On Sept. 27, 2023, we bid farewell to Reservation Dogs after three seasons on FX/Hulu. Teen characters Elora Danan, Bear, Cheese, and Willie Jack captured our hearts on their coming-of-age journey, all while carving out much-desired new territory for Native American and Indigenous young people on screen.
The comedy series invites us to be completely immersed in the authentic experiences of four Gen Z high schoolers figuring out life in a small town in the Muscogee Nation. Rolling with the slang, inside jokes, and folklore (Deer Lady!) makes you feel like you’re a part of the gang. And who wouldn’t want to be? The friends and families’ respective stories are incredibly funny and warm, yet manage to balance moments that are sincerely profound and heart-wrenching.
We join in on their shenanigans as they confront issues of depression, strained relationships with parents, what to do after graduation, and whether or not to stay on the “res.” The writing gives the characters room to have their first experiences and mistakes, and portrays them with emotional intelligence that teens aren’t often credited with. This is a testament to the fact that Reservation Dogs is the first TV series with all Native American writers and directors, as well as a predominantly Native cast and crew.
Reservation Dogs is groundbreaking in the history of mainstream cinema’s representation of Native Americans on screen and behind the camera. Unfortunately, Hollywood has a terrible track record of stereotypical depictions of Natives, commonly seen in the “Cowboys vs. Indians” trope in the Western genre that dominated for half a century. These problematic images and narratives also made their way into early family-focused films, such as Peter Pan (1953).
Mainstream content featuring Natives declined in the ’90s, but shifted focus to audiences under 18 years old. Millennials may recall The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) and animated film Pocahontas (1995), along with a supporting role in the Free Willy franchise (1993-1997). Smoke Signals (1998), a teen coming-of-age road trip dramedy, was the first film to be written, directed, and produced by Native Americans and reach a wide US audience. In 2018, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The aughts featured an improvement with the Disney Channel premiere of Buffalo Dreams (2005). Perhaps more vividly remembered in this pop culture era are the incredible number of Native actors cast as werewolves in the Twilight movie saga (2008-2012). #TeamJacob, anyone?
Two major films that followed, The Lone Ranger (2013) and The Ridiculous 6 (2015), were heavily criticized for their casting controversies, while the neo-Western film Wind River (2017), centered on crimes against Native American women, was a much better effort.
Thankfully, there has been an incredible rise in mainstream Native American film and television content over the last five years alone. Representation has expanded from historicals and westerns to include contemporary comedies, mysteries, and horror. With it, we’ve seen depth and diversity portrayed in Native American experiences and shared history, such as missing and murdered Indigenous women and the brutal legacy of Native boarding schools, and a new pool of talented rising stars.
A lot of attention has been given to the Taylor Sheridan TV universe due to his inclusion of Native American characters and history, as well as his insistence upon consulting tribal authorities and experts to ensure authenticity as someone with no Native ancestry. His work to educate and entertain can be seen in Yellowstone (2018-present), 1883 (2021-2022), and 1923 (2022-present).
These last five years have also given us short-lived series such as Chambers (2019) and Rutherford Falls (2021-2022), the latter of which featured five writers of Native ancestry in its writers room. Two series that are still going strong are made up of entirely Native writers rooms — Dark Winds (2022-present), a psychological thriller, and Spirit Rangers (2022-present), an animated children’s preschool show.
Native Americans have also made more headway in film, as seen in the most recent installment of the Predator movie franchise, Prey (2022), and Fancy Dance (2023), which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and South by Southwest after being featured on several prestigious screenwriting lists. The lead actress in Fancy Dance also stars in the highly anticipated film Killers of the Flower Moon, which premiered in theaters on October 20th. Martin Scorcese reportedly traveled to the Osage Nation in Oklahoma to meet with the principal chief and rewrote the script based on their input thereafter.
Killers of the Flower Moon, based on a nonfiction book chronicling the Osage Indian murders, is not the only hot-ticket item to tune in for. The coming-of-age indie film Frybread Face and Me hit Netflix on November 24th. Fans of Reservation Dogs will be elated to know that Sterlin Harjo will star in Netflix’s upcoming sports drama Rez Ball. They will also see Devery Jacobs in the miniseries cast of Echo on Disney+ and Hulu on January 10th, 2024. Echo, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, will see deaf Native American Maya Lopez return to her hometown in Oklahoma to reconnect with her roots and lead the Tracksuit Mafia after the events in the Hawkeye series.
These projects aren’t only exciting because they’re great entertainment, but because they’re opening doors for future Native American actors and filmmakers to take control of their own narratives like we’ve never seen before. I’ll have my popcorn ready and I hope you will, too.
Are you an emerging Native American filmmaker? Check out these resources and opportunities:
- American Indian Film Institute
- Native American Media Alliance – Programs
- Sundance Indigenous Program Calendar
- New York Film Academy – Celebrating Native American Filmmakers
Looking for something to do for Native American Heritage Month this November? Check these out:
- Challenge Hollywood stereotypes
- Learn the history of the land you’re on
- Check out Native American activists
- Listen to Native American voices
- Read books written by Native American authors
