Cole Brings Plenty, an actor from the TV series “1923,” was found dead in Kansas on Friday after his family reported him missing earlier this week, authorities said.
Deputies found Brings-Plenty, 27, in a wooded area in Johnson County, which borders Missouri, the Johnson County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
According to the statement, officers were searching the area after receiving a report of an unoccupied vehicle and found a man dead at a distance from the vehicle. The agency has not disclosed the cause of death.
Brings Plenty, who calls himself Munikoju Lakota on Instagram, played Native American shepherd Pete Plenty Claus in the TV show “1923,” a prequel to “Yellowstone.” The show depicts the abuse of Native American children in government-established or sponsored boarding schools.
In May 2023, Brings Plenty and his uncle Moe Brings Plenty visited the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington to discuss residential schools and other issues affecting Native Americans.
According to entertainment database IMDb, Mr. Brings Plenty's acting credits also include the western television shows “Into the Wild Frontier'' and “Jim Bridger's Tall Tales.'' He was a student at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.
Mr. Brings Plenty's father, Joe Brings Plenty Sr., confirms his son's death. in a statement shared by family spokesperson Michelle Shining Elk.
“I would also like to thank everyone who walked with me as we searched for my son and provided the resources we needed to expand the search area,” Brings Plenty Sr. said in a statement.
Moe Brings Plenty shared an “unusual” missing person poster on social media saying her nephew went missing on March 31 and failed to make an appointment with a representative.
The poster said Brins-Plenty was last seen in Lawrence, Kansas.
The Lawrence Police Department said in a statement that it filed an affidavit for Brings-Plenty's arrest after police identified him as a suspect in a domestic violence incident that occurred on the morning of March 31st.
Police said officers responded to a woman's screams for help at an apartment in Lawrence, and the suspect fled before officers arrived.
“Because this case involves allegations of domestic violence, there is a limited amount of information that can be shared to protect the victim,” the statement said.
Police said Brings-Plenty's family contacted them to express their concerns and to report her as a missing person. Mr. Brings Plenty was discovered about 45 miles southeast of Lawrence.
