‘Marshals’ Actor Mo Brings Lots of Indigenous Stories to ‘Yellowstone’ Spin-Off

The Marshals the network’s first TV series to expand Yellowstone Canon, airs new episodes every week on CBS on Sundays, and airs the day after Paramount Plus. The show follows Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), who aims to start a new life by joining the US Marshals. He may be driven to bring justice to his hometown, but the demons of his past haunt him as he moves forward with this new endeavor.

Grimes is one of the few familiar faces to the audience, having starred in Taylor Sheridan’s hit series. Bringing together the universe of the story under the framework of the weekly crime procedural are Native American actors Gil Birmingham, who plays the role of Chief Thomas Rainwater; Mo Brings Plenty, starring his right-hand man, Mo; and Brecken Merrill, who plays Kayce, Tate Dutton.

Throughout the first few episodes, the sad narrative about the people of the Broken Rock reservation — polluted water on their land, and a mining company seeking access to that land — added familiar elements to the series. This conflict serves as a bridge to the Yellowstone story and moves things forward to a higher point.

What do I mean by that? However, instead of waxing poetic about what I think this fictional story might represent for those who live on the reservation, I have seen it firsthand from someone with a strong connection to Yellowstone, the Marshalls and Native American heritage: Mo Brings Plenty.

Mo is part of the Oglala Lakota Nation and served as the American Indian affairs coordinator in Yellowstone — a role he continues today with the Marshalls. He joined me on Zoom to discuss the series, how it relates to the real challenges his community faces every day and why Native representation is important — even if it’s on CBS programming.

How has the relationship between Mo, Rainwater and Kayce Dutton evolved from the beginning of Yellowstone to where we are now? Is it safe to say that they are all pretty much, verbally or not, on the same page in how they view this conflict?
Bringing in a Lot: The relationship between the Duttons and the reservation goes back to 1883. Kayce married a woman from the Broken Rock Reservation. That was Monica. In that marriage, and they had a child together, and now, since Monica is gone because of her passing due to cancer, Kayce feels that he has to step in and fill that void now for his son. So our relationship and relationship has become even stronger, especially since Rainwater found Kayce, taking him as a brother.

Mo and Casey have always been seen as heroes. So they always had that brotherhood. They have an unspoken language, and they know it. Kayce is still running his cattle in East camp. And then, when it comes to water, there was a scene where Rainwater stood for a moment on Kayce’s porch, was given water, and said, “One day that will be worse than moonlight.” I think it was just about the protection, again, of an important resource that everyone and life needs.

Let’s talk about water. The conflict between the Broken Rock reservation and the mining company is endless. And all of this is happening while people are getting sick and dying from chemicals in drinking water. How does this story convey the struggle and reality of life in res?
It Brings More: What it means is this: There are already health problems on the reservation, and our health care system is overwhelmed. We do not have services that help us prevent. Everything is OK. We have an ER room that’s always open, so it’s always following the truth. It is an environmental issue that affects us as humans.

We, like the reservation, get federal funding, but you are only given so many dollars a year, and what you do with those dollars is important, and they count. If you have other health problems that affect people, like drinking water, how are we going to get another source of water? How can another source provide people with good water? But we didn’t have the money to do that. And that’s why the disagreement happened, and why it’s something near and dear to Kayce’s heart and mind.

It’s no secret that Native and Indigenous stories are in short supply on network TV. Considering that Marshals is a CBS show, what do you want to bring to the series to honor Yellowstone and its legacy?
What I’m hoping to bring out is the fact that we’re a lot like other people in society, you know? And we have our property, our ups and downs. We are farmers. We are a big part of Western culture as well. I have a farm right now, and we have cows and horses. When people think of a cowboy, they rarely think of anything but a Caucasian. But you know, we come in all different shapes, sizes and races. I grew up on the reservation, and worked as a ranch hand, rode horses all my life and thought I could ride and be a rodeo cowboy, too. We are still part of that.

From that point of view, what do you hope CBS audiences will take away from the story of Broken Rock within the Marshalls?
The Broken Rock Reservation is an established reservation, but we have incorporated many traditions into it. Not all nations speak the same language, not all nations do the same thing. Our celebrations are different. Our processes of grief and loss are different. And for me, I wear two braids every day of my life because that is part of my personality, and it is a way of honoring the living, which we call women: our mothers, our grandmothers and our sisters. So you have many different nationalities in this country, and we all do things differently. Very few things are universal.

Like water.
That’s right, sure. That’s where he comes back. It’s a big deal to me because we’re taxpayers, too. We pay taxes like everyone else, so these are different [government] departments should be able to step up and do something for us, help us when we need it.