Join author Jon Hickey for a discussion of his new book \;Big Chie f. \; \;
\nAbout Big Chief:
\nMi tch Caddo\, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer\, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside hi s childhood friend\, Tribal President Mack Beck\, he runs the government o f the Passage Rouge Nation\, and with it\, the tribe&rsquo\;s Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack&rsquo\;s reelection\, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician\ , Gloria Hawkins\, and her young aide\, Layla Beck\, none other than Mack& rsquo\;s estranged sister and Mitch&rsquo\;s former love. In their struggl e for control over Passage Rouge\, the campaigns resort to bare-knuckle po litical gamesmanship\, testing the limits of how far they will go&mdash\;a nd what they will sacrifice&mdash\;to win it all.
\nBut when an acci dent claims the life of Mitch&rsquo\;s mentor\, a power broker in the rese rvation&rsquo\;s political scene\, the election slides into chaos and pits Mitch against the only family he has. As relationships strain to their br eaking points and a peaceful protest threatens to become an all-consuming riot\, Mitch and Layla must work together to stop the reservation&rsquo\;s descent into violence.
\nThrilling and timely\, Big Chief is an unf orgettable story about the search for belonging&mdash\;to an ancestral and spiritual home\, to a family\, and to a sovereign people at a moment of g reat historical importance.
\nAbout Jon:
\nJo n Hickey is a writer from Minnesota. He earned an MFA from Cornell Univers ity and was a Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University. His short stories have appeared in numerous journals such as Virginia Quarterly Revi ew\, Gulf Coast\, and the Massachusetts Review\, among other places.
\nHe is a member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Chippewa Indians (Anishin aabe). He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons.
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