Taylor Sheridan sparked outrage when he stated that his 2017 film Wind River played a major part in the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. This reauthorization played a huge part in strengthening its reach to the Native communities. Needless to say, Native groups were and still are quite furious at Taylor Sheridan for trying to take credit for the decades of advocacy behind the act.
Still, many Native American actors work in Taylor Sheridan’s projects despite the community’s displeasure with the director. Reservation Dogs actress’ Jana Schmieding opened up about why she would never blame these actors for working with Taylor Sheridan as the representation of Native people in the industry is almost non-existent today.
Taylor Sheridan’s Comments on Wind River Got Him into Hot Waters
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Taylor Sheridan proudly talked about Wind River, a neo-Western crime film starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen that according to him changed a law. The law in question is the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act which was first passed in 1994 and was recently renewed by Biden.
Amongst the many bullet points about how the renewal strengthens the VAWA, one states,
“Expanding special criminal jurisdiction of Tribal courts to cover non-Native perpetrators of s-xual assault, child abuse, stalking, s-x trafficking, and assaults on tribal law enforcement officers on tribal lands.”
It goes without saying that this had a huge impact on the Native community and when Sheridan tried to take some credit for the win, the Native groups were not at all amused. During his THR interview, Sheridan stated why an award was not important to him when his work holds the power to change a law.
“[Wind River] actually changed a law, where you can now be prosecuted if you’re a U.S. citizen for committing r-pe on an Indian reservation, and there’s now a database for missing murdered Indigenous women. So keep your f-cking award. Who’s going to remember I won an award in 10 years? But that law had a profound impact. All social change begins with the artist, and that’s the responsibility you have.”
A Native social justice organization, IllumiNative shared a message from Native rights attorney Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee) where she bashed Sheridan for attempting to take credit for “years of tireless advocacy from the Native community,” and demanded an apology from the filmmaker.
Native American Actress Opens Up About Why the Community Still Works with Taylor Sheridan
In a conversation with Yahoo’s In The Know, Reservation Dogs actress Jana Schmieding talked about why Native American actors often work with Sheridan despite the community’s strong sentiments about the filmmaker.
In Wind River and Yellowstone, Sheridan hired a few Native actors, albeit in supporting roles, including Gil Birmingham and Julia Jones. As far as Schmieding is concerned, she doesn’t blame the actors for simply wanting to have a job.
She told In The Know that since the community is already so unrepresented in the film/television industry, she cannot point fingers at actors who say yes to working with him, just because of the minimal opportunities.
“I never blame Native people for the projects that we get hired for. We are so unrepresented in this industry, the amount of jobs that we have available to us are so slim, and that is the fault of white creators.
If more non-Native people would hire Native folks to perform in their content and not just as stereotypical Native characters in somebody’s western, then we wouldn’t be in this pickle where we have to be in Taylor Sheridan television shows to make ends meet…We can’t afford to boycott him. He’s too powerful.”
Just like Schmieding said, the entertainment industry sure needs to do better when it comes to hiring Native actors for roles that are not just stereotypical. Recently, Hollywood has grown to be more inclusive in its approach and now seems like the perfect time to take another step toward the right direction.
You can Rent/Buy Wind River from Prime Video and Reservation Dogs is available to stream on Hulu.
