Getting Representation Right with Mo Brings Plenty

Welcome back to the Official Yellowstone Podcast. I'm Jefferson White. I'm joined as always by Jen Landon. We've got a great conversation for you today, and a little later we have an amazing guest for you today. I am so excited for this conversation. This is a conversation that's gonna span Yellowstone nineteen twenty three, eighteen eighty three from a perspective that you haven't heard yet. We're going to talk to Moe Brings plenty right after this.

Hey, guys, we want to welcome you back to the Official Yellowstone Podcast. I'm Jen Landon, and we missed everybody.

It's been too long. Yeah, we've had a few weeks off. We haven't recorded for a couple of weeks. And also, I'm gonna be really honest with you, there hasn't been an episode of Yellowstone.

Oh.

I know the extended Yellowstone universe for going on a couple of weeks now, and it feels like an eternity. I feel incredibly I feel like the beautiful world of Montana, the American West, this sort of fantasy that I live for every week. In the absence of it, I feel a little depressed.

Yeah, I you know, nineteen twenty three might be actually like my first experience with true obsession with one of these shows. I obviously love all of the shows. It's hard for me to watch myself as an actor, so I don't run to the Yellowstone, you know, right when it airs, because I have to take some anti anxiety meds beforehand. But nineteen twenty three, without that airing, I am feeling incredibly I'm not settled, I'm not happy. I'm

Yeah, it's going to be a while, but thankfully we have each other. And it sounds like, you know, you've been exploring at least one coping mechanism, which is that you went on a trip. Will you tell me about your trip, your own little odyssey?

Yeah, I mean, you're right, I have been coping. I ran all the way to Europe. I went to London, and I went to Paris, and I got to practice my French, which is really rad. Apparently, I feel like half the time the Parisians were like, you just speak English and don't ruin our language.

Thank you.

Oh but no, actually, Parisians are so nice. And I have to tell you I vaguely remember that when I was little that like them being very all like up their own ass. They are so kind, which means that the people of la have become so horrible that they make regions look sweet. Our producer is laughing, because our producer is laughing because he is from l A or lived in l at somebody, and like he has moved

He won't do it.

He refuses to do it, and he has he make sure any this is a nicely flattering description of him, so maybe he'll leave it in the edit. Gen I would be remiss on behalf of our audience if I did not ask you to A speak a little French and B speak a little French in a teeter voice.

Okay, I mean Francis Francis laxandle frances Canadian perscu gebidi quebec quebe Okay.

I just want you guys out there to understand that that that's the actor that you know as Teeter on Yellowstone. I don't know how to speak beautiful French.

Uh.

I had a teacher tell me that they preferred me when I spoke French, that I was this like sweet, lovely thing, and then when I spoke English, I was an obnoxious, horrible person, which I think is true. And I speak French in a Teeter hold long, how long? Go be a fucking second? Oh yeah, bonjour tie for I know, I go fuck you?

What?

I thank you?

You?

French? Like her, it goes full circle and it's.

From your lips to Taylor Sheridan's ears god Willing. Season five be of Yellowstone the second half of season five.

Not season five, But if we go to season seventeen, storylines might have to get real weird.

French cowboys show up to compete in a rodeo and Teter speaks fluent furniture and listen, and you know, we're putting it out there just so them.

While we're on this theme, I'm thinking French Yellowstone, right, Like in our show what We've Decided, people are shot and beat up all the time, like that's just what happens. And in the French version. They just slap each other. They challenge each other to a glove duel. They just slap it.

You slap.

I think this is I think this is money print it me too, print it, Jen, That's incredible. I'm also so so glad you're back. I missed you very much selfishly, while you were on your beautiful journey of self discovery across Europe. I was sitting alone in my basement with this podcast microphone, just waiting for you to log back in.

Lies Jefferson.

No, that's that's that's all I did. I've been here. I've been here for the the what like two hundred and fifty six hours intervening.

I had serious fomo because I wasn't sure if you guys were recording a bunch of things without me.

So we did. We recorded six or seven episodes, and then Scott. Scott realized that how incredibly boring it was. He said something to me about I think his exact words were, your voice is so annoying and we cannot use any.

One's even gonna believe that because look at the Apple. I don't want to exclude Spotify, whatever wherever you get your podcasts. The people we always say at the end. But the reviews I can only read on Apple and all of all of the reviews, Jeff, talk about your beautiful voice, Jed.

It is as always a joy to talk to you. But we've got an audience out there who is as hungry for Yellowstone as we are. They miss it the same way we do. So for them, I feel very, very happy to say that we've got an incredible guest today. We're going to dive into all things Yellowstone eighteen eighty three, nineteen twenty three with a man with an incredible unique perspective on the whole thing. We've got Mo brings plenty with us today. Thank you for being here.

Mo, it's a great honor to always be to spend time with you guys. It's awesome.

