{"id":368591,"date":"2026-07-10T19:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/368591\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:25:08","slug":"in-conversation-with-dallas-goldtooth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/368591\/","title":{"rendered":"In Conversation with Dallas Goldtooth"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer\u2019s Walker Art Center movie series is being curated by Dallas Goldtooth, the Native American environmental activist and performing artist.\u00a0The series is titled\u00a0Once Upon a Time in Manhood<\/a>,\u00a0and promises to revisit the cinema of Goldtooth\u2019s youth, when he was growing up on the south side of Minneapolis and in Bemidji, renting\u00a0Predator\u00a0and\u00a0Terminator\u00a0on VHS\u00a0from the Hollywood Video for movie nights with his dad\u00a0and stepbro. The series promises to ask, \u201cWhat did we inherit from these representations and what did we decide to leave behind?\u201d\u00a0It kicks off with a screening of Ron Howard\u2019s\u00a0Willow\u00a0tonight, followed by Michael Mann\u2019s\u00a0Last of the Mohicans\u00a0on Saturday night. Later this month, there will be screenings of\u00a0Die Hard, The Shawshank Redemption, and Fight Club,\u00a0and it concludes with Taika Waititi\u2019s 2010 coming-of-age film\u00a0Boy, set in 1983 New Zealand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I reached Goldtooth at his home in Chicago. \u201cI miss Minnesota, man, but this is a nice little town,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s right in the middle, so it\u2019s a good home base, but funnily enough, I\u2019ve never booked a Chicago acting gig. I\u00a0should\u00a0rent a firefighter costume.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldtooth is a\u00a0co-founding member of\u00a0the\u00a01491s,\u00a0a Native sketch comedy group that\u00a0includes\u00a0his Native brothers from\u00a0another\u00a0mother, the Seminole filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, and Goldtooth\u2019s actual\u00a0stepbrother, the Ojibwe writer and producer Migizi Personeau.\u00a0Goldtooth is probably most recognized\u00a0for\u00a0William \u201cSpirit\u201d Knifeman, his character from Harjo\u2019s critically acclaimed television show,\u00a0Reservation Dogs. He\u2019ll be back\u00a0home to\u00a0attend the opening weekend\u2019s screenings, where he\u2019ll be\u00a0giving\u00a0a short\u00a0opening\u00a0presentation.<\/p>\n

When you got the assignment, did you immediately\u00a0want\u00a0to do\u00a0a series about cultural role models for men?\u00a0<\/p>\n

When\u00a0they asked me, they left it open-ended. I’ll be honest,\u00a0my\u00a0first thought was,\u00a0It’s the Walker Art Center\u2014I got to be fancy schmancy here,\u00a0I\u00a0gotta\u00a0step\u00a0up the refined culture aspect.\u00a0So\u00a0as a Native person,\u00a0I\u00a0was thinking about a\u00a0series of films around\u00a0the concepts of\u00a0comedy and\u00a0transnational\u00a0migration.\u00a0I would\u2019ve included\u00a0Born in East LA\u00a0with Cheech and Chong.\u00a0The concept was like high-level. I\u00a0[told them],\u00a0\u201cI might do something around migration.\u201d\u00a0And they were like,\u00a0\u201cCool, cool, come up with your list and send it to us in a week.\u201d\u00a0And then in that week, I was like, I’m not really vibing with that, man. I wanted\u00a0to show movies that would be fun to watch in a movie theater\u2014some movies that\u00a0I\u00a0never got a chance to see in a movie theater.\u00a0That\u00a0made me think of the ’90s.\u00a0And I’ve been on this path of talking about like masculinity. And I reference\u00a0shitty\u00a0movies all the time. I’m a kid born in the ’80s, raised in the late ’80s and ’90s, all that pop culture is just floating in my brain.<\/p>\n

You’re\u00a0in your\u00a0mid-40s\u00a0now, right?<\/p>\n

Yeah.\u00a0Me and my brother,\u00a0Migizi<\/a>\u2014who’s planning to be there\u00a0opening night\u2014we always had a dream about being in the movie industry,\u00a0making movies.\u00a0He\u00a0moved to\u00a0LA,\u00a0he just finished being a writer and producer on the\u00a0Aliens\u00a0TV reboot.\u00a0He’s been\u00a0killing it.\u00a0Growing up,\u00a0we just loved movies.\u00a0We\u00a0had different moms, same dad.\u00a0When\u00a0my dad divorced from both the moms, we would go spend time with my dad, and\u00a0you know, it’s\u00a0a\u00a0single dad with his kids\u2014he’d take us to\u00a0the\u00a0movie\u00a0theaters\u00a0or we would go to the rental spot.\u00a0This\u00a0was up in Bemidji.\u00a0He\u00a0introduced us to\u00a0all these\u00a0movies that we shouldn’t have seen, like\u00a0Hellraiser.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dad movie nights are fun, man.<\/p>\n

