Allie Redhorse Young & Jhane Myers | The 2022 MAKERS Conference

Allie Redhorse Young & Jhane Myers at the 2022 MAKERS Conference.

Video Transcript

- Please welcome Jhane Myers and Allie Redhorse Young.

[APPLAUSE]

JHANE MYERS: So Allie-- so don't you think our future is in good hands?

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That's so amazing and so inspiring. So tell me, what do you-- tell us about Protect the Sacred and Riding to the Polls and where you see that going. And will that keep going for the Navajo Nation?

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Absolutely. And I think not just the Navajo Nation, but my goals moving forward are to expand across Indian country and focus on Native youth leadership development because I truly believe that our native youth are powerful. They're the future.

They've been at the forefront of a lot of historical movements in our history. And you think about Standing Rock. That was youth-led.

And so our young people, I feel that there's this urge to reconnect to our cultures and our languages more than ever probably. And our young people are the ones that are-- they're educating themselves because there's really no excuse nowadays. There's just so much out there.

And our young people are the ones that are doing the work. They're educating themselves. They know the history of our people, and they're asking the questions.

JHANE MYERS: That's great. So tell me about your writing. I think it's been really inspiring and incredible that you interviewed Deb Haaland. And you also interviewed somebody that's near and dear to my heart, Amber Midthunder of "Prey."

And that was for "InStyle." So tell me how you liked interviewing them. And who is your dream interview, your next interview?

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Ooh. So my writing, it's been incredible. As the video showed, I was doing more creative writing. I was developing a project with my former bosses, who were showrunners at Nickelodeon. So when I moved out to LA in 2015, I started out as a PA on a live action Nickelodeon television show.

And I was promoted to showrunner's assistant. And it was through that process-- I knew I wanted to be in the industry, but I didn't know exactly where because in college, I studied film editing. And I had an interest in writing.

I never thought I was a good writer. So I was like, I don't think writing. But during the process, being a showrunner's assistant, you're exposed to every department because I followed my bosses everywhere.

And it was when I was in the writers' room. When the script coordinator and the writer's assistant were called away to work on a script, they would call me in to the writers' room to take notes and be on the keyboard. And it was incredible to hear, like, the genesis of the stories that came to life on the screen and to see it from that point all the way to being on a film set and seeing those words come to life and the story come to life.

It was incredible. And I enjoyed being in the writers' room. They're the ones who became my friends at work.

And my bosses would invite me to beer o'clock, and I would go. And I would share stories. And it was after I left the industry, actually, I went over to the nonprofit world.

And I was working for Native Americans in Philanthropy. And then Harness, which is where I'm at now. And Protect the Sacred is a program that's housed at Harness.

Harness is a nonprofit that's was founded by America Ferreira, Wilmer Valderrama, and Ryan Piers Williams that focuses on amplifying stories in cultures of disenfranchised and BIPOC communities. So that's where I kind of fit in right now and kind of put my writing on hold because there was something that was ahead, which was what we were facing in Navajo Nation in 2020. I was developing my show with my former showrunner bosses.

Pandemic hits. I go home. And Protect the Sacred begins.

And I'm kind of sitting there like, I'm a storyteller. And I know, how can I move my people? And it's through our stories.

And it's through-- our young people revere our elders and our ancestors. And then they work hard for the youth and the next seven generations. So I thought, how do I bridge that gap?

And I wanted to create an activation that would inspire them and that, where they were honoring their ancestors, but at the same time, doing something that would benefit the next seven generations. And so all of that was put on hold. I then ventured down into journalism because of my activism work.

Suddenly people were coming to me about writing op-eds. And it was a different kind of writing. And I was like, OK, I can do this.

And then next thing I knew, "InStyle" came knocking on my door and asking me if I could interview Deb Haaland for-- she became the first Native American cabinet member in history. And she is now the Secretary of the Interior. So that was just incredible.

I was very nervous getting on the Zoom with her. But she's a powerful woman. And it was an incredible experience to be able to write that piece.