I just want to like paint a picture a little bit for the listeners. So we are talking to Mo right now, and Mo is pulled over in his truck with his sweetie Sarah, and and you are on. Tell me a little bit. You started, tell me you are on your way to Texas to pick up horses.

Yeah, I'm going to go to Texas And we're doing a little bit with past reeveson and then I'm going to pick load up our horses, hook our trailer up, and then get them back to Kansas.

That's some cowboys shit right there. So that is really a perfect illustration for the audience that Moe is the real deal. Mo really lives this life. He's been ranch rodeoing for a long long time. We had a chance to talk about that last year, Mo. But for folks who are just joining us now, also, Yellowstone's audience gets

I was born and raised on I was born on a pinergen In reservation in South Dakota, but I like to say that I was raised in Lakota Country because my mother, she's from Shine River, and we have relatives on a Rosebud reservation as well, so I spent time on all three reservations. I moved my travel enrollment over to the Shine River reservation that my mom's from because she's Mini.

Kosia la Quota.

My father's Oglala Lakota, and I spent a lot of time just growing up as a kid riding horses and started rodeoing. That was kind of my ticket way off to adventure out beyond the reservation border towns and got to meet some real amazing folks in the rodeo world and just fell in love with it and been still in love with it, wishing I was young again to be able to do some rough stock riding. But now I just ride green broke ponies at home.

So.

And try it and hope like heck, I don't get bucked off. And and because it's it's not the fall that gets you, it's that sudden stop. They call it a landing, but it's a sudden stop. That's that's the that's the part that gets to you and kind of sometimes takes the wind away from you.

So it feels like you can't breathe for a while.

Yeah, and you.

Hope, like when that happens, you hope, like heck that no one sees it, sees it, And so yeah, it's always embarrassing.

MO. I can't. I can speak for myself, and I am maybe gonna be able to speak for Jeff too. I don't know if either one of us like this is how you know we are leads. We are so far away from being real cowboys. Ever. I have not on off a horse, Jeff yet have.

You don't say it out loud, Jen, don't say it out loud.

We've been lucky, I understand, but I feel like it's this thing that it like it's it's gotta happen, right Mo.

Of course it has to. That's that's when you can really say, Okay, I'm a horseback rider.

You're supposed to have that experience when you're a kid. You're supposed to have those experiences when you're young. On the show, they say, when you've got rubber bones, Jen, we are too old to fall off a horse for the first time.

Actually, no, you're not too old, because that happened to me not long ago, and so it still happens. I for some reason, my mind hasn't caught up to my body yet. I still think I'm sixteen. I still think I'm invincible. I still think I can do all of these things. But when it comes down to it, I you know, I know, it hits the fan and I'm thinking, oh my god, what am I doing to myself?

So for anybody that doesn't know Moe also serves as the consultant and coordinator on nineteen twenty three for American Indian Affairs. So you're very involved in the teaching of that history, and in nineteen twenty three particularly, we're seeing an incredibly painful, a sort of very ugly chapter of that history. Will you talk about how you came to be involved as the coordinator and sort of in your capacity?

Now, you know, I really honestly owe everything of where I'm at today to the Sheridan family, to Taylor and Nicole. You know, it's Taylor's created has this space, and he allowed me to occupy the space and be me. And in the past that's that's was never welcoming. But Taylor's changed that, and again I owe it all to him. And so I looked at nineteen twenty three and I knew what it was going to be about as I

But I thought, we have to do this.

I have to be a part of this because it is necessary. It is necessary because society has almost forgotten that where we as American Indian people that have been through that and experienced it, whether it's through loved ones ourselves, we can't forget about that. And so the more that society understands the treatment of our what what had happened to us as the people, then maybe they will begin to understand who we are and it will also begin

I wept. I wept, and and.

Then I just have to look around and see the the crew, Thank goodness, they're so amazing, and see them and just be like, Okay, yeah, we're just doing a show.

But for me, it's not just a show. It's it was our lives. And and so I just had to get.

Back around the good, amazing crew that we're so fortunate to work with and share some laughs again and get back into that into that space and go back even our background, our young little children that were off the reservations. Wow, they they nailed it and it felt good and we just became a family unit, you know, with all with each other and supportive. We're all from different tribes, but we all been through this and and so it was even the folks that played the nuns the priest.

I mean, you know.

That For me, when I meet people today, that's why I wear my braids every single day. You know, when I meet them, I remember and I know, but I meet them with the smile and I shake their hands. I acknowledge them, but I acknowledge them and introduced myself with my own language, just kind of a way to say, yeah, we've been through that, but we're still here, and here we are together.

What can we do together?

Put our minds together, work together, no longer judge one another, but work together to make a better future, a better tomorrow for all people.

