(dramatic music) (audience chattering) - [Announcer] Welcome everyone to the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker series.

(dramatic music continues) (audience applauding) - Welcome to the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker series.

My name's Christina Hamilton, the series director.

And now for something completely different.

Yes, today we present three of the five members of the Native American sketch comedy group, the 1491s.

(audience applauding and cheering) Yo!

And by the way, there is no apostrophe on that slide, and they aren't gonna be here together in conversation with Obie Award-winning theater director Eric Ting, who you are going to learn to love, I'm telling you.

A big thank you to our partners.

Today we are co-presenting this event with the University Musical Society or UMS, yes.

(audience applauding) Our longtime and most extraordinary partner to this series.

And we have additional support from the UM Arts Initiative and series partners Detroit PBS, PBS Books, WNET's ALL ARTS, and Michigan Public 91.7.

Today we really hope is just the beginning of a fruitful relationship with our guests this evening, and the Ann Arbor community, as we are hoping to sow some seeds planted here tonight for their return someday to a theater near you.

Hint, hint, UMS.

In the meantime, UMS has more comedy to warm you coming up very soon.

So get your tickets and don't miss, there are two great shows coming in February, the award-winning "Nate," written and starring the ever-clever and provocative Natalie Palamides February 5 through 9.

And then Penny Stamp Series fans will also want to check out the gaming as performance interactive experience of the show "asses.masses."

Those creators are gonna join us here in the series next month.

So you can get tickets for both of those shows.

And you can also check out the many, many other gems on offer from UMS at ums.org.

And remember, students, you get student ticket prices, so don't miss out.

Please do remember to silence your cell phones.

Take a break from your technology.

Due to time constraints today, and with how many people we have, and the material to cover, we are not going to have a Q&A.

And now for a proper introduction of our guests, please welcome a citizen of the Metis Nation of Ontario, and Stamps Associate Dean of Research, creative practice and graduate education, Dylan Miner.

(audience applauding and cheering) - Thanks Christina.

And welcome to another brilliant Penny W. Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series.

I'm more than humbled to briefly introduce our guests for this evening, the 1491s or rather, three members of this five-person Indigenous collective.

Let's give a little something something to the 1491s.

(audience applauding and cheering) I think they're just, whoop, I think they've showed up.

So as we begin, it's important to remember that the University of Michigan's three campuses are located on the lands of the Anishinaabeg and Wendat, lands ceded under the Treaty of Detroit in 1817.

And with the 1807, and with the 1817 Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids acknowledged the college at Detroit.

Apparently.

(audience applauding) I'm only asked to present to guests here at the Speaker series following election-related dates.

And if you recall, I last introduced Guadalupe Maravilla the week after the federal election.

So it's interesting, right?

I find myself here on stage again, you know, in a week where a new president has offered presidential actions that renamed Denali from its Indigenous name back to Mount McKinley, and also to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

(audience booing) Another order, and I quote its headline, "Protects civil rights and merits-based opportunities by ending illegal DEI."

So.

(audience booing) Interestingly enough though, we also saw today that there was a presidential action on the federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina.

So lots is happening in DC, and although further west, the Western District of Washington, a judge there blocked the executive order ending birthright citizenship, calling it.

(audience applauding) And I quote, "Blatantly unconstitutional."

So needless to say, lots is happening, and the humor of the 1491s is particularly needed in times like this.

According to their website, and I'll be a good academic here and quote from their website, quote, "The 1491s are a sketch comedy group based in the wooded ghettos of Minnesota and the buffalo grass of Oklahoma.

They are a gaggle of Indians chockfull of cynicism, and splashed with a good dose of Indigenous satire.

They coined the term 'All my relations,'" it is true, "And are still waiting for the royalties."

Pay up Michigan.

"They were at Custer's last stand, they mooned Chris Columbus and they invented bubblegum," end quote.

Pretty strong accomplishments, but in all seriouslyness though, the 1491s are a dynamic Indigenous sketch comedy group known for their razor sharp wit and fearless approach to storytelling.

Comprising a collective of Indigenous creators, including writers, performers, and filmmakers, the 1491s challenge stereotype and celebrate native culture through humor, satire, and unflinching and an unflinching lens.

Their work spans viral videos, stage performances, and contributions to acclaimed television projects such as the groundbreaking series "Reservation Dogs."

(audience applauding and cheering) Sounds like some of you have seen it.

Rooted in their identity and histories, the 1491s use their comedy as a tool for activism and cultural expression, engaging audiences with narratives that amplify Indigenous voices.

So joining us from the 1491s this evening include Dallas Goldtooth, Dakota and Dine, who is a writer, artist, actor, and Dakota language instructor known for his roles in "Reservation Dogs," "Rutherford Falls" and "Ghosts."

Ryan RedCorn from the Osage Nation, who is a.

- [Attendee] Who ey.

- (laughs) Who is a graphic artist, writer, and actor, contributing to "Reservation Dogs" as a writer and performer and appearing in "Barking Water."

And also Bobby Wilson.

(Bobby imitating chicken) (audience laughing) - Who is Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, an artist and actor and whose work on "Rutherford Falls," who has worked on "Rutherford Falls," "Reservation Dogs," and "Spirit Rangers."

Our conversation will be moderated by Obie Award-winning director Eric Ting.

So before we start, we're gonna cue a video, and then they'll come out.

But please do give a big round of applause for Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Mike of "New Edition."

(audience applauding) Make that Ryan, Bobby, and Dallas with Eric as moderator.

Thank you.

- All right guys, well, um, welcome.

Uh, this is the regional auditions for "New Moon."

Um, my name's, uh, John Haynes, I'm the regional, uh, casting director for the film, and um, yeah, we're excited to, uh, be here.

Uh, before we get started though, we wanted to give, uh, our cultural advisor, Garrett here, uh, a chance to say a few words to you.

Um, so yeah, could you, uh, say a few words to them?

- Oh yeah, we're here to, uh, do, uh, some auditions, and we want this to be a very sacred thing today.

So keep in mind the spirits are being here with you.

- (vocalizes) How.

- [Garrett] Have a strong time, and.

- Ooh, ha, yeah.

Huh.

- And you'll be very good.

(vocalizes) Let it flow, and the Wolf Nation will come and it will enter your body.

The spirits will be here.

So make sure that you do it in a respectful way so you don't anger them and they kill you in your sleep.

- Yeah, all right, so uh, yeah, we need, uh, we're gonna do a little audition with everyone first and, um, then we'll do our individual auditions after that.

- A ho.

- First up, we would like you to actually do your sort of Indian stuff, uh, right?

- Yeah.

- Cultural stuff.

Anything, dancing.

Have you guys dance?

(members squawking) (audience laughing) - [John] Mm.

(members shouting) Oh yeah.

(members vocalizing) Yeah.

- It's very good.

(screams) (barking) - Can't get it no better than that.

(howls) (barking) - Mm, fierce.

All right guys, thanks a lot.

Gentlemen, thanks a lot.

Um, so now we'll move on to the individual portions of the audition.

So yeah, you can wait in the lobby and we'll call your name whenever we're ready for you.

Um, have you, have you had any acting?

