8 new Native American shows and movies you can stream now — and 3 coming soon

Native Americans have appeared in Hollywood movies practically from the start, but they haven't often had control of the narrative as writers, directors or producers.

So, Indigenous moviemakers have been working for decades in the independent film world to tell their stories. But over the past few years, the number of movies and television shows with a strong Indigenous presence both in front of and behind the camera has been rapidly growing. And Native creatives based in or hailing from Oklahoma are playing key roles in many of the hot new titles.

One of the most critically acclaimed shows out now follows four Native teenagers in rural Oklahoma, while the most popular title ever on one major streaming service is a long-running film franchise's latest installment, which features an Indigenous heroine.

Here are four current or recent TV series and four recent films that you can stream now that are made largely by and about Indigenous people — and three more you can look for coming soon:

More: Native Americans share why growing representation in entertainment is so vital

Television shows

'Reservation Dogs'

Where to see it: Hulu.

Filmed primarily in Oklahoma, the FX Networks hit debuted in 2021 to almost universal acclaim and premiered its sophomore season last year to more high praise. It has blazed trails as the first mainstream TV show on which every writer, director and series regular performer is Indigenous.

Co-created and executive produced by Oscar-winning New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi ("Thor: Love and Thunder"), who is of Maori ancestry, and Tulsa-based moviemaker Sterlin Harjo ("Barking Water"), who is Seminole and Muscogee, the bawdy and uproarious coming-of-age comedy focuses on four present-day Native teenagers who set out to escape their rural Oklahoma home for sunny California.

In June, Harjo announced that the third and current season will be the last for the Peabody Award-winning show.

"As we continued to break stories and write scripts this season, it became clear to the producers, Taika and me that the season three finale is the perfect SERIES finale,” Harjo posted June 29 on Instagram.

Season 3 of "Reservation Dogs" ran 10 episodes, and the series finale bowed Sept. 27.

'Dark Winds'

Where to see it: AMC+.

The long-awaited big-budget series based on Oklahoma-born and bred novelist Tony Hillerman's best-selling mystery novels about fictional Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee debuted in summer 2022. The series was created by Chickasaw Nation citizen and Ardmore native Graham Roland.

With Cheyenne-Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre (best known for the groundbreaking 1998 indie film "Smoke Signals") directing many of its episodes, the series counts film icon Robert Redford and "Game of Thrones" mastermind George R.R. Martin among its executive producers, along with Roland.

Set in the 1970s, the series stars Lakota actor Zahn McClarnon ("Reservation Dogs") as Leaphorn and Hualapai actor Kiowa Gordon ("The Twilight Saga") as Chee. The six-episode first season made a powerful enough impression that the show was quickly renewed for a second.

"Dark Winds" Season 2, which also includes six episodes, premiered July 30 on AMC, with the finale airing on Sept. 3.

Variety reports that the series more than doubled its Season 1 viewership on AMC+ with the first two episodes of its sophomore season, and the show recently gained a celebrity fan in Oscar-winning filmmaker and Duncan native Ron Howard, who took to the social media site formerly known as Twitter to praise "Dark Winds" as "Powerful, suspenseful. So well made I’m hooked."

In mid-September, AMC and AMC+ announced that "Dark Winds" has been renewed for a third season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

'Rutherford Falls'

Where to see it: Peacock.

With a Navajo co-creator and executive producer in Sierra Teller Ornelas and several Native writers, this sitcom rolled out its second season in summer 2022.

Sadly, Variety reported in September 2022 that the groundbreaking comedy has been canceled, but it can still be streamed on Peacock.

The show centers on the lifelong friendship between Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms, "The Office"), a descendant of the titular town's white founding family, and Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding, who is Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux and now has a hilarious recurring role on "Reservation Dogs"), the head of the cultural center for the fictional Minishonka Nation.

'Mohawk Girls'

Where to see it: Peacock.

In fall 2021, Peacock started streaming Canadian Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer's acclaimed comedy series — which the show's creator has described as "'Sex and the City' for the Native set" — bringing the title to U.S. audiences for the first time.

Films

'Prey'

Where to see it: Hulu.

The latest installment in the long-running "Predator" sci-fi film franchise is set in the Northern Great Plains of the Comanche Nation in 1719. Filmed in the Stoney Nakoda Nation near Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with a largely Indigenous cast, the prequel pits one of the now-iconic alien trophy hunters against Naru (Amber Midthunder, "The Ice Road"), a Comanche woman determined to prove herself as a warrior.

Director Dan Trachtenberg (“10 Cloverfield Lane”) worked closely on the creature feature with producer Jhane Myers, a Comanche and Blackfeet artist, dancer and filmmaker who hails from Oklahoma. There's even a version of the film fully dubbed in Comanche — a first for a new movie release in a Native language — available on Hulu.

Soon after the movie premiered in July 2022, 20th Century Studios revealed that the action-thriller, which earned strong reviews, scored the biggest premiere on the Disney-owned streamer to date, topping all film and TV series debuts. Based on hours watched in the first three days of its release, "Prey" also marked the most-watched film premiere on Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ under the Star Banner in all other territories, according to a news release.

