The real ‘Yellowstone’: A battle for the cowboy way of life

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ranches, rodeos and public land. This is the story of a surprising battle raging in the American West, and the unlikely coalition it’s forged. Nearly half of all land in the West of the United States is owned by the federal government. Some people are trying to change that; they argue that part of it should be used for housing, amid a nationwide shortage. But this debate about land and development has touched a nerve in the Western psyche - tapping into bigger fears that the old way of life is under threat. It’s about identity, trust, and the growing popularity of cowboy culture, driven in part by the TV series Yellowstone. In an increasingly polarised United States, this debate about public land is uniting cowboys, environmental activists, conservatives, and progressives. Ellie House reports from Montana, a state where the prospect of a public land sell-off is deeply unpopular, and where people feel like their cultures and traditions are at stake.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:08.7	This is the horse I ride.
0:11.1	Snip, he's above my age in horse years.
0:14.7	Brud Smith gently strokes the neck of a glossy chestnut horse.
0:18.6	The little white patch on its muzzle matches Brud's mustache. On his head
0:23.0	sits a wide-rimmed cowboy hat. Turns well and he's real gentle, but he's got lots of action
0:29.7	when you go after a cow and have to turn him or whatever. I'm on a ranch in rural southwest
0:34.7	Montana in the United States. A single dirt track led us to the entrance,
0:39.5	marked, as most ranches are, by a timber archway. There's a hand-painted sign welcoming us to the Smith
0:45.5	Ranch. In the distance, in all directions and mountains. What makes a good horse is if they can
0:51.5	chase a cow and turn the cow, they have to have a lot of horse sense, too.
0:55.2	They say, if you've got a good horse sense, you're smart or whatever.
0:59.5	And horses are pretty smart.
1:02.3	Yeah.
1:03.4	This is a medium-sized ranch, Brad tells me.
1:06.4	He owns the place, a real-life cowboy.
1:09.4	Each summer, they saddle up the horses and drive their cattle into the mountains to graze the grass on higher ground.
1:16.1	Think roping, lasooing, and lots of yeharring.
1:20.5	This frees up the land on the main ranch for making hay, ready to feed the cows when Montana's brutal winter comes.
1:26.8	This is our tackle.
1:30.2	This is what you dally on when you rope a cap or a cow.
1:35.1	You deli the rope around that to hold them.
	...

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