Dad movie nights are\u00a0really in many ways the origin of this film series. Like he introduced us to all these pop culture films, but also\u00a0really thought-provoking\u00a0stuff. I remember\u00a0the rule was, for every movie we picked, he would pick a movie.<\/p>\n

Ah, so\u00a0dad\u00a0had a dad movie night pedagogy!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, he did.\u00a0He\u00a0would get international\u00a0films,\u00a0he would get documentaries. There was\u00a0one\u00a0really influential\u00a0film for me:\u00a0It’s\u00a0really\u00a0fucking\u00a0obscure, and\u00a0I have not watched\u00a0it\u00a0since. It was called\u00a0Heart of Light.<\/a>\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a Greenlander film.\u00a0And it’s\u00a0a really interesting\u00a0story about this guy who’s an alcoholic and he’s kind of living\u00a0a\u00a0shit\u00a0life in Greenland. And he’s just like, You know what? Fuck\u00a0it. I’m just\u00a0gonna\u00a0go out into the wild and die.\u00a0Then he\u00a0has this vision and he basically\u00a0turns his life around.\u00a0My dad also\u00a0introduced us to\u00a0Dune\u2014the film, but also the books.\u00a0He’s like,\u00a0\u201cIf you’re going to watch the movie, you got to read the books.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u00a0makes sense that your dad,\u00a0Tom B.K. Goldtooth<\/a>,\u00a0would recommend\u00a0Dune,\u00a0because\u00a0he\u00a0is an\u00a0environmental\u00a0activist\u00a0with\u00a0roots in the Southwest.\u00a0What was\u00a0your dad doing at this time in the 90s?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Man, I should have picked\u00a0Dune. Damn it, that would have been a good movie!\u00a0<\/p>\n

True.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem is, they only gave me, like five,\u00a0maybe six\u00a0movies.\u00a0Now\u00a0I’m like, oh, dude, I should have picked\u00a0Heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heat\u00a0is always incredible on the big screen and there\u2019s all this\u00a0Heat 2\u00a0casting news, but\u00a0you are giving\u00a0us\u00a0Val Kilmer in\u00a0Willow.<\/p>\n

So\u00a0my\u00a0dad currently\u00a0is\u00a0the executive director\u00a0for an organization called the\u00a0Indigenous Environmental Network<\/a>.\u00a01992 is when he came on as the director\u00a0of this environmental organization. Before that, in the late ’80s,\u00a0he was the environmental director for the Red Lake Nation up in Northern\u00a0Minnesota. And\u00a0before that\u00a0we lived in south side, Minneapolis, and he had a construction company. And\u00a0for\u00a0a minute there,\u00a0he was the director of the\u00a0Indian center in St. Paul.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what he originally came to the Twin Cities for?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah.\u00a0My mom is from Lower Sioux Indian Rez\u00a0in southwest Minnesota. After they divorced, he moved to the cities.\u00a0Then he\u00a0met\u00a0Migizi\u2019s\u00a0mom,\u00a0and she’s from Red Lake.\u00a0So\u00a0he\u00a0stayed around for the kids, and moved up north,\u00a0and we were\u00a0immersed in all these movies in rural Minnesota.<\/p>\n

So\u00a0Bemidji had a cool rental spot?\u00a0<\/p>\n

They had two rental spots. One was small and the other one\u00a0was\u00a0a Hollywood\u00a0Video. It’s not there anymore, of course.\u00a0But yeah,\u00a0Bemidji was\u00a0big enough that where they had some obscure foreign films that they would get in every now and then.<\/p>\n

