Dark Winds... a nice white version of a Navajo story

 

The story is a good detective/cop/crime story. 

But if you want to get any insight about the Navajo people, well, fugedababoutit.

You know, if you work with different cultures, the first thing you learn is that people think differently, and act differently, and even talk to one another at a different distant, and often precede the conversation with various phrases before you get to the subject at hand.

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Now, my work with the Navajo was limited to a couple months back in the 1970s while waiting for my African visa, so I am not an expert at the culture. But Navajo culture is very different from other Native American cultures (although there is some similarity with the Apache culture). Long explanation of why here.

When I worked there, the nurses told me that a lot of the stuff in anthropology books was lies, and the easiest way for me as a doc to learn about the cuture (including the atttitude toward sickness, the curing ceremonies, and death taboos) was the books of Tony Hillerman, who although white, had grown up with Potawanami culture (going to an Indian school in Oklahoma) so was more sensitive to the cultural nuances, and usually tried to explain it in his novels to the mainly white folk who would be reading them. 

So I thought that a modern remake of the stories would, like the previous versions, show the culture sympathetically, but better than those previous dramas.

Whoops. I was wrong.

The Chee/Leaphorn/Manuelito characters are there from his books, and Leaphorn resembles the character in the book, but the Chee and Manuelito characters are completely different. Chee is not a traditional person but a city Indian and FBI mole, and Manuelito is a cynical divorcee living alone, not the single daughter caring for her mother and her wayward sister and whose compassion is one reason she became a policewoman, to help the victims of crime.

In other words, in the new version, all the Indians act as if they could quickly morph into your favorite cop series.

There is some witch craft (white folks love films showing indian witch craft and magic... yes it exists but it is more subtle than is shown here: mostly psychological, but once in awhile real: think stealth poisoning and you get the idea).

But as a whole you don't get any idea about Navajo culture: except for a long side plot about a girl's puberty ceremony, which is not explained to you. I could only follow it because I worked with the Apache, and they have a similar ceremony.

But it has nothing to do with the plot.

The evil plot is the evil schools they were sent to.

Boarding schools were traumatic to children taken from their homes, but no one points out in many homes, there were problems of poverty and disease and child abuse from alcoholic parents and the alternative is what was done in South Africa: a policy of apartheid. And that didn't work out very well either, did it? 

Given the many many wrongs done to the Navajo people, believe me, the problem of the boarding schools was the least bad public policy.

But hey, it's Hollywood. Must be woke.

And they tried to be authentic: They even casted Native Americans to play the roles of the Navajos.

Well, okay. I mean, if we can have Mexican American Anthony Quinn play Zorba the Greek, or Tartar Russian Yul Brennar play the king of Siam, why not?

Well, the problem is that alas by doing what the producers thought was PC casting, they ignored the real nuances.

 I remember when Hollywood decided to make an authentic remake of the King and I, by taking out the music and casting an Asian actor as the King. Now, Lolo enjoyed the musical version (good story, and since it was a musical it was seen as a story, not as history). But after ten minutes of the PC remake Lolo said to turn it off, and when I asked why, he angrily said "Chinese".

And not just Chinese: From nothern China, where people are pale of skin and round faced and have little in common with the Hindu and Buddhist influenced culture of South East Asia, so Lolo saw it as fake and condenscending to the culture. 

The Navajo Times has a similar critique of the miniseries.

First problem: The actors got the language wrong:

One thing learned in the first episode is that if a non-Diné actor wants to depict a Navajo character, they need to have Navajo language lines down and support to do that.

 well, to defend the actors: the Navajo language is very difficult, both in grammar and in phonetics.  And you can compare and contrast the actors lame attempts to speak Navajo to the few times local actors actually speak the language to see the difference.

Navajo it is a tonal language, and even locals who speak English as a second language speak with a tonal accent.  But here, no one has such an accent. They all speak like midwesterners.

the NT goes on to note problems with the burial customs, the open talk of witchcraft, which is not something folks talk about (but hey, adding this to the plot will attract white new agers watching the show), and although families are shown as loving and helping one another, it misses the idea of the beauty of the culture, that stresses harmony and beauty in one's life.

It also misses the idea of clan as part of one's identity. It is not until the end of the last program that someone asks Officer Manuelito if Chee has asked about her clan. This would be in reference to the possibility of their dating in the future, due to taboos of incest of dating the same clan are strong. 

But maybe I missed it, but Chee wasn't asked about his clans early in the story, even though learning this would place him into where he fits into the community.

(sort of like how here in the rural Philippines I belong the exended family of my husband and am identified as such when I meet new folks).

In other words, the cops are not part of the fabric of clans and relationships, but just portrayed as individuals, just like white folk are in the USA. This is probably how it is in 2020, but back in 1971, which is about the same time I worked there, clan ties were still strong, so it doesn't quite ring true.

read the entire NT article for more complaints at the Hollywood cluelessness in detail.

However, as a purely crime drama,  I give it a four out of five stars.