Thirza Defoe

Pow Wow Dreams

Honey

Four sisters in a Native American drum group face a dilemma when one of them decides to leave the group.

The Only Good Indian

Sally

Set in Kansas during the early 1900s, a teen-aged Native American boy is taken from his family and forced to attend a distant Indian "training" school to assimilate into White society. When he escapes to return to his family, Sam Franklin, a bounty hunter of Cherokee descent, is hired to find and return him to the institution. Franklin, a former Indian scout for the U.S. Army, has renounced his Native heritage and has adopted the White Man's way of life, believing it's the only way for Indians to survive. Along the way, a tragic incident spurs Franklin's longtime nemesis, the famous "Indian Fighter" Sheriff Henry McCoy, to pursue both Franklin and the boy.

The Dome of Heaven

Flutie Moses

Set in the unique beauty of Oklahoma country, "Dome of Heaven" is the story of the Moses family, dysfunctionally struggling for decades, and which consists of a Cherokee father and German mother and their two adult children Franklin and Flutie. With challenges both personal and societal, each tries to find their place in a world and peace with each other, but so many complications of emotions, culture clash and misunderstanding often keeps them apart.

Moments the Go

Thirza

An existential nightmare of Clive Runnels, as he seeks to correct a swerving life trajectory amid a breakup, his band collapsing, and the new responsibilities of an all-consuming blue-collar roofing job. Fever, his promiscuous younger girlfriend tests her yearning for wilder direction just as Clive accepts a position in charge of his fellow roofers who are out to make his life hell. A poet and neighbor attempts to lend support, along with Clive's boss, but even these angels manage to fall from grace. The story veers when Clive stands up for himself, punching out his relentlessly taunting co-worker. What follows is an unexpected trip through this surreal, cinematic poem.

Road Reps

Nurse

David Gram, a pharmaceutical sales rep, is offered an opportunity to win over a client in a remote northern territory. If successful, this challenge could make him the top sales rep of the year. David accepts the challenge and hits the road. Along the way however, David discovers his estranged wife, Jill has just been hired by the competition and is headed for the same client and the same opportunity. David has always been a fierce competitor. The race is on...

Cache Girl Saves the World: A Novel in Visions

Ta'li

Bold, provocative, and highly experimental, Cache Girl Saves the World introduces a new medium for literary fiction: the 'novel in visions,' which combines audio of the novel's text with still photographs of some of its action, packaged in DVD format. The novel tells the story of Ta'li, a young runaway whose Cherokee ancestors died on the Trail of Tears. Searching for peace for herself and the world, Ta'li finds herself in the swamps of Southern Illinois' Cache River, where, with the help of the Swamp Asp and the legendary Big Muddy Monster, she embarks on a daring quest to bring her vision of empathy, empowerment, unity, social justice and ecological wisdom to a humanity seemingly bent on self-destruction.

Burn the Wagons

A Tribal Court Clerk trudges through another work-day.