On the set of Dark Winds, a show looking back to shape the future of Indigenous stories

The desert appears limitless on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the ’70s-set, Graham Roland-created Dark Winds is filming season four’s penultimate hour. Walking through this mostly untouched, quiet land, with juniper trees dotting the rugged plains and mountaintops across the horizon, does feel like being transported back in time. (It helps that there are hardly any cars zipping past on U.S. Route 84, which is mere minutes away.) And in a way, this setting has become the entire world for AMC’s drama, which established its base in Tesuque Pueblo’s historic Camel Rock Studios in 2021. The country’s first Native-owned movie studio is a fitting home for this neo-noir thriller, which continues to break new ground with its portrayal of Indigenous characters, culture, and community. 

On this blazing summer day in June, the cast and crew are scattered around the scenic backlot in the throes of the last few weeks of filming for the year. Executive producer Tina Elmo tells The A.V. Club that one group is situated a few miles away to work on a night shoot later that will feature a controlled outdoor explosion. Production designers and set decorators are on a soundstage inside Camel Rock Studios, putting finishing touches on a creepy basement set for a major finale moment. Elmo also takes us to the costume department, where a plethora of ’70s-themed outfits occupy the space, and reveals that students from the Institute Of American Indian Arts are interning on set. And on a nearby road, director Chris Eyre is prepping to film Zahn McClarnon chasing after a speeding car.

Before Elmo can take us to witness the latter, she gives a tour of the outdoor filming locations spread out over 100 acres of Camel Rock. On the backlot are sets for the show’s now-familiar Navajo Police Station and Joe Leaphorn’s (McClarnon) home, as well as a newly-constructed diner with era-appropriate signage and decor, including an old-timey record player and a large menu that features items like a Navajo taco and coffee priced at only 10 cents. Elmo says this was built outdoors in only 11 days for the premiere’s big shootout (yes, blood splatter from filming still lines the white tiles). Nearby, production has also built various hogans (traditional dwellings of the Diné) made of logs and mud, including one that officers Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) visit in this week’s episode. Elmo notes that they’ve often discovered artifacts, like arrowheads, while working here and promptly handed them over to Tesuque’s Cultural Center. In turn, they help mark the spots they shouldn’t use for filming in case other relics are around.

This balmy landscape naturally gives Dark Winds its visual appeal. So, like any Western worth its salt, the sunshine and seemingly infinite space contrast the characters’ inner gloom and turmoil. However, filming on tribal land symbolizes something far more meaningful for everyone involved. “The fact that we are on a sacred site never leaves our minds,” Elmo says. Dark Winds, adapted from Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee series of novels, gives the books a welcome update by telling crime stories through the authentic lens of primarily Native writers, consultants, cast, and crew. In the fourth season (inspired by The Ghostway), Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito look into the disappearance of a Navajo teen and come face-to-face with an icy German assassin, Irene Vaggan (Franka Potente). 

However, the investigation inadvertently forces them to reconnect with their roots. It’s especially pertinent for Chee, who spends the season being pushed around by his fears and hallucinations. In “Nániikai (We Came Back),” written by Shaandiin Tome and Shandton Williams II, he finally admits to Bern that his mother’s death haunts him and that he feels emotionally distant from the reservation because he moved away for several years as part of the 1950 Native American relocation program. And when his mom was dying of cancer, he didn’t bring her home because he was afraid he didn’t belong on the reservation anymore. After opening up about his trauma in episode seven, he decides to do a traditional ceremony with his grandmother that will “connect him spiritually to the land of his ancestors” and rid him of this ghost sickness. 

Gordon tells The A.V. Club that Chee’s confession is a pivotal scene meant to represent “how, as Native people, we’re wrestling with these ideas of what it means to be a person and be part of a tribe. I’m taking a lot from my own experiences while playing Chee, and it’s why I empathize with him so much,” he says. “I’m half white, so it always feels like two worlds clashing because you want to assimilate.” When Chee tearfully tells Bern, “I stopped being Navajo a long time ago,” Gordon says the line really resonated with him. “It’s so heavy and feels true to both mine and Jessica’s life,” he adds. Both actors admit this was the toughest but most rewarding filming day, and that there wasn’t a dry eye in the room because of how personal it all felt. Eyre and showrunner John Wirth agree, with the latter adding that he was choking up while watching the dailies, too. 

“The reality is, in my teen years, I’d hide the fact that I was Native,” Matten explains. “Growing up, there was a lot of racism in Alberta and Winnipeg. So I just learned to hide a part of myself. How can that not affect you? It was a form of not loving myself, and it’s what my mother went through, too.” Matten adds that having a Native director like Eyre in the room made it special. “This is so culturally embedded in us that a non-Native director wouldn’t have picked up on how we’re feeling, or given us a note about how Chee is basically confessing to his shame of being Native.” The actor feels a certain responsibility in telling this story, or hoping that it will resonate with viewers going through any form of identity crisis: “It’s how the show is still rooted in the present and future, too, right? Hopefully, it can help the younger generations look at themselves with pride, and celebrating that through our medium is a powerful thing.    

