Red Frost

Mark Broken Wing, a Native American and a successful San Francisco attorney, is thrust into uncovering his brother’s killers on a Northern California Reservation. In the process, he not only uncovers his brother’s killer, with ties to drug trafficking, but also his firm’s connection to the same criminal organization. Most importantly, he reestablishes a relationship with the woman he never stopped loving and discovers a daughter he never knew he had.

Pressed by an important case Mark has to litigate, worth millions for his firm and a partnership for him, he convinces his firm to allow him to attend his brother’s funeral and look into his brother’s death, just for a few days. On meeting Jennifer at the funeral, the woman he still loves after many years of separation, a new relationship starts to form. Her initial motive is to have him to stay to fully investigate his brother’s murder and how it is connected to his brother’s activism in trying to regain Indian land and lumber rights. In the process of his investigation, he is forced to see the continued daily poverty of his people, which begins to change him.

His investigation is thwarted at every turn by people he least expected. Jennifer’s father’s company, through bribery, gained control of the wealth from the timber extracted from Indian land. Eventually, he discovers more than timber is taken from the land. Marijuana flourishes in the forest with the aid of a boyhood friend and is distributed by organized criminals and the lumber company. The reservation land yields wealth but not for the people that live there.

In the course of Mark’s investigation, he discovers incriminating evidence, and to prevent him from revealing his discovery, his daughter is kidnapped in exchange for the documents.

-- Ricardo Almeraz (d. 2016)