It is\u00a0a college town.<\/p>\n

Definitely. I think\u00a0that market\u00a0played a big part into it.\u00a0So\u00a0me\u00a0and my brother would go stay at his mom’s house and we would just sit in the basement and\u00a0watch movies. And\u00a0when we weren’t watching movies, we were quoting movies. I remember my dad would take us to these environmental conferences in like rural Montana.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0young, we don’t care about the conference there,\u00a0so to pass the time,\u00a0my brother and I would\u00a0challenge\u00a0each other to\u00a0reenact the entire\u00a0script\u00a0of\u00a0Pulp Fiction.\u00a0Same thing for\u00a0The Princess Bride. I remember\u00a0we would\u00a0do whole scenes\u00a0from memory, just\u00a0talking back and forth.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0how immersed we were.\u00a0So\u00a0I felt like this series\u00a0was a great\u00a0opportunity\u00a0for me to explore that. The challenge\u00a0is that\u00a0some people\u00a0just\u00a0want to go watch\u00a0Die Hard\u2014they may not get the reason for it.\u00a0So\u00a0I’m going to be recording\u00a0some\u00a0introduction videos for each screening,\u00a0just giving a breakdown.<\/p>\n

I’d like to\u00a0do some\u00a0re-examining\u00a0with an intentionality:\u00a0I’m going back as me right now to look back\u00a0and\u00a0enjoy this, but also to have a conversation with\u00a0the material.\u00a0How\u00a0did it help me get to where I’m at now?\u00a0A lot of what we were taught in the ’90s\u00a0came from these\u00a0action films\u2014they were the\u00a0pinnacle of like machismo, right? We\u00a0picture Arnold\u00a0Schwarzenegger\u00a0or Stallone.\u00a0And\u00a0that\u2019s what [that era] is known for,\u00a0and obviously it’s real,\u00a0this hyper-masculine identity that\u2019s\u00a0been a part of this country for generations and generations.\u00a0But in the ’90s, there\u00a0were other\u00a0kinds\u00a0of depictions of masculinity as well, and\u00a0that’s where I kind of wanted to venture into.\u00a0Like\u00a0Die Hard, hugely influential, right?\u00a0He was\u00a0a leading man,\u00a0but he wasn’t like\u00a0The\u00a0Rock\u00a0big\u00a0or anything, but he had the attitude.\u00a0And\u00a0Shawshank Redemption,\u00a0for lack of a better word, the softness of it. Andy Dufresne is a soft-ass dude in a hard-ass place. And the humanity of the inmates\u2014its monsters are the prison guards and the warden. And Morgan Freeman as the narrator also brings\u00a0such\u00a0a depth\u2014he\u00a0actually admits\u00a0to\u00a0the crime that he did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only prisoner to admit it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah, and the way he observes Andy\u2019s journey and his influence on everyone, and just the acknowledgement that you don\u2019t lose your humanity in all of this. And\u00a0Willow\u00a0was like a major influence on me:\u00a0this idea of\u00a0like fantasy world building. But\u00a0you had\u00a0Madmartigan,\u00a0played by Val Kilmer,\u00a0who’s not even\u00a0the\u00a0lead character, it’s Willow.\u00a0And they could\u2019ve beefed up\u00a0Madmartigan, but they didn\u2019t. Which I think is wonderful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you remember where you first saw it?<\/p>\n

I\u00a0think\u00a0it was on VHS. I remember watching it\u00a0with the\u00a0little tracking thing across the screen.\u00a0So even\u00a0though the main content of this series is about ’80s and ’90s portrayals of masculinity,\u00a0there was no question in my mind that I wanted to end the series with Taika Waititi’s film\u00a0Boy.<\/a><\/p>\n

I just watched it for the first time. It is a classic from the first five\u00a0minutes.\u00a0Its\u00a0tone is perfect, it\u2019s beautifully shot, and the\u00a0kid actor crushes. And then when Taika shows up 10 minutes in, obviously playing his own dad,\u00a0it gets at this idea of like how cool dads can be,\u00a0even while they\u2019re problematic and\u00a0growing up at the same time. It’s a heavy movie, but it’s done in this\u00a0really light, ironic tone.\u00a0So\u00a0is it a comedy to you?<\/p>\n

I think it is a comedy, but it’s an\u00a0Indigenous comedy where it carries\u00a0all of\u00a0that pain,\u00a0like\u00a0all of\u00a0that\u00a0unresolved anger, but\u00a0with a\u00a0lot of levity to it.\u00a0It carries it in such a way that\u00a0you just process it a lot better. And\u00a0the ’80s timeframe it was set in\u00a0felt appropriate for the series. As\u00a0somebody who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, reflecting on the\u00a0pop culture media in which we as\u00a0Native people were absent from.\u00a0But we\u00a0tried our best to put ourselves into it, right?\u00a0So\u00a0Boy is\u00a0doing Michael Jackson moves and he’s\u00a0making them\u00a0his own. We\u00a0did the same thing. We watched films where we’re absent from the\u00a0entire dialogue.\u00a0So\u00a0where\u00a0and how\u00a0do we find ourselves in it? Dude, I remember growing up and realizing\u00a0it wasn’t just me, but a lot of\u00a0Native\u00a0folks,\u00a0we would just make up\u00a0Native\u00a0characters\u00a0and\u00a0claim them.<\/p>\n

Haha, okay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, most of his young stuff, especially in the\u00a0Third Rock of the Sun, he was\u00a0Native, man. I was like,\u00a0That kid’s\u00a0at least\u00a0part Native. I see\u00a0him. Tommy, who played the Green Ranger in the\u00a0Power Rangers,\u00a0like I made him\u00a0Native. I was like, Dude,\u00a0he’s got the braid, he’s mysterious, he\u2019s Native.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Incredible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We find those moments.\u00a0Like\u00a0Billy,\u00a0the dude from\u00a0Predator. Remember the\u00a0fucking Native dude? He’s supposed to be like\u00a0Native presenting, but he doesn’t ever say it. But\u00a0I\u2019m like \u201cOh he\u2019s Native!\u201d\u00a0It’s because we didn’t have nothing else.\u00a0So\u00a0we would just like pull these folks out that\u00a0feel like they could\u00a0somehow embody our experience. And that was just a part of growing up at the time.\u00a0Now we have more films, more shows that are representative of our experience as Native people, and that’s\u00a0really great, and that’s why I feel like\u00a0Boy\u00a0is a great package for all of that.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re\u00a0opening\u00a0this weekend with Michael Mann\u2019s\u00a0The\u00a0Last of the Mohicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be honest, because like I’m\u00a0Native, I\u00a0had\u00a0to\u00a0do\u00a0at least one\u00a0Native thing. I didn’t want to\u00a0do\u00a0Dancing with Wolves.\u00a0There was another film I was\u00a0actually on\u00a0the fence about:\u00a0Pow Wow Highway.<\/p>\n

I love\u00a0Pow Wow Highway.<\/p>\n

I was\u00a0really\u00a0considering\u00a0Pow Wow Highway,\u00a0and this\u00a0might be\u00a0pretty shallow, but what really swayed me was being able to watch the final 15 minutes of\u00a0Last of the Mohicans\u00a0on the\u00a0big\u00a0screen with a massive sound system.\u00a0The\u00a0ending sequence is amazing.<\/p>\n

Yeah.<\/p>\n

You would think I’m drawn to\u00a0it\u00a0that because\u00a0of all the\u00a0Native characters,\u00a0but I’m not. It’s a great film.\u00a0But\u00a0Daniel Day-Lewis was never interesting\u00a0to me.\u00a0He\u2019s an amazing actor, but growing up,\u00a0his character\u00a0was\u00a0not my\u00a0interest. I didn’t watch it for Danny Day-Lewis\u2019\u00a0heroics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the books\u00a0Natty Bumppo\u00a0has\u00a0magical shooting powers.\u00a0He can kill a deer from a mile away. He’s the original Hawkeye\u2014the inspiration for the\u00a0Marvel hero.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And\u00a0he’s not even\u00a0Native in the books, right?\u00a0He\u00a0was raised by the Indians.<\/p>\n

Yeah, he was a\u00a0white\u00a0magical\u00a0shooter guy\u00a0who was raised by Natives.<\/p>\n

My interest was\u00a0always the\u00a0side characters:\u00a0Wes Studi’s\u00a0character,\u00a0Magua,\u00a0the bad guy, that was the attraction for me.\u00a0As a young\u00a0Native guy,\u00a0I was like,\u00a0Dude, he’s\u00a0badass. And is he wrong? You know,\u00a0for\u00a0taking different sides?<\/p>\n

