Being a Good Relative with Dallas Goldtooth
SEASON 2 | EPISODE 1
Dallas Goldtooth | Photo provided by Dallas Goldtooth
FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE HERE
Aho young warriors! Welcome to Season 2 of Actors and Ancestors!
Dallas Goldtooth is a Dakota-Diné actor, comedian, and writer. He is a land defender, gamer, and mediocre horseback rider who is kicking down doors in Hollywood, writing and acting in groundbreaking shows like Reservation Dogs, Echo, and Fallout.
He cut his teeth in the world of comedy with the 1491s, a sketch comedy group that travelled all through Indian country giving side splitting performances and making connections.
Now, Dallas and the squad are bringing Indigenous stories to the screen and making Indigenous actors household names. He shares his biggest tips for succeeding in the industry and his take home message: be a good relative!
Listen on to hear more about how he balances acting, activism, and social media, how he tackles toxic masculinity through comedy, and what shocked him the most about living in Montreal.
Dallas Goldtooth as William Knifeman in FX’s Reservation Dogs | image from IMDb
“I felt a certain responsibility as a storyteller to challenge myself to go after the roles that kind of break that mold a bit... Collectively, as actors and performers, I think there’s a way about us demanding different roles. And not pigeonholing us into: “this is the only space for you as an actor is to play 1880s Indian on horseback””
Some top takeaways from the episode:
Dallas is a gamer so he was really excited to be in the Fallout TV series. When he went in for costuming he got to privately see gear from the show, including the power suits!
One amazing fact about the production: the props and suits were so spot on because a lot of it was contracted out to cosplayers to make!
Collaboration is the key ingredient to success in this industry. Being the best coworker you can be, doing right by relationships with folks and treating everyone else like they are the most important person there is how he conducts himself on set.
Part of doing right by people is being super aware of some of the toxic behaviours he’s experienced and witnessed, especially as a Native man. Now that he’s becoming a role model for a lot of folks he takes the responsibility to challenge toxic behaviours seriously and uses his comedy to do this.
“I often tease what it means to be a man, what it means to be a Native man… that’s how I, as Dallas, process all the shit I have learned and am trying to unlearn ”
Goodsprings, NV (2023)
This is the shirt Joel mentions during the interview. He is standing outside the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, Nevada, famous from the game, Fallout: New Vegas
ACTORS AND ANCESTORS’ RED RED CARPET SHOUT OUT FROM DALLAS GOLDTOOTH:
Quannah Chasinghorse
“[Quannah Chasinghorse] is Gwich'in, Dene and Lakota and she's a model – many folks know her – but just the way that she carries herself, and talk about somebody that's like doing her job as an influencer and as a model but holding her own as an activist… it's just awe inspiring to see and I'm so proud of her.”
-
Dallas Goldtooth - S2 E1
JD: Tansi! And hello out there in Indigenous country. It's another great day to be indigenous. Welcome to Actors and Ancestors season 2.
Holy, we made it. Uh, for anyone joining us for the first time this is a podcast for indigenous actors and anyone else who wants to learn about them. I'm your host, JD Montgrand.I'm a Rocky Cree actor. And, uh, if you. Recognize me from a few shows. That'd be pretty cool. You can Hear me right now live with my very first guest. Gosh, I'm really excited.
You'll know him as William Knifeman from Reservation Dogs. He's also in this new amazing series, Fallout. He's a big fan of the show. beadwork artist, a quilter. He's a Taurus, a land defender, a water protector, a voice actor. He does it all, man. He's a writer. Geez. I'm so excited, uh, and humbled and honored that you're here today. Can I ask you to introduce yourself and tell us about your land? Who claims you, where you're from,
Dallas Goldtooth: Well, (introduces himself in Dakota). It's good to see everybody here. Even though I'm not seeing you, I'm hearing you with my eyes. My name is Dallas Goldtooth. I am Dakota and Diné. And I am from the Lower Sioux Indian community in Southwest Minnesota, or so called Minnesota. And, uh, I'm, you know, coming right to you right now from, uh, Chicago where I live with my family.
I am a proud husband of the family of six. Yeah, that's who I am. I am a Dakota man born and raised amongst my Dakota Lakota people.
JD: Wow, got the big family numbers are coming back. We're a fast growing demographic here. Right on.
Dallas Goldtooth: Bringing back the Red Nation, brother, bringing it back!
JD: Awesome. I, I gotta, I gotta ask you, cause, I always come out. Uh, my guess real hard with that first question. Indian countries, real curious on your take, Kendrick or Drake, what's going on there? What do
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh, do Kendrick all the way, man. Dude. Fuck man. Uh, this where can I swear?
JD: Oh, fuck. Yeah. Yeah.
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh, fuck. It's a colonizer language anyway, right? Actually, I, for many years I questioned that because when I went to Saskatchewan for the first time… I come to realize I have a theory that the word fuck is actually a Cree word for how often you hear it fucking holy shit fucking man. Oh fucking oh fuck
Dallas Goldtooth: ever fucking sick,
JD: No way! What were you doing up there?
Dallas Goldtooth: Uhhhh I can't say. No, I’m just kidding. Uh, no I so um It's a long story. I'll tell you a story here nephew in that way. I went up there for a youth program for a summer program. I forgot which treaty it is, but Fort Capelle near Fort Capelle and Starblanket reserve. And we did like a 6 week youth program there. So that was my first trip up that way. And then, um, went to FSI and powwow. That was, uh, that was a good time.
