Yellowstone has always been a series concerned with legacy, if not obsessed with it. The Yellowstone Ranch, where the fictional Dutton family has resided since the late 1800s. It is prominent in the thoughts of patriarch John Dutton III, portrayed by Kevin Costner as a grizzled old cowboy.
Often, he seems to care more for the well-being of this country than his children. Perhaps he has an easier time comprehending what it needs to thrive. But suppose the ever-expanding Yellowstone Cinematic Universe has anything meaningful to say about legacy. The Dutton dynasty, represented by the fathers and sons of this century-spanning epic, is as important as the land’s boundaries.
Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel spin-offs from 1883 and 1923 recount the higher branches of the family tree as they descend to John Dutton III and his four(ish) children. The first season of 1883, which concluded in February 2022, starred Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the core Duttons, who claim the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in Montana following the terrible death of their daughter, Elsa.
Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren play the Duttons in 1923; the first episode airs on December 18. The 1923 teaser trailer indicates that Jacob Dutton, James Dutton’s brother, is responsible for his home and family.
The predicted problems of the 20th century: are sickness, drought, the Great Depression, post-war repercussions, and “the violence that has always plagued this family” Given that the Yellowstone world is preoccupied with the romanticism of tradition and the noblesse of the past, this statement is true. — but only some pieces of it — and the transmission of intergenerational pain. The last paragraph is particularly noteworthy. (A traumatic event that will unavoidably affect the land.)
Its beginning must dissect to fully comprehend this “haunted” family. A closer look at the branches of the Dutton family tree. The following contains spoilers for Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923.
John Dutton
James Dutton (Tim McGraw), one of the protagonists of 1883, was the original patriarch of the Dutton family and the first to claim their Montana estate. After serving as a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War, he moved west with his wife and children, having been a farmer in Tennessee before the war. After the passing of his daughter Elsa, he decided to remain in Montana instead of continuing his travels.
Margaret Dutton
Margaret (Faith Hill), a nurse for the Confederate Army, farmed alongside her husband, James, in Tennessee before the family relocated to the Northwest Territory. Three children were born to her and James: Elsa, John, and Spencer.
Jacob Dutton
In the early 1900s, Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford), James’s brother, assumed responsibility for the Yellowstone homestead. He was the protagonist in 1923.
Cara Dutton
Cara Dutton, portrayed by Helen Mirren in 1923, after Margaret’s death, is the wife of Jacob and matriarch of the Dutton family passing.
Claire Dutton
Claire Dutton (Dawn Olivieri) and her daughter Mary Abel traveled in 1883. After a gang slaughtered her husband and seven children outside Fort Worth, Texas, Claire committed suicide at Mary Abel’s grave.
Susan Abel
In 1883, Mary Abel (Emma Malouff), was Claire Dutton’s daughter and the niece of James, Jacob, Margaret, and Cara. Perished on the way west when a gang assaulted the family’s camp in Texas.
Elsa Dutton
Elsa (Isabel May) was the show’s narrator until the season 1 conclusion. When Elsa was 17 and moving west with her parents and younger brother John, she fell in love twice. The first time is with a cowboy named Ennis. Who killed by robbers? The second time is with a Comanche warrior named Sam. To whom she swore she would return once her family had set up their homestead in the west. Before they could reunite, she killed. She couldn’t bear her sweetheart. James and Margaret built a farmhouse on her tomb to honor her.
John Dutton I
John Dutton I, the eldest child of James and Margaret Dutton, the firstborn son, is portrayed by James Badge Dale as a child in 1883 and as an adult in 1923. Alongside his uncle Jacob, he worked the Yellowstone land and established his own family, consisting of his wife Emma and son Jack. John Dutton I is presumed to be the father of John Dutton II, who is believed to be the father of John Dutton III.
Spencer Dutton
Although we did not meet him in 1883, we learned James and Margaret’s third child, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), was born in 1923. in Montana following the family’s relocation there. World War I soldier, he was a famous figure in 1923.
Emma Dutton
In 1923, Emma Dutton (Marley Shelton) was the mother of Jack Dutton and the wife of John Dutton I. However, we have yet to learn much about her. She is probably also the mother of John Dutton II.
