NEED TO KNOW
- Wind River, written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, premiered in August 2017
- The film, starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, is a murder mystery set on a Native American reservation
- In 2017, Sheridan called the project his “most personal”
Taylor Sheridan has created several gripping Western dramas — and Wind River is no different.
Set in the icy backwoods of a Native American reservation, the film follows Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), a professional game tracker who discovers the body of a Native American woman in the remote Wyoming wilderness. With evidence of a head trauma and sexual assault, the case finds itself under the control of the FBI, where agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) teams up with Lambert to uncover the mystery.
The drama film, which premiered in August 2017, is the third movie in Sheridan’s trilogy of projects exploring the modern American West, including 2015’s Sicario and 2016’s Hell or High Water. In January 2017, Sheridan told Deadline that Wind River was his “most personal” entity in the trilogy, describing it as a conclusion to “a lot of themes” that he introduced in the first two titles.
As for what he wanted viewers to take away from the film, Sheridan told NPR in August 2017 that he hoped Wind River would “shatter” the misunderstandings and stereotypes of the Native American culture.
“I hope that they can recognize that a good kid with hopes and dreams is a good kid with hopes and dreams, no matter where they live,” he said. “I think my mission, if I could call it that, as a storyteller is to try and find ways to show how similar we are and not how different we are. You can admire the differences and the distinctions and respect them and learn from them.”
So is Wind River based on a true story? Here’s everything to know about the inspiration behind the film.
Is Wind River based on a true story?
Sheridan confirmed to NPR that while Wind River doesn’t tell one singular true tale, it is inspired by “thousands of actual stories just like it.”
“This issue with sexual assault against women on the reservation – I mean, it’s existed since the inception of a reservation system. But, really, in the past 15, 20 years, it’s exploded,” he explained. “And it gets no attention, which is the motivation for writing the film.”
What inspired Taylor Sheridan to make Wind River?
In a written testimony in support of S. 1942, Savanna’s Act — a bill focused on improving the federal response to missing indigenous persons — Sheridan described how the movie is rooted in his travels and time spent living on Native American reservations during his late 20s.
According to The Guardian, Sheridan became friendly with the Pine Ridge reservation’s Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone population, where he had a firsthand look at the challenges faced by the community, including poverty, unemployment and crime.
Sheridan recalled a time he was turned away at a gas station because of his association with Native Americans.
“My buddy was like, ‘You’re hanging out with the Indians. They ain’t gonna sell you s—,’ ” he recalled. “It was the only time in my life that I’ve experienced anything close to racism. I was judged not for my race but for their race.”
The director explained that the Pine Ridge community was frustrated by how the problems faced by indigenous groups everywhere went unnoticed by the rest of America. Given his platform in Hollywood, he found himself in a position to change that.
“I was told, ‘Hey, you’ve got a pipeline. No one gives a s— about our story,” he recalled. “In your business, you could actually tell our story. If you get a chance, would you do that? But you’ve got to tell the worst of it. ‘Cos the worst of our story ain’t our fault.’ ”
Is Wind River’s Natalie based on a real person?
Wind River‘s storyline centers on the investigation into the rape and murder of a young Native American woman, Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Asbille).
In Sheridan’s written testimony posted on the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center website, he explained that during his time in the Oglala Sioux Tribal community on the Pine Ridge reservation, he often heard stories from community members about a young Oglala Lakota woman, whom he refers to as Natalie.
“Natalie was a basketball star with exceptional athletic ability and a student leader with an impressive academic record that would make her the first in her family to attend college,” he wrote. “By all accounts, Natalie’s path in life pointed towards her escaping the cycle of poverty endemic to Indian reservations, and the possibility of becoming a future leader in her community and elsewhere.”
As Sheridan explained, Natalie’s body was found in a remote part of the reservation after being missing for days.
“Very little is known about the circumstances surrounding Natalie’s death, but stories like hers have become commonplace,” he wrote. “Natalie’s story – and countless others like hers – was the inspiration for Wind River, which tells the story of a young woman’s rape and murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation, as well as the heartache and difficulties endured in bringing her perpetrators to justice.”
As for the other women whose stories mirror Natalie’s, Sheridan explained to NPR that he wanted to end the film with a statistic so that people could understand “the magnitude of the issue.” However, after two researchers spent three months trying to find a statistic and reaching out to several organizations, including the Department of Justice and the CDC, they could not find one.
“They came back and said, ‘Taylor, we cannot find a statistic. No one’s keeping it,’ ” he recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, that’s our statistic.’ ”
Where can I watch Wind River?
Wind River is currently available to stream on Netflix.
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