Gone Native has been in the works for the last five years. First debuting in film festivals, the inspiration for the short series comes from a surprising place. Joey Clift is a writer.
“A Facebook post a few friends of mine made a few years about the protests against the at the time, unfortunately, named the Washington DC NFL team’s name, and somebody commented on the post saying something to the effect of ‘Hey, I just got my DNA test in the mail, and it says I’m 1/100th Indian, and personally, I think the team name is fine, so everyone just lay off!’”
Clift’s the creative writer behind the 5 episode short series. He says after this internet encounter, he wanted to find quick, comedic, and educational material to show to the person, and the most he could see were longer think pieces.
In response to this lack of material, he created his own.
He says that he also took inspiration from his experiences in the workforce, growing up, and listening to other Indigenous people about their experiences.
He says the response to the shorts has been immense, with millions of views over various platforms.
“It’s so validating to see that something I created didn't just make people laugh, but it is equipping Native kids with easy jokes that they can use to diffuse what would otherwise be a bummer, you know, racial microaggression situation.”
Clift wants everyone who listens to the series to learn something new. According to a recent study from Illuminative, 87% of state history standards across the U-S for the curriculum of K-12 do not mention Native American history after 1900.
He says, “And I think that that lack of education is what has lead to so many of these weird microaggressions against Native people and Native people in the mainstream because people just don’t know any better.”
The series has seen praise internet-wide, giving Indigenous people short, comedic material to educate peers.
He says, “I hope you watch the series– but I hope you also go to Gonenaitve.tv and click around, read those links, and get a little more educated about these issues so I don’t have to correct bosses when they call a meeting a powwow ever again.”
