Horrible things happen to Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) in 1923, making her Yellowstone story one of the most difficult to watch. When her journey begins, Teonna Rainwater attends a Catholic boarding school run by Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché) and a group of priests and nuns.
To escape the abuse enacted by the assimilation school, Teonna escapes in 1923 season 1, murdering her abusers and fleeing North Dakota. While Teonna meets people willing to help her along the way, the hunt for the Crow student continues, putting Teonna in a permanent state of danger. Father Renaud continues his search for Teonna with Marshal Nathan Kent (Jamie McShane) in 1923 season 2.
While Teonna and her group stay ahead of their pursuers for most of 1923 season 2, Renaud and Kent leave a path of death and destruction behind them, senselessly murdering innocent people. Ultimately, their ruthless actions convince Marshal Mamie Fossett (Jennifer Carpenter) to vouch for Teonna, giving her story a happy ending, at least as far as 1923 goes. Still, Teonna’s freedom cost her everything, and what she endures is a testament to that.
13
Sister Mary Beats Teonna Because She Doesn’t Know The Ingredients Of Soap
1923 season 1, episode 1, “1923”
The first time 1923’s audience met Teonna Rainwater, she was answering questions about soap, with her story opening at the U.S. School for Native Americans in North Dakota. A nun who goes on to antagonize Teonna, Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle), asks Teonna to name the ingredients of soap, and Teonna responds: oil, lye, and water. When Sister Mary pushes Teonna on what kind of oil, she says “Any kind,” which angers the nun, and Sister Mary beats Teonna’s hands with a ruler.
Teonna retaliates, reaching a breaking point, and she lashes out at Sister Mary, knocking her to the floor and punching her repeatedly.
The situation devolves as Sister Mary beats Teonna’s hands, and she struggles to answer the nun’s questions. As she endures the beating, Teonna mutters something in Crow, causing the nun to hit Teonna over the head. Teonna retaliates, reaching a breaking point, and she lashes out at Sister Mary, knocking her to the floor and punching her repeatedly.
12
Father Renaud Beats Teonna For Retaliating Against Sister Mary
1923 season 1, episode 1, “1923”
Eventually, two priests break up the quarrel, taking Teonna up the stairs to Father Renaud’s office. The father is immediately curious about what Sister Mary did to prompt Teonna’s attack, appearing to care for his student. Renaud even asks to see Teonna’s hands, and when he can see they are covered in bruises, Renaud looks to his nun for an explanation.
Sister Mary likens Teonna to a wild animal, and Father Renaud beats his teacher for the treatment of her student. However, just as it looks like the headmaster will show Teonna compassion, he beats her as well, saying he will not show her mercy. Later, as Teonna takes a bath, as instructed by the nuns, Teonna turns around to reveal the blood dripping down her legs to Sister Mary, caused by the wounds from Father Renaud.
11
Sister Mary Beats Teonna For Refusing To Eat Maggots
1923 season 1, episode 2, “Nature’s Empty Throne”
1923 paints the bleak reality of Native American boarding schools as Teonna is forced to eat maggots for dinner. While the rest of the girls recite their dinner prayers, Teonna says something in Crow to her cousin, Baapuxti (Leenah Robinson), knowing it will get her in trouble. Teonna tells Baapuxti, “I’d rather be hit… than eat this.”
Terror spreads across Baapuxti’s face as she witnesses her cousin breaking a major rule. The boarding schools like the one Teonna attended in 1923 were to assimilate children, so speaking their language was punished with the intent of suppressing Native American culture completely. Thus, Sister Mary immediately punishes Teonna. While she fights back, Teonna is held down by four nuns and given a horrible punishment.
10
The Priests Place Teonna In A Hot Box
1923 season 1, episode 2, “Nature’s Empty Throne”
After Teonna’s demonstration at dinner, she is shepherded outside into something Renaud calls a “hot box.” Renaud then places Teonna in a wooden box outside with no food or water, threatening her if she ever uses her Native language again. He says, “If you speak that filth in my school again… I will bury you alive.”
Presumably, days later, two priests come to collect Teonna from the hot box, who is weak and can barely walk. The hotbox was meant to break Teonna’s will to fight, with Father Renuad saying, “Perhaps the hotbox will teach you the piety Sister Mary failed to impart on you.” However, it only pushes the Crow student further into her breaking point.
