Breaking Down the Dutton Family Tree Behind Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, Marshals, and Dutton Ranch
Yellowstone has always been a franchise interested in, if not outright obsessed with, legacy. That of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, upon which the fictional Dutton family lived from the late 1800s through the early 2020s, was always foremost in the mind of patriarch John Dutton III, played by Kevin Costner with the gruff bluster of a cowboy past his prime. He often seemed more interested in the well-being of the land than that of his own children—or, perhaps, it’s simply that he had an easier time understanding what the land needed to thrive. But if the ever-expanding Yellowstone Cinematic Universe has anything resonant to say about legacy, it’s that the land’s legacy is determined by the people who care for it, and that means the Dutton lineage—the fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters of this century-spanning epic—matters as much as the borders of their property.
And so we look to 1883 and 1923, creator Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel spinoffs, which chronicle the upper tiers of the Dutton family tree as they branch down to John Dutton III and his four(ish) children. 1883, which concluded its first season in February 2022, featured Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the central Duttons, who claim the infamous patch of Montana wild known as the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch after the tragic death of their daughter, Elsa. The story picks back up in 1923—which ended with its second season in April 2025—featuring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as the installment’s key Duttons. Ford’s Jacob Dutton, brother to McGraw’s James Dutton, is tasked with caring for his brother’s home and family, a challenge complicated by the expected 20th-century problems: disease, drought, the Great Depression, postwar fallout, and “the violence that has always haunted this family,” as a 1923 trailer teases. That last line in particular is intriguing, given the ways in which the Yellowstone universe concerns itself with the romanticism of tradition, the nobility of the past—though only certain portions of it—and the passing-down of intergenerational trauma. (A trauma that will, inevitably, impact the land.)
In Yellowstone, the franchise’s flagship series, that violence and trauma come to a head in the season 5 premiere, when John Dutton III, at last, is killed. Then, in the season 5 finale, the Dutton Ranch finally passes out of the family’s hands—but a parcel of it remains to John’s son Kayce, his wife Monica Long, and their son, Tate. Meanwhile, John’s daughter, Beth, and her husband, Rip Wheeler, start up a new ranch elsewhere in Montana.
These families, it would seem, will continue the legacy James Dutton once began. Each branch has now earned its own spinoff series in the broader Yellowstone universe: Kayce’s story is currently unfolding in the CBS saga Marshals, while Beth and Rip’s is explored in the Paramount+ drama Dutton Ranch.
To understand this “haunted” family best, it’s essential to parse its origins. Below, take a closer look through the possible knots of the Dutton family tree. (A quick disclaimer, however: Because the Taylor Sheridan universe has yet to reveal a 100-percent official Dutton family tree, the following is a speculation based on what each show has revealed so far.)
Below, learn more about each character on the tree.
James Dutton” One of the leads of 1883, James Dutton (Tim McGraw) was the original patriarch of the Dutton family, and the first to claim the family’s home in Montana. Originally a farmer from Tennessee, he traveled west with his wife and children after fighting as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. He intended to journey further beyond Montana, but settled there after the death of his daughter, Elsa.
Margaret Dutton: A nurse for the Confederate Army, Margaret (Faith Hill) farmed beside her husband, James, in Tennessee before the family headed northwest for new territory. She and James had three children in total: Elsa, John, and Spencer.
Jacob Dutton: Brother to James, Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) took over caring for the Yellowstone homestead in the early 1900s. He is one of the leading men in 1923.
Cara Dutton: Played by Helen Mirren in 1923, Cara Dutton is the wife of Jacob and matriarch of the Dutton family following Margaret’s death.
Claire Dutton: Sister to James and Jacob, 1883’s Claire Dutton (Dawn Olivieri) was a recent widow who traveled in search of a new home with her brother’s family and her daughter, Mary Abel. But after Mary Abel was killed by a gang outside of Fort Worth, Texas, Claire—who had lost her husband and all seven of her children—died by suicide at Mary Abel’s grave.
Henry: We don’t learn much about Claire Dutton’s husband, Henry, in 1883, but we do know he died before the family traveled to Forth Worth, Texas.
Mary Abel: Daughter of Claire Dutton and niece to James, Jacob, Margaret, and Cara, 1883’s Mary Abel (Emma Malouff) died on the road west when a gang attacked the family’s camp in Texas.
