Original subtitles

as the one who ran, what do you

do when you're branded?

What's the matter with you?

Red hands, wife and child.

What happened to them?

What happens to them?

Listen, Lieutenant, the Squaws are just as bad

as the Braves.

Two of them once bushwhacked a cousin of

mine and half killed him.

Who cares about the Squaw?

A lot of people, Major.

For one thing, a few thousand Apaches are

going to care.

Well now, I just don't happen to be

very worried about hurting their feelings.

You should be.

You're not dealing with just any Indian who

happened to wander off a reservation.

Red Hand is the chief...

I know who I'm dealing with.

Who are you anyway?

What do you know about this?

I know a little.

I know something about Apaches.

I know that if you shoot Red Hand

down...

Shoot him down?

I got a right to shoot him down.

He violated his treaty, he left the reservation,

and he wounded a U.S. Cavalry officer,

don't I?

Now if he resists capture, it's my duty

to shoot him down.

I asked you before, who are you?

Jason McCord.

I see you know me.

Get out of here.

I've heard of you too, Major.

I came here to ask your permission to

go to Red Hand and talk to him.

I said get out.

If you shoot Red Hand down, you'll be

taking a shot at every Apache from here

to the Pecos.

You may be starting another Sand Creek massacre.

Only this time, Major Lynch, the Apaches will

be doing the killing.

Because whether you know it or not, there

are far more Apaches in this territory than

there are troopers.

So what am I to do?

Let him go?

No, Major.

I used to be in the Army.

Seems to me this calls for a little

more strategy and a little less frontal assault.

Let me talk to him.

Are you a friend of Red Hand's?

I was.

I don't know that he'd call any of

his friends anymore.

And do you think you could get him

to surrender without a fight?

Under certain conditions, maybe.

Well, I'm not going to bargain with that

Indian if that's what you have on your

mind.

I'll bargain with him, Major.

You can bring him in.

Sit down, McCord.

I'm not adverse to a little strategy.

What conditions?

Soldiers?

No, one man.

Not a soldier.

You're riding with the Army again.

You mean I can go home?

So you've come to take me back to

the reservation in Mascalero.

Red Hand, you'll never make it back home.

You know that.

Well, then I'll die here.

Is that what you want for your son?

And your wife, too?

No, McCord.

But here we'll die quickly from the soldiers'

bullets.

In Mascalero, we die slowly from disease and

hunger.

The white man took away the buffalo and

the deer and gave us lizards.

This is your chance to change all that.

The government will listen to you.

The government?

They will listen, Red Hand.

They'll listen because they're afraid of you.

Afraid of one Apache who only wants to

go home?

They know you want more than that.

Tell them.

Tell them what it's like at Mascalero.

Tell them about the sickness.

They will not listen to me.

They will, Red Hand.

Major Lynch has promised if you surrender, he'll

treat you as a respected leader.

He's even said he'll ask the governor in

Santa Fe to listen to your charges and

your demands.

And you trust this major?

He gave me his word.

His word?

Well, what is his word to me?

I don't know.

But can you turn down a chance?

Any chance to help your own people?

You do not answer because you know he

is right.

Even if your major keeps his promise, the

governor will not listen to me.

How can the governor listen if you don't

speak?

All right, McCoy.

We will go with you.

Red Hand, I'm under the orders of the

commanding general of the Department of New Mexico

to arrest you for unlawfully absending yourself from

the Apache Indian reservation of Mascalero.

What is this?

We keep out of this, McCoy.

You gave me your word.

Well, I don't consider myself bound by any

promise made to an Indian or a coward.

Arrest him, Sergeant.

Put him on McCord's horse.

All right, lead on out, Ivan.

McCord.

Judge Morgan.

What are you doing here, sir?

Just stopping for a night's sleep.

I've been appointed federal judge in this district.

My court's in Lordsburg.

Congratulations, sir.

Thank you, Jason.

Thank you.

What the devil happened to you?

I just lost another round to the army.

What was it this time?

Red Hand?

What makes you say that, sir?

Well, you're both in Rio Blanco.

I'm sure it's more than coincidence.

Want to talk about it?

Well, Judge, you might be just the man

to help, yes.

So they've got Red Hand in jail, huh?

What about his woman and child?

The minister and his wife are putting them

up.

But Lynch won't let me talk to Red

Hand.

Hating Indians is almost a religion, Major.

I don't know much about the law, Judge,

but the 14th Amendment says no person shall

be deprived of life, liberty, or property without

due process of law.

