BILLINGS — For Dakota Louis, riding a bull turned out to be a lot like riding a bicycle.
More difficult and dangerous for sure, but a skill the 2011 Browning High School graduate never forgot.
Even after a long layoff from competitive bull riding when Louis suffered a broken leg at a PRCA rodeo in Cascade in August of 2024. The injury required surgery and rehabilitation for Louis, who has also recently began serving as a motivational speaker at health events, conferences, college functions and high school graduations.
In late August of this year, Louis completed his comeback to competitive bull riding at Barretos near Sao Paulo, Brazil. Brazil has a rich rodeo history and a Professional Bull Riders story from 2008 stated that the Barretos International Rodeo was “the largest bull riding event in all of Brazil” and the the Cowboy Channel called it “one of the grandest events in the world, and Brazil’s most popular rodeo” on their website in 2023.
Louis placed ninth out of 35 bull riders with a combined two-ride score of 169 upon his return. He recalled being bucked off of his first bull and recording a score of 88.25 on his second bull and placing in the round. He also recorded a successful ride on his third bull. In the championship go, which 10 riders advance to, Louis was thrown.
“It was amazing to be back and to be riding and just having the success and all of it to feel all of them emotions again,” Louis told The Billings Gazette and 406 MT Sports during a phone interview while he was at his family ranch near Glacier National Park last week. “It’s just a passion of mine and I love it and I’m very thankful that I had the opportunity to get to do that. It was more than I could have even expected honestly.”
The 33-year-old Louis previously told The Billings Gazette and 406 MT Sports that he received an invitation to compete there. Louis, a Northern Cheyenne tribal member who is also of Blackfeet descent, said rodeo officials in Brazil told him he’s the first Native American to have competed at Barretos.
“That’s been for me, just personally, that’s been amazing,” said Louis. “And just the confidence that’s done for my own self to be able to say I was the first ever Native to go to Brazil and ride bulls, do something that I love and the history and the livelihood of bull riding over there is so rich and impacted with today’s modern-day bull riding because I mean the Brazilians play soccer or they ride bulls.”
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Overall, Louis thoroughly enjoyed competing in Brazil and sharing his culture with the Brazilians and vice versa.
“I loved my time there in Brazil. The food that they ate was amazing, the welcoming from everybody,” said Louis. “They treated me so good. And man, I tell you what, it was top of the line for sure. I felt very, very welcome and appreciated.”
“It was awesome to be there and understand their culture more and relate to as a Native and some of our culture traditions that we do and what they do. And getting to share some of my culture with them, because they have a different understanding of Native Americans, too, and because a different part of the world. And so, they were very interested in understanding who I am and where I come from and my people.”
Overall, Louis said he spent approximately two weeks in Brazil. He also roped and discovered possible business opportunities with his new friends.
“I got to ride some people’s horses down there that were world class and even open up my own avenue of being a horseman and having my own performance horse line to be able to share our knowledge with them,” he explained. “And then also to have the opportunity to possibly get some of their bloodlines up here and get some of my bloodlines from my horses down there. It was amazing.”
Louis, who stayed busy team roping at events such as Rodeo Billings over the summer and who was in Billings on Tuesday for the Wrangler Team Roping Championships at MetraPark, said he attempted to ride one other bull at an event prior to competing in Brazil. He had the OK from his doctor to ride six months after his surgery, so he did attempt to ride at an Xtreme Bulls stop in Okeechobee, Florida, in February, “just for my own mental health.”
After not earning a score in Florida, Louis — who will team rope at the Indian National Finals Rodeo in mid-October in Las Vegas — knew he just needed a little more time to heal and rehabilitate his leg.
“I knew exactly where I wasn’t when I got on that bull,” said Louis. “I knew that I needed to work at it a lot more as far as my strength in my leg.”
Now that he was successful in Barretos, Louis hasn’t ruled out trying to pursue a 2026 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo berth or a return to the Professional Bull Riders, where according to his PBR biography he has earned $301,202.42 and 10 event wins over the course of the different series offered by the PBR, including a 2022 Unleash The Beast victory at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark.
And while there were moments where his try was tested in the end, when Louis climbed back atop a bull at Barretos, it all came back to him — just like riding a bicycle.
“I feel like it’s just, in a way, it’s who I am. It’s not who I am fully as a person, but it has sculptured me into the man that I am today,” said Louis of bull riding. “So being off that long, I had a lot of want to.”
Email Gazette Sports Editor John Letasky at john.letasky@406mtsports.com or follow him on X/Twitter at @GazSportsJohnL
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