(audience laughing) (audience applauding) (members laughing) (audience applauding and cheering) - Okay, buju friends, how are you?

- He's excited 'cause we just taught him that word.

- Yeah.

(audience laughing) - We told him it means penis in Ojibwe.

- (laughs) So I am not Ojibwe, nor am I native, but I have had the honor of working with these three folks sitting next to me since 2019, is that right?

- You're not native?

- Did you know that?

- I thought you were a Navajo, bro?

- I also thought Navajo, dead ringer.

(speaks Navajo) - Honorary.

- You said you had sheep?

- I guess I never asked him.

- We're here with three of the five 1491s.

So I actually, I have a, I have an appropriate video or slide for this.

- A ho?

(audience laughing) - [Dallas] Yeah, those ones don't matter.

Just wanna let you know.

- [Ryan] They died.

(audience laughing) - [Dallas] Yeah.

No longer with us.

- [Bobby] Yeah.

Ate them and we took their power.

- Do you all wanna, so I thought we'd start off this panel conversation with each of you introducing yourselves.

And I think the question that I wanted to ask you is like, tell us something about you before you knew each other.

Like before you were the 1491s.

So I'm gonna leave it there.

(speaks Dakota) - I'm Sterlin Harjo, lost quite a bit of weight.

Little of weight.

Not that much.

Before I knew the 1491s, I was just out there in those prairie lands on the streets of Minneapolis.

(audience screaming) (vocalizes) Any Dakotas in the house?

Oh, those must have been Ojibwes.

- Crickets.

- Yeah.

- Crickets.

- Bunch of crickets.

But you're all alone in this world.

The Pajogon do dem out there.

Yeah, he knows.

(audience laughing) Yeah.

I was just lost out there.

And then one day Dallas Goldtooth found me in a dumpster, picked me up outta there, and gave me this new life.

So let's skip him and go to that one.

- Yeah, thank you.

I smudged him.

I found him in that dumpster and I smudged him off with sage and tobacco and.

- Cough drops.

- And brought him into the world.

Cough drops, you know, smudged him off.

(speaks Dakota) My name's Dallas Goldtooth, and me and Bobby are from Minnesota.

Anyone from Minnesota here?

(attendees screaming) Yeah, I assumed as much.

- That's them over there.

- Not Dakotas though.

- Yeah, are there any, wait, are there any Anishinaabe here?

(audience cheering) All right, go to Minnesota and tell them to come back over here, okay?

How about any Potawatomis?

(attendee screeches) One really proud one, all right.

- You hear that Potawatomi war hoop?

- Yeah.

- Augh!

- Before I met these guys, I was a student at the University of Minnesota doing a Dakota language apprenticeship program.

And I actually met Bobby at a youth shelter in St Paul, Minnesota called Ain Dah Yung, which is a.

- He was my case manager.

- Yeah.

And that's my before story.

I'll pass it to this guy.

(speaks Osage) - My name's Ryan RedCorn.

I'm Osage.

And before I met these guys, I used to front a heavy metal hardcore band outta Lawrence, Kansas.

Any hardcore fans?

(audience cheering) Shoot, that's not how you scream when you're in a hardcore band.

Woo.

We're going to the Jason Miraz concert.

- Heard one.

I heard a real.

- Oh, I did hear one.

We got a one.

It's the cameraman.

Of course, it's the cameraman.

(all laughing) It's always the cameraman.

I too am a cameraman, so I understand.

Thank you.

- All right, we got another video for you.

- Oh, do we?

- Lucky.

(upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) (people chattering) - Good afternoon, brothers and sisters here.

My name is Anton True Earth.

And I've come here to protest that white man's machine that's having unconsensual sex with Mother Earth all the way from the tar sands.

Here we have Clinton Thomas Mueller, ladies and gentlemen, give that brother a round of applause.

(all applauding) - [Attendee] Yeah, yeah.

(speaks Dakota) - We're here to make a stand, fighting for our rights as people, as Indian people, as brown people, as pink people.

We're here to stand together, to say no more.

We're not gonna take this no more.

We're not drinking no more.

And that's why we're here.

- Brothers and sisters, we have with us a supporter here, an oil rig worker who knows firsthand what these machines can do to our mother Earth.

Ladies and gentlemen, brother Bear Grease.

- Prostitution, fornication, masturbation.

Do you want prostitution in your community?

I used to get drilled in my pipeline for meth.

And I used to do a lot of drilling in that pipeline for meth too.

You heard of "Duck Dynasty"?

They used to call me Death Dynasty.

- And from the National Cowboy and Indian Alliance here to speak on his people's behalf.

He builds a bridge.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jimmy Jack and his Johnson.

- Hi, my name's Jimmy Jack Johnson.

I'm from the Cowboy Indian Alliance.

And that drilling rig right there is filled with white men.

They're going down in the ground with their tiny little buckets and picking up oil and bringing it back up.

What's wrong with ethanol?

We got a whole field of corn right there.

Those corn's like tiny little solar panels making all kinds of ethanol.

We can run our cars off that.

(dramatic music) (chanting) (audience applauding) - All right, so.

You wanna tell us about.

- What the fuck was that, geez.

- How y'all met?

- What's that?

- Tell us a little bit about how y'all met.

- First of all, y'all like, we're showing videos that like hella old from our, we got known for making YouTube videos.

I, again, had met Bobby working at this youth shelter in Minnesota, and we actually met the other guys, Migizi who's not here.

Who's one of the guys in the photo is my brother, my stepbrother, we grew up with each other.

And we all, look, I guess I won't tell that story.

I'm just saying that in the grand picture, we started out together making YouTube videos just because we enjoyed creating stuff with each other and being goofy and doing stuff for our families and friends.

And over the years, over time, people started asking us to go perform at college campuses and do shows.

And so for about a good 12, 13 years or so, we traveled all across Indian country doing sketch comedy, improv, and a lot of the stuff that we made on YouTube, but also just original content that we did.

And it has been a long journey.

So it's even like, I haven't watched these videos in a long time, but it's a pretty wild journey where we went from just making videos and to where we are now.

So I just wanted to acknowledge that.

But how we met is just, you know, we all have various talents and skills, but we all kind of love creating together.

And so we found an opportunity when Sterlin and Ryan here took a trip up to Minneapolis for a film screen of Sterlin's.

And we all happened to be in the same spot.

And we said, "Let's do something together."

And we brainstormed.

And that very first video, the New Moon Wolf Pack audition was our very first video that we ever did together.

And we had such a blast, we just wanted to keep on doing it, keep on making videos together as much as we could.

- I met Bobby, Dallas, and Sterlin all through a promiscuous Pawnee rapper.

- Mm-hmm.

We don't talk to that guy anymore either.

- Nope, and that's the end of that story.

(all laughing) - Yeah, as Dallas said, we met working at the youth shelter at the same time, and he was like, he like aggressively pursued friendship with me, which I did not understand.

He was.

- I just wanted to be friends.

- Really weirdly positive, you know, all the time.

Which really.

- And you were kind of in the emo stage a little bit.

Like you were still, you were just coming out of it.

I remember you were wearing like, like JNCO jeans with a lot of chains and hooks hanging off of them.

- You didn't know me in high school, no.

- Oh, okay.

- Cole Chamber T-shirt.

- Uh, so I met Dallas through that, and then I met his brother separately like years later.

And I didn't know that they were brothers until they both came to the same spoken word show that I had helped organize in the community.

And then I went down to Santa Fe Indian Market and that's where I met this little kitty right here.

- Yeah, me and Bobby.

Me and Bobby, within five, six hours of meeting each other, we slept in the same bed.

- Together, in bed together.

A who.

That was a crazy night, man.

I met Gary Farmer that night.

I didn't know who it was.

I was like, "Oh, shit, that was Victor's dad?"

I was tripping.

Yeah, that was a beautiful night.

But he invited me, the promiscuous Pawnee rapper and our friend that he was seeing.

- Pursuing.

- Pursuing, to sleep in Sterlin's hotel.

And he didn't tell Sterlin though.

And when we got there, there were already people sleeping on the couch and the floor.

- It was a king-sized bed.

So there's plenty of room for everyone.

- Yeah.

But no pillows.

- Yeah.

- And I remember Sterlin.

- There was no pillows, 'cause the Cherokee that was with us took all of them for herself.

- That's true.

She's a chronic pillow hog.

- Yeah.

Cherokees are like that.

- Lots of people remember that.

- A lot of stereotypes about Cherokees, but just throw pillows in there.

- That one's true.

That one's true.

- But I just wanna say, take a moment for all the non-natives here.

You're gonna hear a lot of information and generalizations about native people, they're all true.

(all laughing) - So get your notepads out.

- And feel free to share this information, you know, with anybody you wish, so.

- You heard it from the leader.

- If you all you know tonight coming outta this is that Cherokees like to steal pillows, just take that home with you, share with your elders.

- You know, better yet, pass it on to your kids and your grandkids.

Yeah, I met an Indian once, told me about the Cherokees, pillow thief people.

- That's what Cherokee means, pillow thief people.

- Hey, I also understand some of you may, you know, may be Cherokee.

Mm, so you just incorporate it into your family story.

All right, that your great-grandmother was a pillow thief.

- And now you know something about your own people that you may not have known before you came here.

- There you go.

You're welcome.

- So an educational moment for those of you here for a college credit, there you go.

There's some education for you.

- You could write a whole paper just on that.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Okay.

(laughs) - And that's how we met.

Yeah, this is, this is.

- A bigger evening, friend.

- No, this is Ask an Indian now.

So just, any stupid questions.

If you are a white male over the age of 50, who feels privileged to not ask a question, make up a statement, here's your moment.

(audience laughing) - Questions end with question marks.

- Yeah.

There's like six of them here, I bet, at least.

They're already making eye contact.

- Was there, so reel it in here.

Reel it in, working on it.

So when y'all met, so one of the things that I've been struck by as we've been kind of working together has been in many respects how different you each, like, like you each bring a different set of talents into the collaboration, or you have over these last few years.

And I'm wondering if you could articulate in your own way what it was that you saw in each other.

- Aw.

- Besides friendship and long lasting life of love and happiness?

- Nothing.

- Nothing.

- There's not a single bit of talent amongst us.

I don't know how we made it this far.

It's perplexing.

- Yeah, that's a really good question.

You're making us question ourselves right now, Eric.

I already got enough of that going on in my head.

- No, I guess what I would say is that we are very, very, very lucky and fortunate to have gotten to where we are as a group, as individuals, to get all the way to "Reservation Dogs," to working with Eric, with you on "Between Two Knees."

- [Eric] Don't get ahead of the talk.

- Okay, all right, shit, sorry.

- [Eric] Don't get ahead.

- All right.

Backtracking.

I always just appreciate that we do compliment each other.

We also keep each other humble.

So anytime any of us kind of gets a little chiefy, you know.

- [Eric] No, I don't know.

Show us.

- Yeah.

- Dallas is doing it right now.

- Yeah, yo.

You know, you know it's chiefy, all you freaking, you've seen it.

If you're native, you've seen it.

If you're white, you've seen like an Indian guy get all like bassy when he gets on the microphone, you know, it was like, "Hey, my name's Steve," but you give a microphone, it's like, oh.

(speaks Dakota) Like where the fuck did the bass come from here?

Like where the, a hoo, yeah.

- Oh.

- This is the way.

- I just wanna say, you said that we compliment each other, but that was a lie.

I would never compliment you to your face.

- Oh, oh, that's right.

Only behind your back.

- Traditional.

- Okay, y'all ready for another video?

I'm gonna play another video.

Hold on a sec.

- Hey.

Yes, please.

What?

(all laughing) (person squawking) - [Ryan] Oh, for the Cherokees, a good, good segue.

(energetic rock music) ♪ Ow ♪ ♪ Ow ♪ (energetic rock music continues) ♪ Oh, oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ They lived in peace, not long ago ♪ ♪ A mighty Indian tribe ♪ ♪ But the winds of change ♪ have made them realize ♪ ♪ That the promises were lies, oh ♪ ♪ The white man's greed ♪ ♪ In search of gold ♪ ♪ Made the nation bleed ♪ ♪ They had lost their faith ♪ ♪ And now they had to learn ♪ there was no place to return ♪ ♪ Nowhere they could turn ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Oh, marching on the trail of tears ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Oh, marching on the trail of tears ♪ ♪ They were driven hard ♪ across the plains ♪ ♪ And walked for many moons ♪ ♪ 'Cause the winds of change ♪ had made them realize ♪ ♪ That the promises were lies ♪ ♪ So much to bear ♪ ♪ And all that pain ♪ ♪ Left them in despair ♪ ♪ They have lost their faith ♪ ♪ And now they had to learn ♪ there was no place to return ♪ ♪ Nowhere they could turn ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Oh, marching on the trail of tears ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Cherokee ♪ ♪ Oh, marching on the ♪ trail of tears, oh oh ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ (energetic rock music continues) (energetic rock music continues) (audience laughing) (audience applauding) - So I've been spending the last few nights combing through 1491s videos to sort of like find a selection.

And I gotta say this out loud, I just feel like there's a lot of nipples in your videos.

Like, I almost want to call it like a bare nipple aesthetic.

- Yeah.

- Thank you.

Indigenous bare nipple aesthetic.

- Indigenous bare nipple aesthetic.

But I just like, so I'd love, I'd love it if you talk a little bit about the particular sensibility of the work that you were doing both on these sort of YouTube videos.

And these go back 13, 14 years, right?

And also sort of like your live shows.

- I think a lot of the stuff that we were doing, especially why you see our nipples so much in these videos is because historically speaking there have been a lot of Indian nipples on TV and on the big screen.

- We felt left out.

- Yeah, if you're an Indian in film, you're not allowed to have clothing.

So there's a lot of nips, a lot of hair, a lot of feathers.

And we just wanted to emulate that, 'cause they would never cast us in anything.

I mean, look at us, we have tan lines.

You can't have tan lines if you're gonna have your shirt off on TV.

Dallas knows, he doesn't have any tan lines anymore.

He's actually a real actor now.

- But he wasn't thin.

- Yeah, no, back then, no.

- I have really big tan lines.

Farmer's tan lines, some would say.

- I would say those are burn lines.

I don't.

- So my brother who was on the piano, he had the piano solo, Migizi, he has a playlist.

Him and his wife have a playlist on Spotify of all like natives Indian songs.

And that song was one of, at the time we were all like, "Dude, we gotta do a music video to that song."

And we filmed that down in Oklahoma, and that room where we were at, like, this is a little story about that video.

Ryan said, "Oh, I got a place where we can film."

And we're like, "Oh cool, let's go do that."

And it was a little, someone's meth house backyard kind of vibe.

And the guy was like, "Oh yeah, you can go in there, just go, you know, just mind the mind the shit."

And we go in there and there's literally rat shit everywhere and it is like infested.

And we're like, "Dude, you're gonna get us the hanta?

Like what is going on here brother?"

- But did you die?

- No.

- Maybe, not sure.

Things have gotten really crazy since then, so.

- But if you notice also in the Cherokee, the woman in there, her name's Natalie, and she's actually was in "Reservation Dogs."

And she played the the nurse eye doctor.

- Optometrist.

- Optometrist, yeah.

So it's a nod to her.

We've been working with her for a while.

But yeah, you know, I think that we all grew up, you know, grew up in the late '80s and '90s influenced by so much media that told us what natives should be like.

And there's that aesthetic that you're talking about, the nipple aesthetic, it's like that's a part of that.

And so really a lot of our videos are just fucking us trying to process that shit and regurgitate it back out, kind of like really, yeah.

Just trying to understand what that fucking means and everything.

But that video's a part of that effort of just like all those stupid music videos like that.

It was really fun to make.

- And that song is a well-meaning song also, by the same people who wrote "The Final Countdown."

(all vocalizing) You know it.

- Yeah.

- Cherokee.

I like, I laugh 'cause when, he does this a little like, like quick little like head thing like that.

I'm like, dude, that's so dumb.

That's fucking funny.

- I mean this trail of tears.

Yeah, trail of tears.

= It's obvious.

It's trail of tears.

- Indian, Indian sign language.

- It writes itself.

- Yeah.

- I think the general thing is like when we were, like Dallas was saying, we're all growing up, we're watching all these films with Indians in them, they're all Hollywood Indians.

We don't really know a lot of those people.

We kind of do some of them now.

But like most of those roles that are available are only like a specific type of role.

And that in itself is like incongruent with our own lives where we were growing up in our own community.

And so now the camera's available to us, and the first thing we decided to do was take our shirts off and show our nipples too, you know, but in a different context.

Our nipples are for the people.

- Yeah.

They're gifts in many ways.

So you're welcome.

- Two gifts each.

- Yes.

You're welcome.

- Some with tiny little hairs on them.

(all laughing) No, just me?

- Yeah, I don't have any hair on them here.

- I remember you all telling me, or one of you telling me at one point that early on you were making these videos for yourselves, sort of like, like part of the way that you had.

- We still are.

- And you still are, right?

But I wonder if you could talk a little bit about when you started to become aware of the way your videos were being received by others.

- Oh dude.

Immediately.

I didn't really, I mean, I don't know.

When that video got edited, this is like before everybody had smartphones the way that we have them now, you had to go on a fucking computer to look up youtube.com.

I was teaching or co-teaching a class in Rosebud, South Dakota with the Sicangu Nation, and (calls) hey, all right.

And like the first day I got a text from all these guys that was like, all right, this video is on YouTube, enjoy.

And I was like, "Okay, I'll get to watch it at some point when I have time."

And the next day I got to that school, and like every person in that building was like, "I fucking saw you, man.

I fucking saw you.

You were fucking the Wolf Pack.

Yeah, I saw you in Wolf Pack."

I was like damn, everybody's seen this video.

And like by lunchtime, like all the students had seen this damn video.

And I was like, all right, all right.

Like, you know, I'm trying to teach this class.

And they're like, "I have a question."

"Yes."

"I saw you on YouTube."

(audience laughing) Like, okay, let's watch it.

So I watched it with the class and I was, okay, this is funny.

But immediately like then going to the gas station, going to the grocery store, everywhere on that res, like every Indian had seen this damn video.

And I remembered right before we filmed it, when we were dressed up the way that we are in that, RedCorn looked at us and he was like, "I think we're gonna be Indian famous after this, guys."

(audience laughing) And I thought that was the silliest thing I ever heard.

And I didn't know that that would be a thing.

But it is true from that point on, every res, and I've been to almost every res that exists, there's like at least one person, you know, I mean the Indians that are here, I hope, I assume, some of you very young though, your parents probably made you watch us, that was.

- Probably conceived while our videos were playing in the background.

- That one in particular.

- Yeah.

- That was the soundtrack to your.

- Your mothers got some kind of way after seeing that and.

- And your fathers.

- And your dad.

- They also got some sort of way.

- Yes.

- I also remember that first video, Ryan also saying, you know, "We're never gonna be able to run for office.

Right, you know that?"

- Yeah, yeah.

- So at least his tribe, they can't do that, I mean.

The Oklahoma tribes, they're all kind of uppity.

Up north, should show your nipples you're guaranteed chairman status.

- [Bobby] His dad is the vice chief of his tribe.

- My dad was on our council at the time, and then also was our assistant chief.

And my family's like, been pretty involved in our tribe's politics for as long as I can remember.

And as soon as that video got up, I got this phone call, not from my dad but from Wilson Pipestem.

And Wilson Pipestem is like one of probably the most powerful Indian lobbyists in the country.

Like, literally a lot of people don't know this, but he shepherded the Violence Against Women Act all the way through, and is partly responsible.

There's a lot of people involved, but he's partly responsible for getting the native jurisdictional components into that law.

Anyway, he calls me, and you don't wanna get a call from Wilson like this, answer the phone, I go, "Hey, what's going on Wilson?"

He goes, "Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan."

(audience laughing) He's really kind of, before this moment, he's really kind of grooming me to kind of like, "Hey, let's think about you running, your political future," to "Ryan, Ryan, Ryan."

Some things when done cannot be undone.

(audience laughing) And I was like, "I think I'll be all right, Wilson."

He goes, "Ah, we'll see, we'll see."

He goes, "I liked your little video there, but we'll see."

I think it paid off.

- You're doing all right.

- I'm doing all right.

- And for all non-native people in this audience, just so you know, that "Killers of the Flower Moon" movie, that was his people.

So any questions you have about that movie or that era, ask him.

And make sure, he loves to talk about it.

- Also any light-skinned Indians that are insecure about their own identity, please direct your.

- Talk to Dallas.

- Yeah, talk to Dallas.

- Talk to me.

- Yeah, talk to Dallas.

- I'm not going to be able to help you.

- Yeah, talk to me.

I'll direct you.

- A little bit of sweat for you.

- To Ryan then.

- Yeah.

Yeah, he'll give you an Indian name.

- Mm-hmm, yeah.

- I'm gonna tell you to go f yourself.

- Actually, when we first started touring as 1491s, we would give venues our names, and people often thought that he was Ryan RedCorn and he was Bobby Wilson.

- I get it.

- Based off of name alone.

So they just got stumped when they see this guy coming.

