Devastated by her best friend’s suicide, a young Lakota woman creates a girls’ boxing team with urgent hope that sport, sisterhood and tradition will guide youth toward a safer path.
Synopsis
At 23 years old, Shaionna Grass Rope lost her best friend Cheryl Ziegler to suicide. Cheryl- her cousin by blood and sister by culture- was an aspiring boxer who battled depression and addiction. Though facing the same struggles, Shaionna creates a boxing team for the girls following in their footsteps, determined to end trends of youth suicide within the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. The preteen squad faces the challenges of growing up on a reservation together with humor, sass and slushy-stained smiles.
Suicide disproportionately affects American Indians/Alaska Natives at 4 times the rate of any other group with young people being at highest risk.
