Isabel DeRoy-Olson

Following her sister's disappearance, Jax and her niece Roki must stick together. Desperate to keep what's left of their family intact, Jax and Roki defy the law and hit the road on a journey to the Grand Nation Powwow in Oklahoma City.

Tombs weaves together the triangular story points of three Oklahoma sisters and their mother who travel to Los Angeles as a part of a relocation program in the 1950s that gave Native Americans the opportunity to become “civilized” by getting jobs in urban centres. When they arrive, they begin to understand that like many east-to-west dreams, the reality is not the new beginning they sought. Abandoned by government policy and in acute poverty, they begin to search for their own, finding home in “the tombs” – the cemented riverways of LA. It is here a young mother is killed, and the lives of her children separate down three very different paths that emerge in 1970s Los Angeles – weaving together one telling, one flood.

A young Chickasaw softball player, after losing her parents, moves to a new school with no softball team. She instead joins the boy’s baseball team under the tutelage of a compassionate coach, only to become the target of a school board president who wants to see her removed. Soon, through her vivid imagination, she begins having conversations with Will Rogers, who offers her guidance on how to overcome life’s challenges.