Wednesday, February 17, 2021

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


Nez Perce - "Discovery"
Genre: Historical
Executive Producer: Scott Cooper
Writer: Dwight Gallo
Cast: Adam Beach, Matthew Rhys, Ray McKinnon, Gil Birmingham, Forrest Goodluck, Jay Tavares, Damon Herriman, Kevin McKidd, Gabriel Mann, Michael Horse, Michaela McManus, Duncan Ollerenshaw, Tanaya Beatty

Plot:
1805. William Clark (Kevin McKidd) and Meriwether Lewis (Gabriel Mann) and their Corps of Discovery are frozen and starving in the Bitterroot Mountains during their journey to the Pacific. Almost completely out of food, Clark takes six hunters and hurries ahead of the group to hunt. Young Nez Perce boys notice Clark and his hunters. They are frightened and hide in the tall prairie grass. Clark spots the grass moving and quietly walks toward them. When he discovers that they are children, he offers them each a ribbon as a friendly gesture. Clark and the hunters follow the boys to a Nez Perce village. They are then taken to meet Chief Twisted Hair (Michael Horse), one of the Nez Perce chiefs, who invites Clark and his men to stay for a meal. Clark sends one of the men back to grin Lewis and the rest of the part to set up camp near the village. [1]

[1] The Nez Perce tribe were indeed the ones who helped the Corps of Discovery as they struggled toward the Pacific Ocean. I felt like introducing some of the history of the tribe's interactions with the white people was important for context, but also just an interesting and entertaining way of opening the second episode.

1877. General Sherman (Ray McKinnon) stands in front of a map of the Wallowa Valley to show General Oliver O. Howard (Matthew Rhys). Sherman tells Howard that in 1863, a Nez Perce chief sold the entire Wallowa Valley to the U.S. government, but that now there is a contention among certain Indian groups regarding the legality of the sale. A compromise was reached and the valley was divided in half, with the western half opened for settlement while the eastern half went back to the non-treaty Nez Perce who refused to assimilate into civilized society. In that time roughly half of the Nez Perce Nation has adopted white man's ways. They go to school and church. They look to the future, while the other half, the non-treaty Indians, led by Chief Joseph, have clung on to the past. Sherman tells Howard that four years ago, President Grant reaffirmed that half of the Wallowa Valley is to be reserved specifically for the non-treaty Nez Perce, but that the order was officially overturned - this morning. Sherman sits back down and gives Howard his orders: to proceed directly to the Wallowa Valley and rendezvous with a Captain David Perry, then escort the Nez Perce tribe onto the neighboring reservation at Lapwai. Howard asks what to do if they refuse to be moved, and Sherman tells him to move them by force, by any means necessary. Howard asks if this is about Custer and Little Big Horn, or if it's actually about the gold that was discovered in the valley last winter. [2]

[2] Where the pilot episode was all about setting up the characters and the world, I really focused this episode on setting up the ultimate conflict of the series. The strong conflict, to me, is why the series seemed to resonate so well with audiences. In my opinion as a writer, without that conflict, the characters' actions have less meaning.


On the streets of Washington, D.C., Howard buys a newspaper. Everyone on the crowded street is reading about the massacre at Little Big Horn [3]. Howard runs into an old friend, Col. Nelson A. Miles (Damon Herriman), who offers to buy him a drink. At a tavern, Miles orders a shot of whiskey while Howard orders a cup of black coffee. They toast and drink. They talk about their time at West Point together. Howard tells Miles that he's being sent out to Wallowa to move the Nez Perce. Miles says the writing is on the wall. Little Big Horn has changed everything. Now the U.S. is going to hit the Indians full force.

[3] The background of Little Big Horn is a recurring theme throughout the series, as you may have noticed. From the opening scene of the series onward, the news and knowledge of the battle is important to characters on both sides of the conflict between the US military officers and the Nez Perce people. The Nez Perce, at some of them, view it as the hope of their triumph over adversity and the strength of their people as warriors. The US military, meanwhile, viewed it as a sign of the danger they faced against the Native people of the region.