Elsa Dutton: The eldest child of James and Margaret Dutton, Elsa (Isabel May) served as the narrator of 1883 before her death in the season finale. (She also narrates 1923 via voiceover.) Traveling west at the age of 17 with her parents and younger brother, John, Elsa fell in love twice on the road—first with cowboy Ennis, who was killed by bandits, and then with Comanche warrior Sam, to whom she promised she’d return after her family found their homestead out west. But she was never able to make it back to her love, as she was shot and killed before they could be reunited. In her honor, James and Margaret founded the Dutton family homestead at the site of her grave.
John Dutton I: The oldest son of James and Margaret Dutton, John Dutton I appears in 1883 as a child and in 1923 as an adult, played by James Badge Dale. He worked the Yellowstone land alongside his uncle, Jacob, and had his own family with wife Emma and son Jack. He dies midway through 1923 thanks to an ongoing feud between cattle ranchers and sheepherders.
Spencer Dutton: Although we don’t meet him in 1883, we learn in 1923 that James and Margaret eventually had a third child, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), who was born after the family settled in Montana. A veteran of World War I, he’s a main character in 1923 and the father of “baby John” (likely John Dutton II), born in the 1923 season 2 finale.
Alex Dutton: A feisty Brit whom Spencer falls in love with while living in Africa, Alex eventually marries into the Dutton family. In the 1923 season 1 finale, she seems queasy aboard their transport ship home. In 1923 season 2, Alex is indeed revealed to be pregnant as she attempts to get back to the Yellowstone and reunite with her long-lost husband. She makes it back to Spencer—though not back to the ranch itself—before she goes into preterm labor and delivers a baby, whom she names “John” after Spencer’s older brother, John Dutton I. After giving birth, she soon dies.
Although actress Julia Schlaepfer could not “confirm or deny” to ELLE “whether or not baby John is the John,” it seems likely that Spencer and Alex’s baby is indeed John Dutton II.
Unknown Widow and Unknown Dutton: In the 1923 season 2 finale, it’s revealed via Elsa’s voiceover that Spencer “never remarried” after Alex’s death, but he “took the comfort of a widow and made another boy.” We do not learn the names of either the widow or their son.
Emma Dutton: Emma Dutton (Marley Shelton) is the wife of John Dutton I and mother to Jack Dutton in 1923. She dies of suicide after her husband is shot and killed early in the first season.
Jack Dutton: The son of John Dutton I and Emma Dutton, Jack Dutton (Darren Mann) works with his father and great-uncle to tend to the Yellowstone land during 1923. He falls in love with Elizabeth Strafford and marries her, though he eventually meets a bloody end in season 2, episode 6. By the time he dies, Elizabeth is pregnant with their child.
Elizabeth Dutton: Set up as Jack’s love interest in 1923, Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) becomes the life partner and wife of the young Dutton. In episode 5 of season 1, she reveals she is pregnant, but she miscarries in the season finale. In season 2, she becomes pregnant once more—only to become a widow when Jack dies. She leaves the Yellowstone in the 1923 season 2 finale, though she promises Cara she’ll write. She is still pregnant at the time of her leaving.
Unknown Dutton: It is presumed that Elizabeth eventually gives birth to her and Jack’s child, though it has not yet been revealed if the baby survives, nor do we know the baby’s identity.
John Dutton II: Almost certainly the son of Spencer and Alex, John Dutton II appears only as an infant in 1923 and as an old man in flashback episodes of Yellowstone. He was once the Dutton family patriarch, and is the father of Costner’s John Dutton III.
Unknown Wife: We do not know the identity of John Dutton II’s wife, who was John Dutton III and Peter Dutton’s mother. She died sometime before John Dutton II himself died of cancer.
John Dutton III: The now-deceased owner of the massive Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, Costner’s John Dutton III was an uncompromising traditionalist, a rugged cowboy, a survivor of multiple near-death experiences, and the governor of Montana. He yearned for nothing more than the continuation of his family’s land in the exact state it was bequeathed to him. But after some offscreen drama between Costner and Sheridan, Costner left Yellowstone behind, which ultimately resulted in Sheridan killing off John Dutton III in the season 5 premiere.
Peter Dutton: In Yellowstone season 5, John Dutton III reveals to his daughter-in-law, Monica, that he had a brother named Peter, who died only 18 hours after being born.
