The Silent Spirit

Description for THE SILENT SPIRIT by Margaret Coel:

In 1923, Arapahos and Shoshones from the Win River Reservation were recruited to appear as extras in The Covered Wagon, a silent film noted for being Hollywood's first Western to cast real Indians in an effort at authenticity. Charlie Wallowingbull never returned home, leaving people to believe he abandoned his new wife and unborn son.

Kiki Wallowingbull, Charlie's great-grandson, who'd recently been released from prison on a drug conviction, went to Hollywood to uncover the truth behind his great-grandfather's disappearance. But after Kiki's frozen body is discovered on the reservation -- and his supposed killer makes a self-defense confession -- Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley must find the connection between two mysteries separated by nearly a century...

This is #14 in A Wind River Mystery.