CHEYENNE — Some modern-day celebrities are making their way to see a Cheyenne Frontier Days legend at the Princess Blue Water exhibit, honoring the Oglala Sioux woman who once told England’s Queen Victoria that Blue Water’s people would bow to no one.
“Yellowstone” TV show actor Moses Brings Plenty, who plays Mo Brings Plenty on the hit series, was the latest to drop in to see the Princess Blue Water exhibit at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. The visit was part of a rodeo road tour highlighting the West, as well as a segment for an upcoming edition of the magazine Cowboys and Indians.
Blue Water’s great-grandson Dan Morris was there for the occasion to talk about his famous relative and what she meant to him.
Morris said the call to come meet Brings Plenty was very last-minute and out-of-the-blue, but also a great honor.
“I would say literally hundreds of people knew Princess Blue Water,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And it always kind of shocks me, because to me, she was just my great-grandma — a pretty simple thing.”
To others, though, she was a leader and a voice for the underprivileged and disadvantaged.
“She was a judge, and she wanted to make a difference,” Morris said.
Morris loves to see that Blue Water’s legacy of building bridges between cultures has been kept alive by the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum, and that people like Brings Plenty are still coming to see her after all this time.
“The museum is keeping that legacy alive and giving us all a chance to hold onto our roots and understand where we come from,” he said.
Reshaping How Native Americans Are Portrayed
Brings Plenty is an enrolled Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, which was also Princess Blue Water’s home.
That’s not all the two have in common.
Brings Plenty also has long worked to bridge cultural divides, as well as bring about a more authentic representation of Native Americans in movies and television shows.
Films he’s been part of include “The Revenant,” “Hell on Wheels” and “House of Cards.” His television credits include “Yellowstone” and “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” where he plays Choctaw Minco Dodge.
In time, he has also become Indian affairs coordinator across the entire Taylor Sheridan universe, where his job is to ensure Native cultures are accurately showcased, from regalia to language, history and ceremonies. Taylor Sheridan is the creator of “Yellowstone” and other series.
Brings Plenty knows it is a tremendous opportunity to reshape how Native Americans are portrayed, as well as how their history will be remembered, but he is humble about it all.
“The No. 1 thing about being a human being is to respect others regardless of who they are, what their faith is, what their skin color is,” Brings Plenty told Cowboy State Daily during one of his appearance at the screening for a Lane Frost documentary. “Because again, if we dislike another human being based on their skin color or their faith or their language, then we are disliking God, because God is the one who created that individual.
“To truly love God, we must love all of God’s creation.”
Dan Morris, descendant of CFD legend Princess Blue Water, with "Yellowstone" television series actor Moses Brings Plenty. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
"Yellowstone" TV actor Moses Brings Plenty talks with Princess Blue Water descendant Dan Morris at Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum, where there is an exhibit about Blue Water. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Cheyenne Frontier Days, Cowgirls And Indians
Brings Plenty, in addition to visiting the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum, also dropped by the Indian Village at Cheyenne Frontier Days this week, where he performed traditional dances and talked about preserving Native American culture for future generations.
That kind of personal attention from a big celebrity like Brings Plenty was a pleasant surprise, Morris told Cowboy State Daily.
“So many times, you see these people on television, and they don’t always seem real,” he said. “So, getting to visit with them face-to-face like this was an amazing opportunity. And I think it’s also amazing what he’s doing for Wyoming.”
To have someone as high-profile as Brings Plenty in the state talking up Cheyenne Frontier Days during the Year of the Cowgirl can’t help but be a good thing, Morris said.
“He’s promoting the idea that the Western life is still alive, and Indians are a central part of it,” Morris said. “And I think anytime that we, as a little state like Wyoming with only half a million people, can have a voice like that out there saying, ‘You need to go visit Cheyenne,’ that’s a good thing for all of us here. So, it’s fabulous he’s here. It can only be a positive thing for Cheyenne.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
