Despite being arguably the lead character in Yellowstone, John Dutton can also be regarded as the main villain of the series. Very few characters on television are as charismatic as old school Montana cowboy John Dutton, the fiery patriarch of the largest contiguous cattle ranch in the United States. As the owners and proprietors of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, John and his family have committed and covered up several murders and other crimes in order to maintain their hold over the land. While Yellowstone villains Market Equities only somewhat recently started their land-grabbing campaign in the state of Montana, the Duttons have been displacing Indigenous Americans for more than a century.
In the lion enclosure that is Paradise Valley, John Dutton is the biggest and most dangerous predator. The lethal territorial conflict in Paradise Valley, which in the pilot episode led to the death of John's son Lee Dutton, is rooted in the Duttons refusing to budge even just an inch from their over 100-year-old legal claim to the land. Through the aggressive expansion of its family business, the Duttons have kept the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock from returning to their ancestral lands for over a century. As Yellowstone's Angela Blue Thunder reminded Broken Rock Chief Thomas Rainwater back in season 3, the Duttons and Market Equities' respective claims are preceded by indigenous laws thousands of years older than any white governments - laws that mandate the protection of this land and its original stewards at all costs.
Though a charismatic figure, then, Yellowstone's real villain is John Dutton, who uses his own family and cult-like following to commit crimes, manipulate the local government, and get rid of anyone who threatens the existence of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in any way. On one hand, it can be argued that the Duttons are great stewards of the land for how they're preventing it from getting paved over and gentrified by Market Equities. On the other hand, the entirety of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch spans around 800,000 acres of unspoiled Montana wilderness, amassed over seven generations of Duttons. Instead of providing a home for the thousands of displaced members of the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock, these 800,000 acres instead serve as one white family's private paradise and business.
What Makes The Duttons Villains In Yellowstone
While the Yellowstone prequel spinoff 1883 revealed how the Duttons went through hell in order to claim their land, this in no way justifies their actions today. As 1883 reminded viewers, John's iron grip on power is historically rooted in the Westward Expansion of America, echoing the dangerously imperialistic ethos of manifest destiny - the long-held belief that American settlers were destined to expand and conquer all of North America. Though manifest destiny itself is vaguely defined as a political ideology, it is keenly enforced to this day by families like the Duttons, who hold the lands that their ancestors violently took from Indigenous Americans during the Westward Expansion in the late 1800s. 1883's James Dutton himself - the founder of the ranch - was fully aware of the racial and cultural genocide committed by white settlers against Indigenous Americans. While James was simply trying to carve out a safe home for his family in the harsh and violent frontier, John has come to fully embody the idea of manifest destiny as a modern rancher and politician. They didn't start out as villains, but the Duttons are now a crucial part of the systemic and continued displacement and disenfranchisement of entire Indigenous American nations.
Yellowstone Season 5 Can Still Turn The Duttons Into Heroes
Yellowstone season 5 will not only have a two-hour premiere, but will also be split into two parts comprised of a total of 14 episodes - and this is more than enough time for the Duttons to turn things around. Indeed, after John's son Kayce Dutton underwent a ritual to become a full member of his wife Monica's tribe in the Yellowstone season 4 ending, Kayce might be key to returning the Yellowstone Ranch to the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock. Moreover, with the billionaire-backed land-grabbing corporation Market Equities threatening to swallow Paradise Valley, there are more reasons for the Duttons to work with Broken Rock towards finding a long-term solution to their land disputes. After all, the only seventh-generation Dutton in the show is Tate, Kayce and Monica's son, who is both a Dutton and a full member of the Broken Rock community. While everyone on the ranch answers to John Dutton, John in turn answers to his sole grandson, and in the end, John will be forced to confront what kind of legacy he will be leaving in Tate's hands.
Yellowstone paints its villains in a complex light because it's not just a Neo-Western, but also an antihero crime drama. Yellowstone season 5 will reveal whether the Duttons can actually become heroes. Although Kayce Dutton's visions foreshadowed death and betrayal in the future of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, Kayce's talk about "the end" could also be referring to the Duttons' potential role in finally ending the historic displacement of Monica, Mo, and Thomas Rainwater's people.