This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.

If you haven't seen the hit TV series Reservation Dogs,

the title should give you a sense of it.

Set on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma,

it's about a group of teenagers and the people surrounding them.

The quirky way some of the characters constantly quote pop culture

and use it as reference points,

seems to owe a debt to Quentin Tarantino films.

The series is part comedy and part drama

about teenagers wanting to break away from the reservation

and all the seeming dead ends it represents,

while also finding reasons to stay.

The characters face generational differences on the reservation

and the confusion of growing up caught between traditional culture

and pop culture, the spirit world and rap music.

The series shows the importance of native traditions

while also mocking how tradition can be turned into sanctimonious

pop culture clichés.

My guest, Sterlin Harjo, is the showrunner

and a writer and director on the series,

which he co-created with Taiko YTT.

Harjo belongs to the Seminole and Muscogee Nations.

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