Yes, 1923’s Most Horrifying Scene Is Based On Real Life
The Yellowstone prequel spinoff, 1923, tackles one of the darkest chapters in the history of Indigenous Americans living in Montana in the '20s.
- The 1923 Indian School scenes in the Yellowstone spinoff depict the horrific abuse suffered by Indigenous American youth in Catholic boarding schools, based on real history.
- These schools were founded by Western settlers to forcibly assimilate Indigenous communities, and abuse in Catholic boarding schools was widespread during this time period.
- The portrayal of Indian Schools in 1923 adds important context to the original Yellowstone series, highlighting the generational impact of cruelty and abuse on Indigenous communities and challenging the narrative of the Duttons as heroes.
The 1923 Indian School scenes make for the show’s most harrowing moments in the Yellowstone period-drama spinoff — and the horrific abuse is made all the more difficult to watch by being based on real history. The 1923 scenes in question depict the physical and emotional abuse inside a Catholic boarding school for Indigenous American youth in Montana. They focus on Teonna Rainwater who is beaten and brutalized for forgetting small details in her lessons, for speaking her Native language, and seemingly any excuse Sister Mary can think of for attempting to dehumanize her. Teonna fights back against her oppressors, eliciting more violent reactions from those running what were referred to as Indian Schools at the time.
Unfortunately, 1923 paints a fairly historically accurate picture of what transpired inside these boarding schools. The horrific institutions seen in 1923 were real, and were founded by Western settlers specifically to attempt to forcibly assimilate Indigenous communities displaced by the Westward Expansion of America. The Indian School scenes make 1923 the darkest Yellowstone story yet, set in a time when cases of abuse in Catholic boarding schools were rampant across the United States as well as in Canada. The 1923 scenes focusing on this are disturbing but an important part of the overall story.
The Real History Of Catholic Boarding Schools For Indigenous Americans
Such Schools Brutally Forced Indigenous Children To Abandon Their Traditions And Culture
The 1923 Indian School scenes and narrative are, tragically, based on real events that transpired throughout the US in the early 20th century. Father Renaud and Sister Mary’s horrible treatment of Teonna is based on historical accounts of so-called “American Indian boarding schools,” which first gained popularity in the mid-1800s. Only one of these schools was founded in Montana – the Fort Shaw Indian School. However, almost 200 more sprang up across almost 30 American states since the 1840s, with a higher concentration in states like Oklahoma, Minnesota, and South Dakota.
As seen in 1923, the goal of the so-called “Indian Schools” was to attempt to assimilate Indigenous youth into white Western culture by erasing their language and cultural identity, baptizing them into Christianity, and replacing their tribal names. This paved the way for the inhumane treatment of Indigenous American children across different generations. As explained by the actor who plays Sister Mary, Jennifer Ehle, in her 1923 Screen Rant interview:
“Sister Mary is a person who believes, as the people who were running these residential schools actually did believe, that you had to ‘kill the Indian to save the man.’ You had to force assimilation; you had to remove all cultural identity from these children who had been removed forcibly from their families and were living in isolation.”
Though most of these boarding schools have either been closed or heavily reformed since the late 20th century, the culture of abuse fostered by these institutions has left permanent scars in the history of America’s Indigenous nations. While the scenes of abuse in 1923 are jarring, Aminah Nieves (who plays Teonna in 1923) says that it’s a tale that needs to be tackled:
“Yeah, it’s hard. But being indigenous, it’s our duty to tell our stories and to tell them as strongly, quickly, and powerfully as we can. It’s what we’re born into, and we’re storytellers from the jump. You know what I’m saying? Continuing to tell our story as honestly as we can is very important.”