Oregon’s Jana Schmieding on her show, ‘Rutherford Falls,’ Native creators on TV, and more

Jana Schmieding says that, in some ways, the experience of costarring in the Peacock comedy, “Rutherford Falls,” reminded her of what it felt like to grow up in Canby, Oregon. In “Rutherford Falls,” which returns for Season 2 on Thursday, June 16, Schmieding plays Reagan Wells, a member of the fictional Minishonka people, and a woman who’s determined to operate a cultural center that honors Minishonka history and traditions.

How to watch: “Rutherford Falls” streams exclusively on Peacock, the NBCUniversal streaming service. Season 2 begins streaming on Thursday, June 15.

In the show, the Minishonka lived on the land that later came to be called Rutherford Falls, because it was named after Lawrence “Big Larry” Rutherford. He was a white man who arrived long after the Minishonka, who nevertheless claimed to be the “founder” of the town.

“The Rutherford Falls environment is very real,” Schmieding says in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where she lives now. In general, she says, when you grow up in a small town, you’re not exposed to the Indigenous history. In Canby, for example, she grew up alongside first and second-generation children of immigrants who weren’t Native.

Just as the town of “Rutherford Falls” is named after a white man who showed up long after Native people dwelled on the land, Canby is named after Edward Canby, who had been a general in the Civil War. In 1873, Canby was killed near Tule Lake, California, as a National Park Service account has it, by members of the Modoc tribe, as the parties were supposedly meeting under terms of truce to negotiate a peace treaty.

Schmieding, who is enrolled in the Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux tribe, recalls that, in her early days in Canby, “I was also brought up with a lot of Native folks. So, I’m very familiar with the Native community in Oregon. My family and I did a lot of education in our community around our identity, and for better or worse, it set me up for a life of self-advocacy, and Native advocacy. My siblings and I were always sort of having to explain ourselves, and explain our history to our peers.

“I take pride in that work, and I think it has made me who I am today,” the 40-year-old says. “It was also challenging.”

Schmieding was interested in the arts from an early age, and after graduating from Canby High School in the class of 2000, she attended the University of Oregon, in Eugene, where she was a theater arts major who performed in musicals, plays, a solo show, and more. She was also active with the university Multicultural Center, and the Native American Student Union.

“My college days were filled with hard work, and joy and art,” Schmieding says. “I really milked my university experience for all that it would give me.”

The first season of “Rutherford Falls” introduced Schmieding’s character, Reagan, who was trying to balance her loyalty to her people and her lifelong friendship with Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms). Nathan took inordinate pride in his Rutherford heritage, but his lack of enlightenment about the role white people played in seizing Native land ultimately made him a laughingstock not only in his hometown, but to listeners of an NPR podcast that spotlighted Nathan’s cluelessness.

When “Rutherford Falls” premiered in 2021, it was something of a trailblazer in terms of Native talent being represented among the creative team. Sierra Teller Ornelas, who created the show with Helms and Michael Schur (“The Good Place”), was the first Native showrunner of a TV comedy. Schmieding was one of many Indigenous writers on staff.

Since then, such series as Hulu’s “Reservation Dogs,” and AMC’s “Dark Winds,” have also employed Indigenous creators, writers and actors. As with those shows, “Rutherford Falls” demonstrates how Native creators bring nuance, perception and subtlety to their work, and avoid stereotypes about Indigenous characters and communities.

Related: ‘Dark Winds’: A compelling blend of crime story and rich portrait of Native culture (review)

“We’re starting to see shows that have Native executive producers, and that’s what creates a bigger systemic shift,” Schmieding says. “Because executive producers have hiring power. These native EPs have hired Native writers, and producers, and talent in front of the camera, and behind it.”

Schmieding also points to more Native characters showing up in non-Native shows, such as Tamara Podemski, who, as Schmieding says, plays “a queer Native woman” who’s a sheriff in the Prime Video Wyoming-set Western drama, “Outer Range.” Podemski’s character has a Native partner, played by Morningstar Angeline, and the couple have a daughter.

“Rutherford Falls” touches on issues that would hardly seem to lend themselves to humor, including controversy over monuments to white quote-unquote-settlers. The show acknowledges how blind Nathan Rutherford, for example, has been to the privileges he enjoys. But Nathan isn’t demonized for his shortcomings, and comedy stays in the forefront.

“We really wanted to make an aspirational show about friendship,” Schmieding says. The goal, she says, was to see if a person can change their mind, and change their behavior. “And I think we see that with Ed Helms’ character. He’s treated with compassion by his friends, because they have a history.”

Schmieding says she doesn’t want to use the term “cancel culture,” but the show’s approach is “sort of an anti-narrative to what we consider ‘cancel culture.’ We are giving characters on our show a chance to mess up, and be accepted back into the community, and be forgiven. We see Reagan mess up, too. None of these characters are perfect, and we love to see it. We want to see people being human beings.”

“Rutherford Falls” Season 2 streams beginning Thursday, June 16 on Peacock.

— Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist