Updated

Updated · Netflix Tudum · Jun 10

Netflix Sets 'Little House on the Prairie' Premiere for July 9, Expanding Story Beyond the Ingalls

Updated

Updated · Netflix Tudum · Jun 10

Netflix Sets 'Little House on the Prairie' Premiere for July 9, Expanding Story Beyond the Ingalls

Q: Will the new 'Little House' portray the Ingalls family as American pioneers or as illegal settlers on Osage land?

It will portray them as both aspiring pioneers and, historically, settlers on Osage land without legal right. Netflix’s version keeps the familiar Ingalls story of a family heading west to build a better life, so the pioneer frame is still there. Rebecca Sonnenshine has described it as a family drama, survival story and origin story of the American West, centered on reinvention and Laura’s coming-of-age. But the new series is also designed to correct the one-sided frontier lens of earlier adaptations. The source material places the Ingalls in Kansas in 1869-70 on land that was still recognized as Osage reservation land, and the additional reporting says the show intends to acknowledge that reality rather than ignore it. In that sense, the Ingalls are not being presented simply as heroic homesteaders. The clearest sign is the expanded Osage storyline. The series adds the Mitchell family and was developed with Osage scholar Robert Warrior and consultant Julie O’Keefe to show the Osage as fully realized people, not background figures. The production has said it wants to tell “both sides” and explore the consequences of westward settlement, including removal, land pressure and the railroad. So the show’s approach appears to be a dual one: the Ingalls will be shown as a family seeking opportunity, while the series also frames their presence within the historical fact that they were occupying Osage land in a broader story of Indigenous dispossession.

3 articles · Updated · Netflix Tudum · Jun 10

July 9 is the premiere date for Netflix’s new “Little House on the Prairie,” a Season 1 adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s third book following the Ingalls family’s move from Wisconsin to Kansas.
Rebecca Sonnenshine’s series reframes the material as a family drama, survival story and coming-of-age tale, while widening the focus from Laura’s perspective to settlers in Independence and members of the Osage Nation.
Alice Halsey plays 10-year-old Laura, with Luke Bracey and Crosby Fitzgerald as Charles and Caroline Ingalls and Skywalker Hughes as Mary; the cast also includes characters such as Dr. Tann, John Edwards and store owner Emily Henderson.
The adaptation adds the Mitchell family—Mitchell, White Sun and Good Eagle—to give Osage characters a fuller on-screen presence, with cultural consultants helping shape their portrayal, language and dress.