Just finished watching Season 1, which premiered in June on AMC. Excellent show. Season 2 is in production.
It’s loosely based on the Tony Hillerman mystery novel “Listening Woman” which was one of his earlier works. I’m a huge fan of Hillerman’s work, which features Navajo Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. “Listening Woman” was written before Chee and female officer Bernie were introduced as characters, but the television screenplay takes some liberties and has both as major characters.
The show stars Zahn McClarnon, a Native American actor who was so good as the tribal police officer in “Longmire”, as Leaphorn. Reportedly, every Native American part is played by a Native American — a far cry from Old Hollywood — and most of the production crew, including writers and the director, also are Native American.
I’ve collected Native American art, primarily Pueblo pottery and Hopi Kachinas, since 1981 and I’ve been through the Dinee’ (the name the Navajo call themselves; it simply means “the People” in their language) reservation three times; the Hopi Pueblo is right in the middle of it, so you have to drive through it to get there.
The show does a good job of recreating without glamorizing the desolation as well as the beauty of the reservation. It was shot in New Mexico, which I don’t think has anything as desolate or beautiful as Canyon de Chelly on the Dinee’ reservation, where some of the action is supposed to occur, but is a pretty good substitute.
The acting is first rate throughout, which I thought was surprising since many of the Native American actors had very limited prior experience. It probably helps viewers to have a little knowledge of the Dinee’ culture but isn’t critical. I am far more familiar with the Hopi culture and despite their physical location it is very different from that of the Dinee’. The Hopi and Zuni, who are their closest neighbors, are both Pueblo cultures with very different languages, religions and practices.
Almost all of Hillerman’s novels feature at least one “Sweat” which plays an important part in Dinee’ society, but there is none in any of the series, which is unfortunate. It is set in the early 1970s and a lot of the Dinee’ are Vietnam veterans, but it doesn’t overtly focus on that fact. I wish it had at a little bit. A number of the Hopi I know are fellow Vietnam veterans, and when I visited the Pueblo that was a major topic of our conversations as it was the primary thing we had in common. One of the Kachina carvers I got to know was Neil David, a fellow 101st Airborne veteran, and we bonded over that. After the 1994 Earthquake in Southern California, he telephoned me to find out if my Kachinas had survived. When I told him all were broken into pieces, he told me to save all of the pieces, put the pieces of each one in a separate plastic bag and have Gordon Graf, a collector/seller we both knew who went to the Pueblo 4 times a year, bring them with him on his next buying trip. Neil repaired all of them — more than 20 — and wouldn’t take a dime from me. I can look at them now, knowing where they were broken, and can’t tell that any were broken (except for two very early purchases which weren’t very good and which Neil said weren’t worth the effort of a full restoration).
Anyway, the series is well worth watching, and if you haven’t read any of Hillerman’s works give them a try too. I would start with “Dance Hall of the Dead” which was his second novel and the first starring Joe Leaphorn, and if you like it just continue chronologically.
It’s loosely based on the Tony Hillerman mystery novel “Listening Woman” which was one of his earlier works. I’m a huge fan of Hillerman’s work, which features Navajo Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. “Listening Woman” was written before Chee and female officer Bernie were introduced as characters, but the television screenplay takes some liberties and has both as major characters.
The show stars Zahn McClarnon, a Native American actor who was so good as the tribal police officer in “Longmire”, as Leaphorn. Reportedly, every Native American part is played by a Native American — a far cry from Old Hollywood — and most of the production crew, including writers and the director, also are Native American.
I’ve collected Native American art, primarily Pueblo pottery and Hopi Kachinas, since 1981 and I’ve been through the Dinee’ (the name the Navajo call themselves; it simply means “the People” in their language) reservation three times; the Hopi Pueblo is right in the middle of it, so you have to drive through it to get there.
The show does a good job of recreating without glamorizing the desolation as well as the beauty of the reservation. It was shot in New Mexico, which I don’t think has anything as desolate or beautiful as Canyon de Chelly on the Dinee’ reservation, where some of the action is supposed to occur, but is a pretty good substitute.
The acting is first rate throughout, which I thought was surprising since many of the Native American actors had very limited prior experience. It probably helps viewers to have a little knowledge of the Dinee’ culture but isn’t critical. I am far more familiar with the Hopi culture and despite their physical location it is very different from that of the Dinee’. The Hopi and Zuni, who are their closest neighbors, are both Pueblo cultures with very different languages, religions and practices.
Almost all of Hillerman’s novels feature at least one “Sweat” which plays an important part in Dinee’ society, but there is none in any of the series, which is unfortunate. It is set in the early 1970s and a lot of the Dinee’ are Vietnam veterans, but it doesn’t overtly focus on that fact. I wish it had at a little bit. A number of the Hopi I know are fellow Vietnam veterans, and when I visited the Pueblo that was a major topic of our conversations as it was the primary thing we had in common. One of the Kachina carvers I got to know was Neil David, a fellow 101st Airborne veteran, and we bonded over that. After the 1994 Earthquake in Southern California, he telephoned me to find out if my Kachinas had survived. When I told him all were broken into pieces, he told me to save all of the pieces, put the pieces of each one in a separate plastic bag and have Gordon Graf, a collector/seller we both knew who went to the Pueblo 4 times a year, bring them with him on his next buying trip. Neil repaired all of them — more than 20 — and wouldn’t take a dime from me. I can look at them now, knowing where they were broken, and can’t tell that any were broken (except for two very early purchases which weren’t very good and which Neil said weren’t worth the effort of a full restoration).
Anyway, the series is well worth watching, and if you haven’t read any of Hillerman’s works give them a try too. I would start with “Dance Hall of the Dead” which was his second novel and the first starring Joe Leaphorn, and if you like it just continue chronologically.
