New series upends Indigenous narratives
Rutherford Falls Debuts Thursday, Global
Indigenous Americans’ stories in Hollywood are often depicted as sad and monolithic. While stories of historical trauma serve a purpose, a sea change may be afoot. Rutherford Falls, a half-hour series, is one of a few upcoming Indigenous narratives (along with FX’S Reservation Dogs, NBC’S Sovereign and Marvel Studios’ rumoured Echo) that tells a different story. The comedy follows two best friends — Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms) and Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding) — who both have a loyalty and love for their heritage, but whose histories come head-to-head when a statue of Nathan’s ancestor, their town’s founder, needs to be removed.
The minds behind Rutherford Falls — co-creator Michael Schur (The Office, Parks and Recreation), showrunner and co-creator Sierra Teller Ornelas (Brooklyn Nine-nine, Superstore), and lead and co-creator Helms — wanted to take Indigenous Americans out of the box in which they’re so often put. “We very intentionally wanted to tell a story that had Native joy,” says Ornelas. “Diversity of Native perspectives was the big thing (in our writer’s room).”
Helms and Schur were interested in exploring the issues that they, as two white men, saw happening.
“In particular, all the ways people cling to historical narratives and derive so much identity from them,” says Helms. “It’s an endlessly fascinating question, right? What is history? Essentially, it’s just stories that our culture tells itself. Especially at this time in American culture where identity is becoming inextricably linked to other facets of our personal histories — it just felt so precious and fascinating.”
The main character, Nathan Rutherford is a good guy with blind spots; a small-town man who takes immense pride in his family’s history without any objectivity or context for the legacy the Rutherfords built on the backs of the Minishonka, a tribe in that area long before Europeans arrived.
“This meant that the tension and the comedy of the story needed to relate to Native American people,” says Schur. “And that’s not really our story to tell.”
Ornelas is a seasoned TV writer and producer who was perfectly positioned to take the reins of Rutherford Falls. For a room of 10 writers, Ornelas staffed five Indigenous people, including herself (she has a Latin-navajo background), and Schmieding (who is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux tribe). Decisions — from the beadwork to the artwork to wardrobe to choosing Red Lobster as a hangout spot — came directly from the writers’ lives.
Adds Schur: “I wanted us to do a show where there’s a scene where three Native people are hanging out and they’re not talking about being Native, because that’s what actual, legitimate representation is; it’s the normal, boring, everyday stuff.”