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SignatureMT | 63 O-Mok-See riding requires training with the same horse with a good set of riding skills for two to three years WHAT IS O-MOK-SEE: T he most colorful performance on horseback of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe was the oh-mak-see pass-kan meaning riding big dance. e second syllable of the first word is pro- nounced like our English word mock. e last sylla- ble of the second word is sounded like our can. e Blackfeet had no wrien language; all we can do is render the sounds. ere is no incorrect spelling, so long as the sound is correctly presented. One might even desire to leave the second word (meaning dance) off entirely, and simply make it o-mok-see - riding big. e Blackfeet riding big dance was not celebrated for some fiy years. All the old people remember it as a very striking performance. It was principally a war ceremony. Before seing out on a mounted expedition against the enemy, the warriors of the camp performed this dance as a part of the pre- lude of stirring up courage and enthusiasm for bale. e war- riors put on their finest dress costumes, decorated and painted their best horses, carrying their war bundles, shields, lances and bonnets. ey mounted and gathered at some distance out of sight of the camp. ey turned and rode together at full speed into the great camp circle, circled around it once and then rode to the center of the camp. In the center were a number of old men and women who sang special songs and beat drums for the horsemen. e horsemen then rode their trained horses to the rhythm of the singers and drummers. from time to time the riders dismounted and danced about on foot beside their horses, shooting in the air and shouting to one another to be brave when the bale came. If anyone fell from his horse during the ceremony it was considered bad luck would follow. O-Mok-See is more descriptive and more Western Ameri- can than other names used for the sport of paern horse racing. O-Mok-See found its way into our western riding vocabulary in the same manner as the Spanish-American word rodeo. O-Mok-See, historically speaking, was coined by people who were living here long before the Spaniards arrived with rodeo. is just comes from the national site. And mostly this is what we use to describe omoksee. In Montana, this summer, there will be an O-Mok-See event most weekends inviting families who ride at any skill level to join. Expecting one hundred riders, the local Big Sky Saddle Club will sponsor the District O-Mok-See Fun Day in the Cascade Are- na, June 11 and June 12. ey will hold another O-Mok-See event June 18 and June 19. O-Mok-See events and saddle clubs have a long history in Montana. e oldest incorporated saddle club in Montana, the Helena Trail Riders (HTR) was organized in 1938 by cowboy artist, Shorty Shope. In 1944, they originated the sport of O-Mok-See. In the intervening decades, O-Mok-See became a national event (1965) under Keith Herrin, the national founder from Helena. e Montana Saddle Club Association (MSCA) promotes the sport and has adopted a set of paerned horse racing events for local, state, and national competition. All events are run in thirty foot lanes with four lanes in the arena. At the end of the lane is the turning line. Most events involve a "property." Property refers to any item used during an O-Mok-See event: barrels, poles, flags, etc. e MSCA approves fiy-six races for year round O-Mok-See competitions which include riding indoors in the winter. e fun and enjoyment of reins and riders in the intense games leaves one exhilarated. "Going 40 mph on a horse feels more like 90," recalls Bob- bie Shular, who started participating in O-Mok-See twenty-five years ago with her aunt in Cut Bank. Geared up in boots and fancy western belts, kids do rodeo in high school and O-Mok-Sees on their own horses which take two to three years to be trained. For all their racing appeal, they continue to refresh and con- dition the horses to have finesse, technique, and rider partnership. e only rule: people of the same age, in the same event, can't use the same horse. Increasingly, from an early age, O-Mok-See participants

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