Alaskan wins Emmy award for work on ‘Molly of Denali’

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – An episode of “Molly of Denali” has won the PBS Kids program its first Emmy award.

The episode that won the prestigious award was co-written by Alaska Native language expert X‘unei Lance Twitchell. Twitchell was born in Skagway and raised in Anchorage, now a professor of Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast.

“It feels real now,” Twitchell said, still glowing from the achievement.

“I guess for the first two or three days like I just kept revisiting the moment in my mind and saying, ‘Did that really happen?’” he said. “I’m so blessed. It’s the second time I’ve had a chance to go to the Emmys.”

He said that he and his team were ready in case they didn’t win, and were surprised when they did.

“In the back of my mind was this thought like this doesn’t happen for indigenous people,” he recalled. “We don’t win these types of awards.

“And so I went in and as we got closer and closer to them, calling our category, I was having this little conversation in my mind, which was I really want this for the native people, for native writers. For this particular show for native kids,” he added.

Twitchell remembers growing up and not having proper representation on television, especially in children’s programming.

“There was a documentary called ‘Real Injun,’” he referenced. “It points out that what you had was Bugs Bunny shooting Native Americans and singing a song about it.”

“And just to think like how that violence was normalized towards Native people and now we can say look at this, these brilliant kids who can… they can speak indigenous languages. They can solve problems and they’re fun funny and intelligent. And it’s just such a wonderful thing to be a part of,” he said.

But the road to the gold award wasn’t paved in gold. Twitchell recalled many tribulations along the way.

“I just remember going to high school in Anchorage and being advised on what I should be doing,” he said. “I feel like the advice I was given was to [not] do things that are difficult, and I felt kind of insulted by that, that I couldn’t do things that were.”

“I’ve had some writing teachers over the years who’ve been absolutely wonderful, but one of them, when I was in a writing class, he would take my writing and put it up in front of the class and, like, make fun of it. Wouldn’t tell anybody whose it was,” he said.

“He would just make fun of it and I thought, ‘What a terrible way to teach people.’ But the ones that I had who are really good, they would sort of get you to believe that you could do something that you thought was maybe impossible.”

The program that won the Emmy award from the National Academy of Television, Arts, and Science, featured Molly and her friends discussing Native mascots in sports. Twitchell said we’ve come a long way, but there are still conversations to be had with teams like the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Chiefs encouraging fans to do the “tomahawk chop.”

“You don’t have to go back very far, you can just watch the replay of the Super Bowl or World Series a couple of years ago and just see whole stadiums of people making this very silly chant,” he explained.

“Things are getting better as far as Native Americans and mascots, but just the amount of misrepresentation. The stereotypes that are there, the very weird simplistic songs and dances and costumes that are created are damaging, and so to just sort of see that costuming of culture and to be able to address that through a preschool show and have these kids model conversations that I just wish adults would have on a more regular basis in a way that was less hostile and violent.”

“[I’m] also trying to have these conversations, conversations in ways that aren’t embarrassing to people or humiliating anybody. And just being kind and showing this other perspective.”

When accepting the Emmy, Twitchell said he spoke in his Native language of Tlingit. He honored the past, with a hope to inspire the future.

“The moment was overwhelming, but I said in our language, finally it has happened,” Twitchell recalled. “This is for the storytellers of ancient days. The ones of today, the ones of tomorrow.”

“And then gave a message which is for all the writers out there. All the Native writers, all the Native babies out there who want to become storytellers someday. If you ever wondered if you could tell your stories through film and television, then ending on the tagline for the show, which is ‘mahsi choo’, let’s go… thank you in Gwich’in.”

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