- We're surrounded by racists.

- Yeah, I mean, I understand the optics of them thinking you are a Wilson.

- I don't, I don't.

- And I was a RedCorn.

- Yeah.

I don't understand it at all.

- I know you don't.

- Only because it plays an integral role in another section of this conversation.

Could you talk a little bit about your live shows, sort of like what that was like?

I mean, I've heard stories of you like, like climbing, like all piling up into a little car and driving.

- Okay, so one, I'll tell you one story is a live thing.

All right.

(babbles) I'm starting over.

Okay.

Take it easy, all right, calm down.

- He's talking to himself, you guys.

- Yeah, he doesn't do this.

- Funny.

I'm a little nervous now.

The one show I did was my most nervous moment in my life.

It was in front of my mother-in-law, and she is like a hardcore Oglala Lakota proud woman, and you know, will cut you with just a stare kind of thing.

And our show, 75% of the show, I'm in nothing but underwear.

Like, that's the show.

- That's what the people came to see.

- Yeah.

And it was the funniest thing in the world because it was in like, in a little tiny conference room.

It was like a conference room, and like maybe that section of people, that's like maybe 50, 40 people in there.

And there was one entrance.

The entrance was there, and for whatever reason she decided to sit in the far corner over there.

And so this started and I came out in my underwear like, "Hey everybody."

And I saw she already tried to calculate "How the fuck am I gonna get out this room?"

But she couldn't, 'cause she was locked in.

She would've had to walk in front of everything to do it.

And so she had to sit there and watch the whole show.

And she came up after and no eye contact, she was just like, "That was good, good, good, good job."

And she walked out really quick, and I was like, "Oh my God, I hope I survive after I talk to my wife."

But she was like the most embarrassed she's ever been in.

But yeah, most of the show, it was our nipples were out, and we did a mixture of sketch comedy improv.

So we had a number of sketches, actually there's a number of sketches that end up in the show "Reservation Dogs" that were based off of our live shows and performances.

- Yeah, the episode one of season two when Gary Farmer and Wes Studi are at the lake and they're singing the Tom Petty song?

- Didn't you co-write that?

- Yeah.

With Dallas.

- Yeah.

- Oh yeah, we did.

- Yeah.

Me and Dallas co-write it.

It's literally the sweat lodge skit that we used to do.

I got popcorn on my face?

- Creator, I just wanna pray for my ex out there and her new man.

And I just wanna say, I hope that she's teaching him all of those nasty things I taught her too in a good way.

Ah ho.

- Oh, creator, I just wanna pray for all those that need to hear this out there.

But, you know, pray for my ex wherever she's at, and she's teaching that man new things.

Let him know that I taught her those things like that and.

- Creator, if there's a man out there that needs a job, anybody has a job out there that needs to provide for his kids, you know, I'm tired of taking care of them like that in that old way.

- Creator, I also forgot to say that it's hard to get a job out here, so please let, you know, help me get a job so that I can provide for my ex.

- Creator, Creator, if there's a, if there's a vehicle out there that you could provide my ex's old man, he would really appreciate it.

And if you get that vehicle, tell him to not drive past the house like he did with the last one over and over again, Creator.

- So the crazy part of that, that shit really happened.

I was in a sweat lodge.

(all laughing) A ceremony, I was in a serious ceremony, you guys, between two Indian men who decided to have an argument via prayer.

(audience laughing) The most passive-aggressive, sacred thing you've ever seen in your fucking life.

Praying about their ex was, they have the mutual ex, and they're praying about her at the same time.

- Just so you know, I would say like 98% of the stuff that made it into "Reservation Dogs" is actually just real.

- It's all based on a true story.

- All based on a true story.

Even the tripping episode, the LSD episode, was based off of my cousin, his mother, my cousin who's older than me, he's probably in his 50s or 60s.

His mother accidentally ate his spicy gummy bears, and he didn't know it.

And she ate so many that she couldn't talk, and they thought she was having a stroke and they had to take her to the hospital.

Anyway, hilarious.

- Shit faced.

- So put it into a comic, you know.

- Can I play another video?

- Sure.

- You don't like what we're saying?

- Yeah, I do.

- What are you trying to say?

- Was that not funny?

- No, it's fine.

- Oh, now they turning down the lights, okay.

All right.

- Silence the Indigenous people, okay.

- Yeah, uh, I've, I've heard about this place.

I, I've been to, uh, a lot of white doctors.

No one can really tell me, you know, what's going on with me.

Um, basically, I ain't got no, no singing voice, you know, and, and I'm really tired all the time.

- [Doctor] Well, do you party a lot?

- Hell yeah.

(hand smacks) Knock it off.

- [Chorus] Slapping medicine man.

(chanting) (barking) (hand smacks) - I lost my family, you know, I lost my job.

- Well, well I'm a student, and you know, I don't think I'm eligible, but I'd like one of those free Indians scholarships.

(hand smacks) - You know, it's just, I, I, I don't know what to do to get 'em back.

You know, it's, I don't know what to do.

- [Doctor] Well, are you still drinking?

- Oh yeah.

Time to time.

(hand smacks) - Well, quit drinking.

What's your problem?

- I'm, I'm sad.

- I'm just gaining weight all the time.

You know, I'm, my sugar's high all the time.

- [Doctor] What are you, part white?

- Uh-huh.

(hand smacks) - I can't find my penis.

I can't, I haven't seen my feet in a long time.

You know, I mean, look at me.

I'm fat.

(sobbing) - [Doctor] Well, are you eating all the time?

- Well, yeah.

(hand smacks) - Well, quit eating.

- I, I, I also have a problem where, uh, ey, people don't want to be around me, you know?

- Well, I'm having trouble at work too.

Um, I, I keep getting fired from my jobs.

- They just don't like me.

You know, they just, they stay, they walk away when I come up to 'em.

- [Doctor] Well, are you going to work?

- Nah, not really.

(hand smacks) - [Doctor] Get to work.

Well, are you talking shit about people?

- Well, I gossip from time to time, you know.

(hand smacks) - [Doctor] Well, cut it out.

(sobbing) (hand smacks) (hand smacks) (hand smacks) (hand smacks) - A ho.

(hand smacks) (audience laughing) (audience applauding) - Good old slapping medicine man.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So somewhere around 2017, Rhiana Yazzie went to the folks at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and we're like, "There's this group of guys who do this live sketch comedy show that you need to sort of know, you need to see."

And so the folks at OSF went down to see one of your live shows down in Tulsa.

And it was a good audience, I hear, it was a good house that night.

- All Indian.

- Yeah, and they subsequently gave you all a commission.

- Shit, yeah.

- So do y'all know Oregon Shakespeare Festival?

(audience applauding) Yeah.

- Nice.

- It's one of the, it's probably the biggest regional professional theater company in the country and it's been going for a very, very long time.

So it was a big deal.

And the play that you all eventually wrote was a play called.

- "Between Two Knees."

"Between Two Knees."

- The love story.

- Yeah, because it takes place between the first Wounded Knee and the second Wounded Knee.

- Yeah, keep talking about it.

I'm gonna play some slides from the production.

- Nothing nasty.

- Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Nothing nasty at all.