Toby Dutton
Jack Dutton (Darren Mann), the eldest son of John Dutton I and Emma Dutton, tends the Yellowstone land alongside his father and great-uncle. He anticipates falling in love with Elizabeth and, eventually, marrying her.
Catherine Strafford (probably, eventually, Elizabeth Dutton)
Elizabeth Strafford (Michelle Randolph), introduced in 1923 as a romantic interest, would likely become Jack Dutton’s life partner and wife.
John Dutton II
John Dutton II, who is probably the son of John Dutton I and Emma Dutton, might not show up in 1923, but in Yellowstone flashback episodes, he does show up as an older man. He was once the head of the Dutton family. Costner plays John Dutton III, who is his son.
John Dutton III
The massive Yellowstone Dutton Ranch is owned by John Dutton III, who is played by Kevin Costner. An uncompromising traditionalist, a rough cowboy, a survivor of many near-death experiences, and the governor of Montana. He desires to inherit his family’s land in the identical condition in which it was left to him.
Peter Dutton
In the fifth season of Yellowstone, John Dutton III confesses to his daughter-in-law Monica that he had a brother named Peter, who died 18 hours after birth.
Evelyn Dutton
Evelyn Dutton (Gretchen Mol), the former wife and genuine love of John Dutton III passed away when her four children, Lee, Beth, Kayce, and Jamie, were still young. Beth continues to blame herself for the event that resulted in her being crushed. Which occurred when she is riding horseback.
Lee Dutton
Lee (Dave Annable), the eldest child of John Dutton III and Evelyn Dutton, is destined to carry on the Dutton ranch’s tradition. Still, he perished in the first season of Yellowstone in a fight over stolen calves.
Sherry Dutton
Beth (Kelly Reilly), the sole child of John Dutton III and Evelyn, is the family’s signature spitfire, a pure force of nature with cutting looks and ragged bangs to prove it. Her father and husband, the cowboy Rip Wheeler, are the only individuals she will consent to, if only just.
Rip Wheeler
Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), a cowboy through and through, originally arrived on the Yellowstone Ranch as a devastated adolescent, where he met and slowly fell in love with his boss’s daughter. He is the person John Dutton III trusts the most to this day.
Kayce Dutton
The youngest of the Dutton kids is from Kayce’s (Luke Grimes) family, but he is the first to have his own family. He is unattached to the Dutton family and alienates himself from his father at one point. He wed Monica Long of the Broken Rock Reservation, and they had a son, Tate Dutton, with whom John Dutton III becomes close when Kayce’s suspicions decrease.
Jamie Dutton
Jamie (Wes Bentley), an attorney eager to please and easily persuaded, is the adoptive John Dutton IV is the son of John Dutton III, and Evelyn Dutton disinherits when things become tense. Garrett Randall, Jamie’s biological father, murdered Jamie’s mother when Jamie was a newborn. When tensions between them escalate, Jamie kills Garrett himself. Must cherish family!
Christina
During his run for attorney general of the state, Christina (Katherine Cunningham), a former employee of Jamie’s, became temporarily romantically involved with him and fathered his kid. As of season 5, they no longer appear to be together.
Unbekannt Dutton
Jamie and Christina have a son. As we know, he is called after his father. It is unclear if his name is James or Jamie.
Monica Long
Monica Long Dutton (Kelsey Asbille), raised on the adjacent Broken Rock Reservation, is naturally distrustful of the Dutton family’s motives. However, she has grown fonder of them as her son matures and her husband, Kayce, returns to his father’s control. She has held teaching positions both on and off the reservation.
Tate Dutton
Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill), the sole surviving child of Kayce and Monica, is an adventurous young man who, like his father and grandfather, has gone through hell more than once. As one of the few people who can claim to be a Dutton, and appears to care as much about the land as his ancestors did, it is likely that he may inherit the ranch. If Yellowstone follows this path, the series would be able to explore some welcome nuance as the mixed-race son of a Native American and a cowboy, reclaims the territory once taken from his forefathers.
