“Growing Up West” © Rebecca Drobis
Grown up West: Children of the Blackfeet Reservation in NW Montana
I have spent the past three summers making portraits of kids on the Blackfeet Reservation to illustrate the emotional and visual experience of childhood in this extreme land of vast beauty, endless sky and harsh deprivation.
On the US-Canadian border, twelve miles from Glacier National Park, lies the remote Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The reservation is a tough place to grow up for white and native children who are subjected to grinding poverty, substandard schools and a dearth of opportunity. Many families and kids are affected by alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and parental absenteeism.
Most kids on the reservation must take care of younger siblings and themselves, burdened by the responsibilities of the adult world while still clinging to the playful adventurousness of youth.
My photographs tell stories of this unique childhood. They explore the curiosity and wonder of the child-world, revealing experience through undaunted eyes. I seek to convey the connection between the vast, endless sky and the boundless imagination of these youth. At the same time, the tension and struggle of day-to-day survival on the reservation is laid bare.
Despite their circumstances, the children are strong, brave and resilient. They manifest tremendous independence and resourcefulness. This project is a window into their world; an exploration of the precarious balance between imaginative innocence and premature experience that defines childhood on the Blackfeet Reservation.
I grew up in Browning, on the Blackfeet reservation. These pictures bring alot of memories back. I have lived in NJ for 20 years now and have often tried to explain to friends how I grew up , it is such a different world. With these pictuers I can now show them.Thank you
Crystal White — May 7, 2009