In Mourning and Gratitude, the Blackfeet Nation Says Farewell to Its Leader

Mourners view the body of Chief Earl Old Person during the funeral held at the Browning High School.

Members of the Blackfeet Nation erected tepees to pay tribute to Chief Old Person during a four-day period of mourning.

Mourners lined the street during the procession.

The procession welcoming Chief Old Person home made its way through Browning, Mont.

Drummers and singers surrounded the coffin on the way to the chambers.

Chief Old Person’s casket lay at the chambers for a day before moving to Browning High School.

Pallbearers carrying the chief into the tribal council chambers.

The Blackfeet Honor Guard was part of the procession as the chief’s body returned to Blackfeet Country.

The chief’s humility stood out to Wilma Many White Horses, a first cousin. “We’ll never know how much Earl did for us because he would never talk about how much he does.”

Joe McKay, a close friend, said that the tribe’s culture and people meant the most to the chief.

Pallbearers dressed in Chief Old Person’s signature shirt carried him out of the gym after Friday’s funeral.

“Nothing is going to be the same without Earl,” the chief’s nephew Harold Dusty Bull said.

Over four days in Montana, members honored Chief Earl Old Person, who led the tribe and preserved its history for more than 60 years.

Throughout his life, Chief Earl Old Person of the Blackfeet Nation could be found in the Browning High School gym, always seated in the northwest corner of the bleachers and always in his blue, long-sleeved, buttoned shirt, cheering for his alma mater. But for his final trip into the gym, he was not in the stands. Instead, his coffin was placed directly on the court as mourners came to say goodbye.

Chief Old Person, the longest-serving tribally elected official in the United States, died on Oct. 13 at 92 after a long battle with cancer.

Photographed and written for the New York Times, full story here.