‘Reservation Dogs’ Strives To Depict Indigenous People Accurately, Especially When It Comes To Humor

It’s the story of four Indigenous teenagers who, while mourning the loss of their friend, steal and rob to gain the means to escape rural Oklahoma and relocate to Los Angeles.

After an acclaimed first season, Reservation Dogs returns this week with another ten episodes.

Created by Sterlin Harjo, the creative team behind the series features a first — an all Indigenous writing team.

Speaking with television critics just prior to the premiere in 2021, Harjo said, “having an all‑Indigenous room helped us not be afraid to go hard and tell the truth and also to be funny and push the envelope. And there was a shorthand between all of the writers, and we were able to just pull from our own experiences and make it real.”

In a behind-the-scenes video, Harjo explains building the narrative of the series, explaining, “being Native in Rural Oklahoma, all you can is walk. You walk everywhere and you just get into trouble. You sort of create your own world and your own magic, and your own everything. And that’s what this is about. It’s about these kids who are dealing with something really tragic, creating their own ways to deal with it and also coming to terms with how unique and special the world is.”

In talking about the cultural moments and influences from when was young, Harjo says, “I grew up watching some of my favorite coming‑of‑age stories — The Goonies, Stand by Me — and [this] was kind of a shout‑out to some of that time period in film.

About the setting of the series, and how his upbringing shaped his work, Harjo explains his thought process, as he explains, “Oklahoma doesn’t get a lot of love. A lot of people don’t know about it, but there’s an interesting history there. It was at one time Indian territory. There’s 38 tribes there. So, if you are of the Indigenous community there, you know how unique and special it is. And you can drive 30 minutes to an hour down the road, and you are in a whole new tribal territory with new languages, new customs, new ceremonial practices, and that led to this really, I think, cool upbringing”

As for why the protagonists in the series are so enamored of West Coast, Harjo says, “I think that California is this mythological place to anyone from a small town, and it’s through pop culture, through movies, through music, through hip hop, [that makes California seem like] this idyllic place. [In the series], it’s almost like this mythological place that they’ve created in their brain. It representative of getting out.”

The series is not only resonating with viewers, but it’s ranking up accolades as well, having earned a Peabody Award and two Independent Spirit Awards. In addition, Reservation Dogs has gotten nominations from the Critics Choice Television Awards and The Golden Globes. The Television Critics Association recently also nominated the series for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. The winner of this award will be announced later this year.

Harjo, accepting the Peabody award, says that he was speechless about receiving the honor but that he and his co-creator, Taika Waititi, created this the series to showcase his community’s humor, remarking that there has never been acceptable depictions of this aspect of Native life, with Indigenous people usually being shown as solemn and destitute.

He summed up his thoughts in that speech saying, “when you let people tell their stories, the quality shows. No one’s asking for a hand-out, just an opportunity.

The first two episodes of season two of ‘Reservation Dogs’ drop on FX on Hulu Wednesday at 12:01am (ET). The remaining episodes will be released weekly thereafter.