Half a century after Oklahoma-born and bred novelist Tony Hillerman introduced his Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, the trailblazing characters are finally stepping off the page and into people's living rooms.
It's not the first time the beloved fictional police officers have been adapted to film or television, but fans and creators hope this time will be bigger, more lasting and more authentic.
It's taken the superstar executive-producing power of film icon Robert Redford and "Game of Thrones" mastermind George R.R. Martin to bring the Native noir thriller "Dark Winds" to AMC and its AMC+ streaming service.
ButChickasaw Nation citizen and Ardmore native Graham Rolandis credited as the anticipated series' creator. Since 2019, he has been working with Redford, Martin and Cheyenne-Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre (best known for the 1998 film "Smoke Signals") to get Hillerman's beloved cops on the case.
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"Those three names alone got me to open up the book, and I really, really was taken with Tony's writing and how immersive it was and the sense of time and the sense of place. It was clear that he'd done a lot of research and spent a lot of time in the Diné, (or) Navajo, community," said Roland, also a writer and executive producer on the series.
"A lot of the stuff that I'd grown up with that took place in the Native world, you always had the white character bringing you into the world. Then, you were looking at the Native community or the people through the white character's eyes. And this was a Native character, and the story was through his point of view and this was the place where he was raised. ... The opportunity to have a Native American lead and tell the story through his point of view was really what sealed the deal for me."
"Dark Winds," which debuted June 12 with two episodes, is adapted from Hillerman's best-selling Leaphorn & Chee book series — the plot is loosely based on his 1978 novel "Listening Woman" — but the story of how the show came about is almost as twisty as the mysteries it depicts.
How did Oklahomawriter Tony Hillerman become known for Navajo mystery novels?
Born and raised in Sacred Heart — the Pottawatomie County hamlet known as "the cradle of Oklahoma Catholicism" — Hillerman started out as a journalist but went on to a career as a prolific author who published 37 original works between 1970 and 2006, including many bestsellers that continue to be read and adapted to the screen.
"He fundamentally changed the mystery genre, because when he published his first book in 1970, if you went to ... a good bookstore around Oklahoma City, you would find books with protagonists who are generally white males, or else cozy women in England having tea," said New Mexico author James McGrath Morris, who wrote the recent biography "Tony Hillerman: A Life."
"The idea of introducing two detectives of color set in a world that was non-Anglo — as we would say in the Southwest — was a surprisingly revolutionary move."
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Although Hillerman wasn't Native, he spent his formative years in Sacred Heart growing up and attending Catholic school with Potawatomi children. The University of Oklahoma graduate moved to New Mexico in 1952 to work for the wire service United Press (later United Press International).
"The idea of being white amongst non-whites wasn't a big deal to him ... so when he moved to New Mexico, that was one of the many pieces that led to his doing these 18 rather amazing novels about the Navajos," Morris said.
"But it's controversial still: There are Navajos who feel uncomfortable with what he did. But there are Navajos who still feel very happy that he did it. I talked for a day at an elementary school in the middle of the Navajo Nation, and one of the children was so excited to tell me that his grandmother in her hogan had a special shelf saved for Hillerman's books."
How did Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin become fans of Tony Hillerman?
Redford acquired the rights to Hillerman's books more than 30 years ago.
“I read my first Tony Hillerman novel in 1986 while filming in New Mexico and was immediately hooked," Redford said in a statement."Hillerman is a master storyteller, his writing is full of mystery and suspense, set amidst a background that blends traditional oral stories of Native American culture and landscape."
But even the Sundance Kid struggled to get the books to the big screen: The only film to be made was the 1991 direct-to-video dud "The Dark Wind," starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Chee and white actor Fred Ward as Leaphorn. The books found more success on television:They were adapted into three PBS "Mystery!" specials — 2002’s "Skinwalkers," 2003’s "Coyote Waits" and 2004’s "A Thief of Time," starring Oklahoma-born Cherokee actor Wes Studi and Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwe) actor Adam Beach — with Eyre directing two of them.
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It's hard to imagine a novelist whose works have been adapted into more epic television than "A Song of Ice and Fire" writer Martin, whom Redford and Eyre recruited to the "Dark Winds" project. Martin was a longtime friend of Hillerman, who died in 2008.
