Yellowstone called out for “deplorable” depiction of Native culture

❘ Published: 2023-09-03T21:06:03

Paramount

Lily Gladstone, the lead of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, has called Yellowstone’s depiction of Native culture “deplorable.”

When it comes to telling the stories of Native Americans in Hollywood, it seems like they always get the short end of the stick.

Whether they’re shown as racist caricatures, evil villains, or simply left out of the conversation all together, Native people can’t seem to get a fair shake in movies or TV.

However, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is set to portray Native culture in a respectful and true way. And one of its lead actors — Lily Gladstone — has called out the popular television Yellowstone for their depiction of Native culture.

Gladstone “dunks” on Yellowstone’s Native storytelling

Gladstone has appeared in Native centric projects like Winter in the Blood. Being of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage and growing up on the reservation of the Blackfeet Nation, Gladstone knows when shows and movies get Native culture wrong.

When speaking to Vulture about her career and role in Scorsese’s film, Gladstone referred to “the cowboy mythmaking” of Taylor Sheridan’s as “delusional [and] deplorable.”

However, Gladstone said that she didn’t mean any “offense” to the Native talent shown in the series as she also auditioned for the show as it was “[all] we had.’

Yellowstone, which is set in modern 2017, though it has two spin-offs in 1883 and 1923, follows the Dutton family, the owners of the largest ranch in Montana. The show explores the family’s interpersonal drama at the ranch and their interactions with the bordering Broken Rock Reservation, Yellowstone National Park, and developers.

Though the show is filmed on the real Broken Rock Reservation, it’s often been criticized for putting a white spin on American heritage.

Lisa Black, a writer at HighCountryNews, referred to Yellowstone’s subtext as “the settler-colonial version of American history, which offers didactics on human nature rather than confronting the history of Native peoples.”

Black also explained that Sheridan “quickly establishes that Native people want power and money as much as white people do” and that he “erases the history between Natives and settlers, turning Montana into a place of brute force with no national past.”

Even though Yellowstone is a super popular show, its showcase of Native people is less to be desired. So, fans can only help Scorsese’s film will take Hollywood in the right direction when it comes to showing the plights of Native people.

You can check out more of our Yellowstone coverage below: