1923’s Yellowstone prequel spin-off series features some of the darkest moments in U.S. history. Two World Wars included Great Depression, Prohibition and brutal maltreatment of Native Americans, as shown with Aminah Nieves character, Teonna Rainwater. Who is Teonna Rainwater in 1923?
Girl, Teonna Rainwater, forced to go to the catholic church’s government boarding school. Teachers assault Teonna, mostly Sister Mary OConnor.
Weve seen Teonna tortured physical, mentally and even sexually abused during the first few episodes of the show by another nun all over the world. U.S. 20th century dark history of these kinds of schools often hit with the rug, but show creator Taylor Sheridan never shied away from speaking out on such topics. Lets dive into Teonnas character more thoroughly.
Who is Teonna Rainwater in 1923?
Maddie’s Teonna Rainwater is 20-year-old Native American girl who had a government boarding school for American Indians in Montana near Yellowstone Ranch, like many others.
Catholic church leads the school, Father Renaud as headmaster, and their main goal is to get Native Americans to abandon their culture and make them a husband. Nothing holy or Catholic about what these girls are doing to them as they torture them every step of the way, punishing them physically and mentally.
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U.S.’s boarding schools actually exist in mid-20th century as thousands of young Native Americans abducted and forced to join in; to change their names and abandon their culture. Taylor Sheridan announced a new US history section as a gift to the characters.
Teonna Rainwater’s first Yellowstone character – Chief Thomas Rainwater. Teonna still has no plans to fold under pressure from schools staff.
Teonna answers a few questions from Sister Mary wrong and gets beaten by the nun for it in the very first episode. But she shows her spirit instantly, smiles at the nun right back, giving her a black eye.
Later, in the second episode, girls give mush and maggots for dinner, give grace. But Teonna does not think too much about those late dinners, then says she does fight with Sister Mary, gets punished even worse later even sexually assaulted, threatened to be murdered.
Well likely see Teonna try to escape soon rather than wait for grandmother to go through all those bureaucratic hurdles that had been taken at Teonna by Father Renaud to get her out of school but well have to wait and see.
Teonna Rainwater a part of C plot, but he plays key role in establishing lawlessness of the period, describing the horrible past thatsn’t really exactly that long for Native Americans.
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Who is Aminah Nieves, actress portraying Teonna Rainwater?
Aminah Nieves is a teen, up-and-coming actress who started acting career ok in 2021 film Dogwood. Nieves only 20 in 2002, and gets many fans’ attention – particularly since 1923 role as Teonna Rainwater. Slightly impressive performance, probably because it hits Aminah near home.
Aminah was stranded in a car with her mother, some sources say.
It’s very important for the character to tap into that and to honor my ancestors who have suffered so much and continue to face adversity [to her].
Teonna’s torment is brutal from start, probably near being done as we had seen before in 1923. All in all, I hope the end, for her, will be to get out of the horrendous school, from the torment, and to get to work for the people on the reservation.
Außerdem hoffe – outspoken Teonnas hand, or ally who, too, stand for them.
Aminahs career only has some roles behind her, big part as Elsa in Blueberry (2021). I think job opportunities will just continue to be good for 1923, seeing how much praise she gets for 1923 job opportunities.
Relation between Aminah Nieves and Jennifer Ehle (Sister Mary)
As with Jennifer Ehle, I want to start talks on the relationship between Aminah Nieves and Mary, actress who started 1923 staring in the same role as Sister Mary, who had the biggest beef with Teonna and had torment her from the very first scene weve seen the characters appear in together.
There were no tens of hours for both of them shooting, as the abuse is brutal and heaviest for them. Express says, the two felt only respect for each other, giving each other time and space that were more than intense.
Jennifer Ehle shared: All of the first two scenes you see in episode one, we filmed on our first day. Intensity for me: Intensive. Twenties with two cultural advisors. We had Birdie [Real Bird], whos Crow, and Mo Brings Plenty, [Yellowstone actor]. Our director Ben Richardson was great.
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Aminah says we both handled it pretty well, got to each other space when needed. This was a very intentionful set. We sprayed out that our borders were respected.
Love them all, though. You can actually get a sense of the difference between Aminah and Jennifer in those scenes. The storyline revolving around the boarding school is by far my favorite part of 1923 – and cant wait to see how the short goes further.
Paramount Plus Streams 1923, One Episode Every 7 Days.