Synopsis

Anthony Running Wolf, a Native American from the Moteca (fictional) tribe in Kansas, is a successful Wall Street trader living in New York. Anthony left the Moteca reservation after high school, attended a prestigious college and landed a trading job with a Hedge Fund on Wall Street in New York. One night, Anthony receives a call from his grandmother, “Granny, ” a respected tribal elder, who raised him on the reservation after the accidental deaths of his parents. Granny informs Anthony that his sister, Joni, who worked for the Moteca tribal casino, has mysteriously been killed. She calls Anthony back to the reservation to bury his sister.

Anthony, who has ignored, and perhaps even shunned, his Native heritage and who has not returned to his reservation for almost twenty years, finds things have changed dramatically during his absence. The most significant change is that a tribal casino now exists on the reservation and is the financial focal point of the tribe.

Anthony attends Joni’s autopsy with Granny and Terra, Moteca, his high school sweetheart who’s now the head of the Reservation Police. At the autopsy, they discover Joni was murdered in a manner reminiscent of a killing from The Old West. Later, at Joni’s funeral, Anthony meets the slick Moteca Casino General Manager Bobby Newsome. Anthony’s surprised at Bobby’s position, mainly because he’s White yet oversees operations at an Indian Casino. Anthony also meets: Sonny Lehman, White, an opportunistic lobbyist who represents several Indian Casinos in the region; Martin, Moteca, who is on the powerful Tribal Council; and Chip, Moteca, the techno-whiz for the tribal casino.

Before heading back to New York, Anthony is confronted with evidence that may implicate his dead sister in a scheme involving the tribal casino and which may have led to her death. Faced with the dilemma of returning to his lucrative Wall Street job or investigating what really happened to his sister on the reservation, Anthony elects to stay.

Through a series of circumstances, Anthony discovers he’s entangled in a mystery that extends beyond the Moteca Casino to other Indian Casinos in the area, all vying for the potentially lucrative off-reservation, big city Indian Casino that may be built near by. Anthony also regretfully discovers the more he uncovers concerning these activities, the more at risk he puts his life and the life of his only surviving relative, Granny.

Casino Rez is about coming home, having to confront who you were, discovering who you’ve become, and making difficult choices concerning the welfare and the economic survival of your tribe.