The last episode of “Reservation Dogs,” the final chapter in a three-season legacy of authentic and contemporary storytelling, aired live in the early hours of Wednesday and on streaming later in the day.
Indigenous people from across the nation have historically been portrayed as caricatures in film and television, often antiquated and marked by stoicism.
“Reservation Dogs” challenged and attacked these stereotypes in one fell swoop by the presentation of a comedy-drama with four teenagers at the helm.
The show features Warren Queton, an OU adjunct instructor of tribal service-learning and tribal governance in the department of Native American studies. He previously served as the university’s tribal liaison officer from August 2016 to November 2020. He is a citizen of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, and his Kiowa name is "Phaw Ah," which means "the coming of the moon."
Queton plays the role of Clinton, director of the Indian Health Services clinic. Queton said he previously worked with director Sterlin Harjo, who asked him to audition for the role in the Oklahoma-based show.
Queton said humor is important to his Indigenous community and is his favorite part of the character he plays.
“(Clinton) has a knack for laughter,” Queton told OU Daily.
One element that Queton said he finds particularly important is the show's usage of Indigenous language. Tribes in Oklahoma reservations often live in close proximity, and words become common across different tribes.
“There’s shared language,” Queton said.
“Reservation Dogs” is filmed in Oklahoma, which has an 8% Indigenous population. As of 2020, 43% of the state is federally recognized as Indigenous land, though Oklahoma was entirely made up of reservations, except for the panhandle, in 1830.
Queton also serves as the language consultant for the show’s latest season.
A particularly significant episode to Queton this past season was “Deer Lady," named for the legend of a deer spirit who holds men accountable for unsavory behaviors.
Beginning in 1819, the United States passed policies to establish boarding schools for Indigenous children. From 1869 to 1960, the Indian Boarding School Act ripped hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children from their homes.
Children were placed into federal boarding schools with the express purpose of stripping them of their cultural identity. They were tortured and abused for speaking their own languages, but couldn’t understand the English spoken by their teachers.
Oklahoma reached the highest in-state concentration of schools in the nation, with 80 at one time.
The episode takes inspiration from 1970s-style horror. Deer Lady, played by Kaniehtiio Horn, sees flashbacks of her past in a boarding school.
Queton taught Kiowa to young actors in the episode and gibberish is spoken by the boarding school teachers to put the audience fully in the shoes of the schoolchildren.
“That gibberish is important because it’s exactly how English would have sounded to them,” Queton said.
The impact of “Reservation Dogs” is widespread, and serves as a lens into the realities of reservation life and a breakdown of the world of stereotypes built by countless movies and television shows, Queton said.
Queton said the show has helped launch the careers of Indigenous actors into the film and television business.
He said he wants young actors like Lane Factor, who plays Cheese Williams, and Paulina Alexis, who plays Willie Jack, to use the stories and impact of “Reservation Dogs” to ignite their confidence in their work and take their success with them.
“They should continue the journey in their own lives,” Queton said.
With the show coming to an end, Queton is looking toward the future. “Reservation Dogs” acts not only as a launch pad for actors, but for other shows to tell the present-day stories of Indigenous people.
“We are a contemporary people,” Queton said.
This story was edited by Karoline Leonard. Sophie Hemker and Nikkie Aisha copy edited this story.
