https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/great-sioux-nation-and-british-columbia-first-nations-join-protest-of-abcs-big-sky

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs and The Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association issued separate press releases this week slamming the lack of representation of Native and Indigenous women on the Montana-set David E. Kelley drama. They are calling on ABC to incorporate the issue of Montana's missing and murdered Native and Indigenous women into the storyline of the show, which centers on investigators looking into a high incidence of women disappearing from a highway in the state. “Making the abduction and trafficking of women for primetime entertainment is bad enough. Erasing the real life tragedy of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis is unconscionable," GPTCA executive director A. Gay Kingman said in a statement. "We live with the consequences of this loss and trauma on a daily basis, but ABC won’t even acknowledge it, even after they’ve been given an opportunity to do so."

Big Sky producers respond to criticism from Indigenous groups (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/big-sky-producers-respond-to-indigenous-groups-criticism-our-eyes-have-been-opened)

Two Native American organizations have accused (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Two-Indigenous-organizations-protest-ABCs-Big-Sky-87Sd40) the Montana-set David E. Kelley show of lacking representation of Native and Indigenous women. The executive producers have released a statement in response, saying: “After meaningful conversations with representatives of the Indigenous community, our eyes have been opened to the outsized number of Native American and Indigenous women who go missing and are murdered each year, a sad and shocking fact. We are grateful for this education and are working with Indigenous groups to help bring attention to this important issue." UPDATE: The president of one of the Indigenous groups that complained about Big Sky says producers never contacted neither him or any of the groups which called out the show (https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/big-sky-producers-david-e-kelley-indigenous-groups-response-1234844303/).

Big Sky and Lovecraft Country controversies raise concerns about Native American representation in TV (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/egregious-tv-errors-fuel-native-and-indigenous-groups-representation-calls)

In September, Lovecraft Country's Misha Green admitted the show "failed" after facing backlash for HBO depicting an Arawakan Two-Spirit character who suffered a violent death in the same episode in which they were introduced. Earlier this month, David E. Kelley's Big Sky on ABC came under fire for its lack of Native and Indigenous female representation. Ian Skorodin, founder of Native American film festival L.A. Skins Fest, CEO of the Barcid Foundation and member of the Chocktaw Nation of Oklahoma, says that while studios and networks have been supportive in recent months. But he adds: "There's not parity in terms of the Native community getting an equal amount of support with what the other communities are getting."