9
A Nun Sexually Assaults Teonna In The Bath
1923 season 1, episode 2, “Nature’s Empty Throne”
As Teonna hits her low point after baking in the sun in the hot box, the abuse from her Catholic guardians continues. The Crow student takes a bath when she gets back inside the house. While it should have been a peaceful experience for her, Sister Alice (Kerry O’Malley) sexually assaults Teonna when she is too weak to bathe herself.
Sister Mary then beats Teonna again, remarking that she’s “sworn to kill the Indian” in her.
While Sister Mary interrupts the abuse, she berates Teonna for attacking her but not Sister Alice. Sister Mary then delivers a monologue to Teonna, saying that she’s Teonna’s salvation. Sister Mary then beats Teonna again, remarking that she’s “sworn to kill the Indian” in her. This language is taken directly from the most prominent Native American boarding schools at the time, which had slogans such as: “Kill the Indian, save the man,” encapsulating the assimilation mentality.
8
Sister Mary & The Other Nuns Make Teonna Beg For Salvation
1923 season 1, episode 4, “War and the Turquoise Tide”
Some time later, the nuns lead a farming lesson outside as the girls pick berries. As the girls work, Sister Mary tells them that their days of following the buffalo are over, further separating the Indigenous children from their culture. Sister Mary’s dialogue would suggest that the nuns were saving the children, and they were teaching them life skills, but the experience is dehumanizing.
When Sister Alice beats Baapuxti for saying she’s “not Jesus” when she complains about the thorns, Teonna retaliates again. Baapuxti’s cousin hits Sister Alice, who had abused her days before, over the head with a metal pail. However, Sister Mary stops her attack, hitting Teonna in the face with a shovel so hard that it knocks her unconscious.
When she wakes up, Teonna is tied to a chair. As she begins to struggle, Sister Mary tells Teonna she’s trying to save her, but like the wolf, she must become a dog, reflecting her mentality that Teonna and her culture are akin to wild animals. Sister Mary then beats Teonna until she begs for salvation, and when she gives in, the nuns scrub Teonna’s back with a steel brush, telling her she must be bathed in her blood to be saved.
7
Father Renaud Murders Teonna’s Cousin After She Escapes
1923 season 1, episode 5, “Ghost of Zebrina”
The battery that Teonna endures causes her to make war on the school, murdering Sisters Mary and Alice before fleeing the institution. When the other nuns alert Father Renaud of the murder, he summons the girls to question them. During questioning, Renaud homes in on Teonna’s cousin, Baapuxti, since she is the only one crying, telling her, “fear is the stench of guilt,” and she reeks of it.
Renaud begins beating Baapuxti, despite her telling him the truth that Teonna was heading home. When he doesn’t believe her, at her breaking point, Baapuxti speaks Crow, telling him, “I am Otter from the Kills Many Clan. My cousin will reach our home. And then the Kills Many Clan will come to kill you.” Enraged by the rebellion, Renaud punches Teonna’s cousin to the ground and then stomps on her face, murdering her.
6
Marshal Kent Kills Teonna Rainwater’s Grandmother
1923 season 1, episode 6, “One Ocean Closer to Destiny”
After locating her tracks, Father Renaud sends three priests after Teonna. Meanwhile, Marshal Kent begins hunting for Teonna, arriving at her grandmother’s home with a warrant for Teonna’s arrest. Kent believes that Issaxche could be harboring Teonna in her home, and as he looks around without a complete explanation, Issaxche demands that the lawman leave her home, hitting his arm.
Kent pushes Issaxche back forcefully, and Teonna’s grandmother dies instantly as she hits her head on the cookstove. While it appears as if it could have been an accident, Teonna’s grandmother is just the first of many innocent Native Americans Kent kills in his ruthless pursuit of Teonna. The murder of her grandmother contributes to Teonna’s claim in 1923 season 2’s finale that fighting for her freedom cost her everything.
5
A Priest Attacks Teonna & Kills Hank In The Badlands
1923 season 1, episode 7, “The Rule of Five Hundred”
Teonna makes it into the Badlands and finds a man named Hank Plenty Clouds (Michael Greyeyes), who knows her father, Runs His Horse (Michael Spears), and promises to take her to him. However, the priests from Teonna’s school continue to hunt her. First, they find Pete Plenty Clouds camped on his way back to Hank and Teonna, attacking and capturing him.
