Lakota Girls

This is a historical drama about Mato Win, an eight-year-old Native American girl who lives at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. After her parents are critically injured in an accident, she is sent to live with a white family at a horse ranch in the Black Hills. She stays with Clara, an eight-year-old white girl and her family, but Mato Win is determined to get back to the reservation. She runs away to the mountainous forest but is found. Mato Win calls her brother, Tate, who is a rodeo rider to come get her. She is afraid she will be kept from her parents and does not trust Clara's older brother Cavan. Mato Win questions Clara about an old photo of two Indian men in her home. Clara tells the story of her great-great grandma, Emylon, who rode the train from Indiana to teach there, a hundred years ago. She fell in love with Frank, one of the Native American men in the photo and married him. Mato Win starts to understand why Clara says she feels the spirits too. Mato Win is confronted by a white boy at the playground. Cavan and Clara stand with her against this bully. Mato Win sees there is a difference among the white people. Tate finally arrives on his horse, and they escape into the mountains. When caught by the sheriff, Mato Win is given a choice, to go back to the reservation or to Clara's ranch. She will go back, if her brother can go too. Clara's grandma, Ilona, welcomes Tate and his horse. In the midst of racism, these children found lasting friendship.