He’s got the right motivation!\u00a0He’s\u00a0pissed.<\/p>\n

I guess the commentary I would like to provide for folks who go to see the films\u00a0in this\u00a0series,\u00a0is\u00a0to recognize\u00a0who gets uplifted, who’s\u00a0put in front in the\u00a0narrative and who\u00a0gets put to the\u00a0sidelines. And the front narrative is like the peacemaker\u00a0half-breed, which is\u00a0such a\u00a0classic archetype in\u00a0Native films.\u00a0But\u00a0I think that it does tap into\u00a0a\u00a0story that you don’t get to hear much, right? The time of\u00a0the\u00a0French and Indian War.<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0the\u00a01750s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most people don’t know about that time\u00a0in\u00a0history.\u00a0And\u00a0I think it\u00a0does do some justice\u00a0explaining\u00a0how\u00a0Native people\u2019s allegiances were divided\u00a0between the French\u00a0and the\u00a0British.\u00a0It’s\u00a0very complex. And\u00a0watching it now, I remember my dad talking about it.\u00a0He was like,\u00a0\u201cJust so you know,\u00a0the Mohicans are still here.\u201d The Mohicans are in\u00a0Wisconsin,\u00a0they’re\u00a0folks\u00a0who\u00a0were relocated out here.\u00a0So\u00a0the closing image of like the vanishing,\u00a0last-of-our-kind\u00a0thing is super ironic from my perspective. We’re still here, but it plays well into the national mythology of America.<\/p>\n

I guess I\u00a0have to\u00a0acknowledge my dad. He’d have us watch almost anything, but then he would also provide commentary of like, Hey,\u00a0let’s watch this film, but just so you know, this film has problems and I have these issues with it. And that influenced me.\u00a0The Last of the Mohicans\u00a0was one of the first ones where I recognized, Oh, they don’t really care about the Native side\u2014this is just a chance to talk about the white savior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your dad was hip to that stuff.<\/p>\n

Yeah, he was.\u00a0I remember he didn’t let us watch\u00a0Pocahontas, the Disney film.\u00a0As\u00a0kids, you know,\u00a0it was\u00a0a\u00a0big thing. But he was like, “No, you’re\u00a0not going to watch that.” And\u00a0he\u00a0told us\u00a0the\u00a0real story:\u00a0Pocahontas was like 13,\u00a0and\u00a0John Smith was a\u00a0grown-ass\u00a0man.\u00a0So\u00a0he was conscientious when it comes to Native stuff\u2014”Let’s\u00a0have a conversation about it.”<\/p>\n

Did Russell Means mean anything to you\u00a0when you saw him in\u00a0Last of the Mohicans?<\/p>\n

It’s funny\u00a0because\u00a0he showed up in my life in different ways. I grew up\u00a0on the south side of Minneapolis, so the American Indian Movement\u00a0was\u00a0very much part of my life as a kid. My mom was a part of AIM.\u00a0So\u00a0Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, those are two heavy hitters\u00a0from Minneapolis\u00a0in the history of the American Indian Movement.\u00a0So\u00a0I just I knew some of them as dudes in the community, right?\u00a0But\u00a0Russell Means, I never knew because he’s from\u00a0the\u00a0Southwest, but I know his kids,\u00a0I know his family.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the fun part,\u00a0I know all their kids because we all kind of grew up\u00a0with\u00a0the same experience: Dads who are part of the movement who may not be the best dads, but they’re great movement leaders and they’re doing their best to provide good examples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So\u00a0Russell\u00a0Means represented that class of men that, a\u00a0lot of times,\u00a0take themselves too\u00a0serious, who are like eloquent speakers,\u00a0but also are just dysfunctional in other ways, right?\u00a0There’s a long history of American Indian Movement men who are womanizers\u2014this ideology of,\u00a0We’re bringing back the red nation,\u00a0so\u00a0we got to have as many kids as possible.\u00a0So\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a big part of our conversations as comedians and writers now. I was like, what did that do to us? There’s\u00a0a lot of\u00a0folks in their 40s now, where\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0finding\u00a0new siblings. It’s like,\u00a0\u201cOh, I’m going to go meet my brother.\u201d\u00a0\u201cOh, I just met\u00a0mine\u00a0like five years ago.\u201d\u00a0And someone\u00a0else is\u00a0like,\u00a0\u201cWell, me too, man.\u201d And it\u2019s such a common story,\u00a0you’re discovering new siblings in the world.\u00a0And\u00a0so\u00a0I think that\u00a0that fed into a lot of the work that we did as 1491s.<\/p>\n

Your dad\u00a0was such a prominent\u00a0activist, rebel, organizer.\u00a0And he was\u00a0obviously giving you fatherly movie insight\u00a0as well.\u00a0But did you ever rebel against that? Were\u00a0there times when you were making fun of dad or was he a hero kind of\u00a0god\u00a0in your eyes?<\/p>\n

