The Baptist: A Native American Odyssey

When Father Tosco, a Catholic priest with the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Utah is asked by the diocese to meet with a band of Southern Paiute Indians to dissolve a mission they'd established on Indian land over a century ago, he didn't think much about it. Since the mission is no longer in use, and has now been abandoned for over sixty years, he must locate and meet with the Paiutes of Little Bend Valley to discuss the dissolution of the mission within their reserved lands.

But that would prove to be no easy task. And what he found was much more than a non-functioning mission...

His encounter leads him into the world of Native American activism-a world of intrigue, deceit, and corruption. Faced with blatant racial bias and lethargic disregard for the survival of the Native American nations, Father Tosco finds within himself the will to challenge religious and political establishments...

...naïve at first-and uncompromising later-to the dangers lurking all around.

Sarah Wilson and the Paiutes of the Little Bend only needed a spark to revive within themselves their pride in their native ancestry and the determination to survive. Native American sovereignty is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Paiute band is prepared to die to protect their rights. Pitted against them are the greedy white settlers who, in the past, had nearly obliterated indigenous people and who now are not about to let a small band resurrect native pride. The FBI has its own axe to grind against native activism and an echo of Wounded Knee reopens old wounds.

Father Tosco's focus shifts as he sees how US leaders have nurtured a culture of hatred toward the aboriginal people of the land and systematically sought their decimation. He believes the only crime the native people of this land are guilty of is that they were here before us.

Through the true essence of Christian teaching, Father Tosco demonstrates that the human race is the chosen race...

...and every human is equal in the eyes of God.