# Tantoo Cardinal

Tantoo Cardinal CM (born July 20, 1950) is a Canadian actress. Of Cree and Métis heritage, in 2009 she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a screen and stage actress, and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company."

## Early life

Tantoo Cardinal was born the youngest of three children to Julia Cardinal, a woman of Cree and Métis descent, and a white father.
Cardinal was raised in the hamlet of Anzac, Alberta. The lack of electricity inspired her to use her imagination while playing in the bush. Her grandmother nicknamed her "Tantoo" after the insect repellent they used while picking blueberries together. She taught Cardinal the Cree language, the traditional ways of their culture and the difficulties she would face growing up Métis in Canada. Cardinal has said that it was walking behind her grandmother where she first learned to act.

## Career

Cardinal has played roles in many notable films and television series, including Spirit Bay, Loyalties, Dances with Wolves, Black Robe, Legends of the Fall, Smoke Signals, Hold the Dark and North of 60. She was cast in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation mini-series By Way of the Stars with Gordon Tootoosis as the Cree Chief and Eric Schweig as Black Thunder.
In 2009, she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a screen and stage actress, and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company".
On August 23, 2011, Cardinal, Margot Kidder, and dozens of others were arrested while protesting the proposed extension of the Keystone Pipeline.
In 2012, Cardinal portrayed Regan in an all-aboriginal production of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, alongside a cast that also included August Schellenberg as Lear, Billy Merasty as Gloucester, Jani Lauzon in a dual role as Cordelia and the Fool, and Craig Lauzon as Kent.
She played Marilyn Yarlott for three seasons as a recurring cast member in the Netflix series Longmire, a Crow hunter and medicine woman who lives alone in the vast wilderness of the Crow reservation.
In 2017 she was named the winner of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement. She has also won a Gemini Award, a National Aboriginal Achievement Award (now Indspire Award) and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
In the 2018 film The Grizzlies, she plays a high school principal who is skeptical that a first-time teacher can address social issues in the northwestern Nunavut community of Kugluktuk.
On November 26, 2021, Cardinal and several other laureates received the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards after a nearly two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

## Personal life

Cardinal met her first husband, Fred Martin, while boarding at his family's home during her high school years in Edmonton. They were married from 1968 to 1978 and had a son, Cheyenne, prior to their divorce.
She had her second son, Clifford, with Beaver Richards.
From 1988 to 2000, Cardinal was married to actor John Lawlor, with whom she had a daughter, Riel.

