Mitch Caddo started out with the best of intentions—after his mother’s sudden death in a car
crash he finished law school and returned to Passage Rouge the reservation where she grew up.
Though an outsider to the tribe himself he sought to help his new community by representing
disadvantaged families in tribal court. But that was before--before he got sucked into the
world of Mack Plum his charismatic childhood friend. Before Mack ran and won the race for
Tribal President as an underdog populist. Before he and Mitch became the people who would do
anything to keep Mack at the head of the tribal council. And before he came face to face once
again with his teenage flame Layla Plum none other than Mack’s sister who had returned to
Passage Rouge for her own reasons. Now on the eve of Passage Rouge’s next tribal election
Mitch finds himself torn between two rivals: he’s unsettled by Mack’s abuses of power and his
own complicity in them but he doesn’t quite trust Gloria Hawkins Mack’s opponent--a
nationally known activist and politician who has Layla running her campaign. When an accident
claims the life of a central figure in the reservation’s complicated political landscape the
election descends into chaos and Mitch and Layla find themselves trying to stop the tribe’s
slide towards all-out violence while doing their best to correct the wrongs of the past. Big
Chief tells a story about the search for belonging not just as an individual but as a
sovereign people at a moment of great historical importance.
