Age: 54
female
Stacey Thunder is a producer, television host, actress, and attorney serving Indian Country for over 20 years. She began her television career in 2004 as the host and co-producer of the on-going PBS weekly news magazine series, "Native Report", of which she has hosted 154 episodes in eleven years. Thunder now hosts and produces "Indigenous with Stacey Thunder", an entertainment and educational video series that shares contemporary stories to shatter stereotypes and misconceptions, promote positivity, and simply show the world who Indigenous peoples really are. As an actress, Thunder has appeared in several films and television shows, including a lead role in the independent feature-length film, "The Jingle Dress", of which she received a Best Actress nomination from the American Indian Film Festival, "Crash" starring Dennis Hopper, "Tallulah" starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney, "The Promised Land" by Poltergeist screenwriter Michael Grais, "Nina in the Woods", "Kid West", and "Cold Feet". Thunder, who is Red Lake and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, is a mother to four wonderful children. She is also a board member of the Nike N7 Fund that provides grant money to Native communities supporting sports and physical activity programs for the youth.
Pop singer Avery Fox has become a national joke after posing scantily clad on the cover of Rolling Stone in a feather warbonnet. What was meant to be a statement of her success as a Native American singer has turned her into a social pariah and dubbed her a fake. With threats coming from every direction and her career at a standstill, she escapes to her estranged grandmother Lottie's ranch in Oklahoma. Living on the rez is new to Avery--not only does she have to work in the blazing summer heat to earn her keep, but the man who runs Lottie's horse ranch despises her and wants her gone. Red Fox Ranch has been home to Lucas Iron Eyes since he was sixteen years old. He has lived by three rules to keep himself out of trouble: 1) preserve the culture, 2) respect the horses, and 3) stick to himself. When he is tasked with picking up Lottie's granddaughter at the bus station, the last person he expected to see is the Avery Fox. Lucas can't stand what she represents, but when he's forced to work with her on the ranch, he can't get her out of his sight--or his head. He reminds himself to keep to his rules, especially after he finds out the ranch is under threat of being shut down. It's clear Avery doesn't belong here, but they form a tentative truce and make a deal: Avery will help raise funds to save the ranch, and in exchange, Lucas will show her what it really means to be an Indian. It's purely transactional, absolutely no horsing around...but where's the fun in that?
