Reservation Dogs
The new Indigenous comedy with humor and heart
By: Sommer Wagen
As we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day and Native American Heritage Month around this time of year, it’s important to remember that Indigenous stories are always worth listening to. And it doesn’t count to say you’re a fan of the Cleveland Baseball Team, or if you still call the Washington Football Team by their previous name. Much of the narrative constructed around the Indigenous existence is a product of white capitalism, including the commodification of a stereotype rooted in the homogenization of various cultures and traditions. As a white person myself, I fully admit to being complicit in the exploitation and erasure of Indigenous people and that simply watching a TV show about the Native experience without corresponding action does nothing to reconcile the issues they face.
Yet to say "Reservation Dogs" isn’t worth watching is categorically untrue. If someone were to tell me that, I would be at a loss for words.
The new FX on Hulu production, which premiered in August and concluded its first season in September, is the first TV production to feature all Indigenous writers and directors and an almost entirely Indigenous-American cast and production team. It is also the first to be entirely shot in Oklahoma, home to the third-largest number of Indigenous tribes in the United States (38) and is also the home state of writer-director-creator Sterlin Harjo, who is Seminole and Muscogee. It follows four teens who live on a reservation there: Bear Smallhill, Elora Danan Postoak, Cheese, and Willie Jack, dubbed the Reservation Dogs by an incoming gang mistaking them as their rival. In truth, the four are raising money to move away from the reservation to California in memory of their friend Daniel who died before the events of the series.
A recognizable name on this production is Taika Waititi, who joined forces with Harjo in creating, executive producing, and writing “Reservation Dogs.” Waititi, who is Māori, has stylistic fingerprints all over this show, from the perfect balance of dark comedy and heart-wrenching tragedy to the metaphysical personification of the subconscious as a companion (the character Spirit). If Waititi’s previous productions like “Jojo Rabbit” and “What We Do In The Shadows” bring you joy, “Reservation Dogs'' will be something you appreciate.
There are four different directors for the eight episodes of season one, and yet cohesion is not lost. We get insight into each of the main characters’ lives, their families outside of their friendship, what their lives are like on the reservation, and what motivates them to leave. We also get insight into how each of them is processing Daniel’s death, a situation that simultaneously unifies and divides the four. What results is a complex and compelling story of family, friendship, and love that makes you feel as if you’re watching your own family on the screen, even if it’s impossible for you to completely relate to them. By the end of the season, I was in tears, not because of the hopelessness of the situation but because of how much I had grown to care for and relate to these characters so fundamentally different from myself.
Some trigger warnings are to be assessed for “Reservation Dogs, including violence, estranged parents, drug use, and suicide. Naturally, issues facing the Indigenous community and those living on reservations and other impoverished communities are discussed, but in doing so, “Reservation Dogs” is incredibly authentic and compelling. Although this is the perfect time of year to watch this show, it’s important to remember that similar stories are playing out all the time. Recognizing the Indigenous experience and listening to their stories isn’t exclusive to the time their oppressors have allocated them. One would argue that, as a TV show, the goal of “Reservation Dogs” is to entertain, which it certainly does, but even a single watch-through shows that it does impossibly more.