Ahead of SXSW, Sterlin Harjo reveals how his Oklahoma childhood shaped 'Reservation Dogs'

Sterlin Harjo has vivid memories of childhood Friday nights when he and his cousins would pile into their grandma's car, go to the local movie rental store, select a scary movie or two and drive from his hometown of Holdenville to her rural home in nearby Spaulding.

"She would always make grilled cheese sandwiches with commodity cheese — just the best and just the biggest grilled cheese sandwich ever. ... We would have candy and pop, and we would watch the scary movie. Then, halfway through the scary movie, we would hear like something scratching the window or like the door knocking, and we would look and it was always grandma," the Tulsa-based filmmaker and showrunner recalled at a recent Oklahoma City event.

"She would take her teeth out, and she would put her pantyhouse over her head. ... She would wear a black hat and a black dress and make crazy noises. And we would freak out — and she had the keys, so she would let herself in to chase us all over the house. That was every Friday night for a long time."

If that story sounds like the basis for an uproarious scene from Harjo's critically acclaimed series "Reservation Dogs," there's a good reason for that.

Harjo said every episode is his life and things he experienced. His grandma's house was where he heard about the Deer Lady and the little people, he recalled during an artist talk at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, where he received the “ArtNow 2023” Focus Award.

"The episode where Mabel, the grandma, is dying, is based on our grandma dying — the same grandma that scared us in the same house that she scared us. All of that is based on everything from my life, and it was just like 'Reservation Dogs' and these kids were the perfect vehicle to tell all the stories that I wanted to tell."

Although the trailblazing FX show ended in September with its Season 3 finale, "Reservation Dogs" continues to earn acclaim, including a Featured Session during this year's South by Southwest festival, which is March 8-16 in Austin, Texas, and a "Reservation Dogs" Day at IndigiPop X, slated for April 12-14 at OKC's First Americans Museum.

Who is participating in the 'Reservation Dogs' Featured Session at SXSW?

The SXSW Featured Session "FX’s Reservation Dogs: Indigenous Storytelling Without Bounds" is set for 2:30 p.m. March 9 at the Austin Convention Center.

Along with Harjo, the panel will feature "Reservation Dogs" stars Devery Jacobs, a Mohawk perfomer who recently acted in the Marvel Studios' series "Echo," and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, an Oji-Cree actor who has since appeared in the slasher comedy "Hell of Summer;" series writer-director Danis Goulet, a Cree/Metis filmmaker who helmed the episodes "Mabel," "Bussin'" and "Deer Lady;" and Kerry Swanson, CEO of Canada's Indigenous Screen Office, who is a member of Michipicoten First Nation with family ties to Chapleau Cree First Nation.

"I know the word 'groundbreaking' gets thrown around a lot, but … how important this show has been to Native representation, there has been nothing else like this," Goulet told The Oklahoman in a 2023 interview.

"The brilliant characters, they've been rendered with such specificity, with the comedy and the darkness all together in this container, I think, is what has been so appealing about the show for wide audiences. But for our communities, this show has meant everything."

Which 'Reservation Dogs' stars will join Sterlin Harjo at OKC's IndigiPop X?

"Reservation Dogs" — co-created and executive produced by Taika Waititi, an Oscar-winning New Zealand moviemaker who is of Maori ancestry, and Harjo, a longtime independent filmmaker who is Seminole and Muscogee — earned widespread critical acclaim and blazed new trails for Indigenous storytelling during its three-season run on Hulu.

The Peabody Award-winning "Reservation Dogs" was not only the first mainstream TV show on which every writer, director and series regular performer was Indigenous, but it was also the first full-time, scripted network television series to film entirely in Oklahoma.

With all the accolades, it's not surprising that Harjo was the first guest announced for this year's IndigiPop X, or Indigenous Pop Expo, set for April 12-14 at First Americans Museum. Billed as "the original Indigenous Comic Con," the event also will feature "Killers of the Flower Moon" star Yancey Red Corn, "Prey" producer Jhane Myers, "Wonder Woman" and "Dark Winds" actor and stuntman Eugene Brave Rock and more.

But April 13 will be "Reservation Dogs" Day at the event, with a panel featuring Harjo, fellow Oklahoman Lane Factor, Kaniehtiio Horn and more, along with a meet and greet including Mike Bone, Jon Proudstar, Nathalie StandingCloud, Richard Ray Whitman, Mekko Toretto, Georgie Growing Thunder, Lauren Summers and Dana Tiger.

How did Sterlin Harjo channel his Oklahoma childhood memories into 'Reservation Dogs?'

A coming-of-age comedy about four Native American teenagers growing up in the fictional rural community of Okern, Oklahoma, "Reservation Dogs" has been a particularly personal project for Harjo, who has made several independent feature films and documentaries.

"All of our older family, they're the best storytellers. And I was always like, 'Oh, I wish they would write this down. I wish they would have written these stories down. Why aren't you writing these down?' And then at a certain point, I realized, 'Oh, it's up to me to write them down,'" Harjo said at his recent OKC artist talk, which was attended by several of his relatives.

"But then I didn't know how to write them down. I was like, 'What do I do, write a book? I don't know.' Then, 'Reservation Dogs' was a way to put all those stories into something and write them down and let them exist — and keep existing."

The show's depictions of its tight-knit teen protagonists — Elora Danan Postoak (Jacobs), Bear Smallhill (Woon-A-Tai), Willie Jack Sampson (Paulina Alexis) and Cheese Williams (Factor) — wandering around their small town are based on his own memories as an adolescent with nothing to do traipsing around Holdenville.

When one of his dad's friends hooked the family up with a cable box, cinema became an influential part of the future filmmaker's life.

"It was around this time that movies like 'Stand by Me' and 'The Lost Boys' and 'Howard the Duck' were hot, and we were watching these movies like crazy. They definitely formed who I was," he recalled. "One of the first things that I watched was 'The Making of "Thriller."' And that was the first time I realized people made these things. ... It was the first behind the scenes I'd ever seen."

FX recently gave a pilot order to "The Sensitive Kind," a drama series that will be created and executive produced by Harjo, star and be executive produced by four-time Oscar winner and "Reservation Dogs" guest star Ethan Hawke and filmed in Tulsa.

With the success of "Reservation Dogs," Harjo has emerged as an in-demand director, writer, producer and showrunner, and at the OKC event, he talked about a slew of planned projects in addition to his Hawke reunion.

"I'm from Holdenville, Oklahoma, with — what? — 5,000 people. I'll always feel like that. I will always feel like a kid from there that doesn't deserve to be here. ... That is what makes me keep working,” Harjo said at the OKC event.

"I love being here in Oklahoma."

SXSW

• When: March 8-16.

• Where: Mostly in downtown Austin, Texas.

• Information: https://www.sxsw.com.

IndigiPop X

• When: April 12-14.

• Where: First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City.

• Information: https://www.facebook.com/indigipopx.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ahead of SXSW, Sterlin Harjo shares memories that made 'Reservation Dogs'