Dark Winds: Justice the Native American way

Dark Winds is a cop show, but a cop show with a difference, in which the cops are Native American — Navajo in fact.

The series follows three Navajo Tribal Police officers — Joe Leaphorn, Bernadette Manuelito, and Jim Chee — in the 1970s Four Corners area of the American Southwest.

It’s based on the Leaphorn & Chee series of novels by Tony Hillerman and stars Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon as the aforementioned two characters, leading a mostly Native American cast.

The series was created by Graham Roland and the producers include the Academy-award winning Robert Redford, who previously produced four other adaptations of the Leaphorn & Chee series: The Dark Wind (1991), Skinwalkers (2002), Coyote Waits (2003), and A Thief of Time (2004).

The action gets underway in Gallup, New Mexico, where robbers hold up an armored truck, killing two guards before making their escape in a helicopter.

The helicopter flies over the nearby Navajo reservation, where it is spotted by an old man named Hosteen Tso.

Three weeks later, Tso is found dead in a motel room along with Anna Atcitty, the granddaughter of a Medicine Woman he was visiting due to ailments.

Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police investigates the murders; Tso’s body is mutilated, while Anna’s body is unmarked.

Leaphorn has a personal history with Anna’s family, which he does not disclose to his colleagues.

The medicine woman is blind, and in a catatonic state since witnessing the murders.

Leaphorn’s wife, Emma, a nurse, convinces him to investigate the living conditions of a pregnant girl named Sally Growing Thunder, who visited her clinic.

His deputy Bernadette Manuelito visits Sally’s home but is intimidated by her mother, a witch, and is convinced the woman has cursed her.

Leaphorn is joined by a new Deputy Jim Chee, who we discover is an undercover FBI agent.

Cheese handler, Agent Whitover, believes the armored truck robbery was committed by a radical Navajo group called the Buffalo Society and wants Chee to use the motel killings as a cover to investigate.

Leaphorn visits Tso’s property, where he finds that his water supply has been contaminated.

The helicopter is discovered at the bottom of his reservoir with a body inside.

Filming for the series takes place in numerous locations in the Navajo Nation which occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.

The latter explains the Morman family who make an appearance in the second episode.

Initially green-lighted for six episodes a fourth season has been approved, with 20 episodes shown so far.

The series has received very positive reviews, with particular praise for McClarnon’s performance.

However, the Navajo Times criticized the series for lacking authenticity in its representation of Navajo people and language.

For the second season, the series hired Navajo cultural advisor George R. Joe to help create more accurate portrayals of the Navajo culture.

Zahn Tokiya-ku McClarnon is an American actor known for his performances in the Western crime drama series Longmire, the second season of Fargo, and the second season of Westworld.

Kiowa Gordon got a start when he landed the role of Embry Call in The Twilight Saga.

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He recently won best supporting actor at the 2013 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco for his role in the indie film, The Lesser Blessed.

Ki was also a series regular on a Sundance original series called The Red Road, starring Jason Momoa, Julianne Nicholson and Martin Henderson.

Jessica Martin has spent her whole life working to help Indigenous communities.

Her purpose within the film and TV industry is to spotlight the issues facing Indigenous youth struggling with identity, racism, lateral violence, bullying, and displacement due to trauma, abuse, adoption, and also advocating for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

You can catch Dark Winds on SBS on Demand.