Twin brothers Alex Smith and Andrew Smith grew up in Missoula, Montana. They wrote the screenplay and filmed the adaptation of James Welch's Winter in the Blood novel in 2012. They also wrote The Slaughter Rule (2002) and Career Opportunities in Poetry (2008). The novel takes place on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and along the Hi-Line of Montana. The location is based on where Welch lived as a child.

Chaske Spencer is a member of the Fort Peck Tribe and plays Virgil First Raise in the film. Chaske, co-producer of the film, is also an outspoken advocate for indigenous water rights and sustainable change in indigenous communities through his non-profit "Shift the Power to the People."

Synopsis: Synopsis: Virgil First Raise awakens to see a vision of his father lying dead at his feet. Impossible—his father froze to death in a snowdrift years earlier. And after returning home to discover his wife has left him, Virgil sets out to find her—beginning a hi-line odyssey of inebriated encounters, sexual skirmishes, and improbable cloak-and-dagger intrigues with the mysterious "Airplane Man." Virgil's quest also brings him face-to-face with childhood memories and visions of his beloved, lost brother Mose. Only when Virgil seeks the counsel of an old, blind man named Yellow Calf, does he grasp the truth of his origins.

Larry Yazzie is two-time World Champion Fancy Dancer and member of The Sac and Fox Tribe of Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki. He is the founder and Artistic Director for Native Pride Arts. His repetoire includes performances at the Olympics, The Kennedy Center, and the Smithsonian Institute. Larry has performed all over the world and won many awards for his dancing. As an international lecturer, dancer, and educator, he has earned the reputation for being one of the nation's leading experts on Native American dance. In May 2010 he and his son Jessup were the sole U.S. performers invited for performances and workshops throughout northern France.

He founded Native Pride Arts to give back his community and to the world. By sharing life stories through music, dance, and storytelling, we nuture meaningful communication among all people. Larry's goal is to share cultural traditions through artist-in-residency performances, workshops, lectures, classroom instruction and performances enhancing access to diverse, multicultural artists for people of all ages and backgrounds. His warm, enthusiastic spirit truly reflects the beauty of Indigenous people. Following the tradition of his elders, he is giving back and enriching the lives of First Nations for generations to come.

Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair is Anishinaabe and originally from St. Peter's (Little Peguis) Indian Settlement near Selkirk, Manitoba. He is a regular commentator in Canada on Indigenous issues for CTV, CBC, and APTN and his critical and creative work can be found in books such as The Exile Edition of Native Canadian Fiction and Drama, newspapers like The Guardian, and online with CBC Books: Canada Writes. He is the co-editor of the award-winning Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press, 2012) and an upcoming collection of essays entitled Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories (Michigan State University Press, 2013). He is currently at the University of Manitoba, teaching courses in Indigenous literatures, cultures, histories, and politics.