Teonna Rainwater in 1923: A Voice for Native Stories

Recently, I watched 1923, the prequel to the famous Paramount series Yellowstone. The main premise follows the Dutton family and their life on a ranch in Montana, but we also follow Teonna Rainwater — a young girl who has been forcefully put into Catholic “Indian” boarding school. Teonna, along with the other children in the school, face extreme physical and mental abuse, and even after she escapes deals with the lasting trauma. The brutality of these scenes were hard to watch, but they are the unfortunate reality of Native history that are left out of our conversations. Aminah Nieves (who plays Teonna) spoke on the honesty of these scenes: “It’s our duty to tell these stories and to share these stories. Because I think to a mass amount of people, we still don’t exist. And people like to ignore the fact that we do exist”. 

I agree with Nieves: these events in our history will never be discussed if we don’t start representing them in our mainstream media. But it wasn’t just the fact that 1923 represents these periods in an honest light. Upon further research, I found out just how much influence and support Native Americans had through the production. Repetitive representation is something we discussed in class, and is an existing problem for many marginalized communities when it comes to representation. Taylor Sheridan (creator of 1923) could have easily casted Native women who we’ve seen in other shows that have been recently released: Lily Gladstone (Killers of The Flower Moon and Fancy Dance), Paulina Alexis and Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs), or Amber Midthunder (who appears in Sheridan’s movie Hell or High Water). Instead of reusing these voices, he found a new one. Nieves even says “‘This is my first big role,’”. I think it is notable that Sheridan gave Nieves the space to tell this story, as he could have easily pulled a more recognizable name. It emphasizes how important new voices are in order to represent a whole community.  

Speaking to my comment on support, Sheridan worked alongside Moses (Mo) Brings Plenty as a consultant who provided advice on historical accuracy as well as support to the whole cast. “As a cultural consultant for Yellowstone and its prequel series 1923, Mo Brings Plenty plays a crucial role in ensuring that the show’s portrayal of various Native American tribes is accurate and respectful. But for Brings Plenty, this work is more than just a job – it is deeply personal,” (Carpenter, 2023). Nieves said that Mo’s support helped her through the tougher scenes, and it was his presence that gave her confidence to tell Teonna’s story. A frequent discussion we have in class about representation is the need for more marginalized voices in the production period. Having Mo on set to guide Sheridan’s story and support the rest of the cast is (in my opinion) a great example of how to share these stories. 

Although most scenes depicted the violence in these schools, it wasn’t the only focus. Later in the series, Teonna manages to escape and meets Hank (Plenty Clouds). They discuss — in Crow — the importance of names, hair, and family identity in Native culture. When Hank names Teonna “Joe”, the both share a laugh, despite the heaviness of the situation. Though most of these scenes left me reading the subtitles to translate Crow, I felt most moved by the ones I couldn’t fully understand. The point of these scenes weren’t to make us feel better, rather to remind us that Teonna (and others in the Native community) are real people, who weren’t just a small point in our history that can be erased. It is clear that 1923 took the time to intentionally share Teonna’s story. Although we are far away from representing this community to the full extent they deserve, I think this should serve as an example to other shows and movies. It didn’t make me feel better, rather pushed me to sit with the uncomfortable fact that we ignore the brutality in Native history. Like Nieves said, nobody will know about these stories unless they are told, and we need to do a better job at telling these uncomfortable stories.