Saw a couple of girl fights, you know, traditional, Cree way,
JD: Oh, wow. They are. I've I've never, I've honestly, I mean, I'll watch UFC and I'm not as disturbed as watching two Cree women go at it. They are lethal.
Dallas Goldtooth: So, uh, yeah, You know, my name is Dallas. I got a big family. You know, A lot of folks don't know about that. I kind of keep it under the wraps on social media. I used to post a lot about my children, about my family, um, but just with more attention to my social media, like for their safety, I pulled back from that. And also to pay respect to my wife, who also was like, really not comfortable with any of our personal information or pictures of our kids out there.So, um, I really scaled that back.
JD: A lot of folks feel the same way. I know I do too. It's uh my personal life I try to keep out of any of this.
Dallas Goldtooth: I want to say, though. All right, so you played Eddie on. True Cr- or no? True. No. North. Not true. True country? No. Fuck. True. Detective!
JD: No, that was some other Indian guy. Yeah, don't be racist. No.
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh fuck
JD: Yeah, I did. I did.
Dallas Goldtooth: I auditioned for that role
JD: You. What?
Dallas Goldtooth: Yes,
JD: No way.
Dallas Goldtooth: I auditioned for it!
JD: Holy. That is unreal
Dallas Goldtooth: I auditioned for it. Um, and so this is like behind the curtains, right? um, I auditioned for it, but – I didn't want to do it, really, because I Was so nervous about the sex scene stuff because I'm like, it's HBO, You're gonna be making out and we all up on there and I don't know if I'm ready for that. You know, uh had a conversation with my wife about it just like look I don't even got the role yet I gotta have this conversation. But I had I talked to some of the one of the producers and
JD: Did they talk about chukchi doubles. Yeah, chukchi doubles
Dallas Goldtooth: Aho! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh huh No, it is really. I just felt it was proper to have somebody that actually lives farther north who's farther north than I. That's more connected Um, at least a bit closer to Alaska. So I'm happy.
You got it. It's like, I'm, I'm really grateful and you just fucking killed it. And, uh, but yeah, I auditioned for it. And that's an interesting dynamic that I'm coming into is that there is a relatively small pool of native male actors and female actors. And also two spirit relatives, but, um, I can assume when I get an offer for a self tape or audition, I'm like, I know about maybe four other guys who are also all going out for the same role And uh, it's an interesting dynamic because you don't want to bring it up
JD: No, no, no,
Dallas Goldtooth: You don't want to say you don't say “Hey bro, how you doing?
Did you uh, did you get this self tape request?” You don't want to say that because they might not have gotten it
JD: and then they feel bad about it. I mean, that's, that's actually one of my questions I was going to ask you later on. Because it is a small community. , who, who is , your other favorite, , actor to lose a part to? If you don't get it, who are
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh who's my competition?
JD: who's your
Dallas Goldtooth: All right, brother. Here we go No, man, um You know the folks I look at, you know, there's some amazing actors. And of course, it has to be stated that we walk in the footsteps of giants, right? There's, there's a lot of relatives who uncles, grandfathers, who've, who've really went through a lot of crap in the movie industry so that we could be where we are today.
JD: And you've worked with so many of
Dallas Goldtooth: I've worked with them. I, you know, I got to work with Wes Studi and Gary, Farmer in particular, who I really owe a lot to. Um, and there's a small group of folks like to Tonka means and Kiowa Gordon and Martin sends Meyer in that space, even though Martin's got the pretty boy hot bod look.
Um, but it's kind of in that realm of like, I just auditioned for a role. I'm like, who else would go for this? It's probably Tatonka. It's probably me and Tatonka. And like, Maybe uh, uh eddie spears. I know eddie spears is still out there and then I just met um You know Miguan Fair
JD: Fairbrother. Yeah. He's a buddy of mine. Yeah.
Dallas Goldtooth: I acted in a uh, I did a indie film with him last summer
JD: Oh,
Dallas Goldtooth: Um, it was quite it was quite a great experience with him. I really like
JD: He's a good dude,
Dallas Goldtooth: but no, It's just one of those things like really coming into a space where I'm like, okay there are limited jobs. Um, but you know, I have to do the best I can do and And I also know like I might not be the best For every role right and and that's the way it goes.
JD: Oh, well, gee, I'm, I'm the best for every role, so I don't know (joking)
Dallas Goldtooth: There it is. Oh (laughter)
JD: On that note, cause it is, uh, an industry where we're all hungry and there's there, we all know each other, but you've, you also stated that, , you weren't interested in certain kinds of jobs.
I wrote it down here in an interview with Vulture. You said, uh, “you know what? I want to see how far I can go as an actor without getting stoic 18 hundreds gigs”. And I have the same thing, too, about that, but I have the feeling that my answer is different from yours. Why didn't you want to do those roles?
Dallas Goldtooth: Um… It's almost like I want to challenge myself as a performer as an artist and all right There's different levels here, right? One I'm not the best horseback rider that's just gotta
JD: Ha, ha,
Dallas Goldtooth: gotta put that out there. I'm a fucking I'm not that good And it's it's looking weird because I'm a fucking Plains tribe Indian here, man.
I'm fucking Dakota Oh Chetti shock only Lakota warrior kind of vibe, but fuck I suck on horseback It's also I'm six foot two. I don't know how to play basketball. I suck at basketball, I'm like the worst res kid because I never got into basketball. Really? Um I guess really that statement, I guess I gotta be very specific. I want to see how far I can go without playing a very stoic, scary Indian on a horseback,
JD: Mm.
Dallas Goldtooth: Unless I write the part, unless I'm a part of the creative team, right? Unless it's something, a project that I'm deeply invested in. And a part of that was born out of filming Reservation Dogs, which I play Indian on a horseback.
JD: hmm.
Dallas Goldtooth: Um, and after the first season, Like immediately after the first season came out, I got three job offers, which is great. Hey, it's cool. But they were all the same “Indian on the horseback”. But it's all serious, right? They saw Reservation Dogs. Oh, let's, let's get them in this. And it was like “Indian number 4” . It wasn't even like lead roles, right? It's a, it's a, you know, those classic Westerns. That's what it was. And. I think I felt a certain responsibility as a storyteller to challenge myself to go after the roles that kind of break that mold a bit. And nothing against… I'm not throwing shade against actors that do because, hey, we gotta, we gotta pay the bills.
But I think that collectively as actors and performers, I think there's a way about us demanding different roles. And and not pigeonholing us pigeonholing us into this is only this is the only space for you as an actor is to play 1880s Indian on a horseback
JD: Yeah. Well, I mean, I could see why too, because like you were a. a postcard pretty much for those first image of you coming out there. “Aho young warrior”, you know
Dallas Goldtooth: Yeah, and and the whole intention of that was to make fun of it. That's the thing is people watch it and you're like… they don't get it. They're like, oh we want him in our movie. I'm like, dude I'm making fun of your movie like that's the whole point of it
JD: Exactly I mean see now that a role like that is something that I would have said yes to because you're making fun of it And I think it's honestly, I think it's ridiculous. If if Cast someone that looks like me because I'm a very, uh, you know, mixy looking guy, uh, to play those. And I'm always shocked when they, when they offer me that kind of stuff, you know, like, and they're like, Oh, and I'm like, no, I would be so mad to see me riding along out there.
Yes.
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh, so I, um, oh dude, one of my first projects ever did on camera was like a student film and it was like early spring. I hadn't gone out so outside for like a year. So I was like super pale. Like I had no tan. I was Whatsoever. Um, and it was this white guy who wanted to do, he was trying to create like a sizzle reel, like he wanted to just basically show an example to find the funders. Say, “Hey, I want to do something like this.”
And it was a story of one of my ancestors, one of our chiefs Chief Little Crow. He asked me to play chief little crow. And he said, like, God, why don't you ride on a horse? And, and, and then we're going to come down to this Creek. And I didn't tell him, I didn't know how to fuckin ride a horse.
But we got on the horse and it is the cheesiest most B rated movie quality you've ever seen like i'm wearing uh, Adidas socks that you can see in it I'm wearing some weird wolf pelts and i'm super pale and my hair is just like so tangled and unkempt. I look like stands-with-a-fist from Dancing with Wolves? And I fall off like in the like I'm actually he cuts it right as I'm about to fall off. So it's like I was the worst Indian on camera. And he never asked me back um But to make it worse to close the story out to make it worse, a friend of mine ended up doing the project with him um, it didn't get really funded but My friend is just like He was like, you know light skinned he was mixed but he put him in brownface.
They had him like wear like really dark, dark tanner like bad makeup. It was bad. It was so cringy. It was my bro, and I was like, no don't do it!!
JD: Did he have really pale hands and things? Yeah,
Dallas Goldtooth: uh, like the Blackfoot gauntlet gloves are beaded and stuff. Um, but anyways, I, I, Hey, I'm just gonna let you know, I'm a little ADHD, so I'm gonna, I'm, I'm gonna be all over the map
JD: Oh yeah. No, you and me both actually. So that's, um, you know, and I always wanted to say, I, you can't see this out there, dear listeners, uh, anyone out there, but, uh, Dallas, he's, when he's talking about his family earlier, he's wearing the cutest little pink headphones that he's borrowed from his daughter
Dallas Goldtooth: yeah, I got these, uh, pink Kawaii gamer headphones I bought for my daughter for, for, uh, Christmas. Thanks.
JD: Oh, that is, that is
Dallas Goldtooth: All my, all my kids are gamers. Uh, I'm a gamer.
JD: You are. That was, that was another question. I'm, I'm, I'm going all over the place.
Dallas Goldtooth: Ooh. See that? See that?
JD: We're flipping around because of course you're in Fallout and, honestly for me, it's the best adaptation of a video game I have ever seen, hands down.
And I'm a huge nerd, I've literally played all the Fallouts, from when they first came out, from Tactics, Fallout 1, you know, and what gets me, Is you're the first Indigenous person I've seen in the Fallout universe? Legit, legitimately because there are actually tribes in the Fallout universe game I can't remember that something sacred heart or something like that, but they're made up of of Germans their ancestors were all Germans because they have that weird hard-on for Indigenous people here and so then they decided to “become” Indigenous quote unquote in the Fallout universe, so are there no nNatives in the in the Fallout world
Dallas Goldtooth: In in fallout las vegas, there is the the dead horses which has yeah, they were mixed in there was like whites and natives And all these other folks mixed into it. Um and there was other tribes like you said, but they're like their reference I think there was a one side story about Uh a trip that went down to new mexico and they encountered and they never came back because they were attacked but um, yeah, man, i'm a gamer i'm a nerd and I got to be on fallout and You That was flipping amazing to be a part of.
Yes.
JD: Do you see this?
Dallas Goldtooth: Yes.
JD: I’m wearing a Goodsprings, Nevada T-shirt. Uh, and this is from the actual little pub that exists in Fallout:New Vegas. And it's more than a hundred years old. It exists in the game. My partner and I, uh, she was so gracious to drive down with me because we were, we were in Vegas.My mom and I have the same birthday. We're, you and I are both Tauruses.Dallas Goldtooth: Hell yeah. All right. We're lovers of beautiful things.
JD: Right.
Dallas Goldtooth: We love beautiful things.
JD: huh. That's right. There she is. Hey, she's over there
Dallas Goldtooth: There it is. Hey, good plug.
JD: But yeah, she was, uh, lovely enough to come down and, you know, indulge my, my super nerddom.
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh, hell yeah.
JD: um, um, how did that all come about? How, how were you asked to be on that show? I sure wasn't asked to audition. So I don't know.
Dallas Goldtooth: I was actually just thinking about this. So this was back in 2021. I filmed my parts, uh, November and December of 2021. So it was a while ago and it was through a management company. Actually, the request that came through my managers, my management company is Mosaic Management.
They're based out of New York and LA. And , I got just a request for a self tape just out of the blue, just a request to audition for it. And I got the call back pretty quick, like within, uh, a week and a half of, the self tape, they asked me to do another, audition for another you know, script or more words. I can't talk. And so I sent that in and they were like, I booked it. And a month later, I was in New York city. We filmed that in New York city. A lot of the desert scenes actually they filmed in Nairobi in Africa.
And the showrunner, he was just like, you know, really liked your audition and it was really like a discussion that he said they had in the room of like, they wanted to create a space to have.
Um, a native voice in this in particular one, and this is actually, it could be controversial or at least like, Hey, it's a continuation of the narrative that you and I were just talking about of like the main character plays this like 1950s Western movie star. And that's, you know, Walton Goggins, they created this narrative for, uh, for my character, Charles Whiteknife to come into it. And so it was pretty sweet. Uh, man, I got on the set. One of the first things we did, we went to costume change. When you get hired, if you're lucky, they'll give you time to come in like a couple of days before to go through costumes and you get to kind of have, you have an input on what you're going to wear .
Um, and so I was doing that, trying to picking out what my wardrobe would be. And I was like, do you guys have anything here? Like anything I can see? Because it was super secret. It couldn't tell anything. It was followed. This is a big thing. sure enough they took me to the other room and it was a whole locker of all the vault suits
JD: Nice!
Dallas Goldtooth: There was like these, uh helmets. They had all this like gear and then uh, the costume designer was like, “Hey don't tell anybody but come follow me” and I went down the hallway and around the corner And this is like a big New York City, Brooklyn warehouseJD: I appreciate being told about this.
Dallas Goldtooth: Now we can say it! But he opened up this door and in this room were two power armor suits
JD: What?
Dallas Goldtooth: And I was like, Oh no way. No way. And I got to go up and check them out. One thing that was really amazing about that production is that a lot of the props and a lot of the suits they actually contracted out to cosplayers to make so they
JD: That’s why they were so spot on!
Dallas Goldtooth: They was looked on social media found the cosplayers who were already making fallout gear You And then contracted them to make the gear for the film That's why they're so accurate and so spot on like you just said it's because they're invested fans of that whole universe That's what I really I really loved.
I filmed the scene with Walton in the bar and It's a scene where Charles is trying to convince Walton like “hey something's up. Like these corporations may not have our best interests in mind” And when I got there I'm at the bar and I said, “Hey, can I have something to drink? Can my character order something to drink?”
And uh, they were like “Sure, what do you want?” I'm like “Can I have a Nuka cola?” they're like “Yeah, we can do that!” and they pulled out a Nuka cola and then, if you don't play the game, a Nuka cola is like a big major part of the game and I got to pop the cap off the Nuka cola You The noise
JD: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Dallas Goldtooth: So that was fun.
That was really that was a blast. Um, and
JD: one is a real blast.
Dallas Goldtooth: yeah, it was a good one And uh, i'm excited. I hope you know, they announced season two. I haven't heard anything yet But I i'm hoping right this the name of the game as an actor. I'm hoping my character comes back. I don't know That's that's the the plight and struggle of the actor is you hope that you get a season two.
JD: It is very true. I'm always thrilled to hear all of our folks getting more work because Hey, we're all in this together. We're all floating. It is a, it is, it is a great, uh, time to be an indigenous actor. It feels like,
[PROMOTION FOR ‘PRETENDIANS’ PODCAST]
Dallas Goldtooth: One of the questions I get so often and it's always a hard question that answers like, you know Folks want to come up and say hey, it’s one of the purposes of this podcast, right? “How can I get involved in the industry? Like I'm interested to be an actor. I'm interested in doing this. I'm interested in filmmaking” and the most solid advice that I firmly believe, like I a hundred percent firmly believe in, that helped me get to where I'm at is working with other like minded people to create the good things.