Zahn McClarnon and Franka Potente on set (Photo: Michael Moriatis/AMC)

From the start, Dark Winds has walked this tightrope of being as accurate as possible to Native experiences while telling a gripping, suspenseful story. Star McClarnon, who is also an executive producer on the series, acknowledges that there’s only so much representation a TV show can achieve realistically: “We do know we’re not a documentary about Navajo culture, but still, authenticity is extremely important to those of us who grew up with stereotypes.” McClarnon points out that a big reason he was compelled to board Dark Winds was its enticing mysteries and the chance to tackle action, like he’s done on shows like Fargo and Westworld. (Our interview is fittingly cut short so he can go run after a car repeatedly on a scorching New Mexico afternoon.)  

After everyone is given cowboy hats to protect them from the harsh sun, Eyre chats with the crew under a makeshift tent about how he wants to capture a gun-toting Leaphorn sprinting after Vaggan, who has managed to finally get her hands on the young Billy Tsosie (Isabel DeRoy-Olson). Once Eyre calls action, Vaggan’s stunt double, Krista Perry, zooms off hastily in the car in front of us (with Billie’s stunt double, Samantha Epstein, in the passenger seat). McClarnon jumps out from a field and chases after her down the road. They do a few different takes, with Eyre choosing to hone in on McClarnon’s face each time to capture Leaphorn’s disappointment at the end that his nemesis got away. With every shot, the actor tries a variety of expressions ranging from frustration to sadness. And in between takes, McClarnon—who is understandably sweating—gets water sprinkled on his face so that Leaphorn doesn’t look too tired to nab Vaggan.  

“Vaggan is one of the most formidable opponents for Joe,” McClarnon says. “He’s dealt with a lot of internal trauma in the show with his son’s death and living with what he did to B.J. Vines in season two, but he’s never had an obsessive stalker.” In working with Potente, he explains that he was able to find new dimensions to a character whose shoes he’s lived in for several years. As an artist, too, season four presented a fresh challenge: McClarnon turned to the director’s chair for episode two. “AMC asked me if I wanted to do it,” he reflects. “I wasn’t sure initially because it’s a lot of work, but I decided to do 402 to get it out of the way early. And while it was scary, I found my way through it with this crew and due to familiarity with this place.” 

Potente tells The A.V. Club that she was excited to join Dark Winds (alongside the late Udo Kier) and play a character who can help shed light on how a lot of people tend to “romanticize or infantilize Native culture.” Vaggan, who was raised as a Nazi, develops a fetish for Indigenous traditions, and once she spots Joe, he becomes a symbol for redemption. “She thinks if she can somehow get Joe to like her, it’ll purify her darkness and sins. Vaggan doesn’t have any love for herself, so she’s desperate for Joe to love her,” Potente clarifies. This is to the extent that, at the end of episode six, she even attacks Emma, who is now working at Los Angeles’ Indian Health Service department.  

The IHS set, with a lovely painting of flowers on the wall, is on a soundstage. Also adorning the many other walls of Camel Rock Studio are a fair number of Pedro Pascal photos. (“Everyone here is a huge fan,” Elmo says with a wink.) After working on intense scenes for long hours, they are met by a cutout of Pascal’s face at the water station, reminding them to stay hydrated. “It’s a way to keep our spirits light on set,” Elmo adds. But that intensity is hard to shake off, even for someone like Allison, who spends most of season four inside the IHS’s floral walls and doesn’t have as meaty of a storyline as before. 

Still, Allison tells The A.V. Club that this year’s arc is crucial to Emma’s development to let her rediscover her own strength, considering she chooses to stay in L.A. instead of returning home with Joe. “The writers give me incredible dialogue, but for it to make sense for Emma, I have to understand it from my perspective,” Allison says. She reveals that she often thinks of her own family while filming and wants to ensure that her loved ones who see Dark Winds know it, too: “I’m proud to be a sixth-generation descendant of Chief Manuelito and Juanita Manuelito. They were influential Navajo leaders and one of the last to surrender their land. They taught people to start using education as a weapon. I keep going back to that with Emma. So even if she’s away from the res [and in] L.A., it’s to help members of her community who have gone there and still struggle with things, as Chee and his mom did years ago.” 

Dark Winds satisfyingly wraps up the ongoing mystery in next week’s finale and sets the table for the upcoming fifth round, which is expected to go into production soon. So it’ll likely return in 2027, with Wirth telling us that AMC is championing a regular release schedule. “The CCO, Dan McDermott, feels like we can make this show one that fans can expect to see on a yearly basis, ideally at the same time, which is great for us.” 

For his part, McClarnon is just as glad to get the chance to frequently return to live in Joe’s cowboy boots and ennui. Before heading to film his car-chase scene, the actor admits that while Hillerman’s work is “interesting and made with good intentions,” recontextualizing it with a team of Native Americans gives it more weight. Dark Winds is one of the few recent TV shows—along with Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, and The Lowdown—that move away from clichéd portrayals of the community. “It really is a positive thing about Dark Winds for me, to be able to chip away at the stereotypes and for Native kids today to see a different perspective on us.”  

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.   

 

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