Evelyn Dutton: Once the wife and true love of John Dutton III, Evelyn Dutton (Gretchen Mol) died when her four children—Lee, Beth, Kayce, and Jamie—were still young. A horseback riding incident resulted in her being crushed, an accident for which her daughter, Beth, blamed herself.
Lee Dutton: The eldest child of John Dutton III and Evelyn Dutton, Lee (Dave Annable) was always meant to carry on the Dutton legacy, but he died in the first season of Yellowstone after a battle over stolen cattle.
Beth Dutton: John Dutton III and Evelyn’s only daughter, Beth (Kelly Reilly) is the signature spitfire of the family, a pure force of nature with the cutting stares and ragged bangs to prove it. Married to cowboy Rip Wheeler, she is one of the twin protagonists of the spinoff series Dutton Ranch. When their Montana property is destroyed in a fire, she and Rip move to the South to launch a new ranch in Rio Paloma, Texas.
Rip Wheeler: A cowboy through and through, Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) first arrived on the Yellowstone Ranch as a traumatized teenager, where he met and slowly fell in love with his boss’s daughter. He was John Dutton III’s most trusted man, and he’s now poised to live out John’s land-first ideology with a new Dutton Ranch in Texas.
Carter: The adopted son of Beth and Rip, Carter (Finn Little) comes from a difficult background: Beth first met him at a hospital, where his father died after a heroin overdose. Beth ended up taking the boy in and setting him up to work on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. Years later, in Dutton Ranch, he lives in Rio Paloma, Texas, with Beth and Rip, and has developed a crush on the fiery Oreana Lynn Jackson (Natalie Alyn Lind).
Kayce Dutton: Forever untethered within the Dutton family and at one point estranged from his father, Kayce (Luke Grimes) is the youngest of the Dutton brood but the first to have his own family. He married Monica Long, who grew up on the nearby Broken Rock Reservation, and together they had Tate Dutton, whom John Dutton III eventually grows close with as Kayce’s wariness subsides.
Monica Long: Raised on the nearby Broken Rock Reservation, the loyal and intelligent Monica Long Dutton (Kelsey Asbille) began the Yellowstone saga suspicious of the Dutton family’s intentions, but she grew fonder of them as her son, Tate, grew up and as her husband, Kayce, fell back within his father’s grasp. She worked as a teacher both on and off the reservation. Sometime between the end of Yellowstone season 5 and the events of spinoff series Marshals, Monica died of cancer.
Tate Dutton: The only surviving child of Kayce and Monica, Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill) is an adventurous boy who—like his father and grandfather—has been through hell more than once. As one of the Dutton descendants who seems to appreciate the land as much as his forebears, it’s fitting that he—the son of a white man and a Native American woman—should re-inherit a piece of the land once taken from his ancestors. He appears in Marshals alongside his father, Kayce.
John Dutton IV: Kayce and Monica’s second son, John Dutton IV, died shortly after his birth. Monica went into preterm labor early in Yellowstone season 5, then experienced further complications after she and Tate were in a car accident. At the hospital, she delivered a son, John Dutton IV, but he survived for only an hour.
Jamie Dutton: Desperate to please and easily manipulated, Jamie (Wes Bentley) is an attorney and the adopted son of John Dutton III and Evelyn Dutton, whom John later disinherits when things get a little—ahem—dicey between them. Jamie’s biological father was Garrett Randall, who killed Jamie’s mother when Jamie was just a baby. Jamie himself kills Garrett when things get dicey between them. Then, in Yellowstone season 5, Jamie is accused of killing John Dutton III himself. Finally, Beth kills Jamie. Gotta love family!
Garrett Randall: Garrett Randall (Will Patton) was Jamie’s biological father. An ex-convict who killed his wife, Phyllis, Jamie’s mother, Garrett had a tense relationship with Jamie in Yellowstone season 4…and Jamie eventually shot and killed him.
Phyllis Mary Randall: Although we don’t meet her in any of Sheridan’s shows, Phyllis was Jamie’s biological mother, who was killed by her husband, Garrett Randall.
Christina: Once an employee of Jamie’s during his campaign for state attorney general, Christina (Katherine Cunningham) became briefly romantically linked with Jamie and gave birth to his child.
Jamie Dutton II: Jamie and Christina had a baby boy together, and we learn in Yellowstone season 4 that he’s named after his father.