- So we were commissioned, we had never written a play before, and they were very gracious to say, "Just do what you want to do."

And we worked on this play that premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

- But the first thing we did when they said, "Do what you do" is we got some post-its and we'd draw all penises on all of them and then filled a whole glass wall just.

- For privacy.

- Yes.

- Look away was the idea there.

Yeah, that was a transformative fricking show, man.

I mean, we had never written long form before together.

And so like, at that point, I think it had been almost 10 years, we had been making like YouTube content together and then also touring.

And we loved writing our little skits there.

But there was a certain point where we sort of buttoned up together and took it seriously, or at least as seriously as we could.

We applied for funding to do an artist retreat together.

Our light-skinned friend here who knows things about business applied to have us as an LLC.

Which we didn't know was a thing at the time.

And so through 1491s, we received a grant to have an artist's retreat for like a week.

We paid Dallas's dad to use his house in the woods.

And we created a bunch of videos, but we also went to Walmart and bought a whiteboard and some markers.

And we made a five-year plan and a 10-year plan, which was crazy.

I still, at the time, I couldn't believe that we were doing that.

And the goals that we had set for ourselves as a collective were to get to film and television, which didn't seem like impossible, but did seem a bit unattainable.

- 'Cause we had meetings.

But they were really weird meetings.

- Those meetings sucked, dude.

- They were the worst, they were disheartening, but.

- [Bobby] White people pitching us the Indian comedies that we should.

- So there's a casino that's in a cul-de-sac, and then there's a sweat lodge.

- And the peyote dispensaries.

- There's a peyote, and we sell whiskey too.

- Yeah.

Like pass.

- Yeah, you make that.

- Yeah, pull outta that.

They were trying to make that.

- I know some Indians that would sign up for it.

- But with that, you know, I mean the idea was if after five years we didn't meet these sort of benchmarks, then we would reevaluate what we're doing as a collective.

And if after 10 years passes, and we have not gotten on TV on the regular, then we should just give up and die in the woods.

- Teach the Dakota language.

- Yeah, that's right.

Be language teachers, I meant, yes, yes.

- So I remember sitting in a rehearsal hall with you all working on this show, and Sterlin was there, and we were in the middle of rehearsal, and Sterlin's phone rang, and he looked at it and he's like, "You know what, I gotta, I think I gotta take this."

And he was showing it to you, and he's like, "I think I need to."

And you were like, "Oh yeah, you need to go take that."

- Oh, he was super stressed out.

We were rehearsing this show and.

- Writing and rehearsing.

- Yeah.

Writing and rehearsing at the same time.

And yeah, Sterlin's phone was going off and he was stressed out because he had this idea for a show and like, he was doing it with Taika Watiti, and Taika, you know, was like, "Well, this is gonna be your thing, so you just go write it."

And so he was stressed out about making this big presentation to take to a network and try to beg them to let him do a pilot.

And so he was supposed to go and do that right after our rehearsals were done.

But he gets a call or a text from Taika, and the text just said, "Congrats buddy, you have a show."

And he just, he was sitting next to me, all I heard was like, "Holy shit.

Oh, fuck.

Oh, shit."

And I looked over and he hands were like shaking and I was like, what?

And he showed me the phone and I went, he goes, "I gotta, I think I should, I should."

I said, "Yeah, get the fuck outta here.

Go on."

- Sterlin is the most anxious 1491.

- It's true.

- Riddled with anxiety at all times.

- And that ended up being, yes.

Play this video.

Oh, that is the video, yes.

(haunting music) (vocalist chanting) - A ho, young warrior.

- Are you Crazy Horse or Sitting?

- No, no, no.

I'm not one of those awesome guys.

No, I'm more of your, uh, I'm more of your unknown warrior.

Yeah.

You know my name, William Niceman.

(squawks) I was at the battle of Little Big Horn.

I didn't kill anybody, but I fought bravely.

Well, I didn't actually fight, I actually didn't even get into the fight itself, but I came over that hill real rugged like.

(squawks) I saw a Custer like that.

But then the damn horse hit a gopher hole, fucking rolled over and squashed me, I died there.

And now I'm meant to travel the spirit world, find lost souls like you.

Being a warrior, it's not always easy.

You and your buggy-ass friends.

What are you doing for your people?

It's easy to be bad.

But it's hard to be a warrior with dignity.

(hooting) (barks) - A fun fact, after Dallas filmed that part, he really started working out.

(all laughing) And Sterlin asked him to please stop because spirits don't get like muscles.

- Dallas, you're a lot funnier when you're fatter.

- Yeah, he's like don't, yeah, "You're a lot funnier if you're just overweight.

Just, just don't, don't do it."

- No one's gonna think you're funny if you're fit.

- I think it's really, I appreciate Bobby bringing up like how Sterlin found out the news.

And it's something that, you know, we don't talk about, but like Taika at that point, most folks know Taika.

He's a Maori director and you know, is really, really well known.

But he basically was like, look, "I'm gonna put my name on this to get this made, but it's your show, it's yours."

And so he just created that space just to, as like a brother move of sorts.

"Like, I'm creating space so that you can come in and help do something."

And then Sterlin did that in like kind of like, you know what, I want to make a show where it's all native writers, all native directors telling native stories.

And so he had to go to bat to say, "I want native writers."

And typically in these shows they're like, "Well, do they have experience writing on TV shows?"

And he said, "No, and there's a reason for that.

There's a reason why there's not as many native writers, so let's create the opportunity."

So he literally paid it forward by opening the door for a lot of us who never had that opportunity to become writers on the show, as well as for directors to get a chance to be a credit, to be a director of a TV show.

(audience applauding) - And that's a real uphill battle.

'Cause I remember me and Dallas came in at the same time in the room, and I don't know if your contract was like this, but mine was, he went to bat for us, like really put his name on the line, no credits, nothing other than like this play that we had just done.

And I remember, I had to get a lawyer 'cause I didn't have a lawyer for this kind of stuff.

And I was talking to him, and they would only give him a four.

I had a four-week contract that first, that first contract was four weeks with an option at those four weeks for another four weeks, with the option at the end of those four weeks for another four weeks.

And then the thought is, is like, I think from the network side is like, "There is no situation that's ever existed under which we hand out a four-week contract with this many options that anybody gets a script assignment at the end."

It just doesn't happen.

Like it never happens.

- Even if you do get paid if you write a script.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, and if you do get one, you ain't getting no money at all.

And that's what happened.

Like me and Dallas ended up co-writing two episodes together at the end of that season, and like that just opened the door, and there's no, I don't know, maybe there's another way, but I can't imagine in my brain of another way under which any of us like get through that in a way that completely, like that many of us made it through.

That was the first all Indian writers room in the history of film and television.

And like Dallas said, like all Indian directors through the whole series of the show.

(audience applauding) Like that show in of itself probably tripled the amount of native writers in the WGA, tripled.

And I looked at the list of who was on there before.

I'm like, I have no idea who these people are.

- And it is also like, I think what what we're seeing, what I saw was like this growing community of creatives who have been putting in the work.

There's folks who have been hustling and we have our idols.

Those that we, you know, we walk in the footsteps of giants before us, right?

