When "Yellowstone" ends with the forthcoming Season 5, Part 2, one fan-favorite character in particular will be sorely missed: Chief Rainwater's consigliere, Mo, played by Mo Brings Plenty. The character debuted in the 2018 pilot episode as the driver for Gil Birmingham's newly installed chief of the Broken Rock Reservation. His role has expanded since then — as has Mo Brings Plenty's cultural footprint.
Brings Plenty is the American Indian affairs coordinator on "Yellowstone" and its spinoffs, working with tribes represented in Taylor Sheridan's blockbuster universe of Western series on Paramount+. His work on "1923," which was partly based on true cases of abuse at Native American boarding schools, brought him to a Senate committee on Native representation in entertainment.
He's one of the most renowned Native actors working today, and he shoulders that legacy — his own, and that of his forebears — with infectious energy. But Mo Brings Plenty wasn't always in lockstep with his Lakota identity. In fact, watching his future co-star Kevin Costner's Oscar-winning epic "Dances with Wolves" in 1990 "played a vital role" in helping him connect to his culture. He hasn't taken art's unique ability to feed the soul for granted since.
Wide Open Country sat down with Mo Brings Plenty for a wide-ranging conversation about his early film influences, why he has complete faith in Sheridan to steer "Yellowstone" to port, and his bold new vision for life after TV's biggest show.
The Impact of Kevin Costner's 'Dances with Wolves'
Growing up, Brings Plenty didn't dream of becoming an actor. He had a mind for mathematics and wanted to be a teacher. More than anything, though, he loved the outdoors.
"Being outside gave us the ability to create," he recalls of his upbringing on reservations with no running water or electricity. "It developed our imaginary creativity. My little brother and cousins and I used to chase shadows created by the clouds cruising across the prairie. We pretended they were buffalo."
Movies were hard to come by, but he remembers seeing Eddie Little Sky — one of the first major Native American actors — on screen. He also saw Will Sampson, as Chief Bromden in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." In an odd twist of fate, the first casting call he can remember on the reservation was for Kevin Costner's 1990 epic "Dances with Wolves," which would go on to win seven Academy Awards.
It was one of the first Western films not to vilify Native American characters by default, and Brings Plenty credits Costner's writing and direction with helping him reconnect to his heritage during a period of self-doubt. He would eventually thank his "Yellowstone" co-star for the impact the film had on him:
"I told him, 'I want you to know that you played a vital role in saving my identity.' The movie came out at a time when I had my own inner battle going on. Who am I? What is my purpose? I saw 'Dances with Wolves' and it breathed life into me again. I was like, 'Yeah, I should be proud of who I am.' And I explained that to him, and I thanked him for that."
It's a testament to the power of on-screen representation, especially in Brings Plenty's reservation community. Some of his friends were stunt riders in the Wounded Knee sequence in "Dances with Wolves." It was an emotional experience, given the temporal and cultural closeness of that massacre.
"We lost a grandmother there at Wounded Knee," he says. "People who were infants during Wounded Knee were still alive when we were children. I got to sit at the kitchen table with them, look into their eyes, and know that those eyes witnessed that."
The Legacy of 'Yellowstone'
Taylor Sheridan and Mo Brings Plenty. (Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images for Paramount)
Brings Plenty became a cultural consultant on "Yellowstone" in Season 5, making his work as a liaison between production and tribal leaders official. He has since consulted on a raft of Sheridan-verse titles, including "1883" and "1923" — the latter of which brought him to a panel on Native representation for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in 2023.
"I represent Indian Country, but I absolutely cannot speak on behalf of a tribe that I'm not enrolled in," he says. On "1923," he went to the Crow Agency and was connected with Birdie Real Bird, a Native Crow speaker who taught the language to the cast.
That accuracy makes a difference for a network of cultures so often represented as monolithic. Brings Plenty credits Sheridan for sticking to his guns on the details, because it's had a ripple effect in the industry.
"It's all about authenticity, and Taylor knows that. If it's not authentic, he wants nothing to do with it. I have a great deal of respect for him for setting that example so the rest of Hollywood will begin to understand."
"Kevin Costner did the same thing with 'Dances with Wolves,'" he adds. "They both laid the groundwork and are showing society that it does work. Look at the popularity of 'Yellowstone.' It's the No. 1 show on cable in the world. I'm honored and humbled to be a small part of that."
Now that "Yellowstone" is coming to an end, Brings Plenty hopes to continue popping up in Sheridan's projects — such as his recent cameo in "Lawmen: Bass Reeves."
"I would love to remain in the Sheridan realm because everything is brilliantly written, and factual in a lot of cases." And he won't soon give up on his "brotherhood" with Gil Birmingham, who's been instrumental in opening doors for Native talent. "It would be wonderful to work with him in another project down the road, once 'Yellowstone' comes to an end."
As for his character, Mo? Chief Rainwater's right-hand man has a lot of untold backstory, he says. But he hasn't put much thought into how Mo's story might wrap up for the simple fact that he trusts Sheridan implicitly.
"Whatever ending he comes up with, it's going to be the right one. I'm being sincere when I say that Taylor is amazing. He knows best when it comes to the life of every character in the story," he says, adding with a laugh, "Now, I think it would be awesome if there was a spinoff for Rainwater and Mo."
Life After 'Yellowstone'
Even with the upcoming "2024" sequel series, the end of "Yellowstone" feels like the end of an era. For Mo Brings Plenty, the last five years ushered in a fresh new take on the Western genre and on Native representation in Hollywood broadly.
He was the first American Indian to present an award at the Golden Globes — which he did alongside his "Yellowstone" and "Dead Man's Hand" co-star Cole Hauser. A year later, Lily Gladstone became the first American Indian to win Best Actress at the 2024 Globes for her role in Martin Scorsese's Osage tragedy "Killers of the Flower Moon."
"My hope is that it just continues to grow and you'll see us in more contemporary projects, playing those doctors, those lawyers, being those detectives," he says. "I smile because I'm starting to see a big shift in society's desire to understand our culture a little bit better from the true representatives of our culture."
He adds, "When cultural diversity is living, racism begins to die."
Brings Plenty is ramping up his efforts to get more Native talent behind the scenes, too. One of his greatest career aspirations is shepherding more Native American casting directors into the business. That way, when Western films hold reservation-wide casting calls, "that space is occupied by the true representation of that tribe."
He can't say too much about his upcoming project "Buffalo Daze," about legendary mixed-blood "Indian cowboy" Jim Grinder, but he has high praise for its producer, Georgina Lightning. She's a Native producer-actor-director from Canada. Lightning's 2008 directorial debut "Older Than America" focused on abuse at Catholic boarding schools in Indian Country. It starred Tantoo Cardinal, Bradley Cooper and Adam Beach.
He's also gathering a cross-tribe coalition to consult on film and TV productions. The aim is to tap tribal governance, Native speakers and elders for more-accurate representation across the industry. There's strength in numbers, he says:
"Indian Country needs to unite. The American people in general need to unite. We have to strip ourselves of these labels and learn how to stand side by side, because what's going to make this country great is the American people. What we have in common far outweighs the few pathetic differences we may have."
Perhaps there was something to Mo Brings Plenty's dream of being a teacher after all.
