LRF NOW Writer Commentary: Nez Perce - "Pilot" with Dwight Gallo

Nez Perce - "Pilot"
Genre: Historical
Director: Scott Cooper
Writer: Dwight Gallo
Cast: Adam Beach, Matthew Rhys, Ray McKinnon, Gil Birmingham, Martin Sensmaier, Julia Jones, Forrest Goodluck, Amber Midthunder, Tatanka Means, Jay Tavares, Grace Dove, Zach Gilford

Plot: The year is 1877. Lt. James Bradley (Zach Gilford), US infantry cavalry scout rides on a horse in the vast, empty plains of northern Montana.[1] He checks his compass, then continues charging ahead on horseback. He spots something in the distance and heads toward it. There is a dead body in the grass up ahead, flayed with arrow, lying in a pool of dried blood. The body wears a Union uniform just like Bradley's. Bradley hops off his horse and turns the body over. The body is mutilated. Eyes gouged. Throat cut. Head scalped. Bradley gets back on his horse and continues ahead toward a clearing where he finds hundreds of bodies strewn across the landscape. The ground is soaked red with blood. An entire cavalry unit has been slaughtered, the bodies desecrated beyond recognition. Genitals have been ripped from one corpse and down the throat of another. Heads are severed and placed on pikes. Overwhelmed, Bradley doubles over and vomits. Suddenly he hears something. He looks up to see a white horse on the other side of the battle field. It is covered in blood and impaled with arrows, but it is still alive. Bradley rides over to the horse and strokes its mane, looking into the haunted animal's eyes.[2]

[1] James Bradley is based on a real man of the same name. The entire opening scene of the series is based on his journal entries where he wrote about finding the aftermath of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

[2] While the scene itself is based on reality, the bloody arrow-riddled horse is of my own creation. There is no mention of any such horse in Bradley’s journals. I knew that I really had to set the tone for the series at the end the cold opening, especially since it doesn’t feature any of the main characters.

A mighty elk trots through a mountain forest as the smoke of the Union Pacific Railroad rises off the far horizon. Something stirs in the forest. The elk, sensing danger, takes off, fleeing deep into the woods - but it's too late. Arrows come flying from every direction. The elk crashes to the ground - dead. Twenty warriors of the Nez Perce tribe emerge from the trees. Wahlitits (Forrest Goodluck) and his father Eagle Robe (Jay Tavares) stare down at the giant animal. Eagle Robe congratulates Wahlitits on a successful first hunt. Toohoolhoolzote (Gil Birmingham) chastises Wahlitits for his noisiness nearly costing them the elk and Eagle Robe for his arrows all missing the elk. Ollokot (Martin Sensmeier) steps forward with his brother Joseph (Adam Beach), the chief of the Nez Perce. Ollokot kneels down and offers a prayer for the animal. During the prayer, Joseph's eyes move away from the elk and toward the whistle of a distant train. [3]

[3] Every member of the Nez Perce tribe in this introduction to them is based on a real person, meaning that all of the main characters are based on fact. Sure, there are some slight embellishments as historical records on the Nez Perce side of this particular story aren’t very well-documented, but as a whole I believe the series is quite historically accurate.

The warriors return to the Nez Perce village, comprised of a hundred tipis scattered along a hillside. Joseph sits with his wife Springtime (Julia Jones), while Ollokot goes to embrace his wife Fairland (Grace Dove). Eagle Robe and Wahlitits sit down by a fire. Eagle Robe looks over at his son and finds Wahlitits is fixated on a beautiful young woman named Little Bird (Amber Midthunder) sitting a few fires down. She suddenly looks his way. Nervous, Wahlitits quickly averts his gaze. Eagle Robe shakes his head with a slight smile.[4]

[4] Now that all of the main members of the tribe have been introduced, I just want to say how happy I am that Executive Producer Scott Cooper, who also directed this pilot episode, and I were able to assemble such a wonderful cast of talented Native actors. If we weren’t able to get such a cast, I don’t know if the series would have had the same impact that it ended up having on LRTV.

The young men of the tribe assemble to play stickball as the sun begins to set. They divide into two teams and are about to begin when Toohoolhoolzote comes onto the playing field. The audience that has gathered around the field laugh at the thought of an older man playing a young man's game. The game begins - and boy is it brutal. Bodies collide and collapse onto the earth. The women and children cheer on the athletes. Wahlitits begins to advance the ball down the field and is about to score, but Ollokot intercepts his shot. He then hurls the ball to Toohoolhoolzote, who charges down the field and scores a goal. Everyone cheers. Red Grizzly (Tatanka Means), a fierce warrior, rides into the village, putting an end to the stickball game.[5] Wahlitits watches as Red Grizzly dismounts the appaloosa horse he rode in on. Red Grizzly seems agitated. Wahlitits quickly becomes distracted by the sight of Little Bird walking in the distance and walks off toward her.

[5] Stickball is a real game that Native American tribes have been playing for generations and continue to do so to this day. I honestly am not sure if the Nez Perce would have played this game, but I felt that it helped show how tough the Native warriors were, and demonstrated a piece of Native American culture that many tribes could recognize to this day.

Joseph walks through the village with Springtime when he notices a commotion surrounding Red Grizzly. He gives Springtime a concerned look before approaching the group. Red Grizzly announces that Yellow Hair has been killed by Sitting Bull.[6] Toohoolhoolzote doesn't believe it, but Red Grizzly tells him that he spoke with a Lakota warrior who saw the whole thing. Sitting Bull's warriors attacked Yellow Hair's village and killed every last man. Joseph asks Red Grizzly to keep the news to himself and not tell the villagers. Red Grizzly thinks people should know. Ollokot interrupts, telling Red Grizzly to do what he is told. Red Grizzly bites his tongue and leaves.

