Navajo Culture Foregrounded in Top-Tier Crime Drama “Dark Winds” https://ift.tt/bklDOqh
AMC has completed broadcasting the second season of Dark Winds, a well-written, superbly cast crime drama set on a Navajo reservation in the southwest in the 1970s. The series intertwines Tony Hillerman’s writing with breathtaking cinematography and a talented Native American cast that firmly grounds the viewer in the setting. It stars Zahn McClarnon (Fargo, Longmire) as Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, the chief of a Navajo Tribal Police office. He leans heavily on his officers, Jim Chee, played by Kiowa Gordon (Roswell), and Bernadette Manuelito, played by Jessica Matten (Tribal, Frontier).
Familiarity with Hillerman’s novels, the culture, or the region isn’t required to enjoy Dark Winds. However, fans can take advantage of the network’s behind-the-scenes bonus episode that gives more insight into all aspects of the series. As a first-class mystery, Dark Winds provides viewers with insight into Navajo culture as well as some of the injustices the Navajo people have endured.
The first season, based on Hillerman’s Listening Woman, introduces Joe Leaphorn and his community. After a daring armored car heist, the FBI calls upon Leaphorn to help locate the bandits, last reported flying over the vast, austere Navajo reservation. At the same time, he searches for the murderer of two Navajo people on reservation territory, a crime which the FBI has sole authority to investigate but pursues with only mild interest. Leaphorn learns that his new deputy, Jim Chee, is an FBI plant with a task to make sure Leaphorn finds the robbers and the loot. As he uncovers clues from both cases, Leaphorn suspects that the crimes may be connected. In the meantime, he discovers that his son, killed years ago in an industrial accident, may instead be a victim of foul play.
In Season Two, which loosely follows People of Darkness, Leaphorn assists a neighboring sheriff in the investigation of the murder of a terminally ill Navajo person while Chee, now a private investigator, takes on a property-recovery case. As they compare notes, Leaphorn gets closer to the mystery behind his son’s death and comes across a shadowy, murderous blond man intent on eliminating witnesses to his crimes.
Dark Winds is a fantastic show on several levels, immersing the viewer in period, culture, and region. Most notably, the actors themselves are of Native American heritage. In a promotional trailer, AMC+ highlights the Nations from which they hail: McClarnon is Hunkpapa Lakota, Gordon is Hualapai, and Matten is Red River Métis and Cree. Hillerman himself devoted plenty of space in his novels to Native American practices and beliefs to show how his characters interpreted the world, something that the Dark Winds writers preserved in their adaptation. In Listening Woman, the crime writer detailed the Kinaalda, a coming-of-age ceremony for Navajo teenage girls. On screen, we hear and see the tradition in living color, giving a memorable lesson on how the young women and their communities participated in this celebration.
After Season One, the series met some criticism of their portrayals of Navajo language and customs. Director Chris Eyre, who is Cheyenne and Arapaho, apologized and promised to improve the accuracy as they moved forward. For the second season, the network partnered with the Navajo Nation, and brought in a Navajo cultural consultant to assist the writers, actors, and staff to portray the Navajo people as authentically as possible.
The cinematography puts Hillerman’s descriptions of the region’s geology and geography in 3D, which intensifies the loneliness and isolation of Leaphorn’s beat. Most obvious are the gratuitous panoramic views of majestic desert mesas, buttes, and canyons, with long, winding roads, some paved, many not, that separate remote villages and residences from each other. Second is the attention given to the period’s technology: automobiles with radios playing through monophonic speakers, televisions that sometimes need tinfoil to enhance their antennas’ receptions, and phones with rotary dials, all of which magnify the remoteness of the region.
What the show isn’t is a straight screen version of Hillerman’s works. As mentioned, each season largely follows a novel, and fans of the writing may be distracted or disappointed when the script diverges from the page. While it is common for adaptations to use various techniques to fit a storyline into a set number of episodes, in some areas, the writers repurposed some characters or rewrote the story altogether. Hillerman buffs should consider these new versions as authentic. His daughter, Anne, who took over penning the Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito novels, joins Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin as an executive producer. So enjoy the ride, and look at it as a new take on your favorite characters.
Speaking of a new take: While Hillerman’s stories touched on the animosity between white men and Native Americans, particularly where law enforcement was concerned, the screenwriters portray historical injustices targeting Indigenous populations, most prominently the practice of sterilizing women without their knowledge or consent. In this case, the series handles these as a reality that the characters must reckon with, without overtaking the immediate mysteries they must solve.
What’s next? Well, a couple of weeks after Season Two finished its run, AMC confirmed that it renewed the show for a third season. While the first two seasons premiered in summer, Season Three is scheduled to premiere in early 2025, a change likely due to the current writers’ and actors’ strikes. If the writers follow the order of Hillerman’s novels, the next one in line is The Dark Wind. However, with Tony’s 18 novels and Anne’s eight, there is no shortage of inspiration. If you haven’t seen it yet, each season has only six episodes, which makes binging the series a short, worthwhile experience.
TELEVISION Dark Winds
Created by: Graham Roland
Starring: Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten
Broadcast on AMC, streaming on AMC+
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