False Provenance

Archeology, Oil, and Abduction in the New Mexican High Desert

It is July 2019, and the summer monsoon is building above New Mexico’s Chaco National Historical Park. Scientist Mark Springer is shot while investigating the effects of a moratorium on oil drilling designed to protect archeological sites near the Park. He is found, injured, by Justin Tso, an ex-policeman searching for a missing grandchild last seen in the area.

Against the background of two real world problems in the Region—the disappearance of Native American women and the tension between oil/gas development and the protection of archeological sites sacred to Native American people—a partnership between an environmental scientists, a Navajo ex-policeman and his daughter sets out to find the connections between abduction of the girl, oil fracking, and the theft of Chaco era archeological artifacts.