Busting Broncos and Breaking New Ground: Reassessing the Legacies of Canadian Cowboys John Ware and Tom Three Persons

John Ware, a black Canadian settler, and Tom Three Persons, a Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy) member of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe), existed at the intersections of the recently colonized Northwest Territories and southern Alberta. Popular narrative accounts of their exceptional achievements as ranchers and rodeo athletes largely disregard the historical contexts within which these men of color lived. To understand the legacies of Three Persons and Ware, we must move beyond idealized images and mythologizing to engage with the complexity of the lived experiences on Canada's prairie frontier.