Autry Museum of the American West Partners with Universal TV’s ‘Rutherford Falls’ to Celebrate Native Storytelling

Peacock and Universal TV have contributed to Los Angeles’ Autry Museum to help underwrite a robust, year-round programming that develops Native talent and provides more access to Native communities, including the Museum’s Native Voices program, which is the only Equity theater company dedicated to presenting stories from Native American playwrights with an entirely Native American ensemble.

As a part of the announcement, the Peacock series “Rutherford Falls” offered complimentary admission on Saturday to the Autry.

The comedy, which represents a breakthrough in Native representation in comedy television, stars Jana Schmieding (Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux) and Michael Greyeyes ([Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation – Treaty Six Territory in Saskatchewan]), alongside “The Office’s” Ed Helms. There are five Native writers staffed on “Rutherford Falls,” one of the largest Indigenous writer’s rooms on television, including co-creator and executive producer Sierra Teller Ornelas (Navajo).

Above, members of cast and crew at the Autry included (from left) Dustin Milligan (“Josh Carter”), Ed Helms (co-creator, executive producer and “Nathan Rutherford”), Sierra Teller Ornelas (co-creator, executive producer and showrunner; Navajo), Jesse Leigh (“Bobbie Yang”), Tai Leclaire (writer; Kanien’kehá:ka [Mohawk Nation]/Mi’kmaq) and Kimberly Guerrero (“Renée Thomas”; Colville (Enrolled) and Salish-Kootenai).