The Dutton clan continues to expand in 1923, but their complicated lineage may send viewers scrambling to remember who's who. We're here to explain the entire Dutton family tree and all its connections.
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00:00The Dutton clan continues to expand in 1923, but their complicated lineage may send viewers
00:06scrambling to remember who's who. We're here to explain the entire Dutton family tree and
00:11all its connections.
00:13Margaret and James Dutton are the first members of the Dutton family we meet, chronologically
00:17speaking, as they are the focus of the prequel series 1883. While the two aren't main characters
00:23in the Yellowstone spinoff 1923, their absence casts a long shadow. What they left behind
00:29forms the basis for what unfolds. Margaret and James kick-started the Dutton family as
00:34they set out from their home in Tennessee for a new life in Oregon.
00:37Why'd you say that?
00:38I just want you to know it.
00:40Now I'm nervous.
00:42After joining an ill-fated wagon train across the frontier, death and disaster forced them
00:47to stake their claim in Paradise Valley, Montana. The premiere episode of 1923, however, confirms
00:53that James died ten years after arriving in Montana, as seen briefly in a Yellowstone
00:57flashback. Following his passing, Margaret made a desperate plea to her husband's brother
01:02Jacob to come lead the family on the Dutton ranch. In the premiere of 1923, it's revealed
01:07that when he arrived a year later, he discovered Margaret frozen to death in a snowdrift. 1883
01:13doesn't avoid the fact that not every death in the Wild West was grand or noble.
01:18The central character of 1883, Elsa, was the first Dutton to die on the frontier. She was
01:23killed by an infection brought on by a Lakota arrow received in a battle during their trip
01:27to Oregon. It was Elsa's death that forced the Dutton clan to stop and make their home
01:32in Montana. But her presence is felt from beyond the grave as the narrator of 1923.
01:37In the series premiere, Elsa delivers a warning about what's to come, revealing that only
01:41one of her parents' children will live to see his children grow.
01:45Only one would carry the fate of this family through the Depression and every other hail
01:51the 20th century hurled at them.
01:54She claims that the family empire will crumble under her uncle Jacob's watch. Though she
01:59lost her life before the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch was even founded, Elsa remains a forceful
02:04presence. Her gravestone can still be seen in current episodes of Yellowstone, and it
02:09would seem that she still has a part to play in the events of 1923 as well.
02:13Jacob Dutton owns the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch, which has become a genuine empire. Jacob is
02:19the brother of 1883 star James Dutton. He arrived in the region after James' death in
02:231893. This also makes him the brother of Claire Dutton, who took her own life after the death
02:28of her daughter at the beginning of 1883. In 1923, Jacob is the adoptive father to James'
02:34surviving children, John and Spencer. He serves as Montana's livestock commissioner, the same
02:39role that will one day be held by his descendants, John Dutton III and Casey Dutton, many decades
02:45later on Yellowstone.
02:46This suggests that the family has controlled the government position since Montana's founding,
02:51but Jacob has made enemies among rival landowners who resent the large area of Montana that
02:56his family calls home.
02:57"...your enemies have got to be so terrified that their fear is greater than their greed."
03:05This becomes particularly problematic when the region is ravaged by both drought and
03:10locusts. With 1923 setting the stage for a range war, Jacob will have to be just as fierce
03:16as James before him if he's to protect the family legacy.
03:21Cara Dutton, Jacob's wife and the family matriarch, arrived on the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch with
03:25her husband in 1894. On her landing in Montana, she took in James and Margaret's children,
03:31John and Spencer, and raised them as her own. The close bond between Cara and her nephews
03:35is evident from the very beginning, as her emotional letter to Spencer makes clear. She's
03:40just as close to her grandson Jack, son of John I, showcased in the series premiere as
03:45she helps him smooth over an incident with his fiancée Elizabeth. She makes it clear
03:49to Elizabeth that being a rancher's wife is a tough job.
03:52"...and you will be free in a way that most people can barely conceive."
03:59Cara is a kind and gentle family leader, but she's as fierce and deadly as any Dutton when
04:05her family is threatened. Cara can tangle with the best of them, and is not to be underestimated.
04:12Rather than revolving around Jacob Dutton, many Yellowstone fans may have assumed that
04:161923 would focus on the now-middle-aged Dutton son John, a forebear of Kevin Costner's John
04:22Dutton III. John, the son of James and Margaret Dutton, was just a child when we met him in
04:271883. By the opening of 1923, he's in his mid-40s and married to Emma Dutton with a
04:33grown son of his own named Jack.
04:35John is his uncle's right-hand man in his job as livestock commissioner, and appears
04:40to play a big role in running the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. However, we know from Elsa's
04:44voiceover that only one of James Dutton's children will survive the 20th century. Will
04:50it be John, or is he destined to die in 1923?
04:54In Yellowstone, Beth Dutton's role on the ranch is largely administrative. But in 1923,
05:00women are integral to the day-to-day operations of the property. That means that Emma Dutton,
05:04the wife of John Dutton I, has a key part to play in running the ranch. Emma is not
05:09only John's wife, but also a caretaker of the ranch when the cowboys are away. She tends
05:13to the horses and keeps the grounds in the absence of John, Jacob, and the others.
05:17On the early 20th century Yellowstone, the women are often left to take care of the ranch
05:22on their own as caring for the herd keeps the ranch hands gone for days, weeks, or even
05:26months at a time.
05:28We first meet James' son Spencer Dutton in Yellowstone in a flashback set in the year
05:321893. He wasn't born during the events of 1883, when the Duttons were making their way
05:37across the plains. And when 1923 begins, he isn't living on the Dutton Ranch.