Like we cannot work in a bubble. You can't work in isolation. You can't say, Oh, my idea is the best idea and I don't want to work with anybody else. Because a lot of the jobs i've gotten the vast majority of them is just because I've made good relationships with folks and networked with people and kind of collaborated so that they know oh i can trust this person oh I know this person can do this um the 1491s you know we were a comedy group that started almost 16 over you know 16, 17 years ago. Just a bunch of guys who wanted to just make stupid YouTube videos and it was because of that It was through that, you know, Sterlin Harjo, one of the 1491s, got the show Reservation Dogs, brought us all on board. A lot of our sketches that we made as 1491s made it into the show. Um,
JD: That’s the house number that bear lives at. I think.
Dallas Goldtooth: yeah, the house number. It's also, uh, uh, the bus that the crew takes back from California back to Oklahoma. It's a bus one-four-nine-one. The other 1491's in there is my brother Migazi.
He's actually my half brother. We are my stepbrother. We grew up with each other and He's a producer like dude, he's been producing like he's been hustling forever. Now. He's over in Bangkok, Thailand right now as a producer and writer on the Aliens series for FX. So they're right they're making an alien series and my brother is one of the writer producers for it So you have an Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, Ponca dude working on working on aliens
JD: I love it. I love, I love it.
Dallas Goldtooth: That solid crew we just did our best to make sure that we Do right by a relationship with folks, right?
Don't burn bridges. Don't be a don't be an idiot don't be an asshole and especially there's a certain dynamic that comes with being an Indigenous man.
As a performer there's a certain responsibility that we carry I believe that is a higher bar because of a long history of assholes before us and people who've done really shady shit and have acted inappropriately or have caused harm that we had to be super aware of as we built up our own careers.JD: You actually talk uh a lot about toxic masculinity and on Twitter I think you mentioned that you did uh workshops at a state prison in Minnesota and you said that they were um, some of the most humble and engaging conversations you ever had with men um and predominantly native, uh Native men Black men and a couple of white guys, it sounds incredibly powerful.
I was hoping that you could speak more about what, uh, you know, toxic masculinity healthy masculinity means, um, especially as, as, as Native men. You've becoming a role model for a lot of folks as well. So, Uh, what was the most impactful thing about that experience?
Dallas Goldtooth: Yeah, that was at the Stillwater Correctional Facility, um, in Stillwater, Minnesota, which is a state, uh, prison. Uh, my brother is an inmate there. Um, he's my older brother, and is incarcerated. And, um, my father, who is also, um, run sweat lodge there or used to like they've closed it down since COVID but he used to run go and do ceremonies for the guys inside
JD: yeah,
Dallas Goldtooth: There was a brother who was talking, who I met there and he was half Native, half Black. And, um, he said that he was, inarticulate but he actually spoke very articulate about his emotions and feelings. Really what came down to is what what was coming across is "I get frustrated and so angry about everything because i'm told that I need to be more loving though I never learned that language”. It was just, you know, just so raw and just so straightforward, really at the crux of it.
Um, I think that in my comedy with the 1491s in particular, but also I think I manifested in my other performances and other roles I do is, um, I often tease what it means to be a man, what it means to be a Native man ‘cause in many ways, that's how me as an individual, as Dallas, process all the shit that I've learned and I'm trying to unlearn. We, as men, often limit ourselves and our capability to respond to the world to such a narrow degree that, yeah, it makes sense that we get frustrated, anger, or that we respond to things the way we do.
I'm not condoning it, but also I think we have to understand the systemic nature of how we teach men to be men. Right. And, Black and brown men and Native men, in particular, how we create this identity of what it means to be a man, this whole warrior identity and how that kind of just fucking jacks us up at time.
So I think that that's why I like to make fun of and tease ourselves as native men, because in many ways, our dysfunction as men is so wild, it's fucking hilarious.
JD: we're all, we're all really just like teaching each other as well. And we got to hold each other accountable because like so many– of one of your sketches. I remember, there was a joke. Uh, Maybe it's Tito saying, "Oh, you grew up without a dad. We all grew up without a dad, you know You think you're a special” like I grew up without a dad um, and I laughed I laughed really hard at that like but this is the thing is that we're all learning together.
I feel like as as a whole we're all getting into a really good place. And it does nothing but make me feel so proud to be who I am. But, you know, ages ago, like you were saying, there was a lot of doors that had to get kicked down
I guess my, my, my big question too is, , because you're an activist, an organizer, I guess, is, is, um, what you prefer to be called. But I guess the overarching question I'm asking is, , how do you do all of this? Because comedy is hard. Activism, that's really hard.That can be soul crushing. Um, being Indigenous, that's not something that people would define as being easy, you know? I mean, you're all, all three of these, these things, um, how do you actually make sure that you as a man are still okay?
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh man. That's really such a great question. And I fail. I fail all the time. I fail at that. Right? So I think that's something to be upfront and honest. I'm not seeing that to be down on myself, or deprecating, I dunno if that’s the word but um, I have these aspirations and goals, but also know that I, I, I, I will often fail in that journey, but continue to move forward.
But I guess a question that I get that may help answer this, right, is “how did I get into acting?” Right. How did I actually get to this place where I'm at? And I, I explained it a little bit with the 1491s, but I, um I went to school. I went to college at UC Berkeley out in California. I transferred to the University of Minnesota. I went to school to be a teacher. I was actually, uh, doing a language apprenticeship to teach Dakota language…
JD: Honestly carries through so well with you and all of all everything that I've seen you in that teaching self. That’s your core.
