The First Nations reserve, generally referred to by Natives and townsfolk alike as The Rez, is a recurring setting of Letterkenny. Visits of townsfolk to the Rez, and of natives to Letterkenny, are not uncommon, but the name of the reserve, or even to which culture Tanis and her crew belong, have never been explored. However, when Tanis re-assembles the Letterkenny Irish to play an exhibition game against the Kerry County Eagles, Jim Dickens thanks the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek Band "for allowing us on their land for tonight's match-up between the Letterkenny Irish and North Rez Eagles" (In It To Win It). The Atikameksheng Anishnawbek Band is located southwest of Sudbury, Ontario (just east of Naughton) where the episodes are filmed.
The first visit depicted is of Reilly, Jonesy, and the other Letterkenny Shamrocks making their way to the Rez for a hockey game; the Natives are tough fighters on the ice as well as outside the rink, and several players are absent, home with a case of the "native flu" (Rave). Other interaction appear to have gone on for some time, however, as Tanis and her crew have been selling cigarettes in Letterkenny for some time as a fundraiser, and as Katy knows Wally—who turns out to be Tanis's estranged father—through an unspecified connection (A Fuss in the Back Bush).
Through Katy, The Hicks arrange a visit to Wally's house on the Rez hoping to dispose of marijuana someone has grown in the back bush on the farm (A Fuss in the Back Bush). Subsequently, however, conflict between the Skids and Tanis's crew boils over, and the latter are banned from Letterkenny after Wayne pays off the money that the Skids owe Tanis. There is no further interaction for some time, until the Letterkenny Irish have their own game at the Rez against the Natives' Senior team, later named as the Kerry County Eagles. The hockey players ask the Hicks to provide backup for them outside the rink, which the Hicks reluctantly agree to (The Native Flu).
The day of the game, Wayne, Daryl, Dan, and Joint Boy travel to the arena at the Rez and have a tailgate in between scraps with members of Tanis' crew. At the final confrontation, Tanis asks Wayne to lift the ban on Letterkenny, as they need the proceeds from dart sales to support the community. She threatens him with stories of a giant native who would beat him in a fight, but convinces him to lift the ban by presenting him with a three-legged dog—and then another. Later that night, unable to sleep thinking about Tanis's reserve fighter, Wayne drove to the Rez by himself to meet Tanis at the cookout spot and see if he actually existed (The Native Flu). They become intimate, and Tanis later calls Wayne to say she is pregnant (Finding Stormy a Stud).
Tanis has an abortion, and the Letterkenny townsfolk do not return to the Rez until some time later, at Tanis's request. Axe and Slash have been turned against her by two "strays," Shyla and Shania, and she wants their helps to get them back by attending a cookout at the Rez. Axe and Slash almost immediately start to fold (given that Shyla and Shania, unlike Tanis, are terrible cooks). In the event, a collection of "Degen All-Stars" interrupts the proceedings; Axe and Slash return to Tanis's fold in fear, and the combined force of the natives and the Letterkenny crew send the degens back upcountry (Way to a Man's Heart).
Wayne becomes a regular at the Rez once he breaks up with Rosie and pursues a relationship with Tanis; he visits her at her house on the Rez and spends time there. Eventually, however, they break up, being too different to carry on as a romantic couple (The Ol' College Try). None of the characters from Letterkenny have visited the Rez since, though the natives do venture into Letterkenny from time to time, for example to drive out Hard Right Jay and his crew (Hard Right Jay).
Later, Tanis develops an interest in hockey as a way to keep her nephews out of trouble. At first, she attempts to revive the Letterkenny Irish (In It To Win It), but it emerges that all players of note on that team also qualify as Natives under the Indian Act, and thus all join the Kerry County Eagles (Miss Fire). Thus strengthened, the Eagles win the National Senior Hockey Championships on home ice, the Kerry County Arena on the Rez.
Sublocations[]
- Bar
- Cookout spot
- Kerry County Arena (hockey arena)
- Tanis's house
- Wally's house
Behind the scenes[]
There are a number of native communities in southeastern Ontario, notably the Ojibwe (or Chippewa), the Oneida, and the Mohawk (Kanyen'kehà:ka), the latter two being nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois. Kaniehtiio Horn, who plays Tanis, is Mohawk, and grew up on the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.