You can see the seeds of a decent modern day Western in “The Stolen Valley,” a thriller about Native American land theft, vanishing heritage, blood ties and the Old West delusions of Southwestern gun culture.

First-time writer-director Jesse Edwards’ script needed workshopping to clear up all the “Why the hell would anybody do THAT?” moments. The pacing is tentative and sluggish.

But the leads click, the shootouts are well-staged and a stand-out scene that blends action with comedy suggests the sort of “Thelma & Louise” variation this might have been.

Lupe (Briza Covarrubias) and Maddy (Allee Sutten Hethcoat) first cross paths at the payout for the Cedar City (Arizona) Rodeo. They just don’t know it.

Lupe is an honest mechanic, helping her mother (Paula Miranda) save up cash to get them “a place of our own.” They’re of Mexican/Navajo heritage, and work in their extended family’s taco truck for extra money.

Maddy is a rodeo rider, not even scraping by, in hock up to her eyeballs and living in her ancient pickup. Maddy’s debts are held by the gangster Antonio (Ricardo Herranz), who has his fingers in a lot of pies locally, including the pawn shop where Lupe goes to sell her Navajo jewelry to pay for medical care for her mother.

As Maddy shares the cowboy cosplaying fetish so many locals are into, she shows up to pay off her debt with Ricardo with a six-shooter strapped to her big-buckle belt. All heck breaks loose, Lupe gets roped into it, and next thing we and they know they’re on the lam together to see Lupe’s long-lost-now-rich Dad to beg for money.

“He owns half of Alta Valley” is Carl’s calling card. Maybe he’ll be warm and compassionate and reasonable and generous. Sure he will.

We get one look at this ornery, pistol-packing cuss and his band of armed ATV-riding hired-hands and we know better. This SOB (Micah Fitzgerald) is just here to make matters worse.

The pop-out scene in “Stolen Valley” comes during Lupe and Maddy’s getaway from Ricardo’s henchman. They barge into the weathered Buckskin Tavern biker bar on “Mexican Heritage” night. OK, afternoon.

Hey, it’s July 4. Why not?

Lupe yanks Maddy into the proceedings as they pose as “folklorico” dancers. Everything about this scene works — the way Lupe “Oye, hermanas” their way into an ensemble, her practiced ability to “fit in” with the dancing to the rude way the patrons treat bar owner and MC Bill (David Ogle, a hoot).

It’s like a piece of “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” tucked into a grimly self-serious B action picture, and it works.

Some of what follows does, too. But he performances are uneven in skill and effectiveness. Attempts at the occasional one-liner hit-or-miss.

“Can we shoot our way out of this now?”

Still, the racism is palpable and time-proven, the greed realistic and the threats mortal.

It’s just that the coincidences and unlikely resolutions to this or that fix the ladies find themselves, the slippery grasp of the law, real-estate transactions and corporate alarm at people they’re doing business with turning trigge- happy and mass-slaughter tolerant make this potential B-picture slide down the scale towards C and D.

“Stolen Valley” drifts into “lost potential” and never recovers.

Rating: PG-13, violence, profanity

Cast: Briza Covarrubias, Allee Sutton Hethcoat, Micah Fitzgerald, Ricardo Herranz, Paulette Lamori and Paula Miranda.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Jesse Edwards. A Blue Fox release.

Running time: 1:44