AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Sterlin Harjo doesn't remember seeing many Native Americans in movies as a kid. And when he did, it usually wasn't an accurate portrayal. He remembers one movie about the Seminole people.
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STERLIN HARJO: And I'm Seminole. My dad called me in there. And it was a Western, and they were all dressed like Lakotas. And at that point, I knew what, you know, Seminoles dressed like, and I knew that wasn't what we were. But it was kind of this moment of like, wow, it doesn't matter. We're being represented.
CHANG: Harjo would go on to create "Reservation Dogs," a TV series that changed how Native Americans are seen on-screen. It tells the story of four Native teens growing up in Oklahoma, grappling with the loss of their friend, and it gives every one of its characters the kind of fullness and depth that Harjo didn't see a lot growing up.
"Reservation Dogs" ran for three seasons and was nominated for the Emmy for best comedy series this year.
Sterlin Harjo spoke to my colleague, Rachel Martin, on NPR's Wild Card podcast, where guests draw a card and answer a big question about their life. Here's Rachel.
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RACHEL MARTIN: One, two, or three?
HARJO: Three.
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MARTIN: Is there anything in your life that feels like praying?
HARJO: Hunting.
MARTIN: Huh.
HARJO: Because I think that praying is similar, in that, when we go to our ceremonial dances, they're at night, and it's around a fire. And I feel the same that I do there, which is very prayerful. I feel the same there as I do hunting.
And I think because, when you're hunting, you are very close to life and death. You know what's coming. You know what's possible. You know that, any minute, you could be ending something and, you know, literally covered in blood. And that's sad, both devastating and sort of primal, and literally what we are supposed to be doing as humans because, you know, that's how we survive. So it's kind of built into our DNA, I think, and - but you're also hyperaware.
You're in the forest with nothing but yourself. You're hyperaware, and you have nothing but yourself to contend with. So everything that you're feeling insecure about or everything that you're unhappy with yourself about or any argument that you're in at the moment - all of that bubbles up to the surface, and it's, like, on the edge of your eyelids and on the top of your mind. And you have to deal with it, and you have to be at peace with it.
And it ends up being a very peaceful thing, I think, but it's also very hard because, you know, it does bring your anxieties to the surface.
CHANG: You can hear much more from that conversation, including why Harjo says he gets irrationally angry in Whole Foods, by following the Wild Card podcast.
(SOUNDBITE OF TENDAI SONG, "TIME IN OUR LIVES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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