And these tremendous actors and actresses who've been just taking the thing, and doing all the jobs with "Dances with Wolves" or all these old classic native films.

And then there's this whole new generation, and we're doing our best to create space to bring others in with us.

You know, "Rutherford Falls" was a TV show on NBC, and Bobby was a writer on that.

But the creator, Sierra Ornelas is one of the showrunners on that.

And she created space to bring in more creatives as writers, as directors, as producers.

And it's a tremendous wave to be a part of over the past few years, because it's provided a lot of opportunity for a lot of storytellers.

And I think this is also a key thing to make, point to make, is our style of storytelling hasn't changed.

This is why we've been telling stories how we tell them, we just now got resources and support to do it.

And that's essential for folks to understand is when you support communities to tell their stories on their own terms, you're gonna get amazing stories.

You just have to make that investment and support that.

And "Reservation Dogs" is a great example of what comes out of that.

- I think the other, yeah.

(audience applauding) The other thing to keep in mind is that with so many people being kept on the sidelines for so long, when Sterlin got the green light for that show, he just picked up like all of this available talent that was just sitting there that was not getting larger opportunities and larger roles.

And it was just talking for myself, to be in that company of people, to be in that group of people.

It was such a high concentration of really, really skilled and talented, and people with a lot more experience than I had coming in there, getting them surround me, it's such a learning experience.

And I don't know that there's that many shows that have that kind of opportunity where you could just go and like pick the cream off the top and say, we're gonna all get together because, and it was available.

Everybody was like not working like they're working now.

I don't know.

I hope one day we'll be able to see like that concentration of talent, but everybody's careers have kind of taken off since then.

So if it happens again, it'll be a lot more expensive than the first time.

- Do you wanna, somebody asked me to ask you this question, which was, do you just wanna talk about a little bit why the series came to an end after three seasons?

- 'Cause we were tired of it?

Just kidding.

Nah man, I don't know.

I mean, I mean it's a lot of back and forth, and also like, I mean it is hard to keep a show going, and I think by the time season three we had gone through these like three different storylines of like the young generation and what they're dealing with, and then their parents's generation and what they're dealing with, and then culminating with the parents' parents' shit that they never dealt with.

And how if you think about those three and go backwards, like trying to pick apart all of the traumatic shit that we know our ancestors went through, every Indian in this room and on this Earth, it's a fucking miracle that we even exist, and that we get to be here, and yeah.

(audience applauding) Smattering of applause.

That's cool, that's cool.

Just stating facts, man.

I mean we've been through a lot of shit, and like at base level, everybody that's not native like knows that to some degree.

And so like the things that we wanted to pick apart of like our generation and the previous generation, like not dealing with those things, not talking about those things.

Like, and trying to get that back.

It felt like the natural conclusion came in season three as we were going through it.

And also like F/X has been incredibly supportive, and like a lot of us are developing shows with them currently that hopefully you'll get to see in the next few years.

But like that release of like Indigenous creativity and talent out into the world with the idea that all of that, all of those artists are going to be able to go out and have these flourishing careers.

Like let's open it up, and let's keep this thing going.

And so like "Reservation Dogs" had three completely perfect flawless seasons, and we get to like live with that.

I'm very content, I will say also in believing that I will never do anything outside of parenting my children as incredible and meaningful as "Reservation Dogs."

And that's including the shows I'm currently working on.

And I'm cool with that.

That just means I get to have fun because it's never, like the pressure is off to make "Reservation Dogs" again or to make something as good as that, you know?

- Yeah, I always, I've said this and I'll say it again, is that when I watched the show with my kids, I've got three daughters, and the most amazing part to them, and I've talked to Sterlin about this too, is that this is, it's normal to them.

Like it's normal.

Like my kids watch the show and they're like, "Oh, there's Uncle Bobby.

Oh there's Uncle Dallas.

Hey, there's Sterlin in the background."

They know everybody.

And so in their minds there's no disconnect between like their life and what they see on TV, which is like 180 degree difference from like what it was like for us to grow up.

I mean, we found out much later that most of the people that we thought were Indians on TV weren't even Indians.

- Yeah.

- Yo, I don't know, like natives in this crowd, like.

y'all like when you were growing up, you see someone on TV and you're like, "Oh, they're native.

I know they're native."

Like for me, Joseph Gordon Levitt in "Third Rock from The Sun," that fucker is native.

I was like, "Oh, he's fucking native.

He wears his hair like me," but his mom gave him a shitty haircut like me, yeah, hell yeah.

I thought the fucking Green Power Ranger, Tommy, turned to the white ground, that guy was native, right?

We all knew he was native.

- Dude.

Atreyu.

- Atreyu, fucking, purple buffalo rider, dude.

- Ruffio.

- Ruffio.

- Ruffios.

- Yeah.

Fila Harta.

- Filipino brother.

- Broke Heart.

- Yeah.

Ruffio was Lakota my heart, that's what I meant.

- Those were our Indians growing up.

What'd you say?

Ruffio and Atreyu.

- It still is, yeah.

Still is Indian.

- But that's an example.

Like we were so like famished for any type of representation on TV that we latched on to anything.

And oftentimes who's creating that story?

Who's creating these characters?

Not natives.

These are oftentimes non-native people who think this is what native people are like, but for us that's all we got.

And so we latch onto that.

And you know, Steven Segal, like all of Steven Segal.

Dude, me and my cousin dressed up as Steven Segal one year for Halloween, and like hair slicked back and we had a little toy shotgun and we thought we were all so cool.

- Me and my brother used to fight, like with the way Steven Segal holds a knife in "Under Siege," he holds it like this.

We used to sit there with letter openers, you know, and try to cut each other.

Yeah.

Nobody else, okay.

- No.

- Just me?

Oklahoma stuff I guess.

- Yeah.

I guess.

- We didn't have that in Minnesota.

- Yeah, so what you see, and like if you see the journey of like our older videos is just like us kind of like how does that mess with our minds?

And for me, my journey very much in my life thus far has been defined being a father, and like me coming to understand what does it mean to be a father based off the examples of fatherhood I saw before me.

And how do I rectify the dysfunction I saw with also the beauty that I saw growing up.

And for me, comedy and videos and William Knifeman and all these other manifestations is how I process all that and try to kind of find that way of like release.

And I think, Bobby, you spoke to it, like this idea of like, there's engagement that we've had, and actually I don't think we actually talked about it, but I noticed your Facebook posts or one of your posts was on the same level as me of like how, at what point, how do we as people not re-traumatize ourselves when we're talking about what happened, right?

How do we break that generational curse of sorts of like, how do we acknowledge for ourselves what happened, but also move forward.

- By making fun of it.

- By making fun of it, and making fun of ourselves and teasing ourselves as well as others outside.

Like that's really how I really believe that move forward.

(audience applauding) - You can tell Dallas goes to therapy.

- Can I just, I wanna just ask, so one of the things that I've been struck by in collaboration with the three of you, the five of you, has been sort of how, like how uncompromising you are in the work that you do, no matter what kind of sort of aesthetic it takes, what form it takes, there's always a kind of like heart thread that holds the center of it.