[6] While never physically seen in the series, the legendary leader of the Lakota people, Sitting Bull is heavily referenced throughout the series. It was his army that defeated Custer’s 7^th Cavalry at Little Bighorn.

Little Bird sits at the edge of the forest, staring up at the starry sky. Wahlitits sneaks up behind her. She jumps, realizes it's him and smiles. He takes her in his arms and tries to kiss her. She leans back, resisting. She tells him that if she's gone too long her mother will come looking for her. Wahlitits tells her to wait for her mother to fall asleep and meet him in one hour. She tries to get up, but he won't let her go. She looks deep into his eyes. They're clearly in love. She agrees to come back in one hour. Before she goes, Wahlitits puts a beautiful hand-crafted necklace in her hand. Little Bird smiles and heads back to the village.[7]

[7] Of all of the storylines that our primary Nez Perce characters have, Wahlitits and Little Bird’s relationship is the one that is the most fictional. Wahlitits was indeed a young man in the tribe, and Eagle Robe was his father. He had a young wife at the time this story takes place, but I decided to explore young love and how a young man in a tribe like this would go about courting a young woman he wanted to be with. Unlike most of the characters, Little Bird is not directly based on any one historical figure.

Joseph enters his tipi to find Springtime climbing into bed. She asks him what the commotion was about. He tells her not to worry about it, Red Grizzly's just agitated with wild stories. Joseph and Springtime talks about packing up the village in the morning to leave the area for the winter.

Little Bird is wide awake listening to her mother snore. She finally gets the courage to stand up and leave. Her mother's snoring suddenly stops, and she asks where Little Bird is going. Little Bird says she thinks she heard something, but her mother tells her to go to sleep.

Wahlitits, after waiting for well more than an hour realizes Little Bird will not be returning that evening. As he starts walking back toward the village he hears voices ahead. Red Grizzly is talking to some of the other warriors, calling Joseph an idiot for not wanting to fight. Wahlitits steps on a branch, once again making his presence known. Red Grizzly offers Wahlitits a drink of whiskey from a bottle a white man gave him.[8]

[8] Similar to Little Bird, Red Grizzly is not based on any one figure, but is actually a combination of several young Nez Perce warriors who were often at odds with the guidance of tribal leaders like Chief Joseph or his brother Ollokot.

The next day, the Nez Perce tribe is on the move, heading home. 800 men, women and children comprise a convoy, stretching for miles, with broken-down tipis, horses, mules, and other livestock. Joseph and Ollokot are in the lead. Springtime and Fairland ride together and talk. Wahlitits glances back at Little Bird. She's wearing the necklace he gave her. He smiles. The tribe comes over a hill, revealing a distant ridge that marks their homeland. Toohoolhoolzote is the first to announce that they've made it home to Wallowa. The tribe cheers. Warriors begin to ride ahead, but they stop when they reach the ridge. Joseph can tell something is wrong, so he and Ollokot ride to catch up. When they reach the ridge they stare down at the valley below, their faces tightening with concern. They cautiously lead the tribe into the valley. Wallowa is overrun with white settlers and miners. While the Nez Perce tribe was away, an entire community sprang up in their absence.[9]

[9]  I actually grew up just a few hours away from the Wallowa valley, and consider this story, of Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce, to be one of the most important and significant historical events of the Pacific Northwest.

General Oliver O. Howard (Matthew Rhys), a one-armed Civil War veteran stares out the window of a horse-drawn carriage that whisks him down the streets of Washington, D.C. Newspaper stands nearby show papers with giant bold headlines that read: MASSACRE AT LITTLE BIG HORN.[10]

[10] General Howard was a real man, who really did have only one arm at this time, having lost it during the Battle of Fair Oaks (which will later see depicted in the episode “Wounds”). At one point, early in development, I considered making Howard the primary figure of the series, but I honestly just had a lot more fun exploring the Nez Perce side of the events. Similarly, General Sherman, who is about to make his appearance, was also slated to be a much bigger role, but the shift in focus left him as a recurring presence.

Howard is brought into the office of General William T. Sherman (Ray McKinnon). Sherman asks Howard what he knows about the Nez Perce Indians. Howard says they're not hostile, they're the ones that kept Lewis and Clark from starving to death on their expedition to the Pacific.[11] Sherman motions to a file and tells him about the Whitman massacre - men, women and children brutally murdered with pipe tomahawks. Howard says that incident was over thirty years ago. Sherman replies by asking how long ago Lewis and Clark ran into their trouble...[12]

[11] At the end of the pilot, we teased Lewis and Clark having met the Nez Perce on their journey to the Pacific. This indeed happened, and was originally going to be a bigger, more drawn out event throughout the first season. Part of me wishes I would have brought Lewis and Clark back again after that, but there were just too many other moving pieces to focus on some other historical event once the plot of the series really got going.

[12]  Hopefully you found this look back at the pilot episode of “Nez Perce” interesting or at least insightful. I imagine the series is what I will always be known most for, and honestly, I’m more than okay with that. I think my work on "Nez Perce" is probably the best writing I've ever done. I will probably do more of these for some of the series’ other 19 episodes, so look for that in the future – and thanks for tuning in.