While one priest attempts to take Pete back to Teonna’s school (unsuccessfully, since Runs His Horse finds and kills him), the other two come upon Teonna and Hank’s location. When Teonna runs, a priest attacks her. While Hank ultimately shoots both the priests, one survives and kills him after he turns his back, then attacks Teonna, who kills him with a rock.
4
Marshal Kent Puts Up Wanted Posters Of Teonna
1923 season 2, episode 2, “The Rapist is Winter”
Although Teonna, Pete (Jeremy Gauna), and Runs His Horse join forces at the end of 1923 season 1, after they all survived the priests’ attacks, the hunt for Teonna Rainwater continues in 1923 season 2. Marshal Kent joins forces with Father Renaud, and they take a southbound train to where they believe the Crow people are hiding. During their pursuit, the men meet Marshal Mamie Fossett in 1923 season 2, episode 2, who agrees to put up their wanted posters to help locate Teonna despite Kent’s prejudiced behavior.
In 1923 season 2, episode 4, “Journey the Rivers of Iron,” Teonna finds the posters at the rodeo after she and her group mates help some Texas cowboys herd cattle. While it looks like things might be turning up for Teonna, the wanted poster is a reminder of the transgressions that haunt her. When she and her father both discover the posters, they take off with Pete on an ill-fated path through the plains with little resources to support their attempt to evade the law.
3
A Cowboy Turns Teonna And Her Group Into Marshal Kent
1923 season 1, episode 5, “Only Gunshots to Guide Us”
Just when it looks like Teonna, Runs His Horse, and Pete have finally found a crowd they could get along with, Teonna’s discovery of her wanted poster causes the group to flee. When Marshal Kent and Father Renaud come to the nearby town to question the cowboys about Teonna, it looks like Anders (C. Thomas Howell) is going to let them go. However, when Renaud comes into the saloon and personally attests to Teonna’s crimes, Anders gives up Teonna’s location.
The confirmation of Teonna’s travel plans gives Marshal Kent and Father Renaud a huge advantage in their search. Anders shows Kent and Renaud the direction that Teonna’s group headed in exactly, remarking there isn’t a tree within a thousand miles, indicating they will be easy to find. Anders’ information is what allows the men to close in on Teonna and take the rest of what she has left.
2
Marshal Kent Kills Pete Plenty Clouds In A Shootout
1923 season 2, episode 5, “The Mountain Teeth of Monsters”
While Teonna and her group struggle from exhaustion, Pete Plenty Clouds offers to go look for water, since no one is looking for him. However, when Pete finally finds a water source to replenish the party, Marshal Kent and Father Renaud sit by the bank. Immediately upon seeing him, Kent begins to chase Pete with Father Renaud in tow.
Struggling from exhaustion, Pete’s horse eventually collapses as Kent chases him on horseback. As Pete is thrown off his horse, he grabs for his rifle, firing at the same time as Kent, and leaving 1923 season 2, episode 5, on a tense cliffhanger. At the beginning of episode 6, we discover that Pete Plenty Clouds died in the shootout with Marshal Kent, taking another member of Teonna’s party.
1
Father Renaud Kills Runs His Horse & Attempts To Kill Teonna
1923 season 2, episode 6, “The Mountain Teeth of Monsters”
In 1923 season 2, episode 6, Teonna’s conflict comes to a climax. After he witnesses Marshal Kent kill another innocent Native American, Father Renaud retaliates by shooting Kent with a pistol in cold blood, saying, “We are looking for a girl, but you, you keep killing innocent boys and men who know nothing of the girl we seek.” Finally, acting on his instinct that Kent is an evil person, Renaud cuts their search party in half.
As Teonna notes to Two Spears (Dougie Hall), after her murder case is dismissed in court, fighting back costs her everything.
After killing his search partner, Father Renaud goes after Teonna and her remaining party by himself. Unfortunately, Father Renaud kills Runs His Horse, Teonna’s father, leaving her with no one to continue her journey with. While Teonna fights back, murdering Renaud to save her life, it is a bittersweet end to the Rainwater girl’s 1923 story. As Teonna notes to Two Spears (Dougie Hall), after her murder case is dismissed in court, fighting back costs her everything.