Mo Brings Plenty, an enrolled member of the Lakota Nations, almost quit Hollywood due to a severe lack of Native representation. Then, he was cast in Yellowstone: "I was truly able to exhale and be like, 'Okay, I don't have to give up,'" he said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Brings Plenty has played the soft-spoken but indomitable right-hand man to Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) since Yellowstone's 2018 debut. He became the show's Native Affairs Coordinator in Season 5, working with tribal leaders behind-the-scenes to ensure accurate, respectful depictions of Native American history and culture.
"If you want accuracy, then you have to come to a few of us. We're not a dime a dozen anymore," Brings Plenty told THR.
In addition to his role as a cultural consultant on Yellowstone, Brings Plenty serves as the American Indian Affairs Coordinator on prequel series 1923. In May, the actor visited the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. for a screening of 1923's premiere episode. The series has been celebrated for its unflinching portrayal of abuse towards Native American children in government boarding schools.
Brings Plenty credits the broader Yellowstone universe, which works with tribal leaders to ensure accurate portrayals of Native American life, with kickstarting industry-wide change. There's a lot to be done, he said, but shows like 1923 help put Native representation at the forefront.
"It's all due to the support of [franchise creator] Taylor Sheridan, 101 Studios and Paramount. To give us the opportunities, to allow us to occupy the space that has been created for us," he said, adding: "Now I feel like we are finally getting fair opportunities."
Brings Plenty is central to that effort. In his role as a cultural consultant on 1923, for instance, he recruited native Crow speaker Birdie Real Bird to act as a translator and language coach for the show's Crow tribe storyline, which includes Aminah Nieves' character Teonna Rainwater.
"I'm extremely proud of working with actors such as Aminah," Brings Plenty said. "Aminah understands that language is very valuable; it is priceless. Especially in this day and age, to find true fluent language speakers who can write it and even teach it — those individuals are unicorns. Those people are priceless. And she embraced that ability to indulge and allow herself to be vulnerable in a language."
Now, Brings Plenty is expanding his industry footprint by forming a new, cross-tribe coalition for accurate portrayals of Native American culture across film and television.
"I'm putting together our elders, people who truly represent our culture and live by the standards of it, where it's their everyday life. They're historians; they know the true history of their tribes. It's a slow process, but I'm trying to get this going so we can change how everything is being done in other productions."
