Extra Indians

Every winter, Tommy Jack McMorsey makes the long haul from Texas to northern Minnesota to watch the meteor showers. One cold night, in a moment of kindness, Tommy picks up a deluded Japanese tourist determined to fi nd the buried ransom money from the movie Fargo. When she dies of exposure in Tommy Jack’s care, a media storm erupts, jarring loose pieces of Tommy Jack’s past: the horrors of Vietnam, a love affair, and the suicide of his closest friend, Fred Howkowski.

The story wends between a string of haunting memories and the present: Tommy Jack’s aimless life as a truck driver and husband, Fred Howkowski’s thwarted career as an actor in Hollywood, and the return of Tommy Jack’s estranged
adoptive son to Big Antler, Texas. Exploring the ways images, stereotypes, and depictions of identity intersect with reality and lived experience, Extra Indians offers a powerful glimpse into contemporary American Indian life.