How Dark Winds Season 2 Fixed Season 1's Controversy

How Dark Winds Season 2 Fixed Season 1’s Controversy


Summary

  • Dark Winds season 1 faced criticism for inaccurate Navajo representation, but season 2 course-corrected.
  • Season 2 deepened focus on Diné culture, language, and healthcare, addressing community issues authentically.
  • Dark Winds leads a wave of Indigenous representation on TV, but it’s currently the only series carrying that torch.



AMC’s Dark Winds season 1 got some pushback for its somewhat controversial depiction of Navajo customs and spirituality, but season 2 smartly course-corrected and fixed the problem. Dark Winds is set in the time period of the 1970s, with the action unfolding in Navajo Nation in Arizona. The story follows tribal police detective Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), who finds himself investigating a gruesome double murder on Navajo land alongside his steady sergeant, Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten), and new, city boy deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon).

The story is dark and twisty, full of corrupt agents, crooked dealings, shadowy conspiracies, and more. Dark Winds, which has been renewed for season 3, is remarkable not for that story, but for the deft way it weaves in the Diné language and Navajo culture and spirituality in a way few shows have done before. Despite its groundbreaking representation, however, there were a few problems with season 1 that Dark Winds season 2 smartly fixed before the end.



Dark Winds Season 1 Focused On The Darker Side Of Navajo Spiritualism

There Were Inaccuracies That Frustrated Some Navajo Viewers

Granted, the criticism wasn’t profound, but there was nevertheless some pushback about the depiction of Navajo, or Diné, culture and spiritual customs. Season 1 put its focus entirely on the darker aspects of Navajo culture and spiritualism, with a subplot involving dark Navajo witchcraft that touched upon skinwalkers, an aspect of Diné culture that has been largely mangled and fetishized by the cryptid cottage industry of the internet.


Season 1 put its focus entirely on the darker aspects of Navajo culture and spiritualism, with a subplot involving dark Navajo witchcraft that touched upon skinwalkers, an aspect of Diné culture that has been largely mangled and fetishized by the cryptid cottage industry of the internet.

While some Diné audiences wrote off Dark Winds‘ inaccuracies as merely part of entertainment, others pointed out their criticisms of the series. Regardless of how well-intentioned the series is, the original books were written by Hillerman, a white man, and so there’s no way for the story to be entirely accurate. Instead, inaccuracy and misrepresentation are almost guaranteed. Errors in the Diné bizaad language and cultural representation were sources of frustration for some Navajo Nation viewers, who were vocal with their criticism.


A composite image of Leaphorn looking stern with Bernadette leaning against a wall in Dark Winds

Related

Dark Winds Season 3: Confirmation, Cast & Everything We Know

AMC’s Dark Winds has gained a reputation as an under-the-radar gem, and season 3 is now on the way – here’s what’s next for Leaphorn and Chee.

Dark Winds Season 2 Expanded Its Focus On Diné Culture & Course Corrected

Showrunner Chris Eyre Wisely Listened To The Criticism

Joe holds a baby while Sally and Emma help him
Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC

However, show creator Chris Eyre, who is Cheyenne and Arapaho, not Navajo, heard those complaints and criticisms and wisely course-corrected for season 2. While creating Dark Winds season 2, AMC partnered with Navajo Nation, bringing in a Navajo cultural consultant to ensure that the writing on the show would be true to reality and the representation of Diné culture as authentic and nuanced as possible. The cultural consultant, as well as other Diné people in the cast and crew, helped the Indigenous actors from other tribes more accurately pronounce the Diné language, and the writers to nail the nuance of the culture.


Likewise, the writing in Dark Winds season 2 shifted its focus away from the dark and supernatural elements of Navajo culture to a broader, more inclusive representation. For example, there was much greater focus put on tribal medicine and healthcare, especially how underfunded it is. Especially stark was a subplot pulled from reality involving the forced sterilization of Native American women, and a lack of healthcare from doctors who respect Indigenous beliefs and customs.

Navajo culture was also deepened and made richer in other, smaller ways, as well, such as Emma Leaphorn (Deanna Allison) urging Joe that they need another cleansing ceremony to banish the dark energy around them. Or the churro sheep that are so important to Navajo society. There’s also the kinaalda, a puberty ceremony for Navajo teenage girls when they come of age. Those are just a few of the examples of the ways in which Dark Winds has worked to authentically and respectfully portray Diné culture.


Dark Winds Is Part Of A Wave Of Long-Overdue Indigenous Representation On TV

It’s Currently Carrying The Torch On TV

Dark Winds has been part of a relatively recent movement on TV to tell Indigenous and Native American stories from actual Indigenous and Native American writers and actors. Their stories are unfolding across genres, and across formats. Dark Winds is a dark crime procedural set on Navajo land; Echo is a Marvel TV show about a deaf, Native American superhero; Reservation Dogs is a gentle dark comedy set on a fictional reservation; True Detective season 4 incorporates the Iñupiat culture of Alaska; Rutherford Falls was a fun small town comedy. Still others offer up authentic Indigenous representation in new, different ways.

Dark Winds
has been part of a relatively recent movement on TV to tell Indigenous and Native American stories from actual Indigenous and Native American writers and actors.


It’s all long overdue, but, unfortunately, Dark Winds is currently the only series carrying that torch.Reservation Dogs has been canceled. Rutherford Falls is done. A new season of True Detective will tell a different story. Echo was a limited series. Until new TV shows featuring Indigenous voices and Native American casts get greenlit, Dark Winds is the only major native representation on the small screen, which means it’s more important than ever for it to get that representation right. With Dark Winds season 3 not coming out until 2025, that gives the writers plenty of time to get the story right.

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