Yellowstone: Hollywood's Indigenous Controversy

When I'm not in over my head with homework and practicum you can catch me watching Yellowstone. This show initially struck me as a bit gorey and maybe a bit tacky in its "cowboys and Indians" theme, but it's safe to say I'm hooked. While taking this class in tandem with watching this popular series it feels natural for me to analyze the stereotypes, roles, and narratives being formed throughout the story line of Yellowstone. Of course, I have some thoughts.

Before taking to the media, my own emotions and thoughts were on a swing set. Back and forth with praise, wonderings, critiques, and so on. I was thrilled to see Indigenous actors play major roles in the widely popular series, but I also questioned if the show itself was reinforcing Indigenous stereotypes, or placing emphasis on common negative characteristics that are placed on Indigenous peoples in Western society. However, I was then back to applauding the show for addressing "taboo" Indigenous topics, such as colonization, post secondary Indigenization, cultural genocide, and missing and murdered Indigenous women. The show also makes an effort to demonstrate and celebrate Indigenous culture by highlighting cultural practices, Indigenous artists, and successful champions of Indigenous issues, politics, and education. I particularly love the character, Monica (played by Kelsey Asbille). She is a teacher, fighting for Indigenous issues within the plot, and has a beautiful but complicated relationship with her son, her husband, and the Dutton family within the show. Clearly, my thoughts are quite varied, and after deciding I wanted to do an OLC post on the topic itself, I took to media articles to see if anyone else has the same mixed feelings I do.

What I found out is, yes, the feelings in the media are just as mixed as mine. It turns out, my favourite character, Indigenous bad-ass Monica, isn't even played by an Indigenous actress. There has been much controversy over Asbille playing the role, and many individuals within the Indigenous acting community have spoken out about the issue. Indigenous actor Adam Bech called out the TV series prior to its airing and stated it is a "failure of diversity. I'm asking my Native actors to stay away from this project". This is not to say that Indigenous actors did not play a part in this series. A main character, Chief Thomas Rainwater, is played by a well known Indigenous actor Gil Birmingham. His character is Harvard educated and has returned to the fictional Broken Rock Indian Reserve to take back the Yellowstone lands that once belonged to his people. Birmingham claims it is an honour to play the modern day Indigenous leader character as "you rarely ever see that...Especially one that has some kind of leverage and is a powerful player in the game”. For some, the controversy of the show lies in the overall opportunity within the entertainment industry for Indigenous actors to play any role - Indigenous or non-Indigenous - thus, when a role that is Indigenous is not given to Indigenous actors, it feels like an even larger betrayal by the film industry as a whole. Actress DeLanna Studi shares her opinion on the matter stating: “If it was more of a level playing field — where our Native actors were being cast as leads in How to Get Away With Murder or Grey's Anatomy, where they can just be a human being — then there wouldn't be this need for us to be protective of the roles that are just for us”. However, Studi also argues that simply having the culture, its beauty, its people, and its trials represented on televisions worldwide is a step in the right direction.

I am still working through my feelings surrounding the Indigenous representation on the show, and I think so is the media. What I've come to appreciate about the conflict Yellowstone presents on this issue is the opportunity it provides for the industry to do better, but also for audiences to acknowledge the steps that are being taken to allow viewers like myself to get curious, find out more, and see the Indigenous culture in a place other than the news or in a textbook. Here are some articles that mirror the mixed reviews I've discussed here, and also the sources for the quotes I've included:
https://www.looper.com/199689/the-truth-about-yellowstones-casting-controversy/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/arianelange/yellowstone-native-representation-controversy
https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2020/06/19/yellowstone-breaks-mold/

I encourage you to check out the show on Amazon Prime Video, and share your thoughts! What kind of story does Yellowstone share for Indigenous peoples?

This post made me reflect on my own watching of media throughout my life, and how I was quite blinded by some of the content I was consuming.

It was back in 2008, I was 11 years old and witnessing one of the first obsessions in my life...Twilight. It was everywhere, it changed the YA genre forever, and brought young people to tears many times (me included). Posters, movies, books, shirts, you name it, I had it. It was a big part of my growing up, I had people to talk and argue about it, and while it doesn't hold as high emotional attachments as it used to, it is still a very important part of me, and the books are not that terrible, I revisit them every so often.

