The Truth About Black Cowboy Culture that Nobody Taught You with Drake LeBlanc sponsored by YETI

What if the story of the American cowboy is bigger than the version most of us were handed?
In this episode, Noëlle sits down with Drake LeBlanc, a Creole cowboy from Louisiana, filmmaker, and cultural preservationist. The conversation that unfolds is about history, identity, and what it really means to live a culture rather than wear it.
Drake was raised in a community where horses are not a hobby or an aesthetic. They are Sunday trail rides, music in the air, food cooking by trailers, land passed down through generations, and families riding together. They are belonging.
Together, they explore the untold history of Black cowboys, how the image of the American cowboy was reshaped through media, and what was lost when culture became costume.
This conversation is not just about the past. It is about how the stories we are handed down, the way they shape how we see ourselves, and who we believe belongs in the horse world.
In this episode you will learn:
• Creole identity and language in Louisiana
• Haitian Creole cultural parallels
• Native American symbolism in Western fashion and saddle design
• The history of cattle herding practices rooted in African tribes
• The book Drake would read to the Horse World - Black Ranching Frontiers: African Cattle Herders of the Atlantic World, 1500-1900
About Drake LeBlanc: Drake LeBlanc is a Lafayette, Louisiana-based filmmaker, documentarian, and photographer. He is one of the most compelling cultural voices working today in the preservation of Creole heritage and black cowboy history. His documentary Footwork has brought international attention to the Louisiana Creole cowboy tradition and the Louisiana trail rides that keep black cowboy culture alive every weekend across the American South.
You can find Drake on Instagram instagram.com/lovebenoir
Drake's film work can be found here filmfreeway.com/FootworkLA
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This episode is generoulsy sponsored by:
YETI
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction & the moment on the Atchafalaya Basin that set the tone
03:00 "I know my community" — why deep roots change everything
04:00 What is a Creole cowboy? Defining Creole culture and Louisiana's gumbo pot
07:00 What is a parish? Louisiana's Napoleonic Code explained
08:00 The vulnerability of introducing yourself as a Creole cowboy
10:00 Why Drake feels called to educate even when it's exhausting
12:00 The real history of black cowboy culture Hollywood erased
14:00 Why "1 in 4 cowboys were Black" is actually an undercount
15:00 "Cowboy" was a derogatory term — the truth about who built the West
17:00 What Hollywood took from Black cowboy culture and what it missed
19:00 Why money can't buy the spiritual bond between horse and rider
22:00 Tribal designs, turquoise, and the hidden origins of Western style
26:00 The spiritual meaning of turquoise in Native American horse culture
29:00 "You not pap" — live your culture or kill it, there's no in between
32:00 Shoutout to Chris Lewis & reining horses in the Creole community
37:00 Cultural gentrification in the horse world — what it is and why it matters
42:00 Advice for horse communities feeling threatened by change
45:00 Feeling alone in the horse world — Drake's answer
47:00 "Move to Louisiana" — and what community actually looks like
51:00 Time and intention: the only two things a horse truly needs
53:00 How to be brave when you're afraid to speak up
56:00 Find something you fear MORE — Drake's philosophy on courage
58:00 When Drake realized the outside world didn't know Black cowboys existed
1:07:00 Trail rides, thousands of riders, and how Creole horse culture thrives
1:11:00 Zydeco music, food, and why making it fun kept the culture alive
1:13:00 Rapid fire: book rec, most iconic horse, most undervalued skill
1:17:00 Greatest horseman of all time and mares vs stallions vs geldings