We recently finished the first two series of the Netflix series “Dark Winds”, set on the Navajo reservation, based loosely on Tony Hillerman’s books and written and produced by Navajos. It’s quite good, although it’s hard to top the Hillerman books themselves.
But as soon as Lt. Joe Leaphorn’s GMC 4×4 Suburban police truck rolled into the shot the first time, I had a minor conniption. Oh no! It’s all wrong! It’s jacked way up! Nobody did that back in 1970 when this was set. And most certainly not a police department. I’ve found a number of vintage photos of what the Navajo Tribal Police police drove back then, and it most certainly wasn’t jacked up 4x4s.
Having found a number of vintage pictures and videos of Navajo Tribal Police, there is zero evidence that they used four wheel drives at all back then. It might seem surprising, but even in the ’80s, ’90s and ’00’s when we drove through the Navajo reservation, the almost utter lack of four wheel drives was very obvious. The vehicle of choice were basic short bed Chevy pickups, often seen with three or even four across in the front seat. And of course the usual older American sedans.
In Hillerman’s books, the vehicles described being driven by the Tribal Police were sedans and several references to “Carryalls”. That was both a somewhat generic term but one specifically used by Chevrolet for its Suburban through 1966. I found a vintage video clip that shows one of these Navajo Tribal Police Suburban Carryalls, this one being a GMC version. Perhaps that’s why they used a GMC in Series 1? But this most definitely is not a 4×4.
Hillerman makes a point of noting the occasional 4×4 used by others (almost invariably the bad guys), but between his accurate books and these vintage images, there is nor reason to think that the Tribal Police used 4×4 Suburbans back then.
The other police car was also a bit less than perfect casting: a 1965 Chevy Impala 4-door hardtop, driven by the attractive Sargent Manuelito, although in a few shots she’s suddenly driving a ’66 Bel Air sedan instead. Much better, if not spot on.
Here’s a still from another vintage film clip, showing an actual 1965 Ford Navajo Tribal Police car. Hillerman often refers to Sgt. Chee driving a police sedan.
I also found this 1970s vintage shot of a female Navajo Tribal Police officer with her Chevy Nova sedan, equipped with mud and snow tires at the rear. This could be the real Officer Bernadette Manuelito.
Even in more recent decades, they were still using sedans, like this 1990’s Chevy Caprice. Obviously they’ve switched to SUVs since then.
Here’s a couple of more old photo of two Ford panel trucks used by the Navajo tribal Police back in the 1950s, strictly 2WD.
And here’s another showing a couple of GMC Suburbans from the mid-late ’50s.
Someone must have clued in Executive Producer Chris Eyre (left), as when Season 2 opened, Leaphorn’s Suburban had been brought down to earth. Actually, it’s a different truck, and a Chevy at that. This was the only shot I could find online, but yes, it’s riding at stock height, But…now it’s wearing white spoke wheels! Those didn’t become a thing until a few years later, and the Tribal Police would not have swapped out their wheels in any case. Better, but not there yet. Maybe in Season 3?
I hate when shows get little details wrong, I can’t not see it and it distracts from the rest of the show.
Hah, the cars caught my eye too. I don’t recall any wide shots of Leaphorn climbing up into the rig; in a few closeups he made it look easy and I wondered if he used a step stool. I seem to recall the books using terms like cruiser or patrol car so I assumed they were just sedans. Certainly not hardtops like Bernie’s Chevy. No spoilers please for Season 2; we only watched the first.
I thought I saw a first gen Honda Civic in one of the scenes at the trading post when Chee is doing his surveillance. Were the first ones were imported in 1973? Also, at the end of the last episode, is Bernadette driving a four-door Maverick, which came out a little later?
I will give them a little credit for most of the vehicles looking dusty and well-used, with the exception of Emma’s Chevy pickup.
I did enjoy the show though.
Yes, I noticed the Civic and Maverick too, but they were both pretty minor transgressions.
I loved the Hillerman books, will have to check this series out .