It wasn't until I was in the middle of my education degree and took anthropology 213 with the great Shane Andrus was I introduced to my first Thomas King novel, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native people in North America (a great book by the way). He talks of some of the common stereotypes that the popular media conveys about Indigneous peoples, and one of the examples he looked at was the Twilight Series. Of course, this stopped me in my tracks, jaw dropped, not wanting to believe a huge part of me was about to get exposed, and not be so innocent as it once was. But as I read on and digested the material, it was a glass-shattering moment, my eyes were open to the problematic themes and stereotypes that existed and still are alive and well today. Here are just some of the few examples that are touched upon:

Stephanie Meyer uses a fictionalized version of a Quileute tribe in Washington, and while the whole series has been very successful, she has not acknowledged any Native American groups or offered any financial contributions
Turning Native stories into fantasy ones
Natives as mythical creatures
Half-breeds/ fighting the white superior
Domestic abuse between a couple (Emily/Sam)
There was also a concern with Taylor Lautner and if he was truly 'Indigneous' enough to play the part, but just because of this role he was able to discover some Ottawa and Potawatomi ancestors
None of these issues were talked about on set

Again, a really life-learning moment for me, with the help of my new education journey and being more educated in general, allowed me to see the problematic themes within something I love. Maybe it was innocent child ignorance that I didn't pick up on it earlier, but it gave me a bit of taste that some of the entertainment I consumed was not the best representation of the Quileute Indigneous people. It is important to have these conversations now that I am an adult, to even educate people who may not even have realized it until now. I am a little surprised that no one noticed these themes before, or they were never brought to my attention, but I think this was a time when people didn't seriously think about things like this, especially with a dumb movie like this one. I am always interested in different perspectives, my 11-year-old self was head over heels in love, my 23-year-old self understands, sees the problematic elements of the media, and uses it as an example of some of the problematic habits western entertainment has on the Indigneous people.

Reference:
King, Thomas. The inconvenient Indian illustrated: A curious account of native people in North America. Anchor Canada, 2012.

Well done! Yellowstone is one of my favourite tv series at the moment and as I read through this post I noticed how thorough and well researched your answer was.

First, the situation with Monica (who was one of my favourite characters in the show) not being an indigenous actor really changed my feelings towards the show after finding out. I was mid-way through season 2 when I researched her as an actress and immediately felt disappointed when finding out she was not indigenous. The show all of a sudden felt fake and made me wonder what other parts of the show I could not trust.

Although I am up to date with watching the latest episode, I have yet to dive in deep to understanding the context and underlying messages being told about Indigenous cutlure. At first, I believed the show was doing a decent job in portraying Indigenous people, but as the show goes on and they are continued to be made out to be the antagonists I cannot stop thinking about what messages are truly being portrayed. I am curious, are your rooting for the Dutton's or are you wanting to see them fall? I ask this because I have a hard to rooting agaisnt them because the way the show has portrayed their characters and has almost forced me to root for them.

Nicole, you must have been reading my mind. I came on here to write on Yellowstone, but you beat me to it. And just like you, I find myself with many feelings based on this show.

When I first started this series, I was not sure how I felt about the tacky "cowboy vs Indian" theme. I felt that Yellowstone was making fun of the Indigenous culture, by reinforcing the stereotypes that surround the indigenous people. This is why I think the series gets people hooked because it is that typical "cowboy and Indian" dynamic something that society has planned for generations.

My favorite character was also Monica. She is such a strong woman who stands up for what she believes in. But, after reading your post, I went down the rabbit hole looking into her character and found myself being disappointed after finding that her actress is not Indigenous. It took away from my love for her character and the show. I found myself questioning why? There are so many talented Indigenous actors and actresses out there. Why not find an Indigenous actress who could make Monica's character come to life which would make the show more real? But instead, the show feels fake.

And although I continue to keep up with the series, I find myself questioning the way they portray the Indigenous culture, they continue to be portrayed as the "bad guys" which conforms to the stereotypes that surround them. This becomes such a dangerous cycle, series like this reinforce the stereotypes and focus on the negatives. I think that film companies can change that, but instead, they are going to do what makes them money.

This thread made me wonder about other forms of Indigenous misrepresentation. There are quite a few examples! I came across this article https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/the-unplugging-sparks-debate-by-casting-non-aboriginal-actors-in-indigenous-roles-1.3007705, which discusses the issue of theatre companies casting non-Indigenous actors for Indigenous roles in theatre. Apparently this particular theatre company faced quite a bit of backlash for it, but it did manage to spark some good conversation in the community about Indigenous misrepresentation. This reminded me of the Grey Owl character in Tiffany Midge's poem, "Typical Schedule for Native American", who was a white man misappropriating Indigenous identity (and the inspiration for her poem). In the abovementioned article, the playwright, Drew Hayden Taylor, said, “I would rather have had a Native actress do the role, but as an artist, I would rather have a talented and experienced actress bring life to my characters than just somebody with a status card who's never acted.” It makes me wonder why more efforts weren't made to source out an Indigenous actor. If budget contraints trumped authenticity, and it was an issue of cost to bring in Indigenous talent from far away for that particular theatre piece, such must not have been the case for Yellowstone, whose budget coudl ahve surely afforded the expense. It makes me wonder then what message this inadvertently conveys. Was there not enough experiened Indigenous talent (actors/actrices) available? In the whole world? It is an unsettling message being conveyed, if so. And supposing that were true (which I am skeptical about), why would that be the case?