Yellowstone prequel 1923 has given us a glimpse into how Director Taylor Sheridan will blend an important perspective into the franchise narrative; the tragedy of conquest and consequences of manifest destiny.
There’s a moment in the Yellowstone prequel where, after several beatings and confinement in a hotbox, Sister Mary tells Teonna Rainwater that, despite it all, she’ll keep her promise to “kill the Indian in her.” While many viewers see Sister Mary as the living embodiment of evil, racism, and ignorance, a lone wolf we can all despise and never see ourselves in, the truth is, she represents much more; as does Teonna.
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In episode two of the Yellowstone prequel, Jacob Dutton tells his son, “Every civilization in this world is built on top of the one they conquered. Go to Rome or Jerusalem, or Paris, France, there are cities built on towns, towns on top of villages, villages on top of one man’s house, built on top of one man’s cave. You wish it wasn’t so, but it is. Your enemies have to be so terrified of you, their fear is greater than their greed.”
Jacob is right. From the Far East to the New World, greed and power have created dynasties and erased civilizations from time immemorial; codifying new borders in conquest and normalizing through fear and assimilation.
That’s why…
The Yellowstone prequel is an age-old tale
Even before the Europeans began their conquest of America, the Iroquois Nation in New York expanded from the Northeast to the Great Lakes and as far south as Virginia, conquering smaller nations and enslaving rebel warriors along the way; becoming America’s first democracy ruled under the “great law of peace.”
However, as would be repeated many times over in the centuries to come, the Iroquois Nation, roughly the size of modern-day Germany at its peak, was reduced to a few small parcels of land in New York and Canada when colonists claimed their home as part of the newly formed United States.
The Seminoles in Florida followed; though they were the only tribe to never surrender or settle with the US government. Hated by locals because of their alleged inbreeding with escaped slaves (often referred to as “Black Indians”) and feared by the government for their victory in the “Dade Massacre,” the US moved nearly half of its army to the southeast.
After managing to push the Seminoles into the deepest and most uninhabitable swamplands in Florida, the army eventually forced the remaining Seminole warriors west of the Mississippi and out of the state, at a cost of nearly $30 million and 1,500 soldiers.
With the Northeast and Southeast under the firm control of the federal government, the US looked west.
The Navajo in the southwest had been fighting Mexicans for over two centuries but had almost no encounters with white settlers until the mid-1850s. When the US army built its first camp in Navajo land (Fort Defiance), General James Carlton called the Navajo “wolves” that must be removed. By 1866, the last 24 Navajo warriors surrendered in New Mexico, ending the era of a free Navajo nation.
From the moment colonists arrived to the death of Sitting Bull, settlers pushed and promised, fought and enslaved, and lived in fear of Native Americans. But the most terrifying of all were the Cheyenne and Lakota.
Horse warriors with similar cultures who shared a territory stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, the Cheyenne and Lakota both lived on Buffalo. When white settlers began to hunt Buffalo for sport and their fur coats, the Lakota went north and the Cheyenne moved west, ultimately prompting the Colorado governor to declare war on them.
In the northern plains, Lt. Colonel Custard led an army regiment to their deaths in Montana Territory (The Battle of Little Bighorn) against a coalition of Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux warriors, a shocking defeat for the US Army, one that sparked an outcry among settlers and forced the government to escalate. For the next several decades, the Lakota fought ferociously to preserve their land and way of life.
Which brings us back to the Yellowstone prequel and Teonna Rainwater.
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Of all the Native American tribes, the Lakota Sioux were the most hated by the mid-1800s. Holdouts from another era, the Lakota were so rebellious they even created a religion that blended Christianity with their traditional beliefs in defiance of their Baptist neighbors, frightening settlers living among them with “Ghost Dances” that were erratic and performed by warriors who appeared to be in a trance.
Needless to say, the Lakota were hated, as was Sitting Bull, who’d fought against the US and was an outspoken critic and a bit of a rabble-rouser on the Lakota reservation. As the new religious movement continued to get out of hand, Sitting Bull was ultimately killed by his own tribe (1890), something he claimed was prophesied to him in a dream.
As white settlers expanded west trust between all parties evaporated. Promises were made and promises were broken. And while many white sympathizers advocated on behalf of Native Americans and their rights to live on ancestral lands, by the end of the Indian Wars everyone had enough.
The US government was convinced that the only way to neutralize the “Indian threat” was to force assimilation into the settler way of life (despite the fact the Cherokee did just that and still lost their lands in Georgia). Again, promises were broken.
For the next 100 years, Native American children were abducted, renamed, and abused.
Teonna Rainwater in the Yellowstone prequel 1923
In the Yellowstone prequel, Teonna Rainwater represents the spirit of the Lakota people. The fierce Lakota refused to be subjugated to New World rules, and they fought like hell against it, to the bitter end.
This is where we see Teonna and Mary’s conflict come to a head. Sister Mary isn’t carrying out the wishes of the Catholic Church as much as she is the sentiment of the people; the Lakota way had to go.
When Teonna Rainwater’s grandmother tries to pull her out of school, the administrator refuses her request on a technicality, but the truth is, another generation of Lakota fighters wasn’t in the cards; the US government’s position was assimilate or annihilate.
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The Yellowstone prequel is an examination of these wounds, but the question is: how hard will the showrunners pull the thread?
There’s a lot more going on, of course. We know that Spencer is going to return and make light work of Banner and his hired army. But what else will 1923 tell us about the Dutton family’s oldest frenemy and the consequences of western expansion and conquest?
In any case, we’re excited to see how far Sheridan takes the Yellowstone prequel when it returns and the implications it has for Yellowstone Season 5 part 2 this summer.
The Yellowstone prequel returns to Paramount Plus on February 5, 2023.
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