Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community member Thosh Collins (On Akimel O’odham/Osage/Seneca) has been staying busy since he and his wife Chelsey Luger released their 2022 book The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well.

If you scroll through Collins’ Instagram, you’ll see an abundance of well-produced videos showing traditional-inspired workout routines and topics such as Indigenous fatherhood, decolonizing time, connecting to land and more.

He plans to share more long-form video on YouTube to connect with people about finding healing and balance as an Indigenous person.

Recently, Collins has been quite busy on the big and small screens. From 2023 to 2024, he appeared in four episodes of the Marvel Studios series Echo as an Ancestor character. He even appeared in an episode of the critically acclaimed show Reservation Dogs on FX in 2023.

Collins has a recurring guest role in the upcoming Netflix reboot of the television series Little House on the Prairie, which is based on the book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The original series lasted from 1974 to 1983.

He plays a character named Louis who is the cousin of the wife in the show’s main Native family. He has one scene in the first episode (release date to be determined). He was told he was also going to appear in episode 7 and possibly another.

“I’m still not sure when I go back because they don’t tell you much when you work on these productions. You don’t know much until the last minute, unless you are one of the main casts,” said Collins.

He said it’s a cool character to play and he has already filmed one scene, but he can’t say yet what it entails. The show is filming in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

In the storyline, in addition to the settler family (the Ingalls), there is a Native family included this time. Collins said that in the story, the Indigenous people are Osage, currently of Oklahoma.

“That’s actually where my mom is from,” said Collins. “For me it’s cool to portray someone on that side, because I grew up on my O’odham side in Arizona. I believe the Osage people would be glad to see that one of their own is portraying a character who is depicted as Osage in the story.”

Collins said that one good thing about being a Native person growing up with the Native experience and being cast to play Native roles is that it’s easy to pull from your own experience or characteristics of other people you know in your family or Community.

“I’ve always been knowledgeable of history through oral tradition, but also through reading historic written accounts, and so I have my idea of how a Native person in the 1700-1800s would act in terms of their etiquette and their speaking,” said Collins.

“You pull from those types of things, and you embody that character. It’s like you’re playing another version of yourself. I always think about it as it’s me in the multiverse, so I develop a special relationship to that character.”

The first big camera action Collins ever had was the 2005 feature film The New World, which starred Colin Farrell, Christian Bale and Michael Greyeyes (Plains Cree), whom O’odham Action News interviewed in July 2021.

“I spent a lot of time with Michael on set when we filmed that summer and fall of 2004,” said Collins.

“It was so cool to meet Michael because I’d seen him on Dance Me Outside (a 1994 movie) as ‘Gooch,’ and that was like a rez classic still to this day!”

Greyeyes also performed in contemporary Indigenous dance, and Collins worked with him in that capacity. Collins said that Greyeyes is someone that he would love to get more acting coaching from.

The idea of having some sort of drama club or acting resources in the SRPMIC for young Community members intrigues Collins. As he gains more experience and notoriety as an actor, the idea could become a reality. One of his buddies, Martin Sensmeier, works in the industry and has talked about doing some acting workshops with Collins on the rez.

“As a Community health educator and someone who understands generational trauma, one of the reasons why there might be a prevalence of substance abuse in the Community is that many of our people have not found things to aspire to, to help them heal and keep them focused and keep up their energy,” Collins shared.

Collins also has a small speaking role coming out in the upcoming HBO/MAX horror series It: Welcome to Derry.

“I still don’t even know what episode I’m in, and of course I can’t say anything about the storyline,” said Collins.

“With a series that big, as an actor in a small role the production doesn’t even give you the full story. All you get is a script for the episode you are in to read and give you context.”

Being on camera was no accident for Collins. He said he has always had a vision for himself.

“I come from the same Community and have generally had the same opportunities,” he said. “I had to try to pave a way because there was no blueprint for someone who is trying to do what I’m trying to do, as someone who endeavors to be an artist, to be an actor [and] to be an Indigenous wellness consultant.”