Nine years after the Massacre of Wounded Knee, the Lakota people on Pine Ridge Reservation are on a precipice. Set amongst the stunning and unique beauty of the Badlands, West of Thunder sees a complex character, Henry Seed, arrive in a South Dakota town on the outskirts of the newly created reservation. When eerie and inexplicable events, closely akin to the horrors that had been visited upon the Lakota people in recent years, begin to occur in the western town, everything seems to point to the newest resident, Henry Seed. Questions abound as to whether Seed is some sort of supernatural demon seeking retribution and revenge or if there is a more simple explanation for each of the occurrences. While Seed’s arrival may seem to have provided an opportunity for revenge for the Lakota, the respected Lakota spiritual leader, Little Thunder, has a more far-seeing response. As the Lakota people face and adapt to their new circumstances, Little Thunder envisions the consequences of taking the path of revenge or maintaining the integrity of their inclusive traditional values and the interconnected circles of all mankind.