In a near-future America where dust storms rage and water is scarce, Alaska Rainmaker rides the wasteland as a bounty hunter, tracking down felons with her motorcycle and lasso. Part Cree, part Welsh, and wholly determined, she lives with seizures and a ‘lightning spirit” that brings visions of her ancestors and a longing for her ancestral connection.
Being a recluse, she reluctantly agrees to team up with her detective father and their robot sidekick to hunt the Copycat Killer – a serial murderer wearing the masks of history's most notorious killers. As fatalities appear with ritualistic crosses carved into foreheads, Alaska must confront not only a human-monster but an ancient Indigenous distorted entity called the Wetiko, which may or may not have anything to do with the crimes, or her personal and ancestral trauma.
Blending Indigenous spirituality, cyberpunk aesthetics, diversity, climate fiction, and a hard-boiled crime narrative, “Maskwa” (Cree for “bear”) follows Alaska's journey from bounty hunter to bear medicine woman as she battles both personal shadows and literal ones in a quest that spans the collapsing landscape of America and the eternal wisdom of her ancestors.
Maskwa is Indigenous futurism at its most visceral: a vision of what it means to be a courageous rainbow warrior in the twilight of empire, where ancient wisdom and new technologies merge in the fight for survival, healing, justice, and planetary renewal.