## Filmography

Key :
| † | Denotes works that have not yet been released |

### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1978 | Marie-Anne | Tantou | |
| 1981 | Death Hunt | Indian Woman | |
| 1983 | Running Brave | Caroline | |
| 1986 | Places Not Our Own | Rose | |
| 1986 | Loyalties | Rosanne Ladouceur | Nominated - Genie Award for Best Actress |
| 1987 | Candy Mountain | Annie | |
| 1988 | War Party | Sonny's mother | |
| 1990 | Divided Loyalties | Molly Brant | |
| 1990 | Dances With Wolves | Black Shawl | |
| 1991 | Black Robe | Chomina's Wife | |
| 1993 | Silent Tongue | Silent Tongue | |
| 1993 | Where the Rivers Flow North | Bangor | |
| 1993 | Mustard Bath | Sister Amantha | |
| 1994 | Sioux City | Dawn Rainfeather | |
| 1994 | Legends of the Fall | Pet | |
| 1997 | The Education of Little Tree | Granma | |
| 1997 | Silence | Dolores | |
| 1998 | Honey Moccasin | Honey Moccasin | |
| 1998 | Smoke Signals | Arlene Joseph | |
| 1998 | Heartwood | Violet Boucher | |
| 1999 | The Hi-Line | Singing Bird | |
| 1999 | A Stranger in the Kingdom | Heaven Fontaine | |
| 2000 | Postmark Paradise | Reenie | |
| 2000 | Blood River | Claire / Mattie | Short |
| 2002 | Edge of Madness | Ruth | |
| 2004 | Memory | Ida | Short |
| 2006 | Unnatural & Accidental | Aunt Shadie / Rita | |
| 2008 | Older than America | Auntie Apple | |
| 2008 | Ancestor Eyes | Verna | Short |
| 2008 | Mothers & Daughters | Celine | |
| 2010 | Every Emotion Costs | Aunt Marcy | |
| 2011 | Shouting Secrets | June | |
| 2012 | Eden | The Nurse | |
| 2013 | From Above | Older Venus | |
| 2013 | Maïna | Tekahera | |
| 2014 | Down Here | Stella Mitchell | |
| 2015 | Hope Bridge | Lana | |
| 2016 | ARQ | The Pope | |
| 2017 | Wind River | Alice Crowheart | |
| 2018 | Falls Around Her | Mary Birchbark | |
| 2018 | The Grizzlies | Janice | |
| 2018 | Through Black Spruce | Mary-Lou | |
| 2018 | Hold the Dark | Illanaq | |
| 2018 | Angelique's Isle | Thunderbird Woman | |
| 2019 | Red Snow | Ruth | |
| 2020 | The Corruption of Divine Providence | Juniper Fairweather | |
| 2022 | Wendell & Wild | Miss Hunter (voice) | |
| 2022 | The Last Manhunt | Ticup | |
| 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon | Lizzie Q | Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
| 2024 | Inkwo for When the Starving Return | Auntie | |
| 2025 | Wildwood † | Carol Grod (voice) | In production |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1981 | SCTV | extra | Episode 4/2-2 "Power Play" |
| 1984 | Spirit Bay | Annie | Main role |
| 1987 | Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge | Little Doe | Television film |
| 1990 | The Campbells | Maria Brant | Episode: "Miles to Go" |
| 1991 | Lightning Field | Vivian | Television film |
| 1992 | Street Legal | Renee Stonehouse | Recurring role; 4 episodes |
| 1992–93 | By Way of the Stars | Franois | Television mini-series |
| 1993 | Harts of the West | Helen | Episode: "Auggie's End" |
| 1993 | Spirit Rider | Marilyn St. Claire | Television film |
| 1993–95 | Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman | Snow Bird | Recurring role; 7 episodes |
| 1994–97 | North of 60 | Betty Moses | Recurring role; 7 episodes |
| 1995 | 500 Nations | (voice) | Television mini-series |
| 1995 | Tecumseh: The Last Warrior | Turtle Mother | Television film |
| 1996 | Grand Avenue | Nellie | Television film |
| 1998 | Big Bear | Running Second | Television mini-series |
| 1998 | Cold Squad | Theresa Sandiman | Episode: "Salty Cheever" |
| 2000 | Navigating the Heart | Mary | Television film |
| 2000 | The Lost Child | Aunt Mary | Television film |
| 2001 | MythQuest | Walloha | Episode: "Red Wolf's Daughter" |
| 2002 | Tom Stone | Judge Crowfoot | Episode: "Royalty" |
| 2003–06 | Moccasin Flats | Betty Merasty | Recurring role; 22 episodes |
| 2004 | Windy Acres | Aunt Laura | Recurring role; 7 episodes |
| 2004 | H$_2$O | Grand Chief Katie Blackfire | Guest role; 2 episodes |
| 2004 | A Thief of Time | Irene Musket | Television film |
| 2006 | Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis | Iba Beauvais | 4 episodes |
| 2007 | Luna: Spirit of the Whale | Gloria Maquinna | Television film |
| 2008 | The Guard | Ursula | recurring role; 4 episodes |
| 2008 | Just Breathe | Heather | Television film |
| 2008 | Changing Climates, Changing Times | Grace Lajoie | Television film |
| 2009 | Tales of an Urban Indian | Dianne | Television film |
| 2009 | Dear Prudence | Ruth Vigil | Television film |
| 2010 | Shattered | Carol | Guest role; 2 episodes |
| 2012 | The Killing | Prostitute | Episode: "Keylela" |
| 2012–15 | Blackstone | Wilma Stoney | Recurring role; 18 episodes |
| 2013 | Arctic Air | Aunt Mary | Episode: "Skeletons in the Closet" |
| 2014 | Strange Empire | Pichette | Episode: "Lonely Hearts" |
| 2014–16 | Mohawk Girls | Zoe's Mom | Recurring role; 5 episodes |
| 2015–17 | Longmire | Marilyn Yarlott | Guest role; 4 episodes |
| 2016 | Frontier | Kamenna | Guest role; 2 episodes |
| 2016 | On the Farm | Ada Taylor | Television film |
| 2017 | The Great Northern Candy Drop | Louisa (voice) | Television film |
| 2017 | Godless | Iyovi | Miniseries; 7 episodes |
| 2018 | Outlander | Adawehi | Guest role; 2 episodes |
| 2019 | See | The Dreamer | Guest role; 4 episodes |
| 2019–20 | Stumptown | Sue Lynn Blackbird | Series regular |
| 2020 | New Amsterdam | Dr. Jane Munsee | Episode: "Radical" |
| 2021 | Corner Gas Animated | Julie Rouleau (voice) | Episode: "A Lot to be Desired" |
| 2022–present | Spirit Rangers | Moon (voice) | Recurring role |
| 2022 | Three Pines | Bea Mayer | Series regular |
| 2024 | Echo | Chula | Series regular |

### Audiobooks

| Year | Title | Role |
| 2000 | Island of the Blue Dolphins | Narrator |
| 2019 | The Testaments | |
| 2019 | Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories and Songs by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | Narrator |

### Music videos

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2019 | "Mehcinut" by Jeremy Dutcher | | |