I gotta say, mo, I think I speak for myself. I'm sure I speak for much of our audience too. I also, in watching those scenes in nineteen twenty three, it makes me weep. It's an incredibly painful history to confront. And I have no doubt that the burden of showing that history and carrying that history is a very heavy burden. But I hope that you know I have been I have to admit a very naive throughout my life about

I don't know why this made me think of, like, Mo, you look amazing. It was the critics' choice of wards just recently, right, Is this where Golden Globes got?

You know?

I keep up to date guys with the award shows. Either way, whicheverone was giving out awards, you looked amazing. Thank you very much, amazing.

Well, I was there on behalf of all of us, and I was there honestly, when I was backstage, I was thinking about all them young kids, that them young boys that are growing their hair long and try to represent their culture and that are going through their struggles and doubts. I was thinking, you know, I hope they're watching this so they can see that it's gonna be okay.

That's awesome.

It also feels like where we left off. Where we left off, this season also feels like there's kind of new and intro sting threats on the reservation. Particularly, it feels like Angela Blue Thunder, who I must say Moe was wary of from the very beginning. I feel like Moe was warning Rainwater about Angela Blue Thunder before we ever met that character. So I think that, you know, Moe was right about that one. Because Angela Blue Thunder has really turned on Rainwater and now there's this young

So glad that that has been brought up into the show. Because it is something that does happen, truthfully, every single day in Indian country on reservations, and so yeah, I'm really excited and anxious too to see what's gonna happen.

Been real because then.

The first thought that came to my mind was, well, I got a sidle up zarrow and get ready drags more folks. But you know that may not be the answer here, and so you know, but it's it's like, it's it's gonna be really exciting to see how this all unfolds. And I'm just pumped about it. Honestly, It's gonna be something that it's a legitimate deal. We see it all the time, and so now we get to expose this to society and see how it's gonna unfold for everyone.

Yeah, that incredible. I also I feel like I should mention in season four of Yellowstone, as Casey kind of goes on this personal spiritual journey, he turns to mow and turns to rain water for guidance in that spiritual journey, will you talk about the process of as as that was showing up in the script. Were you working alongside Tailor in terms of what that journey looked like? What would you talk a little bit about what Casey was doing in season four?

Okay, look, first of all, we're gonna be talking about Taylor Sheridan.

Taylor Sheridan is such a he's such a history buff. I mean, he he does his homework.

And and second of all, Taylor Sheridan has been with my people. He's been through these ceremonies, He's been, you know, a part of them, helping, and so he knows and so Taylor knows quite a bit about about our culture and so well, I didn't have to work.

With him in that.

All I had to do was simply put it together in a way that it would show society, show the viewers that we still do do this in our in these days and and and and help them to understand it, and then also set it up in a way that it's going to protect the original steps of the ceremony itself. We left we left a lot of things out, and we left songs out that are a part of that. And and even in setting it up, there was clear

And so that's what that.

Setting, that that scene was really primarily about. Casey's a strong individual and and and we all know the strength that he has and his abilities to push through and carry on and keep pressing on, I should say, And but he needed a moment to allow himself to be vulnerable within himself, and that's that scene gave him that space. That particular setting gave him that space to be vulnerable, and we saw what he went through.

Yeah, and it seems like he particularly needed that strength going into the tragedy he faces right at the beginning of season five, Like him and Monica really needed the sort of strength of that tradition and that history, and they leaned heavily on that strength and that sort of knowledge of self to navigate the tragedy that faced them at the beginning of season five together.

Now exactly, I mean when they lost their little one.

I mean, you know, I buried three of my own brothers when they were infants, and so that scene was very realistic for me. I mean even you know, again, we did some things that were not fully what we normally do, but we gave an idea of some of the steps in the processes that we go through and supporting individuals that lost loved ones, whether they're young or elderly, and the people that were present. And part of that was I mean the song, even the song. The song

Mo I have a question for you, and I'm sorry if I missed it when you talked about leaving certain things out making sure that what goes into the show is accurate and filled with integrity, but then leaving certain things out, is that for the protection of some of the processes, so that they can't be you know, abused or misappropriated.

Most definitely, I mean, unfortunately, there's a lot of like to say, spiritual predators out there, and so when they view something, they would take that and they would you know, included into their their their sales package and so and and use it on people that are that are truly in search of something in their own life, you know, and and part of their spiritual journey. And and so it's it's no different regardless if it's what faith, it is,

And so it's great, Mo.

Thank you so much again for joining us. We're going to keep this conversation going right after this.

I feel like you have this sort of wise teacher heart message that you carry in life, and I feel it from you even when you know you and I are just shooting the shit, like it's just something that you sort of kind of you just sort of give a gift to everybody that you come in contact with. And I feel like, am I wrong? It feel it does feel like a conscious choice on your part to move through the world that way.