-Nate
PBS did several of the Hillerman stories in the early 2000s with Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn. They may still be streaming on Passport, or find the DVDs at a library. These were set in the late 90s so fewer anachronisms and I remember the slightly shady preacher drove an 80s Cadillac
I don’t believe that ‘any’ police or law enforcement agency ever used the ‘top of the range’ luxury Impala Sport Sedan (4 door hardtop). More likely police cars were the entry level plain jane, stripped of everything apart from a high performance engine.
Seeing this stunning ‘65 Impala Sport Sedan as police car looks 100% absolutely wrong in every respect. The TV series was otherwise very good, but I do recall the substitute ‘66 Belair which like the Impala Sport Sedan was also incorrect.
Nevertheless, I expect that most people however could not care one way or the other.
Agree. One of my few gripes with “Naked City” is that Flint & Accaro are in a Catalina 4dr hardtop. With whitewalls.
Now I might just have to ask my sis for her Netflix password and checkout Dark Winds myself. Hillerman was quite a story teller and I always enjoyed reading about his adventures on Navajo land. Now it appears his daughter, Anne has written nine books of her own since he died in he 2008 so I will be reading those. The library by where I lived at the time had his full set of novels in triplicate, so patrons liked him.
Here is a pic I found of Detective Cheeseburger’s 70 El Camino.
I noticed the vehicles too, but what really distracted me was the modern sounding dialogue and snarky facial expressions when sarcasm was used, way too modern to be believable on a reservation set in 71.
We had cops with tape measures, ensuring that bumper heights were correct. Jacked up vehicles were ticketed and had to return for a remeasuring in order to pay the ticket.
I absolutely love the old cars and trucks in this series while noting some discrepancies also. The GMC suburban has 90’s era steering wheel and when Leaphorn backs up it’s a 67 or 68 steering wheel. This tells me that the older suburban was used in the backing up scenes. Seems to be the Suburban Leapgorn drives after the GMC is blown up. Good series.
I saw a scene where Manuelito was driving the 65 hardtop Impala when the 66 sedan was parked, so maybe they had two çars. But police NEVER USED HARDTOP CARS; they are too flimsy. Was it possible the GMC was available higher in a heavy duty version at the time?
I was a teenage car nut when my dad bought 1965 Chevy four-door hardtop. Since it was purchased off the lot, it was purple or more precisely “evening orchid”. Within a year, it had faded really bad. No exaggeration it was awful. When I noticed the next season that Bernadette was driving a 66 Chevy belair. I thought is it so hard to keep the same car from one year to the next.. I use this opportunity to “mansplain” (I was not only a car nut. I was smart Alec, too) to my wife the concept of “continuity” in the motion, picture and TV industry
I enjoy picking apart the vehicles and movies. It doesn’t bother me per se, but I do find myself rewinding and pausing the movie to verify that they used the wrong wheels or tires, etc.. By the way, did anyone notice that they use Torque Thrust II’s instead of original 60s era Torque Thrust. Also I would like to add that I would give my right arm for the 64 to 66 suburban/carryall that the bad guys drove!
It’s a tv show, not exact historical recreation. The history was partially there, but the show also took poetic license and stylized the historical presentation, and with more than just cars: music, clothes, gadgets… I think they did it purposely, it’s more about the vibe of the show than being historically perfect.
Thought it was pretty weird in one of the scenes in S1 where chee stopped to help an old guy on the road whos mid 60s Chevy overheated, the guy called his truck old and says he should trade it in, even though that truck couldnt be more than maybe 6 or 7 years old by that time. Then the guy also says his brother or something “Had an old Pinto” which doesn’t make much sense either being that the pinto was released in 1971, the year the show is set.
Being a older truck, especially a 4×4 nut I loved the lifted GMC suburban!
I noticed at Devoted Dan’s used car lot there’s a light blue FJ40. The wipers are on the bottom of the windshield. This didn’t happen until the 1975 model.
What is the car Bern drives off at the end of season 2? The yellow one….