I took a very spiritual approach because she represents a lot for Native women in our community. And so that was incredible. And then Amber, Midthunder a rising star-- had the opportunity to also interview her recently for "InStyle."

So it went from someone who is established and a leader in her own right, and then someone who's up-and-coming, who's young, and we have a lot to look forward to her-- for the work that she's putting out. So I can do both kinds of writing. My next steps are to get back to more of the creative writing and create roles for our people as strong women and those kinds of worlds. But for my next interview in the journalism space, I mean, I'd love to flip this around and interview you, Jhane.

JHANE MYERS: Oh, well, thank you. I came from a somewhat journalism background. I had my own magazine in Oklahoma. So it's "Oklahoma Casinos and Entertainment." But being on the extended press junket I've been on as a producer of "Prey," I'm getting close to 350 interviews.

And when I got approached-- interviews and podcasts. So when I got approached to do this, I said, oh, so you're going to be interviewing me. They said, no, would you like to interview Allie Young? And I said, sign me up.

I would because just to sit in this chair again, from when I was at my magazine and interviewing everyone, it's nice to sit here. And it's nice to see somebody that's-- I mean, everything that you do is remarkable. And it's setting that bar high for the Native young women.

Oh, if Allie can do this, I want to do this. Or I can do this and this, then. And just, it's a wonderful thing. And I like to see that. So I'm glad to sit in this chair.

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Thank you. Yeah. I mean, and if you guys don't know about "Prey," it's on Hulu. It's the film that stars Amber Midthunder that's part of the "Predator" franchise. And Jhane was the producer on that show-- on that movie, sorry. And it brought in incredible numbers, right?

JHANE MYERS: Huge numbers. It's really hard when you have Native content because people don't know where to place us. And I, for years, have been saying, well, put us at the top.

[LAUGHTER]

[APPLAUSE]

But whether they listen to that or not, because you're in there pitching shows-- so I work as a producer. And to know that I got to produce "Prey," as a Native woman producer, that's even a bigger step in its own and has its own challenges because you don't always see Native women traditionally in that role, let alone women in the role of a franchise that appeals to men that's been from-- I guess men from 11 to 100 is our demographic. But now that it's on Hulu, we have access to all these different numbers for streaming.

And now, since it shows a woman hero and a Native woman, it has just blown the doors off everything. So our viewership is 40% women. So that's the first time in the franchise, which is pretty incredible.

And when they were setting our goals-- because well, we don't know who this will appeal to because it has Native people in it and what market-- it appeals to everyone, is what I always say. So they set a goal for, at 10 weeks, we want this many million people-- millions-- to have watched it on Hulu. We exceeded that goal by 2 million in 10 days.

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Which has never been done. But I always go, well, I said you should put Native people at the top. I love the Kardashians, but that was their big goal. I mean, that was-- the Kardashians were the big launch for Hulu. And now we actually beat the Kardashians. Oh, my gosh.

So it's like, oh, no, Kim, don't be mad at me, because they have worldwide presence. And they have their social media. And they have people that can do all this.

We were just a predominantly Native cast, Native producer, coming in with a language component that hasn't been done before in Comanche. And the goals and everything that we set were just phenomenal. So I'm thrilled, really thrilled.

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Yeah.

JHANE MYERS: So tell me real quick, what do you think about Native women in media and about increasing that representation?

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Well, we need to continue increasing it. I think we've come a long way, especially with the project that you've done, shows like "Rutherford Falls" by Sierra Teller Ornelas, "Reservation Dogs," even, that feature prominent, strong, Native women-- young women. And historically, it wasn't that way.

You think of some of the mainstream content out there, like "Smoke Signals," that follow the journey of two young male Indian boys. And really, historically, Native women were side characters. Or they weren't nuanced. They weren't fully fleshed-out characters.

And now we're seeing that on the screen. And it's great progress. But it's just the beginning. And I'm excited for what's going to come next.

And backstage, we were talking about this, that right now in Hollywood, Native women are the ones leading the way when it comes to our representation in Hollywood. And I often say that Native people, our community is the most marginalized in Hollywood. We're the most underrepresented community in Hollywood.