Dallas Goldtooth: I appreciate it. Yeah. It's yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it, it comes across right? That the excitement of sharing. Even in my organizing life, that the life I took, I was, I was very much a communicator that was always like my, one of my key roles. So, you know, I was going to school at the University of Minnesota and commuting between there and my home community . I met my wife. We got together and I had to get a job. Like, I was like, I got, I got kids coming and I got to get a job. And I, uh, just so happened. I got a job with the Indigenous Environmental Network, which is an indigenous environmental justice organization based out of Northern Minnesota.
And my fight, the first campaign I came on was against the Keystone XL pipeline. And really they asked me to come on. Because of my ability to communicate because They needed somebody to communicate with the white folks and the native folks to pull off a specific protest we were doing in Washington DC And they were like it's six weeks out. It's all falling apart Everyone's arguing and fucking really to go out after each other But we have a common goal to stop this pipeline And so I was one of the organizers that came in to help kind of reel it in and we we pulled it off. And I stayed on board and I, I stayed with him for about 10 years and became a climate justice organizer.
I worked with frontline Indigenous communities across North America, fighting different types of fossil fuel projects. All during that I was doing 1491 stuff on the side So we're doing gigs and travel. We start traveling, going to colleges and doing in uh, like native student groups.
We were doing shows for them And that was that That's what kept me going as an organizer, as a quote unquote activist, because I had a creative outlet for all that energy I was carrying in my work. And I kept going to that. The pandemic hit, pandemic hit like all of us. A lot of us got burnt out while we were doing shit, changed everything.
You know, our whole world changed literally. And me and my organizing work, I really burnt out. And then Reservation Dogs came along. I filmed that while also working a nine to five while doing my job, I had to take time off. I had to do all this stuff. Season 2 came about and they asked me to join the writer's room.
So I'm not only, I was going to be acting, but I was going to be a writer's room and it was at that point I had to make a decision of like, How am I going to do this right and and I had to make a decision whether like shit or get off the pot, you know what I mean? Like I need to commit because I can't give a hundred percent of both things.
I was failing in the job I was feeling in the writing and creative side and I was like, I have to commit and so I made that decision to like All right. I'm gonna leave my organization and transition out and do it, man. Fucking take the leap and say, I want to be a writer and an actor. And, um, that's what I did.
JD: Now that you're there you're still involved because you're still an activist. You're, you're like really, really on, on sharing posts, a lot of issues around the world
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh yeah. See, I try, man. I–
JD: All this stuff. But, but, but yeah, no, but it's, it's, it's because, um, the nature of what being a celebrity, I guess, is, is now, uh, instead of doing so much activism, I guess you’re able to share a message to a wider audience.
I mean, is that something that, uh, has, has more value now, do you think?
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh, of course. I think, uh, I, I feel like there's a responsibility with, with the reach that I have, I think I do carry a responsibility to advocate on behalf of the communities that I've worked with, but also communities I identify or have relationship to, right. And, and have empathy for, um, and so, yeah, I, I don't have a lot of qualms about sharing Information I feel as somebody that worked as an organizer I'm like, that's the low hanging fruit when you go to celebrities or these influencers and you ask them to share stuff you're asking somebody to spend social capital and I have no qualms about spending that capital for these greater messages
JD: I agree. I mean, uh, Indigenous, Indigenous people, I, I think we have a good sense of community. Like, like you were saying at the start of the interview, just, you know, don't be an asshole. Um, Yeah,
Dallas Goldtooth: An old sacred teaching there. To all our non-Native people that Sitting Bull, Chief Sitting Bull once said, “don't be an asshole”.
JD: That's why he was always sitting. He wouldn't show anyone his asshole.
Dallas Goldtooth: Yeah, that's right. It’s traditional.
JD: You’re not going to see it. Uh,
Dallas Goldtooth: I feel like I, um, I do get frustrated with folks when they're reluctant. Right. There's a difference. There's, there are, there are actors, influencers, or celebrities, as you may call them, who just don't do social media.
That's legit. Like, Hey, these days don't do it or they don't have the reach. Um, but then I think that I do will, I do encourage other folks to share stuff. They say, Hey, you are in a position to say something. Um, and if you don't, I think also we we we humble ourselves a lot. We're like, oh, I don't know if I know too much about this issue I don't know and that's legit too.
But if you know something's wrong, then at least you can say I don't know enough about this But I feel something's wrong about this
I feel so weird about it though, man i'll be honest. I carry a lot and I do still carry guilt. I'm a people pleaser. I've been going to therapy about this. And go figure, I'm a people pleaser. I'm an actor, right? But–
JD: people laugh. That's the
Dallas Goldtooth: Yeah but I, you know, I do feel guilt at times where I'm not doing enough
JD: Are there things that you wouldn't do? Um, you wouldn't talk about because of negative repercussions in this industry?
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I, so like, you know, with the, with the current war and genocide in Gaza, like, you know, for the first five months, everybody was like, fuck, we don't want to say anything because legit. fear of repercussions, fear of whatever, you know, folks were talking in the industry, like, ah, just Just don't post anything right like you can have your opinions, but just don't shake the water.