"“Tony Hillerman was one of the greats, as every mystery reader knows," Martin said in a statement. "Down here in the Southwest, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee are as iconic as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Philip Marloweand Travis McGee."
Who is starring in 'Dark Winds?'
One of the stars of the groundbreaking Oklahoma-made comedy series "Reservation Dogs," Lakota actor Zahn McClarnon, who also serves as an executive producer, stars as Leaphorn in "Dark Winds."
"I believe as Indigenous people we are in a new era of progress in TV and film representation," McClaron said in a statement.
Kiowa Gordon, who is Hualapai, plays Chee, while Jessica Matten, who is Red River Metis-Cree, co-stars as Sergeant Bernadette Manuelito, a latter edition to Hillerman's series. Noah Emmerich ("The Americans") and Rainn Wilson ("The Office") play supporting roles.
Previously a creator and executive producer on the Amazon series "Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” Roland again found himself adapting beloved book characters to a streaming series.
"(When) you take those characters that so many millions of people love, you're always cognizant and you want to stay true to the spirit of the character that the author created, even if you change some details along the way," Roland told The Oklahoman.
"We're in a time in TV for the last decade or so where you're given the budget and the resources that you would be given for a Hollywood film. So, it felt like you could do it and the bar could be very high."
Hillerman's daughter Anne Hillerman, a fellow writer who has taken over his Navajo series, also is an executive producer on "Dark Winds."
"She said, yes, we had changed some things, but she understood why, because it was a different medium. But she said, 'These are still the characters that my dad created,'" said Roland, who grew up dividing his time between Oklahoma and California.
What is 'Dark Winds' about?
After the two-episode premiere on June 12, one new episode will debut every Sunday on AMC, with AMC+ subscribers getting advance access to an additional episode each week, starting June 19. Season 1 will include six episodes.
Set at a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley, "Dark Winds" follows the tribal cops as they work to solve a series of seemingly unrelated crimes.
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Filmed in New Mexico, the series — like Hillerman's books — is set in the 1970s.
"Policing was so different. It's so much harder in many ways back then: You didn't have the forensic tools. You didn't have cellphones. We wanted to see these tribal police officers solving this case — and future cases — by the knowledge of their community and by the knowledge of the land and by their wits," Roland said.
"The 1970s was a very politically charged time across the board, but particularly for Native Americans. You had AIM (the American Indian Movement) and you had a lot of things going on. If we were to set the show in 2022, to try and go back 50 years and talk about that stuff would have been inorganic to the story we were telling."
Why is the timeright for 'Dark Winds?'
With Eyre directing, the first season of the $5 million-an-episode show filmed in three different sovereign nations, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Like Oklahoma's own Peabody Award-winning FX series "Reservation Dogs," which returns for its second season Aug. 3 on Hulu, and the Peacock show "Rutherford Falls," which is s for a June 16Season 2 debut, "Dark Winds" has Native people telling the stories.
"The vision was of an all-Native cast unless the character just happens to be white... and we had five Native writers, two of which were Navajo, in our writers' room," said Roland, who penned the first episode, "Monster Slayer."
"There's always been this kind of myth of 'Well, there's not enough Native actors. That's why we had to go hire a non-Native actor' or 'There's not enough Native writers out there.' We've proven that isn't true, I think, with this show — and 'Reservation Dogs' did the same thing. I don't think anyone can say that the talent pool isn't deep enough anymore to hire Natives, no matter what facet of your production."
In 2019, Roland got to meet some up-and-coming Native talents when he spoke at the Chickasaw Nation's Imanoli Creative Writers Conference in Ada.
"I met so many aspiring Native writers of all ages ... and it really made me realize there'sa lot of people scratching at the door," he said. "Hopefully, between our show and 'Rutherford Falls' and 'Reservation Dogs' and shows that are coming forward, the door will be open a little bit wider ... for new stories and new voices to come in after us."
As for if there will be more "Dark Winds" blowing in after Season 1, Martin has said, "Tony Hillerman wrote a lot of amazing books, and it is our dream to adapt as many of them as we can.”
