Showtime’s crime drama mystery series “Dexter: New Blood” opens with Dexter Morgan on the hunt.
The beloved series protagonist, played by Michael C. Hall, purses a white buck, an animal that holds special meaning to the Seneca Nation.
The show’s producers sought guidance from Seneca citizens about their culture, communities, and beliefs for last year’s revival of the popular “Dexter” series. Although filmed in Massachusetts, the show is set in the foothills of Western New York, in the fictional town of Iron Lake, New York.
To ensure accurate portrayals, producers sought first-hand knowledge from Caleb Abrams. He served as Seneca consultant on the series and reviewed each script.
“A lot of it was just swapping out language choices,” Abrams said. “It could be nya:whe, which means thank you. No:yeh for mother. Things like that. And then from there we’d look for other opportunities just to make the Seneca elements in the series as honest and authentic and accurate as possible.
“And I took every opportunity to try to bring in our artisans, our singers,” he added. “Even a lot of the extras were Seneca or Haudenosaunee themselves.”
Abrams, an indie filmmaker and multimedia artist from the Allegany Territory, recently spoke with WBFO on a cold, gray autumn day under light rains, telling of the coming snowy landscapes depicted in the Showtime special event series.
But Abrams says the Seneca Nation isn’t just a backdrop to the story.
“It’s very much an integral part, especially of the first several episodes,” he said. “I knew that because the story had so many key Seneca elements that the producing staff really wanted to handle this appropriately, because so much of the story early on is built around Seneca community and Seneca characters.”
In the first episode of the revival, Dexter comes close to taking the white buck while hunting, twice. The third time, something clicks inside, and he approaches the deer, non-threateningly, offering his hand. And the two have this momentary connection.
A shot breaks the harmony, and a blood-splattered Dexter sees the white buck fall dead. That causes him to snap, and it sets in motion the events for the entire series.
“I'll be honest: I didn't know much about what our teachings had to say about a white deer or white animals in general,” Abrams said. “It was through my own research talking with elders and community members that I came to understand that white animals, according to our teachings, are seen as Messengers from the Creator.”
One of the Seneca elders Abrams consulted is Stephen Gordon, who’s also from Allegany.
“I recalled my grandfather's talking about a white deer, that the Creator made this deer special as a reminder that the Creator made all of creation for us,” Gordon said, “and it says it in our teachings, one isn’t to harm this white animal.”
Gordon is also a featured extra in the series, appearing in the scene when the dead white buck is returned to the Seneca people for proper handling.
It’s a scene Abrams admitted that he spent hours working with producers to get right.
“Accurate representation in television and film is critical because it's what so many non-native people base their understanding of native people on,” he said, “and so having the opportunity to be a part of representing the Seneca people on such a beloved series like ‘Dexter’ was an awesome responsibility to my community, to my people, but also to sort of the broader representation of native people, because I knew that they were going to be millions of eyes on this series.”