When a young rancher crosses paths with a Lakota girl from a nearby reservation, her mysterious disappearance sparks a search that uncovers a harrowing past and hints at a dire future.

The film opens on a dark screen. In silence, text appears: “Before the arrival of European colonists, sexual violence was virtually nonexistent on North American soil. Since then, Native American women have suffered sexual victimization more than any other racial or ethnic group. Without the voices of the brave survivors, this story would not have been possible.”

We are set up for a “based on true stories” movie then, a Very Special Episode sort of film.

Kip (Graham Phillips) is a hot young cowboy on a ranch out for a night of sexual adventure, but in the moment he demures. On his way out he spies Waniya (Sydney Schafer), a Lakota woman being abused by a customer, and defends her. She knocks the customer out and runs off. Later, he sees her on the road and offers her a ride and  a place to stay for the night.

We learn that she is a victim of a sex trafficking ring run by Paris (Shawn Hatosy), who marks his girls with a tattoo of his symbol: a blue-eyed wolf. Paris nabs Waniya, and Kip tries to find and rescue her, learning more about the seedy underbelly of his ranch town as he searches.

Ultimately this is the story of the sex trafficking of Native women, centered on a hot young white cowboy. It’s not badly-told, and doing it this way may make the story accessible to folks that wouldn’t otherwise watch a movie on the topic, but it’s a little sad that it’s pretty much entirely Kip’s story, when the one everything is happening to is Waniya.

So it’s a bit white knight/white savior for my taste. But for all that, it’s not a bad movie, and it is well-acted and the characters are for the most part sympathetic. But the plight of these women in real life is not down to a villain — a “blue-eyed wolf” — but to a society that turns a blind eye, and actively supports the systemic victimization of Native women.

The white-knighting is not entirely complete, though, as Waniya has some agency eventually, but she’s only the pretty macguffin for the first half of the movie.

I wound up caring most about the horse, though. Kip rides a white horse, by the way. One of the bad guys buys the horse and abuses it.

It is not really what I would call a subtle movie.

Does it work as a movie? Yes, it does. Is it well-made? It really is. Does it fairly address the issue it sets us up to explore? Well, there I am less inclined to give it a pass. It’s not terrible by any means, but the number of times “Cowboys and Indians” is mentioned, or the battle at Little Bighorn, it makes it very clear that this is a film about Native rights and abuses at the hands of Western society. And it still centers on the white dude.