Joseph (Adam Beach) watches as dozens of Nez Perce children, dressed in white man's clothing, pour out a school building in Lapwai, a town inhabited by miners and missionaries and Nez Perce Indians who have converted to Christianity and adopted white man's ways. The teacher, Rebecca Fuller (Michaela McManus), helps a Nez Perce student with his homework, when the doors opens. Joseph stands in the doorway, reluctant to approach. Rebecca sends the student home and looks at Joseph. Before she can say anything, Agent Robert Montieth (Duncan Ollerenshaw) bursts into the school house, announcing that Chief Joseph has been spotted in town. Rebecca motions to the side of the doorway, where Joseph stands. Montieth looks at Joseph, shocked. Joseph tells them that he means them no harm and that he will not stay long. Montieth is shocked that Joseph speaks English, albeit broken. Rebecca tells Montieth that she and Joseph attended school together in Lapwai, many years ago. Rebecca tells Montieth that she will be fine and that he can leave. Once Montieth has left, Rebecca gives Joseph a tender hug. [4]

[4] One of the more unique aspects of Chief Joseph's backstory is his father's conversion to Christianity during his childhood. This didn't last for long though as Joseph the Elder became more and more wary and concerned by how much land the white men wanted. This concern eventually led the Older Joseph to encourage his son to protect their ancestral lands, amounting to 7.7 million acres of land, before his death.

In the Nez Perce village, Wahlitits (Forrest Goodluck) comes out of his tipi, walking at a brisk pace. His father Eagle Robe (Jay Tavares) stops him in his tracks, asking him who is going to see. Wahlitits says nobody, but Eagle Robe knows he is going off to see Little Bird. Eagle Robe urges his son to be careful as Little Bird has promised to another man, but that he won't stop his son from being with the woman he loves. Wahlitits smiles and quickly leaves. Eagle Robe watches him disappear into the woods, then get back to work. [5]

[5] The scenes between Wahlitits and his father Eagle Robe were always fun to write. For those who have watched the entire series, you know they don't have too many scenes together, but I really wanted to show Wahlitits become conflicted between the strong moral compass his father is trying to instill in him, and how the world around them makes it difficult for him to accept this way of thinking.

Joseph and Rebecca sit in the school house. He tells her that the white men have come before, but never this many. And there are soldiers too. All of them over the land granted to them by the great chief in Washington. He asks her why they are here. She hesitates, then takes something out of her desk drawer and sets it on the table with a soft thud. Joseph looks down at a small gold nugget. He picks it up and asks if it is the same rock they found in the back hills [6]. Rebecca slowly nods. Joseph asks if what Red Grizzly says about Yellow Hair is true. Rebecca says it is. Joseph asks her if the white men know the difference between Lakota and Nez Perce. She tells him that some do, but many don't, and urges Joseph to be careful.

[6] For a long time, the Nez Perce were willing to accept the slow influx of white people to the area around and on their ancestral lands, but once gold was found the region started booming. All of a sudden the government wanted a piece of the action too, being reminded that they had already acquired most of the land in question through a previous (shady) land deal with a chief who was later removed from tribal leadership.

1805. By the time Lewis and the rest of the Corps of Discovery make it to the Nez Perce village, Clark has already made friends with Twisted Hair and has started to gather maps and geographic information from the Indians about the route further west. Twisted Hair introduces Clark to his daughter Winter Moon (Tanaya Beatty). She takes Clark by the hand and leads him into a tipi where the two have sex [7]. With the Corps of Discovery's horse all in poor health, Lewis makes a deal with the Nez Perce for younger, healthier horses, giving the tribe guns and tobacco in return. Over the next couple of days, the Corps live among the Nez Perce, resting and building five dugout canoes to use once they reach the Columbia River, their gateway to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark thank Twisted Hair and the Nez Perce tribe for their hospitality and bid them farewell, hoping to cross their paths again on their return trip. [8]

[7] William Clark had a son with a Nez Perce woman who was actually later captured during the Nez Perce Wars depicted in this series. He probably did not father the child on this visit to the village based on the timeline, so it is most likely that William Clark returned to the Nez Perce village to have relations with this woman. In reality, the woman was a sister of one of the chiefs at the time, but I made her the chief's daughter for simplicity sake, and to show some of the customary generosity they regularly showed travelers, be it white or from another tribe. There is very little information about William Clark's Nez Perce son, who took his father's name of Clark. A photograph of Clark was recorded in 1966, and his name was listed as one of those captured in 1977 by the US military. I chose not to include him as a character due to the lack of information about his, so this sequence was my nod to it.

[8] And that's the end of "Discovery", the second episode of "Nez Perce" and the second episode I've done a commentary for. I don't plan on doing a commentary for every single episode, as I imagine and worry my insights could become highly repetitive, but I do plan on doing a handful of episodes from each season if the opportunity continues to be provided. See everybody soon!


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