Martin Sensmeier is an American Actor and Producer from the Alaskan Native Tribes, Tlingit as well as Koyukon-Athabascan. He was raised in the village of Yakutat, Alaska.
You may recognize the actor who plays Sam from Yellowstone. That's right—Martin Sensmeier previously appeared on Yellowstone as Monica's flirtatious physical therapist. In 1883, his character Sam is Comanche Native-American Warrior.
Sensmeier played the recurring role of Martin in Yellowstone season 2, and appeared separately in spin-off 1883 as the character of Sam. Yellowstone is currently in its fifth and final season, which came after it emerged that lead star Kevin Costner was departing the show.
But amid storylines focused on death, disease, and the other hardships of life on the trail, one character offers a bit of positivity: Eric Nelsen's Ennis, a young cowboy beginning to fall in love with Elsa Dutton (Isabel May), the daughter of James Dutton (Tim McGraw). "Ennis doesn't take things too seriously.
Elsa, who had decided to see her family in Oregon before returning to be with Sam, may be dead, but just as her spirit narrates the series (and the following 1923 series), so it's implied that her spirit reunites with Sam's in the afterlife. Whether this means that Sam too is dead is unknown, but it's not unlikely.
Martin Sensmeier as Sam in the 'Yellowstone' prequel show '1883. '. Martin Sensmeier charmed both audiences and Elsa Dutton as Sam, a Comanche warrior who helped out the Dutton family on their westward trip. After Ennis' death, James and Margaret's eldest child falls in love again.
Yellowstone does feature two well-known Native actors: Gil Birmingham, of Comanche descent, plays Thomas Rainwater, the Harvard-educated chairman of the fictional "Broken Rock" tribe who aims to buy back ancestral lands now owned by wealthy Montana cattleman John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner.
Gilbert Birmingham was born in San Antonio, Texas. He identifies his father as being of Comanche descent. His family moved frequently during his childhood due to his father's career in the military. Birmingham learned to play the guitar at an early age and considers music to be his "first love."
John is the only character to cross over between 1883 and 1923. He is portrayed as a child by Audie Rick in 1883 and then as an adult by James Badge Dale in 1923. In 1923, he is married to Emma and they have a son, Jack.
One of those girls is played by Aminah Nieves, an indigenous actress who landed the very important role of Teonna Rainwater — a veritable prisoner of the Catholics (and ancestor of Gil Birmingham's Thomas Rainwater, who we eventually meet in Yellowstone) who can dish it out as much as she can take it.
Tokala Black Elk (Lakota tribe leader) also played "Sam Stands Alone" in the first season of Yellowstone. He also appeared in another Taylor Sheridan production, the film Wind River.
She grew fond of him and their romance bloomed until there was a shootout with some bandits, resulting in Ennis's death. She later met a Comanche warrior in Kansas named Sam who she connected with, giving her a second chance at love. She later agreed to accept Sam's hand in marriage, but there was no ceremony.
More recently, he has played a physical therapist in Season 2 of Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone, the four-season saga of the Dutton family and their patriarch's determination to keep the ranch intact, and the character of Sam, a Comanche warrior, in 1883, Sheridan's prequel to Yellowstone.
Elsa was also planning to split from the group to stay with Sam, but after many goodbyes, everyone decided they were going to Oregon anyway. Even Elsa decided to leave her boyfriend so she could find out where Oregon was, while planning to return to the plains in June to reunite with him.
In Comancheria, the settlers pay a tax to the Comanche to cross their land. One of the Comanche introduces himself to Elsa as Sam, a name he took from the man who killed his wife. The two race their horses; Elsa wins and Sam nicknames her "Lightning With The Yellow Hair".
The Comanche Nation today is a federally recognized Native American tribe with a membership of 17,000. The joint Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in southwest Oklahoma disbanded over 100 years ago, and the land was distributed to the members of those tribes.
There is much evidence put forth by Weixelman, Haines, and Nabokov and Loendorf that a number of tribes considered the Yellowstone country sacred and used it as a vision- questing, prayer-making, and gift- bequeathing place, and there is much other material in their writings that disproves the theory that Indians ...
Mo Brings Plenty has openly said that he was ready to quit acting before Yellowstone came along. An enrolled member of the Lakota Nations, he was frustrated with the cultural misappropriation he saw onscreen, until he was cast in the first season of the Paramount Network flagship series that launched in 2018.
In 2017, the New York Times said she was "Taiwanese, British and Eastern Band Cherokee," but added that she "did not grow up in an indigenous community." Asbille herself told the outlet that she had an "intense connection" to her Native "Wind River" character, adding: "This role, more than any other, it's in my blood."
No one “lived” in what is now Yellowstone Park, though obviously, tribes did live in the region, typically at lower elevations. The reason is evident to anyone who has spent any time in the area (which most revisionists have not).
Elliott's current role in the Paramount + series 1883 — a Yellowstone prequel — as Shea Brennan has earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award. The series details the Dutton family's tragic cross-country journey on The Oregon Trail. The 78-year-old has said filming the tragic character of Brennan was not easy.
In the beginning of 1923, Elsa is narrating and speaks about her parents' children, saying only one would live to see their children grown and carry the family forward through the depression and every other hell of the 20th century.
After surviving harsh weather conditions and various opposing threats during their journey, 1883 saw Shea take his own life in the series finale, though this may not be the end for the character. During a recent interview with Variety, Sam Elliott reflected on his time working on Paramount+'s 1883.
