,
“You’re about 75 years too late.” He’s not wrong
and with a truth that sits heavy.
These stories have always belonged in the center of American western history, not on the margins.

Nelson Jackson. Bixby born. Tulsa rooted.
A horseman through and through.

Grateful to know you, good man.

A Sunday Oklahoma evening shooting THE HUNT family. So much joy documenting this crew full of love, faith, play, burgers, ropin’ and each other.

@denardhunt4 + @_latrelda .. such a beautiful family you’ve created. ♥️

Dominion, when born of dogma, forgets its limits.
It confuses stewardship with ownership.
It mistakes belief for permission.

We’ve seen how rigid certainty can justify control, over land, over bodies, over those deemed “less than” by way of “othering”.

When doctrine hardens, nuance disappears, and domination begins to masquerade as righteousness. What follows is extraction dressed up as order, harm excused as destiny.

But the world doesn’t belong to us.
We belong with it.

True care requires humility and the willingness to listen, to adapt, to share power rather than seize it. Any belief system that demands dominion without responsibility, obedience without compassion, or certainty without accountability is not sacred.
It is dangerous.

Justice, like the living world, thrives not under control but under relationship.

Some friends don’t just live by this but preach it.
Grateful to have this sister of mine as a friend as well as mystical anglican grounded in cultivating relationships with the holy, the earth and all things wild. @anglicancowgirl

KEEP RISING. 💛
📷 shot on RAGLAND RANCH