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The Big Picture
- Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan wins competitive battle for the rights to Empire of the Summer Moon, a historical narrative of the conflict between the Comanche tribe and white settlers in the American West.
- Book highlights the exceptional combat skills of the Comanches, their resistance against Spain and France, and focuses on Quanah Parker and his mother Cynthia Ann Parker’s story.
- Sheridan’s choice to direct is controversial due to concerns about white filmmakers telling Indigenous stories, as seen with criticism for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan and his Bosque Ranch production company have won what is said to be a “competitive battle” to secure the rights to the S.C. Gwynne book Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, according a report by Deadline. Since the project first began its inception at Warner Bros, Sheridan has harboured a deep-seated passion for making it a reality. The book provides a thorough historical narrative of the forty-year conflict between the Comanche tribe and white settlers over dominance in the American West, highlighting Quanah as the tribe’s most esteemed chief.
The Comanches, renowned for their exceptional combat skills, trained their boys to adeptly ride horses without saddles by age six. Their proficiency with bows and lances was so advanced that they thwarted Spain’s northward expansion from Mexico and curtailed France’s westward advance from Louisiana. A key part of the narrative focuses on Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah’s mother. Captured by the Comanches at age nine, Parker inspired the character of the abducted young girl in the John Wayne western, The Searchers. In reality, Parker, by then a wife and mother, resisted rescue efforts as she had no recollection of her life prior to her abduction.
Sheridan has established himself as the go-to man for Westerns following his work on Yellowstone, which garnered immense popularity, attracting more viewers with each season. The series revolves around the Dutton family, headed by John Dutton (Kevin Costner), who owns the largest continuous ranch in the United States. Over five seasons, the series portrays the family’s internal disputes and their battles against outsiders encroaching on their ranch. However, there has been increasing negativity around the concept of who tells these stories.
Why is Taylor Sheridan a Controversial Choice?
There is sure to be some pushback on the project from the Indigenous population. Although a heavy awards contender, Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon, another project directed by a white man telling the story on behalf of Native Americans. One notable incident involved Devery Jacobs, the Indigenous star of FX and Hulu’s Reservation Dogs, calling out the movie on social media for not portraying its Osage characters with “honour or dignity”. The film is based around a period of time known as “The Reign of Terror”, when at least 60 members of the Osage nation were murdered in the late 1920s.
“Being Native, watching this movie was fucking hellfire. Imagine the worst atrocities committed against [your] ancestors, then having to sit [through] a movie explicitly filled with them, with the only respite being 30 minute long scenes of murderous white guys talking about/planning the killings.”
The film also starred Lily Gladstone, who — to bring this full circle — has publicly criticised Sheridan’s projects like Yellowstone for what she has described as the “deplorable” depiction of Native American characters within the series. Gladstone added that she did not have any issues with the actors cast to portray the roles, and that she herself had auditioned several times for the series without success.
Stay tuned to Collider for updates.
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