The series 1923 has been praised for its fairly accurate portrayal of the grim reality within boarding schools set up by Western settlers to force the assimilation of Indigenous communities during America's Westward Expansion.
Jennifer Ehle, who portrayed Sister Mary in the debut season, shared with Screen Rant: "Sister Mary is a person who believes, as the people who were running these residential schools actually did believe, that you had to 'kill the Indian to save the man'.".
The website elaborated: "The children spent as many as 10 years in these schools, and once they returned to their reservations, they often had difficulty reassimilating at home, leaving them in a sort of cultural no man's land where they were not accepted by either Americans or the reservations.".
Although only one such school, the Fort Shaw Indian School, was founded in Montana, there were more prevalent in states like Oklahoma, Minnesota, and South Dakota.
It features Teonna Rainwater, portrayed by Aminah Nieves, who is believed to be a direct ancestor of Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham).
