The Story Behind the Metal Warriors Guarding the Blackfeet Nation

The Blackfeet Indian Reservation encompasses around 1.5 million acres in Northwest Montana. This is rugged, windy country, with bitter winters and short, dry summers. It's also quite stunning; the western side of the Reservation backs up to Glacier National Park, and the eastern side rolls into the expansive plains of Hi-Line Montana.

If you've entered Blackfeet country from any of the four compass points, you may have noticed the unique roadside sculptures that depict two Blackfeet warriors on horseback. Upon closer inspection, you'll note that these sculptures are made almost entirely out of old automobile parts.

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The story behind the "Warriors of the Wrecking Yard" is interesting.

The sculptures, crafted from junk car parts, were created in 2000 by Native artist Jay Laber. Jay was born on the Blackfeet Reservation in 1961. When he was just a toddler, Montana experienced a historic flood. In the Glacier Park area, rain fell in excess of 10 inches in 36 hours in June of 1964.

On the 60th anniversary of the flood, The Daily Interlake noted that 28 people died, and more than 2,200 homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed in seven counties and a dozen communities in Montana during the tragic flood.

One of the families devastated by the flood was Jay Laber's.

Following the catastrophe, his family moved out of state. Jay returned to the Blackfeet Nation several decades later, becoming a professional artist in the 1990s and an art teacher at Salish Kootenai College.

Here's the cool twist... the warrior sculptures found along the roadside at the north, south, east, and west borders of the Blackfeet Nation are made from scraps of vehicles that were destroyed during the 1964 flood.

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Additionally, the sandstone bases the sculptures stand on came from the old Catholic boarding school, Holy Family Mission, which was built in the late 1880s on the Two Medicine River near Browning.

Laber passed away after a battle with cancer in 2019, but his legacy lives on.

Not just with the "Warriors of the Wrecking Yard", but with sculptures displayed throughout Montana. You may have seen his work on the University of Montana campus, on SKS's campus, on the Rocky Boy Reservation, in private galleries, or in museum displays.