‘Reservation Dogs,’ Kali Reis lead banner year for Native representation in Emmy nominations

After a wave of Native stories earned acclaim from critics and adulation from fans in recent years, the Television Academy joined the chorus with Wednesday’s Emmy nominations.

“Reservation Dogs,” an FX series about the lives of four Native American teenagers on an Oklahoma reservation, received its first-ever nomination in the comedy series category for its third and final season, which concluded last September. Created by Sterlin Harjo (a member of the Seminole nation with Muscogee ancestry) and Taika Waititi (Maori on his father’s side), the series distinguished itself not only with its cast of Indigenous actors but also by featuring Indigenous writers, directors and crew members.

Among them, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai nabbed a nomination for lead actor in a comedy series. The Oji-Cree First Nations and Guyanese actor played Bear Smallhill, the friend group’s leader of sorts. “Reservation Dogs” also earned nominations for cinematography and editing; previously the series had been nominated only once, for sound editing.

“Mvto from our whole team!” said Harjo in an Instagram Story shortly after the nominations were announced. (Mvto means “thank you” in Mvskoke — a sentiment presented onscreen as the title card of the final episode.)

“True Detective: Night Country” star Kali Reis, who is of Cape Verdean and Native American descent and is a member of the Seaconke Wampanoag tribe, landed a nomination for supporting actress in a limited series or TV movie for her performance opposite Jodie Foster in the fourth season of the buzzy HBO anthology series. Reis, a former boxer, plays state trooper Evangeline Navarro, who teams up with Foster’s grizzled police chief to investigate the mysterious death of a group of research scientists against the backdrop of the exploitation of Native Alaskan people and resources in the Arctic Circle.

“True Detective: Night Country” also was recognized in the limited series category; among its 19 total nominations were those for lead actress Foster and supporting actor John Hawkes, as well as writing and directing.

“They can hold space for us to make our own decisions, and they don’t have to be scared to ‘take a chance,’” Reis told The Times Wednesday, asked about what she hopes industry decision-makers take away from this moment. “It’s not taking a chance to do the right thing. That’s what I hope they see. It’s not, ‘We’re going to take a risk.’ It’s not a risk; they’ve been risking trying to tell our stories for us, or assuming or twisting stories this whole time... The risk is assuming and having these assumptions, trying to be a mouthpiece for us, and being so scared to tell the truth.”

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FX’s “The Bear” and “Shogun” were among the top nominees for the 76th Emmy Awards announced on Wednesday.

Reis will compete in the same category against Lily Gladstone, who plays a police officer in British Columbia looking into the disappearance of a teenage girl in Hulu’s “Under the Bridge.” Gladstone, who is of Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage, made Oscar history earlier this year as the first Native American to be nominated for lead actress for her performance in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

The accolades appear to be the first ever nominations for Native American women in the Emmys’ main acting categories, and “Reservation Dogs’” nod the first for a Native American- or Indigenous-centered program in comedy, drama or limited series. (HBO’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” won in the made-for-TV movie category in 2007 and earned a supporting actor nomination for August Schellenberg, who was of Mohawk heritage.)

A representative for the Television Academy could not confirm these historic firsts to The Times, saying in an email, “The Academy has never required Emmy entrants to identify themselves on the basis of ethnicity, race, gender or cultural background — and for membership records, this type of self-identification has always been voluntary — so they cannot accurately verify these types of historical precedents.”

Senior TV writer Yvonne Villarreal contributed to this report.