Filmmaker Chris Hsuing sets out on a journey of discovery in traditional Blackfoot territory. Hsuing discovers how history can tell you how life came to be, what has changed and what hasn’t changed. He teams up with Cowboy Smithx from the Blackfoot First Nation to delve deep into indigenous history.

Cowboy Smithx calls himself an elder in the making, a person with traditional knowledge and wisdom. Chris meets Cowboy at his grandfather’s ranch on the Piikani Reserve, Treaty 7 territory, and learns how he was inspired by Malcolm X to add an x to his surname. Hollywood promoted stereotypes about Indigenous people when they did not have access to their historic culture. They visit a rodeo, a golf course and a pow wow which evolved to offset the effect of these stereotypes. Pow wows are festivals, feasts, competitions, social gatherings and intertribal exchanges, offering a chance to reconnect with culture and to share teachings, language and stories. Chris heard stories that were counter to his notion of a peace-loving Canada. The past casts a long shadow.