Don't don't do it too much um, I feel like I walk it. All right, you know, like I make my my politics known I make it really clear , of course I could probably go harder and I may get critiques of that Oh, you're not going hard enough. You're not saying hard enough, but I feel like I walk a line that I feel comfortable with right I'm okay with and that's where it comes down to is like I feel You Okay with where I'm at and how I share things and use my my social media
JD: I feel the same way. You made a good point about, um, even if you don't know enough about an issue, you can clearly see something's wrong.
Dallas Goldtooth: Yeah, I'm not quick to rile up. Like people try to come at me or try to like, uh, attack me on social media… That don't, it don't really get me. I know some people like with some comments. they’ll start– I know friends where actors will freak out if they get somebody trying to come after ‘em in a toxic way on social media. It's really easy for me. Like, no, I'm all right. Like, it's not, I'm not going to let that–
JD: Has it always been, has it always been that way? Because like when I first, when I first got that gig on True Detective, I was getting attacked on, you know, “light colorism”. A lot of folks really just like, who the fuck is this guy? You know, that kind of thing. And that bothered me really badly for about three days.And then I was like, Oh…
Dallas Goldtooth: Hey, it depends. It depends on your buttons, right? Cause then it's also, like, what's that say about yourself? Right? Some things will hit really sore and I'm like, “Oh, it's less about what they're saying. It's more about, okay, why is, why am I reacting this way? I have some insecurities here. There's something I got to figure out.” But for the most part, yeah, it doesn't like, again, I was an organizer. I was an activist. Like I literally, you know, we coordinated, public pressure campaigns on public officials so I'm aware of the tactics that go into it. And also the not-clear tactics where people just want to bully each other. And having had that experience, I think it really helped prep me a bit more. Yeah. Yeah.
JD: I feel like celebrity. It's always been viewed through, uh, you know, a colonial lens. If I were to say the names, like, there's so many white actors out there. I don't even have to go into them. But if I say the names like, like, uh, Denzel, Viola Davis, Mindy Kaling, Bruce Lee, Lucy Liu, uh, white people know who these people are. Um, and with the exception of, like, Lily Gladstone now because of the recent Oscar kerfuffle, like, uh, where, where do you see, the future of Indigenous celebrity going?
Because before, very, very recently, most people couldn't even name a single Indigenous actor that were out there, that weren't Indigenous. Like, we all know each other, but…
Dallas Goldtooth: That's true. And I think also like You know, there's that there's different degrees of what we uh, like don't want to say what we accept as indigeneity But the scope the diaspora of indigeneity is also wide enough to where you know, what was our relative? Uh when Lily Gladstone was up for the oscar everyone's like the first native indigenous woman for oscar but actually it was the the sister that was in um, in the black and white film with um Alfonso Curan's film? She was a domestic house worker down in Mexico and she got nominated for an Oscar.
JD: Oh, wow. Roma?
Dallas Goldtooth: And she was like on People magazine
JD: Roma?
Dallas Goldtooth: Yes, Roma like
JD: Yes.
Dallas Goldtooth: she was straight up Indigenous, Native like and you know, so it was like hey, there's caveats of like little asterisks Oh, we meant, you know natives from the united states
JD: That's true. True, true, true, true. Yeah.
Dallas Goldtooth: So those, those, those are commentary, right? You have Jason Momoa who is native Hawaiian, but does he fall in that? Like for a lot of us, we're like, okay, that's Pacific Islander. We accept that dude. Hell yeah. Native Hawaiian. But I hear what you're saying too. Right. You don't folks, most don't know about Gary Farmer or Tantoo Cardinal. They know her face. They may say, Oh, I remember her in that thing. Right?
Dallas Goldtooth: Irene Bedard, like all that. I think it's changing. I think we're heading in the right direction. I think that also the dynamic of celebrity within Indian country has changed with social media. I think that Native celebrities have been more, in many ways more humanized because they're like, Oh, we can have more access to them, right? Um, we see them in other places on social media
JD: And more accurate representation as well, because we're actually telling our own stories for once.
Dallas Goldtooth: Exactly. Absolutely. So I feel like we're going in the right direction. But I do have worries, um, mainly stuff beyond our control. And a lot of it has to do with the current temperature of the industry right now, because we just came out of the writer's strike. Uh, we had the actor's strike and there's a lot of real discussions about, like, we're feeling a contraction.
There's a lot of people not getting work Because the studios have pulled back and we had this growth in the past 10 years. We've been super lucky with a massive expanse of new media but coming out of the strike, it's contracted. So the fear I have is that studios will go to what's easy.They're going to go to what's simple for them. And what's simple is not our stories, right? What's simple for them are blockbusters that really cater to the broad audiences where it's predominantly non native people. And this tremendous investment in Native storytellers and Native actors and actresses is going to be squandered, are going to be overlooked.
So that's the fear.
The hope is that we have been able to chip away enough and say, Hey, fuck invest in us cause you will come out with some amazing quality stories. And you see a lot of people taking advantage of that
JD: We've, we've, we've got that, that niche. We're, we're climbing. Um,
Dallas Goldtooth: Absoooolutely.
JD: Dallas,
Dallas Goldtooth: Hey, Hey, Hey, don't, don't hang up on me yet. Don't hang up
JD: I’m not hanging up on you. Are you kidding me?