Unfortunately, the operative word in that amendment is

person.

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty,

and so forth.

But the courts of this country have ruled

that an Indian is not a person.

Well, then what is he?

You don't have to say what he is.

Just what he isn't.

Lynch had a white man in jail.

He could ask me for a writ of

habeas corpus.

But not an Indian.

Not Red Hand.

Unless...

Unless what?

Unless he's ready to argue that he is

a person.

You mean prove that he's a human being?

Exactly.

And his argument would have to stand up

under review.

Right up to the Supreme Court, if necessary.

What's our first step?

Get Red Hand to let you petition me

for a writ of habeas corpus.

And next?

That may be harder.

Persuade the Major to take Red Hand to

Lordsburg and hold him until I can hear

the motion.

And if he won't, can't that motion be

made at the reservation at Mescalero?

You've met Major Lynch.

Do you honestly think Red Hand would ever

get back to the reservation alive?

Major Lynch?

I'm asking another favor.

Lieutenant Garrett here persuaded me to give you

ten minutes with your Indian friend.

After that, your horse is in the livery

stable.

I suggest you get on it and ride.

And I want you to take Red Hand

to Lordsburg and hold him for a few

days.

Why?

Judge Markham of the Federal District Court will

be sitting in Lordsburg for a week.

I want time to petition him for a

writ of habeas corpus for Red Hand.

Is that your answer?

Did you think I'd say yes?

No, Major, but I wanted you to refuse

in front of a witness.

And I want to say this in front

of that witness.

If I can't get that writ in Lordsburg,

I'll ask for it at Mescalero.

So I'm telling you, Major Lynch, Red Hand

had better get back to Mescalero in good

health.

Are you threatening me?

That's right, Major.

McCoy.

I might change my mind.

I might take Red Hand to Lordsburg.

I'd like to be there when Judge Markham

slaps you down when you ask for that

writ.

Are you sure he will?

He'll have to.

I know how Markham feels about Indians.

He won't want to knock you down, but

he'll have to.

Unless he can be convinced that Red Hand

is a person under the law.

Oh, it sounds like you and Judge Markham

have been talking it over.

He pointed out a few of the problems,

yes.

Yeah, there's plenty of them too, McCoy, and

they're all big.

You know, I was in Denver a couple

of months ago, and I heard a lawyer

say to a judge that because a young

coyote Indian buck could talk and walk on

two legs and read, it proved that he

was a human being.

Do you know what the judge said to

the lawyer?

He said that he once had a parrot

who could talk, and he had seen a

bear who could walk on his hind legs,

and he had read about a mule who

would obey written commands.

So, if that coyote Indian was a human

being because he could walk, and because he

could talk, and because he could read, then

it stood to reason that parrots were human

beings, and jackasses were human beings, and bears

were human beings, huh?

All right, McCoy, I'll see you in Lordsburg.

You want to make a fool of yourself

over that stinking savage, I'm sure going to

oblige.

That's escaped.

Now Major Lynch really has an excuse to

shoot him down.

He'll be heading back to where he was

born.

We've got to get him out of there

before Lynch finds him.

Do you honestly think you can talk him

into surrendering peaceably again?

He might if I brought his wife and

child, and if you promise to give him

protection in Lordsburg, and hear his case.

And if we can get there before Lynch

does.

Whoa!

Drop down your gun!

You're under arrest!

I stand on my land.

This is my home.

On line!

This is the last time!

Throw down your rifle!

You gave me this gun for my land,

but no buffalo and no deer to shoot

with it.

You made me a helpless, crawling animal in

the eyes of my son, in the eyes

of my people.

Well, I take back my land because it

gives me strength, and I will die for

it.

Will you do the same, Major?

No!

I had to shoot him.

No, Major.

He resisted me.

He was going to shoot me.

You cold-bloodedly killed a man.

I killed an animal.

Have you ever seen an animal cry?

A tear is a fact, Major.

Proof.

Only the human animal has a soul that

can make him cry.

Red Hand has proved he was a person.

Now his wife and his child can stand

up in any court of law and make

you answer for this.

McCord's right, Major.

I'm ordering Red Hand's wife and child taken

to Lordsburg, and I'll hear arguments for our

rent.

This day may have changed things for Indians

everywhere.

That's right, Major.

You made the change.

It took your hate to prove that Indians

are human beings.

Your hate...

and a strong man's tears.