Oh no,\u00a0I\u00a0definitely made\u00a0fun of my dad. He\u2019s\u00a0definitely a\u00a0part of it:\u00a0His long-windedness and his perspective of things. There\u00a0are parts of my character\u00a0William Knife Man on\u00a0Reservation Dogs, that I took from my dad.\u00a0The\u00a0far-fetched storytelling,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0something my dad would often employ when we were younger.<\/p>\n

You know, I think both my parents, my mom and my dad, I give them a lot of credit because they\u00a0are two\u00a0individuals\u00a0who were never afraid to acknowledge their flaws to us as kids.\u00a0I remember we were talking about astrology one\u00a0time. And he’s like, “I believe in this astrology chart stuff\u2014I’m\u00a0a\u00a0Leo, and\u00a0Leos are prideful.”\u00a0I was like 17\u00a0when\u00a0he was talking to me about this. He was like,\u00a0\u201cThat’s been my greatest struggle in life, my own pride. And it’s jammed\u00a0me up so many times. And I’ve had to really work on checking myself. And sometimes you’ll see me do something, and\u00a0I’m not proud of it because my pride takes over and I’m trying my best.\u201d\u00a0And I think back and I was like, that’s\u00a0fucking\u00a0amazing.\u00a0So\u00a0I think that’s also where my curiosity\u00a0and\u00a0my willingness to explore all of this, even in my own life, it comes from the example they set.<\/p>\n

So many of the sketches from your comedy troupe, the\u00a01491s, are about\u00a0fathers and\u00a0grandpas and uncles. There\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0men’s group\u00a0sketch<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0another one where you\u2019re giving absurd\u00a0advice to a\u00a0baby<\/a>\u00a0about\u00a0how a man should be. So much of your material\u00a0is unpacking masculinity. Did you realize that at the time?<\/p>\n

In comedy, you pull from your life experiences. And comedy is also a method to expose and process the contradictions of life. And\u00a0there’s nothing more contradictory and dysfunctional than men.\u00a0There’s so much comedy in the\u00a0shit\u00a0we do as men.\u00a0And the\u00a01491s was\u00a0like five of us guys. And\u00a0so\u00a0we always teased men\u2014teased my uncles and cousins\u00a0and also\u00a0ourselves,\u00a0whether it was our videos\u00a0on\u00a0YouTube or the stuff that we put on stage, and then eventually we ended up with the show\u00a0Reservation Dogs. My brother Sterlin Harjo\u00a0got the show\u00a0and\u00a0brought us on as a creative team, as writers.\u00a0And we took stuff that we built in the YouTube skits, as well as stuff that we built on stage, and we brought it into the show to continue\u00a0that\u00a0conversation around masculinity. And\u00a0I think people really resonated with that. Like a lot of stuff that they see, they’re like,\u00a0\u201cOh\u00a0shit, that’s real, man. That’s how my uncles are and that’s how we are. That’s funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

There’s a scene in\u00a0Reservation Dogs,\u00a0first episode of season 2, called\u00a0\u201cThe Curse.\u201d\u00a0The\u00a0kids feel like they’re cursed, so\u00a0they\u00a0have to\u00a0find a way to break\u00a0the curse. And\u00a0so\u00a0they go to one of the uncles who tells them,\u00a0\u201cYou got to take this object and take it to the river and wash it away.\u201d\u00a0They go and get that, and\u00a0by the\u00a0end, Gary Farmer<\/a> and West Studi end up at the river,\u00a0and they have essentially a prayer off. That came\u00a0a\u00a01491’s\u00a0sketch based on a\u00a0real life\u00a0experience that I had. We have a thing in our community is called Sweat Lodge. It\u2019s a ceremony where\u00a0you’re in the dark,\u00a0and\u00a0it’s basically like a\u00a0sauna. And when I\u00a0was\u00a017-ish,\u00a0I was in this\u00a0sweat between two men.\u00a0And everyone had to go around and do a prayer.\u00a0So\u00a0one guy starts\u00a0off his prayer and he\u2019s\u00a0like,\u00a0\u201cYou know, I’m having a hard\u00a0time\u00a0and I just want to pray for my ex and my kids. And\u00a0she’s in this new relationship and I just want to pray that\u00a0her and the kids are\u00a0okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I’m\u00a0fucking\u00a017, and\u00a0I’m scared. I’m like,\u00a0\u201cSkip.\u201d\u00a0And then\u00a0the guy\u00a0next to me goes, \u201cCreator,\u00a0I want to pray.\u00a0My wife just got out of a\u00a0relationship\u00a0and\u00a0I just want to let the people know\u00a0she’s taken care of in that good way. And the only thing that we get stressed out about is that her ex doesn’t pay his child support. We’re just trying\u00a0to\u00a0make sure we can pay our bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the\u00a0guy before me\u00a0picks up and says,\u00a0\u201cCreator,\u00a0I want to just add on to my prayer that I’m doing my best and I can’t pay my child support because I’m in between jobs right now.\u201d And it\u00a0turns out they’re talking about the same woman.<\/p>\n