And I think I'm struck a little bit by some of the things that you've been saying tonight about sort of artists, native artists.

I'm struck, I think part of the sort of story I've been trying to design with the conversation has been this notion that everything that you've done has in fact been an accumulation, right?

There are no pivots in this story of the three of you.

It's a journey that you've been on.

I wonder if you would mind sharing with us both a few native artists that have inspired you, that have come before, and actually a few native artists that are coming after, you know, who's like there on the, who's emerging for you all.

'Cause you're now, I mean this is like, you know, this is, you're now, you're not elder statesmen, but you're older statesmen.

- We're uncles.

- If you're uncles.

- We're future ancestors in some way, you know.

- I used to think that I was gonna be like a world traveling graffiti writer muralist.

I was a Midwest traveling graffiti writer muralist for a long time.

And so a lot of my inspiration was from other painters.

And Oscar Howe was one of the big ones.

Lakota painter from South Dakota.

If you ever get a chance to go to the Corn Palace in South Dakota, he was one of the artists who has an amazing piece of work there.

It's made of corn, and that's funny, but it's also really beautiful piece.

- Why is it funny?

- It is pretty funny.

It's pretty funny.

It's the Corn Palace.

Artists, now?

- Spirits are here with us.

- That's Oscar Howe.

Yeah.

No, that's David Lynch actually, I think.

Now that I think about it, yeah.

Yeah, he's on the marquee.

Artists now.

Dang, I don't know.

I mean, Dallas Goldtooth.

- Yeah, thank you, thank you.

- Ryan RedCorn, Migizi Pensoneau.

Sterlin Harjo.

- It was really awesome.

Like our dream as a group was always that if we did this long enough, there would be another batch that came up underneath us.

And we had a lot of collaborations with some of the people that we did videos with, but man, it was really just awesome to watch the four leads in "Reservation Dogs" like come up, especially Lane, like coming in.

Like Lane, if some of you guys don't know this, probably Lane was playing video games and his mom was like, "Come on, I'm taking you this audition."

And it completely changed his life.

- The kid who played Cheese in "Reservation Dogs."

- The kid who played Cheese.

And I did a scene with him, and I was trying so hard to get him to crack.

I was chewing Oreos and spitting them on him on purpose, and just being like general obnoxious, like trying to get him to break character and I could not do it, he's unflappable.

And I don't know, I just like those, the younger kids that got opportunities on "Reservation Dogs," like all of them.

Like, I just, I can't wait to see, because they get the opportunity of like, like we had our nipples out in gymnasiums for like 10 years to audiences of anywhere from 10 to 63.

And we were able to be, we were fortunate enough to have this opportunity to like open to, just for myself, the door got opened, and then to watch all these other people like come in and get to come in at a young age, and get the bug, and then the other people get to see them.

They get to see them perform.

And as a writer, if you're thinking about it as a writer, and you're looking at these actors like, "Well, why would I ever write native characters?

There's nobody to play whatever," that excuse is gone.

And also there's a shitload of people that are in "Reservation Dogs" that have zero professional acting training, zero.

Like, not even like did community theater, just, these are just regular community people that come in and they're just kind of being themselves or they're being a version of whatever.

And they did fantastic.

John Parker is one of them.

They got tossed in, I don't even know what episode that is.

What episode is he in?

The one where the girl.

He was a fill-in, the girl that he was, it was after the strike, she puked in the bucket and they escorted her out.

And then John Parker came out of the makeup tent, put on some clothes, and then they thrust him into this role and he freaking kills it.

- That didn't make sense to me either, just so you know.

- Yeah, I don't just, we're all on the same page here.

- I don't know John Parker.

Or the episode that he's making it out.

- Good, John Parker, puke bucket girl.

- He's the one, he's the one swooping his hair like this.

He starts singing 49 songs, nobody?

- I would.

- You guys are gonna watch this show?

- I watched the show, I watched the show.

We're just getting a little longwinded there, just a little long in the gums, as you would say.

I wanna recognize like Sam English is a artist, an Anishinabe artist, who was very much influential.

Growing up, Sam English Anishinabe artists.

And we always, like every native conference in the Great Plains and Great Lakes growing up in the '90s, their poster was done by Sam English.

And we all saw everyone's auntie had a Sam English poster from a conference in their house.

- They're still hanging up.

- And he would donate his art for gatherings and conferences, that was his thing.

He was also a big proponent of AA, he was a recovering alcoholic.

And he really like, never shied from that.

The other artist I wanna recognize is that just, it might be kind of soapy or whatever, but like the native men who showed up in community, the MPs, like some of the Pow wow MCs, some of those, a handful of men in our community who showed up who were out, who were there, whether it's funerals or community pow wows, whatever it may be, heavily influenced me as a person, as an artist.

So I wanna recognize that.

Future generation, there's a plethora of young actresses, actors, of young folks coming up.

Isabella Blank.

I just got to work with her.

She's an amazing Dakota actress, she was on "True Detective."

Played one of the daughters in there.

But I am just so honored to be a part of that movement, and this movement to continue to tell our stories.

And it's just such a blessing to be a part of.

I'm very fortunate to see that.

- We have to be outta here by seven o'clock.

So I just want to thank the three of you for joining us here tonight.

(audience applauding) - You're welcome.

- And sharing a bit of your story.

And I guess we got one more video to share with y'all as you all head out the door.

So I'm gonna cycle through.

I'm gonna skip a video here in a moment.

- [Dallas] Thank you very much.

Appreciate you all.

- [Bobby] Thank y'all.

(energetic music) (energetic music continues) ♪ Like the Seminole, Navajo, Kickapoo ♪ ♪ Like those Indians, I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ Like the Chippewa, Iroquois, Omaha ♪ ♪ Like those Indians, I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ Some Indian summer's ♪ day without a care ♪ ♪ I may run away with ♪ Big Chief Son-of-a-Bear ♪ ♪ I'll wear moccasins, ♪ wampum beads, feather hats ♪ ♪ Which will go to prove ♪ I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ A Sioux, a Sioux ♪ ♪ Just like Battle Axe, ♪ Hatchet Face, Eagle Nose ♪ ♪ Like those Indians, I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ Just like Rising Moon, ♪ Falling Pants, Running Nose ♪ ♪ Like those Indians, I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ Some Indian summer's ♪ day without a sound ♪ ♪ I may hide away with Big ♪ Chief Hole-in-the-Ground ♪ ♪ I'll have totem poles, ♪ tomahawks, pipes of peace ♪ ♪ Which will go to prove ♪ I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ A Sioux, a Sioux ♪ (energetic music continues) ♪ A Sioux, a Sioux ♪ ♪ Since I was a child of three ♪ ♪ They had the Indian side of me ♪ ♪ They'd sit and watch me as I grew ♪ ♪ I would dream how nice it would be ♪ ♪ To have that Indian family ♪ ♪ And now my dreams have all come true ♪ ♪ Like the Seminole, Navajo, Kickapoo ♪ ♪ Like those Indians, I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ Like the Chippewa, Iroquois, Omaha ♪ ♪ Like those Indians, I'm an Indian too ♪ ♪ A Sioux, a Sioux ♪ (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (audience laughing) (audience applauding) (audience chattering)