Dallas Goldtooth: I'm filming a TV show right now in Montreal and yeah. Um,
JD: Lots of good Mohawk folks out there!
Dallas Goldtooth: and, and Canada is freaking expensive. Canada is ridiculously expensive, like just for groceries alone! And I can't, I can't imagine our relatives who are far up North and remote communities. But I'm filming a TV show. I've been in Montreal since February. I'm gonna be there till July. It's a six month shoot and It's a show called Last frontier. It was going to be out for Apple TV and It's a modern day action drama, so the story is like Con air meets the fugitive with a little bit of a Jason Bourne aspect to it.
JD: I auuditioned for that! And you got it! So there we go!
Dallas Goldtooth: Are you–
JD: Payback. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Dallas Goldtooth: Hey. Yeah!
JD: There we go. It's a little circle. Little circle of life. It goes on
Dallas Goldtooth: Circle of life, circle of life (both sing).
I, yeah, I play a native U. S. marshal out of Fairbanks, and, uh, it's, it's been eye opening because this is my first, like, big production where I'm a series regular, um, but it's one of those things I don't know how it was for you but there's so much lingo they use on movie sets that you just kind of have to fake like, you know it until you learn it because I always feel embarrassed to ask you know like they'll they'll ask oh bring the honey bucket over here and the two banger over there and all this stuff and Uh, i'm going 10-1 and all that i'm like, what do you do? What do you what's all this language?JD: I don't know, I don't know how long it took me for even like, had the courage to ask what 10-1 was. And I was just like, I was constantly, I'm going to the bathroom. Yeah.
Dallas Goldtooth: For anyone who doesn’t know, 10-1 means going to the bathroom. But on the set, you just say 10 1 and everyone's like, Oh, okay, you're going 10-1. Um, and like all the different roles, all the different jobs on the crew. I do my best to make sure that I'm the best coworker I can be because everyone's, we're all coworkers.
The show is not made with just one person. It's everybody involved. And I just try my best to be the best mentality going in every single day. And just try to be a decent person I don't – this is a is a critique amongst actors and I haven't really encountered this much, but I just don't understand how actors can like bigger actors or any actors can be assholes on a set when in many ways we don't have the worst job on set.
JD: No.
Dallas Goldtooth: Like there are folks who bust their ass on a movie set that they don't get the recognition they deserve at times. You know, these guys that are showing up before sunrise and they're there, they don't leave the set until three in the morning right? Like, you know, all the grips, all of–
JD: The PAs. I did a bunch of that
Dallas Goldtooth: the PAs!
JD: work and that is hell. That is such a tough job.
Dallas Goldtooth: So I, if there is a “words of advice”, maybe I'll leave on that. Words of advice for aspiring actors or anyone that wants to get into the industry of making movies and TV shows is be a good relative.
JD: Yes. I love that language.
Dallas Goldtooth: Be considerate of other people's time. And this is coming from my experience doing sketch comedy improv, but, , treat others as if they are the most important person there and making them shine. Like that's your job is to make your other performers, your coworkers be the best that they can be. Like that's the best way to, to achieving success. In my opinion.
JD: That's beautiful. Dallas, I appreciate that. I got one more thing. It's a segment that I always finish every show with called the Red Red Carpet. , and it's just a chance for you to give a shout out to anyone that's out there. What's, what's like, really filling your heart at the moment, be it something you're watching, be it an ally in the industry, be it a friend, your family, and also a rule, which I think you would appreciate: You can't do the red red carpet for Reservation Dogs because everyone kept trying to do it. Every one of my guests kept going. Rez dogs, man. That show. Yeah.
Dallas Goldtooth: Oh Crikey, oh freaking frack. Ah, I don't know what to say I'll give a shout out to my niece Quanah chasing horse Who is Gwich'in — Gwich'in Dene Lakota and she's a model many folks know her but just the way that she carries herself and talk about somebody that's like doing her job as a as an influencer and as a model but holding her own as an activist like it's just awe-inspiring to see and i'm so proud of her And I think that the it's just a that's a dope generation.
JD: I mean, honestly, being a model is probably the, it's a great platform, but it's not really anything about who she is
Dallas Goldtooth: absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah
JD: Huge. Thank you, Dallas. This has been really, this is my first time, uh, conversing with you.
So, absolutely wonderful. Hopefully, one day–
Dallas Goldtooth: It will not be our lastJD: It'll not be the last time.
Oh, all right. Everyone out there in podcast land. I appreciate you listening. Hopefully learn something. Don't be an asshole as always. That's it.Dallas Goldtooth: Mms, mms, mms, mms, mms. Boots and cats, boots and cats.
RECOMMENDED PODCAST
If you liked this episode, be sure to check out "Pretendians" with Robert Jago and Angel Ellis. Their recent episode about pretendians in Hollywood is a must-listen!
Thank you to our supporters!
Actors and Ancestors is supported by a podcasting grant from the Indigenous Screen Office
Cheekbone Beauty is sponsoring a giveaway to celebrate the launch of Season 2. Learn how to win one of three $250 gift cards here and match your red-carpet looks with Lily Gladstone!
Thank you to Decolonial Clothing for partnering with us recently to provide each of our Season One guests a gift as well as a discount code to each of you to thank you for listening to Actors and Ancestors! Use the discount code ACTORS10 for 10% off all your Decolonial Clothing orders!!