Same\u00a0gal!\u00a0<\/p>\n

The guy on my left is going out with the guy on my right’s ex. And\u00a0oh my,\u00a0it was just so awkward and beautiful that they had this passive aggressive argument in a prayer.\u00a0They didn’t talk to\u00a0each other,\u00a0they talked to God. And that\u00a0prayer off\u00a0became a sketch that we developed that ended up in\u00a0Reservation Dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You did get to work with\u00a0The Last of the Mohicans\u00a0Wes Studi\u00a0on\u00a0Reservation Dogs.\u00a0He\u2019s such a\u00a0scary guy in\u00a0Last of the Mohicans, and so sweet in\u00a0Reservation Dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s\u00a0such a loving man, Wes Studi. He’s so giving, so loving as an\u00a0actor.\u00a0Knowing the roles that he’s had, you’d think that he’d be a certain way, but he’s so giving. And he’s a stage actor at\u00a0heart. Like he loves collaboration and sharing the space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A moment\u00a0of pride\u00a0that will stick with me for the rest of my life,\u00a0is in\u00a0Reservation Dogs\u00a0in\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Curse\u201d\u00a0episode, which I wrote. [My character], the spirit,\u00a0William Knife Man, shows up. And I can only communicate to Gary Farmer\u2014that’s the bit, only Gary Farmer can see me.\u00a0And\u00a0when they finish their prayer, they send the curse\u00a0off\u00a0into the water, and everyone’s celebrating.\u00a0And a\u00a0lot of it got cut from the final sequence, but I close off by singing,\u00a0Tom Petty\u2019s \u201cFree Falling.\u201d\u00a0But before that, I\u00a0recited a\u00a0litany of movie quotes\u00a0from every\u00a0Native movie I could think of.\u00a0I\u2019m like,\u00a0\u201cMy name is\u00a0Wind in his Hair, and\u00a0I’m not afraid of you!\u201d<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Dancing with Wolves. I did the character from\u00a0Predator:\u00a0\u201cWhatever is out there\u00a0ain’t\u00a0no man.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0I did\u00a0everything:\u00a0I did\u00a0Wes Studi in\u00a0Smoke Signals.\u00a0I did Gary Farmer in\u00a0Pow Wow Highway\u00a0and\u00a0Dead Man.\u00a0And Sterlin Harjo, who was directing it, he just let me go. I did take after\u00a0take\u00a0after\u00a0take, with\u00a0all these different movie quotes. Just all the junk in my head,\u00a0I spewed it out,\u00a0on horseback, half naked. And\u00a0Wes\u00a0Studi and Gary Farmer\u00a0are\u00a0way down below\u00a0in the river, and\u00a0I could see them kind of reacting and chuckling or whatever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then we finished the scene\u00a0and it\u2019s time to get\u00a0in the van.\u00a0And\u00a0Wes Studi\u00a0and Gary Farmer are already in the van\u00a0when\u00a0I get in there.\u00a0And we\u00a0start driving off and Wes\u00a0is\u00a0in front of me,\u00a0and Gary\u2019s behind me. And\u00a0I can see\u00a0Wes\u2019s shoulders are shaking. He’s chuckling. He\u00a0turns around, and he\u2019s like,\u00a0\u201cI tell you what, young blood, that was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.\u00a0That was\u00a0absolutely brilliant.\u00a0How did you remember all those quotes?\u201d\u00a0And I\u00a0was like,\u00a0\u201cUncle, man,\u00a0that’s the legacy you have given us. All those movies are\u00a0locked into us.\u201d\u00a0And Gary Farmer in the back\u00a0is\u00a0like,\u00a0\u201cNo\u00a0shit, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n

