City To Country Magazine July/Aug 2016 July/Aug | Page 14

CELEBRITIES

You can say of these people that
their eyes were too big,
and they should have known better.

back to the history of the people on the reservation. In
real life, they are living out of a history that includes such
events as a genocide. In my mind, both (Longmire and
California Winter) are special jobs, because they actually
tell stories that I’m proud to be a part of. I think they’re
important, but too rarely addressed.”
Martinez sees his character of Jacob Nighthorse as “…a
soldier caught-up in a battle that was joined long before
he was born.” He is a Dog Soldier born out of his time.
Martinez continues, “The Dog Soldiers clan of the
Cheyenne were unique in that they were the only group
of people who said, ‘No, we will not cooperate with
the people coming in here and offering these treaties,
because these treaties are lies.’ They were warriors intent
on staking themselves to their ground and fighting to
the death to slow the pursuit of the enemy. Of course,
history has proven them to be right, but at the time,
they had to make their best guess about what the
proper thing to do was. Not only were they struggling
against the new civilization that was encroaching, but
also against their own family and community, which
banished them for their intransigence.” Of Nighthorse,
he says, “He’s connected to this battle by the teeth, and
I find him worthy of respect. The idea that I would play
a character who is so willing to be the antagonist for
what he perceives to be the greater good, I just find that
implicitly worthy of respect.”
The craggy mountains, cold, crystal rivers, and open
valleys of northern Wyoming serve as the moody
backdrop of Longmire. Combining many of the elements
of a gritty police procedural with the leathery and
tenacious characters of an old western movie, it’s the
type of TV show that hasn’t appeared on the small screen

14 | CITY TO COUNTRY MAGAZINE LLC

in decades. The story is told from the point-of-view of
Sheriff Walt Longmire, played by veteran actor Robert
Taylor. Longmire is tough and fair, but as Martinez
observes, “He is willing to bend the rules in a heartbeat,
if he thinks that’s what’s necessary.” He’s not a dirty cop,
but everyone questions his motives and his integrity.
Martinez’ character, Jacob Nighthorse, and the audience
suspect that Walt may actually be a stereotypical white
racist with a special place in his black heart for the
Indians on the reservation. However, as Martinez points
out, it’s not just the sheriff who’s suspect. “Everybody
on the canvas is harboring the dark side; everyone has
their own thing crawling on their back. They’re basically
decent people trying to do the things that decent people
do, but they’re all dealing with the other side of the coin.”
Martinez’ character, Jacob Nighthorse, is spiritually a
Dog Soldier, and you can feel how conflicted he is. Like
the Dog Soldiers in their time, he is living with people’s
assumptions, including a lot of the people in his own
community, that, despite his possible good intentions,
he is a somewhat sinister, probably criminal character
who’s not completely trustworthy. Longmire’s daughter,
Katie (Cassidy Freeman), lies to him, because she thinks
it’s for the greater good. Deputy Branch Connally (Bailey
Chase) is plotting to take Longmire’s job, and former
Philadelphia homicide detective, Victoria “Vic” Moretti
(Katee Sackhoff), is desperately trying to keep one step
ahead of her past, while learning, with difficulty, how to
fit into Wyoming’s frigid human landscape.
Like California Winter, Longmire is a story told from the
heart, and like California Winter, it is written, directed,
and acted-out by a brilliant group of actors. Early in
the first season, it comes to light that children are being
taken off of the reservation and put into foster care. The