Disney and Trachtenberg recently confirmed that "Prey" is the rare streaming-only movie to get a physical media release. It was unleashed Oct. 3 on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD. According to Slash Film, the Blu-ray release includes the Comanche audio track as well as two hours of bonus features, including a making-of featurette, panel discussion, alternative opening sequence, deleted scenes and audio commentary.

"Prey" will compete for six Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Television Movie, when the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards air Jan. 15 on Fox.

'Wild Indian'

How to see it: Starz, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Vudu, Google Play Movies, Apple TV and more.

Filmed in Oklahoma in early 2020, the crime drama marks the feature film debut of Native American writer-director Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. (Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indians) and made its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

The harrowing drama centers on two Anishinaabe men — played by Michael Greyeyes ("Rutherford Falls"), who is Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation — Treaty Six Territory in Saskatchewan, and Tahlequah-born actor Chaske Spencer (“The Twilight Saga”), who is Sioux, Nez Perce, Cherokee, Creek, French and Dutch — who share a traumatic boyhood secret about the murder of a schoolmate. 

'Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher'

Where to see it: Netflix.

Chickasaw Nation Productions spent years turning the epic life of the titular Chickasaw Rancher, Montford Johnson, into a biopic that spans from his birth in 1843, through the tumultuous years of the Civil War and its aftermath and on to the Land Run of 1889.

The son of an Englishman and a Chickasaw woman, Johnson (Martin Sensmeier, who is Tlingit and Koyukon-Athabascan) befriended Cherokee fur trader and merchant Jesse Chisholm (Chickasaw citizen Eddie Easterling), who convinced him to establish cattle ranches and trading posts in the newly created Indian Territory to serve his fellow First Americans. At the height of his ranching operations, Johnson accumulated a herd of more than 35,000 head of cattle grazing over a million acres.

'Love and Fury'

Where to see it: Netflix.

Before he broke out with "Reservation Dogs," Sterlin Harjo worked for years making independent narrative and documentary films, including this 2020 deadCenter Film Festival selection.

For this doc, Harjo followed several Indigenous musicians, dancers, visual artists and poets for a year as they pursued their careers in the U.S. and abroad.

ARRAY Releasing, the distribution arm of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s narrative change collective, acquired "Love and Fury" in fall 2021 for a streaming and limited theatrical release.

3 Native American titles to look for coming soon

Marvel's 'Echo'

Where to see it: Disney+ and Hulu.

Marvel Studios leaps into Native storytelling with this new series, with all five episodes set to debut Jan. 10, 2024, on both Disney+ and Hulu. They'll be available on Hulu until April 9. "Echo" also marks the first Marvel Studios series to drop all episodes at once for maximum binge-watching.

As part of the "Hawkeye" series, Native actress Alaqua Cox, who is Menominee and Mohican, was introduced in late 2021 in the role of Maya Lopez/Echo, the fearsome commander of the criminal organization the Tracksuit Mafia.

"Echo" is the first Disney+ Marvel series to get a TV rating of MA, indicating it is for "mature audiences only," largely due to its graphic violence.

The series is being hailed as major moment not only for Native Americans but also for the disability community: Cox is deaf and an amputee.

Although it was filmed in Georgia, the show also is a milestone for Oklahoma: Maya is depicted as Choctaw, and much of the series' action is set in her small-hometown in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

'Rez Ball'

Where to see it: Netflix.

Along with helming episodes of "Reservation Dogs" and Marvel's "Echo," Navajo director Sydney Freeland wrote with Harjo this Native American basketball drama, which is based on Michael Powell’s sports novel "Canyon Dreams." LeBron James is among the producers.

Described as "Friday Night Lights" meets "Hoosiers," the coming-of-age sports drama follows the Chuska Warriors, a Native American high school basketball team from Chuska, New Mexico, that must band together after losing their star player if they want to keep their quest for a state championship alive. It's an all-American underdog sports story — with all-American underdogs who happen to be Navajo.

Production got underway earlier this year in New Mexico, including filming on reservations with the permission and support of the local sovereign tribal nations.

No release date has been announced.

'Yellow Bird'

Where to see it: Paramount+.

True crime stories have been big hits for streamers (think "Girl in the Picture," "The Innocent Man" and "Tiger King"), so this project, which was announced in 2021, definitely has potential.

Harjo and fellow Native writer-director Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga), who is originally from Oklahoma, are reportedly co-creating and executive producing a potential series based on Sierra Crane Murdoch’s Pulitzer Prize finalist "Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country." 

When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom. When Yellow Bird learned three years later that a young, white oil worker had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became concerned.

The book (and presumably the intended series) chronicles her obsessive search for clues, which takes her on two divergent paths: to her own tribe, altered by oil-boom wealth, and to the non-Native, down-on-their-luck oilmen, including many who traveled hundreds of miles to find work toward the end of the Great Recession.

Yellow Bird will be among the executive producers of the show, according to Deadline. No release date has been announced.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 8 new Indigenous shows and films to stream now - and 3 more to come