05:43As the series starts, we learn that Spencer Dutton is a veteran of the Great War, what
05:47we now call World War I, and is haunted by his experiences in combat. Since that time,
05:53Spencer has been working in Africa as a big game hunter, hired to rid tourist locales
05:57of wild animals like lions and leopards. His aunt Cara, who raised him after the death
06:02of his mother, still misses him as she writes to him across the world, wondering if his
06:06absence is some form of punishment. We're not quite sure where Spencer's story in 1923
06:12will take him, but there's a fair chance he won't stay away from the ranch forever.
06:17We haven't heard much about this Dutton member before, but that doesn't stop him from having
06:21a lead role in 1923. Jack Dutton is the son of John and Emma Dutton, and in the premiere
06:27episode is engaged to be married.
06:29"'Why do I have to wait a week? Why can't the cattle wait a week?"
06:33Raised by his parents on the Dutton ranch, he maintains a close relationship with his
06:37grand-aunt Cara, and is a capable cowboy himself. Though unconfirmed so far in 1923, it's at
06:44least possible that Jack is actually a younger version of John Dutton Sr., the elderly ancestor
06:50we've met in Yellowstone flashbacks. As the father of Kevin Costner's John Dutton, John
06:55Dutton Sr. appeared in a touching scene atop a mountain as he said goodbye to the Yellowstone.
07:00"'Don't let him take it away from you, son. Not a goddamn inch.'"
07:07In that scene, it's noted that John Sr. is in his 90s, which would put his birthdate
07:12around the turn of the 20th century, lining up neatly with Jack's age. On the other hand,
07:18Costner's John Dutton III notes that he's a sixth-generation Montanan, meaning that
07:23Jack is actually his grandfather. Only time will tell.
07:27In the first episode of 1923, Elizabeth Strafford is set to become the newest member of the
07:32Dutton family. Her father is a friend of Dutton patriarch Jacob, and she's engaged to be married
07:37to Jacob's grandnephew, Jack. The ceremony is postponed when Jack needs to join a cattle
07:42drive. That's when Elizabeth really gets that being a rancher's wife will be no picnic.
07:47If Elizabeth is the soon-to-be wife of the young cowboy Jack Dutton, that may make her
07:52the mother or grandmother of Kevin Costner's John Dutton III on Yellowstone. There's still
07:58plenty of story left to be told in 1923, but we fully expect the series to tie up the Dutton
08:03family tree with the story of Elizabeth and Jack's marriage.
08:07We're still not 100 percent certain how the rest of the Dutton family tree comes together,
08:12but it won't be much past 1923 for us to start seeing some familiar faces. Whether the young
08:17Jack Dutton is the same older man we've already met on Yellowstone, or whether he's his
08:22father or someone else entirely, it's clear that those family figures aren't far away.
08:27They may even pop up at some point over the course of 1923's two seasons.
08:32But there are other options, as creator Tyler Sheridan could introduce a new family branch
08:37we haven't seen coming. Regardless of how he's related to the characters in 1923, we
08:42know John Dutton will manage the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch through the latter half of the 20th
08:46century.
08:47You know, the first Duttons to settle this valley fightin' was all they knew. It's how
08:52they got here, how they kept the land once they did.
08:55At some point in the 1950s, John Dutton II will sire his namesake, John Dutton III, and
09:00in the late 80s or early 90s, he'll pass ownership of the ranch to John III, as seen in Yellowstone
09:06season 2.
09:07That's life. That's the way of it.
09:11The next generation of Duttons on the family tree is perhaps the most diverse group in
09:16the legacy of the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch. In the premiere episode of Yellowstone, John
09:21Dutton III's eldest son Lee is killed, leaving Casey and Jamie as the only male heirs. Casey
09:27was an outcast at the time, living with his Native American wife Monica on the Broken
09:31Rock Reservation. It's later revealed that Jamie Dutton was adopted. Whether his father
09:36John will view Jamie as a true member of the family still remains to be seen.
09:41On the other side of things, John III's daughter Beth is a ruthless corporate raider and seems
09:46far less interested in the family's fortune where the ranch is concerned. She's also unable
09:51to bear her own children. She's married Yellowstone's enforcer Rip Wheeler, a tough-as-nails cowboy
09:57who essentially runs the ranch.
09:59I believe in loving with your whole soul, and destroying anything that wants to kill
10:06what you love.
10:07When the time comes for John Dutton III to hand over the Yellowstone ranch to his heirs,
10:11it'll be interesting to see to whom he'll leave it — Casey, his son by blood, Jamie,
10:16his son by choice, or his daughter Beth and son-in-law Rip Wheeler. Of course, that assumes
10:21the ranch is still standing when all is said and done. Yellowstone could culminate with
10:26the end of the legacy we're witnessing in 1923.
10:29I saw the end of us.
10:33Beyond Casey, Jamie, and Beth lies another generation of Duttons, who are just children
10:39now. First and foremost among them is Tate Dutton, the now-teenage son of Casey and Monica.
10:44As it stands, Tate is the only one of his generation to be related by blood that can
10:48be traced back through John Dutton I in 1923 all the way to James and Margaret Dutton of
10:531883.
10:54You're going to grow up, and I'm going to grow old, and we'll just be some old shriveled
11:00raisin in the corner telling you stories you don't want to hear.
11:03Tate does have a familial cousin beyond blood, however. Jamie's son by his former assistant
11:08Christina, Wesley Dutton Jr., continues to carry the family name. More distant is Carter,
11:13the young boy taken in by Beth Dutton and her husband Rip Wheeler.
11:17But this generation of Duttons, by blood or otherwise, could spell doom for the family
11:21and their legacy. When James Dutton first settled in Paradise Valley, it was said that
11:26…
11:27And in seven generations, my people will rise up and take it back from you.
11:34If Jack Dutton is the grandfather of John Dutton III, then Tate and his generation could
11:39signal the end of the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch.