Not all origin stories are lighthearted on Reservation Dogs. In “Deer Lady,” Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) finds help from an urban legend, triggering her memories about her youth.
Bear missed the bus in Amarillo, with no money and a dead phone, and is forced to walk home. He was temporarily saved by an old man named Maxiumus (Graham Greene) with ties to Okern. Bear is alone again, with very little food and some sense of direction.
The legend of the Deer Lady , or Deer Woman spans across North American tribes. She is an attractive woman who preys on bad people. Some say she has hooves for feet. If you meet her, then you’re probably a bad person. This version of Deer Lady (Kaniehtiio Horn) searches for the bad and looks out for the good. In a way, she maintains the balance between good and evil. Seeing as how the world is so messed up, it’s safe to say that Deer Lady has been pretty busy.
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We catch up with Deer Lady as she stops at a gas station to clean up a bit. While cleaning her weapon, it breaks. No big deal. She goes about her day, stopping at a diner for some pie. While she travels, she remembers her youth. As a young girl, Deer Lady (Georgeanne Growingthunder) was taken from her home and sent to a boarding school run by the church. The nuns all talk in a strange language that sounds like gibberish. The first thing the nuns do is cut off the children’s hair. If you know Native people, you know our hair is sacred.
It was common for boarding school to make the kids wear uniforms, give them Christian names, and force them to speak English. If they were caught speaking their Native languages, the kids were punished. Deer Lady remembers the first time she was punished. The children were being fed and the food was unfamiliar to Deer Lady. She asked another student what it was, but in her Native language. The nuns started yelling and immediately ran to her side. One of the nuns pushed the girl’s face into the plate of food as punishment. All of the kids were forced to sleep in the same room at the same time as nuns roamed the halls.
The girl made a friend who told her how things are at the school. The boy (Michael Podemski) spoke the same language as she did. This boy said his family is dead so he doesn’t have a home anymore. He also said that no one leaves unless it’s to go to the cemetery. Seeing how scared his new friend was, he reminded her to smile. They can’t stop you from smiling. They are interrupted by nuns approaching their room. The kids pretend to sleep while the nuns wake another boy and take him away. The nuns take the boy to a room where someone yells at the boy and hits him. We hear someone hit the boy and he screams.
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Deer Lady watches Bear approach the diner. She stares at him, recognizing him. Bear asks the man at the register for a phone charger. He doesn’t have any money so the man can’t help him. Bear then asks the waitress for some water and sits down to rest. Deer Lady whispers to him, asking him to sit with her. He does so, not knowing who she is. Bear introduces himself, but the lady already knows who he is. The pie arrives, so they ask for another plate and fork.
Deer Lady asks Bear if he’s a good man. He says he tries to be. She looks at him suspiciously. She says if he’s crossing paths with her, then there is a reason. Bear just stares at her curiously.Deer Lady picks up a book she brought and purposefully drops it on the floor in front of her feet. Bear bends down to pick it up and gets scared when he sees her hooves. When he sits up, he asks if she’s there to kill him. She says he reminds her of a boy she once knew.
One night, during inspection, the boy signed to her to not look the nuns in the eyes when they walk by her. She tries, but one of the nuns forces her to look. The nun slaps her in return. The next day, the nuns talk to a young man named James Minor (Alex Mortensen) while the kids work in the garden. Sister Jenson (Haley Sims) says Minor has a lot of experience dealing with savages. The young boy tells the girl to stay away from Minor. He’s a human wolf. The girl turns around and sees men digging a hole in the graveyard. Later, the children sit in church singing, “Jesus Loves Me,” but the girl can only think about the gravediggers.
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Back at the diner, Bear doesn’t really eat. He just stares at Deer Lady. He asks if her feet are real and that amuses Deer Lady. She asks if he’s heard about her. Bear admits he thought she was just a story to keep Uncles in line. She says some Uncles need more than a story to keep them in line. Bear asks if she kills women as well. She admits that she has killed some bad women. Deer Lady asks Bear if he’s lost and he kind of is. She offers to take him home, but they have to make one stop.
The stop is at James Minor Ranch. When they stop, Deer Lady tells Bear to stay in the car. He asks if she’s going to kill him. She tells him to relax and listen to the radio. Bear finds a car charger and plugs in his phone. Deer Lady approaches the front door. She starts breathing heavily and knocks on the door. A tear runs down her cheek as an old man answers the door. It’s an older James Minor (John Getz). He lets her in the house and starts talking. It’s been a while since he’s had visitors. Minor offers her some water and goes to the kitchen to get her a glass. Deer Lady freezes at the door and slowly enters the house with tears in her eyes.
The girl woke up one night to see a nun approaching her friend’s bed. He starts yelling, refusing to go with them. The nun has to drag him by his feet to the door where another nun waits to help her. She got out of bed and followed them.
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Bear’s phone finally powers up enough to turn on. He gets several notifications and messages from everyone back home. Bear unplugs his phone and calls Rita (Sarah Podemski). He immediately starts apologizing, saying he for real got lost this time. He promises to explain everything when he gets home.
Old man Minor sits the water on the table for Deer Lady and then sits at the kitchen table. He’s going through a bunch of old photos, remembering his life. Deer Lady slowly approaches him.
The boy kicked and screamed all the way down the hall into a room where young man Minor was waiting for him. When the nun shut the door, she turned around to find the girl staring at her. The nun started yelling at the girl and walked toward her. The young girl pushed a cart of dishes at the nun and ran away, out the door of the boarding school. Sister Jenson ran after the girl into the woods, yelling at her. The girl fell and begged for someone to help her. When the girl looked up, a doe, with glowing red eyes, was standing before her.
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The doe asked the girl who she was running from. She says she’s running from all of them and that place. The doe says she can help her run fast, but she needs to agree to let her help. The young girl agrees and the doe tells her to get close to her. We hear the girl squeal as a light flashes in the woods. Two men from the church went into the woods to find Sister Jenson and the girl. It’s getting late and they are both sure the Indian girl is dead. They both stop dead in their tracks. The body of Sister Jenson lies next to a tree.
Deer Lady takes a drink of the water while Minor continues to talk. She walks closer to him slowly. She thinks of her friend that Minor took that night. Deer Lady pulls out her weapon and stabs Minor in the back, five times. When she gets outside, Deer Lady is breathing heavily. She starts to walk back to the truck calming down. She starts to smile and returns to her cool demeanor. Bear asks if she’s okay and she is. They leave as we see Minor’s body lying next to a picture of Deer Lady as a young girl and the other children at the boarding school.
Deer Lady and Bear make it to Okern. When they stop, Bear shakes her hand and thanks her. Before he gets out of the car, he asks if she killed someone at that house. She says she killed a human wolf. Deer Lady says Bear will be okay and not to worry about becoming a man like his dad. His mom made sure that wouldn’t happen. And finally, she tells Bear to smile. They can’t stop you from smiling.
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Mekko (Funny Bone) and Mose (Lil Mike) ride up and comment on how good looking the woman in the truck is. Bear tells them that it’s Deer Lady and the only thing they can think is that they should have given her their CD. Mekko warns Bear about the butt-whooping he’s about to get. Mose advises him to put everything in his back pocket. Bear bids them farewell and heads home.
Deer Lady drives away and remembers one night she sat up talking to her friend. He said he wanted to go fishing and asked if she would go with him. The girl said yes and they started planning. Deer Lady turns down a dirt road towards a cemetery. In the cemetery is a grave of a young boy named Koda Littlebird. He was killed by human wolves.
Watch the Reservation Dogs on FX on Hulu.
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News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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