And for a long time, within that marginalized group, women were even more marginalized-- Native women. And so we have many stories to tell. We go off to college. We live in the city.

All of those stories need to be told to inspire our young women, our youth in general. And the more that our youth see us on the screen, represented in different ways, the more that they have hope. And that's the reason I got into this work on the creative side, but also my activism in the nonprofit sector, because my younger brother committed suicide at the age of 17.

And I was even young at that-- I was 18. And going through that, processing that, and trying to understand what happened, there's all kinds of factors that go into that kind of a decision. But ultimately, I knew that he was struggling, going through an identity crisis.

And he was struggling living-- we were, at the time, living in a predominantly-- well, it was a half Navajo, half white community, predominantly Mormon community. And there was all kinds of racial tensions.

And growing up in that community, I have memories of myself feeling like I didn't want to go outside because I didn't want my complexion to get darker because I felt-- during middle school, all you want to do is fit in. And all you want to do is belong and be accepted. And I really felt from my peers that I was more accepted because of my lighter skin.

But I didn't realize that until I left my community and I reflected on all of that. And I knew that it had the same impact on my little brother. And he was dealing with racial profiling, racism. And so I, from that point on, was determined to create opportunities for Native youth and to create-- to show them that they have a huge contribution to this world and that they're important, that their voices are important. And I want them to be seen and feel seen.

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JHANE MYERS: That's great. That's great. That's one of the things I thought about when I was producing "Prey," when I first got the script, when I'm interviewing for the job. And I looked at the script and I was like, ooh, this has so much potential, when I was reading the story.

It was written by two non-Native men. But they were open to letting me add all of this Comanche nuance, to change some names around, to switch some things. And so I thought, this has great potential because for me, being Comanche and Blackfeet, I grew up in my Comanche community.

But we didn't see ourselves. I mean, my grandparents raised me. So I was raised as an elders' child.

And we would go to movies. My grandfather would go, oh, let's see if they get something right. And we would walk out of the movie, and he'd say, no, they didn't quite get something-- they didn't get it right.

And I, later in my life, had a talk with Suzan Harjo. And I said, I want to be in film because I want to change the way that we look on screen and the things that we do and the way that we live because we're people. Being a Comanche-- oh, my gosh, we're always the villains. We're the savages.

We go through and burn everything. We don't always. So you know, I was just like, oh, my gosh, I want to change that because I wanted our Comanche youth to be able to see themselves up there in a positive way, which was done in "Prey."

And hopefully, it inspires people to-- inspires our youth. Oh, my gosh, I want to make a movie, because you can make a movie with your telephone. You can edit on your telephone.

So I want to make my own thing. I want to make it not 300 years ago, but I want to make it now and see what. And then yes, it has a alien in there, the predator. But why not? Because you don't see Natives in situations other than the situations that have been created for us by other people, not ourselves.

So that was my big thing to do. And like Suzan Harjo says, Hollywood discovers Indians every 25 years. And if you look at that pattern, start with "Dances with Wolves" and then "Smoke Signals." And you know, it's just every so often. It's not a consistent thing.

Now you can turn on the TV, and you can see consistent. You can see television shows. You can see movies, things consistently with us. So that means that there's more content for our Native youth to watch. And if we create it right and if we do it right, it's going to be inspiring.

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then the last thing I'll say is just that we're leading our National Ride to the Polls campaign now. And so look out for that.

We're encouraging our community to vote because we came out in record numbers in the 2020 election. And now it's the midterms. And I have a feeling that we're going to beat the numbers from 2018. And we're determined to reclaim our power through the vote and stand in that power.

JHANE MYERS: And don't you have somebody running for Senate, too? You have a Navajo--

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Yeah. Yeah. Myron Lizer-- we just have incredible Native figures running for office. So we're encouraging our people. If we want things to change, we have to be the ones to make sure that we're represented and that we're showing up in those numbers.

JHANE MYERS: Absolutely. Well, thank you for all you do.

ALLIE REDHORSE YOUNG: Thank you.

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