Contributor: Robert Redford, who brought Leaphorn and Chee to screen, dies at 89

Posted by Navajo Times | Sep 22, 2025 | Guest contributor |

By George R. Joe
Guest contributor

Editor’s note: George Joe, Diné, is a creative copywriter for Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation. Joe was a culture consultant on Season 2 of “Dark Winds” and a guest columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, adding context on life on the Navajo Nation to the series starring Zahn McClarnon as Lt. Joe Leaphorn. A former college English professor, he holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in English and a master’s in educational leadership. He has 25-plus years in journalism, marketing, and publishing, serves on the Southwest Center for Equal Justice board, and runs navajoguide.com.

Robert Redford, who died Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 89 in Utah, carried a lifelong connection to Navajo country.

In Michael Feeney Callan’s 2011 biography, Redford recalls traveling “all over the Navajo reservation” with his mother as a boy. In Gallup, he first met Navajo and Zuni people. As Callan writes, “She connected him with the past, introducing him to Native Americans on Navajo reservations in Arizona and to Yosemite.”

As an adult, Redford returned often – on screen and off. He helped bring Tony Hillerman’s Navajo Tribal Police mysteries to film and television, beginning with “The Dark Wind” (1991), shot on and around the Navajo and Hopi reservations, including Tuba City. Lou Diamond Phillips played Jim Chee and Fred Ward portrayed Joe Leaphorn. The production struggled with financing and disputes over portrayals – controversies covered by the Navajo Times and other regional outlets – and never reached a broad theatrical release.

Redford then backed three PBS adaptations with Native casts and creative talent: “Skinwalkers” (2002), “Coyote Waits” (2003), and “A Thief of Time” (2004). All were filmed on Navajo land and aired on PBS’s “Mystery!” series.

In 2021, Redford became a key figure behind AMC’s “Dark Winds,” the modern series based on Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee novels, alongside “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin. Season 3 premiered in 2025, with Season 4 slated for 2026. Production centered in New Mexico, with background filming in Monument Valley and much of the work at Camel Rock Studios on Tesuque Pueblo, New Mexico.

News of Redford’s passing sparked remembrances across the Nation – stories of chance meetings, horseback rides into Canyon de Chelly and small-town encounters that turned into friendships. In the Southwest Navajo area, he became close with families from Dilkon and Teesto, Arizona. The late Dean Jackson of Teesto, while serving as president of Navajo Community College (Diné College), hosted Redford in Tsaile, Arizona. College officials recall the two riding horseback into Canyon de Chelly. Diné College holds numerous photos of Redford on campus in the 1970s and early 1980s. He also premiered one of his features in Window Rock.

He was a friend of the late Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah. When Zah died in March 2023, Redford sent a letter of condolence.

Julie Begaye of Gallup remembers the early 1970s, when she lived in Provo, Utah, with her late husband, Al E. Begaye, and his brothers from Dilkon. “As the Red Fern Grows was being filmed near Sundance and they needed actors on horseback,” she said. Dilkon residents “Emerson Begaye, Leo Begaye, and Bobby Begaye and my late husband Al E Begaye all got involved. They also worked on Redford’s land at Sundance,” she said. She remembers Redford’s wife, Lola, inviting them to lunch while the men worked on fences.

Over time, Julie Begaye said, Redford visited Dilkon. The family story is that his plane landed a few times on a flat stretch south of town called Highland Rim.

“He got to know some of the family members. He bought a Navajo rug from my late husband’s auntie Daisy Benton. Some of the kids like our granddaughter didn’t know who he was,” Begaye said. “She just knew he was important. One family member, Gladeeh Begaye, also appeared in some of his movies.”

Redford used his platform to finance and elevate Native-centered stories, hire Native cast and crew, and put authentic landscapes on national television. “Redford respected Indigenous people and walked among them,” Begaye said.

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