Bearheart

After a nun (who is a star witness in a court case against the Catholic Church) is killed in front of an Indian Residential Boarding School, two detectives take on the case. Sage Bearheart, from the FBI, isn’t happy to be going back to her hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, too many skeletons in the closet. Furthermore, her own mother was forced to attend the Indian Residential Boarding School, Holy Childhood. Her partner is Tribal Detective Addy Pensoneau, who is also personally connected to the case. Their relationship is just warming up and there is a disconnect in their style of approaching the murder and people in general. Sage is much colder to the events and people around her, while Addy has more empathy and patience for the process.

As Sage and Addy investigate the murder, they learn the identity of the murdered nun and try to launch an effort to protect the rest of the witnesses testifying against the Catholic Church. They also discover links from the nun’s death to a seemingly solved murder of an indigenous female, Raven Hawk (16, Ojibwe). However, Raven’s killer was caught, even though no body was ever found. Some believe she may still be alive.

Sage and Addy navigate interviewing the nun’s siblings about her murder. As they work on the case, they uncover secrets about their own pasts. In a surprise development, a plaintiff in the case is Marilyn Bearheart, Sage’s mother. Sage must come to terms that she was born by rape. As the investigation deepens, Sage and Addy face many obstacles and challenges. However, with their complementary skills and determination, they work together to uncover the truth behind the nun’s murder and the church’s crimes against the Native American children of Holy Childhood.