Haha.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0way he said it\u00a0was just so anticlimatic. He was like,\u00a0\u201cNo\u00a0shit huh\u2014that\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d And Wes Studi was like,\u00a0\u201cWell\u00a0that was mighty fine\u2014you guys want to get some lunch?\u201d\u00a0I was like,\u00a0\u201cAlright, let’s go get some fajitas.\u201d<\/p>\n

So\u00a0your 1491 stuff was\u00a0obviously\u00a0created for a Native audience. But when you\u2019re making\u00a0Reservation Dogs\u00a0it\u2019s for millions of people.\u00a0Do\u00a0you\u00a0ever find\u00a0yourself pulling your punches as your\u00a0platform grows\u00a0larger and larger?<\/p>\n

Oh shit,\u00a0that’s a good question, man.\u00a0Yes and no. I think as an artist, I don’t want to be hampered by my own insecurities.\u00a0And actually,\u00a0it’s\u00a0the insecurities that’s driving me to create in many ways. Because our films, our videos, our writing is an open dialogue with how we see the world.\u00a0Especially in\u00a0the\u00a01491s,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0an open dialogue about who we are as\u00a0Native people\u2014who we have been and who we are. And\u00a0how do outside people see us? And\u00a0in order to\u00a0fully explore that, you\u00a0have to dive into uncomfortable places.\u00a0So yes,\u00a0I’m more cognizant of what I say and what I do because there’s more non-Native people watching, right?\u00a0There are like\u00a0inside jokes. I do\u00a0try to be\u00a0careful\u00a0with\u00a0how I present this because outside folks could\u00a0have their\u00a0stereotypes\u00a0reinforced.\u00a0And at\u00a0the end of the day, I want to challenge and break down stereotypes for the\u00a0greater goal of finding our humanity in all of us.<\/p>\n

I have a story.\u00a0The 1491s\u00a0were doing a talk at the University of South Dakota Vermilion. We’re showing\u00a0our videos, and\u00a0we’d talk about them. And\u00a0so\u00a0we showed one of\u00a0our earliest videos. I don’t know if it’s online anymore, but it’s a video in which I\u00a0portray a veteran. The crowd is half\u00a0Native, half non-Native.\u00a0And after the screening, this\u00a0Native\u00a0guy stands up in the crowd, and he\u2019s a veteran, and he\u2019s like \u201cI just want to say, it’s never funny to make fun of veterans.\u00a0And you\u2019re making fun of us.\u201d\u00a0He’s checking us, right?\u00a0So\u00a0all of\u00a0our heads droop down\u00a0and\u00a0we’re getting this tongue lashing. And he was like,\u00a0\u201cThere’s nothing funny in who we are as people.\u201d\u00a0We put the\u00a0checks out there and the checks are getting cashed right now\u2014like\u00a0this is what we’re to expect. And then he sat down. And then,\u00a0after a public tongue lashing like that, it’s awkward silence.<\/p>\n

And this elderly\u00a0Native woman raises her hand.\u00a0So\u00a0we\u2019re like,\u00a0OK, what\u2019s next?\u00a0So\u00a0she\u00a0stands up and is like, \u201cI am also a veteran. I thought that was funny as\u00a0shit.\u00a0We can’t take ourselves so damn\u00a0serious\u00a0that we can’t\u00a0actually find\u00a0our own humanity. And I think\u00a0you young men\u00a0are doing a great job in what you’re doing, making some people uncomfortable and some people need to be uncomfortable.\u00a0And\u00a0so\u00a0I’ll just let you know, as a veteran,\u00a0I’m okay with it.\u201d\u00a0And I was like, oh,\u00a0shit!\u00a0Like the\u00a0prayer off, this was\u00a0two\u00a0veterans\u00a0veteran-ing\u00a0off\u00a0up\u00a0here.\u00a0And that’s the purpose of art, to generate conversation where you can have\u00a0two different reactions to\u00a0the same material that sparks a conversation.\u00a0You can\u00a0say,\u00a0Oh, she was right, or you could say,\u00a0He was right.\u00a0Either way, the art speaks for\u00a0itself\u00a0and people will take it as they wish.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This summer\u2019s Walker Art Center movie series is being curated by Dallas Goldtooth, the Native American environmental activist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,1636,123924,223,391,130595,69],"class_list":["post-368591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-film","tag-museums-and-galleries","tag-news","tag-people","tag-steve-marsh","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}