You know, You're absolutely right, Jen, because it is about it's about educating, it's about teaching. It's about sharing, you know, because we're we as American Indian people were still you know, we can't change the past.

I know that.

I mean, we can't even change five seconds ago. And you know, but so I'm working towards educating people.

Why really it's re educating.

We have to re educate society about who we are, what we've become, what you know, where we're at, and the direction we would like to go as as a whole, and really life span about unity. It's about how do we unify one another, regardless of race, regardless of faith, you know, because it's there's so much segregation in society today.

It's not.

You know, there's a lot of beautiful things, and we have so much in common regardless of where we live with, regardless of what we're doing. What are you know what we love doing because we all share the same planet at the end of the day, and we have to preserve something for the generations that are yet to come, not just the children of today, but the generations.

That are yet to come.

And so I try to go through life, I always ask myself this question, if I had thirty seconds to address the entire world, what would I say? And knowing that those thirty seconds could impact the world and the people within it, and and so I always try to think in that aspect and and try to guide my life in that way as well, you know, because it is it's so important. I mean, you look at what we do on Yellowstone. It's not just entertainment, you know,

And it brings you know, it brings.

Laughter and and it has that feel good and so we we are always constantly educating and and so if we're not continuously learning ourselves. This is my grandfather, my grandfather, Philip brings plenty always said this, you will always be a student of life as long as you're willing to learn, and as when you're willing to learn, you're going to be able to teach others. And so other than that,

Just when you were talking there, I'd never seen the mof so I feel like you're doing that thing again where you're like you're changing me in this moment just talking to you. You were talking about the ups and downs and that when you're stagnant, they call it flat line, and I just had this image of like a heart monitor that when there are no ups and downs, it's essentially you're just you're a little dead. You're a little bit like the walking dead. And I think that so much.

You have to, I mean, you know, that's where it's okay to make mistakes as long as we're learning, you know, and we will never know what we where we're at, where we're at, we will never know the growth of ourselves if we don't make a mistake. And and so it's fine to make mistakes as long as we understand and know, Okay, all right, I'm not gonna do that again, and so we continue to grow. I mean, it's just it's no different than riding a horse.

You know.

If you do something on a horse and that horse decides to break in two and buck you off, then you're gonna know, okay, I know, not to do that with that horse, because not every horse is the same, you know, and and so you have to Each horse has their own personality, and so you have to try to understand those personalities and coexist with them and work together with them, you know. And so that's why I love horses so much. They taught me.

So much in that I got I had like so many questions, but I'll start with the horse one and then move back. One of the things that I felt is that my life has been changed by working with horses more and I come, you know, I don't have that history. I'm wondering if there are certain things that you might be able to pinpoint that you see as a benefit from working with the animal, like the horse

Know, when it comes to horses. The point blank, I'm going to go to a cultural traditional teaching. Horses are the bridge between the physical and the spiritual. They are what we consider our physical angels. And not only in the physical life do they carry us and are they there for us? But also and when we make that transition in life into the next, they're the ones that are there. The greatest relationship that we've had with one particular horse, that horse will also make that transition to

And navigate a way through in that aspect.

And so that's all teachings from the horses.

I don't want to take too much of your time because you're out doing cowboy shit, and you know it'd be just I don't want to get in the way of that you mentioned earlier, a tenant that you live by, this idea that you want to be ready if anybody ever tells you, hey, you have thirty seconds to speak to the whole world. And I hate to put you on the spot because you've spent about forty minutes teaching us,

Thirty seconds? Life is not just about yourself.

Understand and know it's about the children and the generations to come.

And when we can fully.

Understand that, then we will understand and know that we have the power and the ability to preserve and care for.

The environment so we can pass it, pass on a healthy world to them.

And understand and know that diversity is not just about skin color. We have to embrace the cultural diversity. When we embrace cultural diversity, then we truly have the ability to acknowledge and embrace that the Creator is honestly perfect. If it's just about skin color but not culture, then we are doubting.

That the Creator is truly perfect? Is that thirty seconds?

That was amazing perfect? Thank you so much for spending this time with us today. Thank you for your friendship. Yeah, thanks for pulling over on the highway on your way now pick up a horse. Believe me, Yellowstone fans would not want you to slow down. Yellowstone fans are grateful that you're out there getting these shows made. Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us, Moe. Thank you for everything you do to bring the Yellowstone Universe to life. Talk to you real soon.

Thank you, guys.

The Official Yellowstone Podcast is a production of one oh one Studios and Paramount. This episode was produced by Scott Stone. Brandon Goetchis is the head of Audio for one oh one Studios. Steve Rasis is the executive vice president of the Paramount Global Podcast Group. Special thanks to Megan Marcus, Jeremy Westfall, Ainsley Rosito, Andrew Sarnow, Jason Red and Whitney Baxter from Paramount, and of course David Glasser, David Huckin and Michelle Newman from one oh one Studios