Original subtitles

Clear the road.

How are things up ahead, Captain?

Quieted down some.

We killed or captured the last of them

in that draw on the edge of your ranch.

Was it a big fight?

Big enough.

I lost two good men.

We best be moving along now.

Good day, ma'am. Harper, son.

See you, Captain.

Bye.

Did they damage the ranch at all, Jess, the Indians?

No, not too much, Daisy, killed a cow and ate it,

run off some of the horses.

Jess, what's that?

Over there.

Whoa, whoa.

You little red ants, you!

If you ain't the fastest little one-legged skitter bug

I ever seen.

[ chuckles ]

You sure have given me a heap of fun, boy,

kind of too bad it's over.

Put that gun up and walk down here.

Either I'm real lucky or you got that gun trained

to do tricks like a pet coon.

You were gonna shoot that boy.

How'd you know how much of me was in here?

Answer my question!

You ain't no soldier, why were you pulling down on him?

For scalp bounty, they're paying $10 a piece

up in the Dakotas.

Thought everybody "knowed" that.

No questions where they come from.

Get off this ranch.

What?

[ chuckles ]

Oh, I get your track.

Look, friend, there's plenty for all of us.

Why, off yonder, is redskins lying dead

out therelike stones in a brook.

I said, get off this ranch!

All right, friend.

I do like you say.

First let me tell you something about Indian scalps.

Cured out, it's no different than others.

So long as the hair's black...

just like yours.

Well, the house is dark. Where is Slim?

He camped up on the mountain most likely.

Stock got pretty well scattered,

all that shooting, I reckon.

Oh, well, I'll light the lamps and go fix us some supper.

I bet you're half-starved, aren't you?

Thanks, Aunt Daisy, but I'm kind of cold.

I think I'll just go to bed.

Come on, tiger.

That's the first time I've ever heard him refuse a meal.

Well, you can't hardly blame him, Daisy.

It's not a game of soldiers and Indians anymore.

You know, kid stuff and imagination,

it's real and grown up, full of shivers and hate.

Well, it isn't an easy land for a boy to grow up in.

No.

Come on, I'll help you down.

Thank you.

You know, Mike's going to ask me something

and I don't know the answer.

How could that man be a scalp hunter?

Well, Daisy, some men look at this whole country

through a gun sight.

They got no feeling for the land,

just for killing what's on it.

The Indians watch them slaughter the buffalo

and the antelope and the elk.

They judged all whites by them.

Brother of the wolf they called 'em,

because they take pleasure in killing.

And now they're hunting children for money.

No wonder the Indians hate us.

I know what you mean.

I used to blame the towns that offered the bounties.

It's not them, they're just frightened folks

new to the land.

It's sidewinders like that fella we met today.

Men that breed on death,

instead of something wide and clean.

For them the west is just a place where the day quits.

But time soon, they'll make a graveyard out of it.

Not if you fight them for it.

I'd fight 'em, Daisy.

I would fight 'em strong if I only knew how.

Saving that crippled boy out there was one thing.

You'll find others.

Got a man lost some blood, Doctor.

Be with you in a moment.

Step out of the light.

Captain, this soldier is wounded.

This man's close to dying.

Would you step out of the light, please?

Thank you.

Captain Foster, you know better than to administer

to the enemy when one of your own men

is in need of your attention.

Now tend this man's wound, Doctor.

That is an order!

Sit over there, boy.

I'm glad to see you can still recognize a direct order, Captain.

I hope it won't again be necessary

for me to remind you of your first line of duty.

Your direct order had nothing to do with it, Captain.

My patient just died.

Well, this patient was your enemy.

You ought to know that by now.

Is that a fact?

I thought he was a poor starving Blackfoot Indian

who jumped the reservation

and whom you were supposed to bring back alive.

I know what my orders are, Doctor,

they're no concern of yours.

That's where you're wrong.

They are my concern and everyone else's

in this part of the country.

We might have made a friend out of him one day.

It's too late for that now, isn't it?

Can't you go out and get him, Jess, bring him back here?

The Blackfoot boy?

Uh-huh, we've got plenty of room.

Wish I could, Mikey, that's against the law.

It's an army order,

until the Indians are back on the reservation,

we'd get in a pack of trouble.

You better eat this while it's warm.

Then we just got to leave him, Jess?

Do we, Jess?

Like I was telling Mike, Daisy,

he's got the hills in the night.

He's a part of them. He'll be all right.

[ gunshot ]

What was that?

Rifle shot.

Booming like that?

It's a long rifle, Mike, Springfield.

Like that scalp hunter's?

His, I reckon.

He isn't still after that boy?

I guess he is. Takes pleasure in it.

Army order or no army order,

he's not gonna get to enjoy it.

Not around here, anyway.

Could you eat a little something?

I feel a lot better.

I could eat a whole supper now.

Well, come on.

[ gunshot ]

Hey, skitter bug,

got me this from a trooper,

price was right, him being dead.

It's time to see how it works, don't you think?

[ chuckles ]

[ chuckles ]

[ chuckles ]

[ chuckles ]

[ clicks ]

[ chuckles ]

[ grunting ]

Wait a minute, boy, I want to help you.

I want to be your friend.

Chika-san.

I want to be your friend.

[ grunting ]

Whoa now.

There might be something wrong with your leg, boy,

but there sure ain't nothing wrong with your backbone.

You savvy English?

Get up. Get up.

I ain't after your hair, boy.

I'm after your heart.

Now get that straight.

Now let's go home.

You gonna walk or am I gonna have to carry you?

[ groans ]

[ horse neighing ]

It's Jess, Aunt Daisy, he's got him!

He's got him!

You brought him, Jess.

Yeah, I brought him.

He ain't took to the idea too good so don't get too close.

We'll be good friends by the time you leave

for the reservation.

My name's Mike.

He hit his head.

There's no blood.

Why, he has a fever.

He's completely exhausted.

He's lucky he's alive after what he's been through.

Mike, help Daisy fetch some food and some blankets.

Bring 'em in the bunkhouse, huh?

How is he?

He's sleeping, he's gonna be all right.

Thanks, Mike.

I'm sorry I stirred him up.

Like I told him, I was just trying to make friends.

That's all right.

I guess he doesn't know what we mean by the word.

You see, Mike, with some whites

when they say "friend" to an Indian,

it's just before the gun goes off.

I brought him some food.

Mike, until we're a little more sure

how he's going to act,

I think you better go back to house and go to bed.

Daisy's right. Beside, it's getting real late.

Goodnight, cowboy.

Goodnight. Goodnight, Aunt Daisy.

Goodnight.

At least he's here and not out there alone.

Huh, Jess? That's the thing.

That's the thing.

Goodnight.

Goodnight, dear.

That's the thing, all right, Daisy.

I just wish there was something

we could really do for him.

Well, at least we can make him comfortable.

I'll put the food here, he'll see it when he wakes up.

Why, that looks like a muscle lesion.

A what?

A muscle lesion.

I was a nurse, not a doctor,

but it certainly feels like a muscle lesion.

What does that mean exactly, Daisy?

When the muscle is cut and isn't attended to,

it grows back crooked, pulled like his leg.

Well, can it be fixed?

It takes surgery.

Surgery is never exactly simple.

Could it put him back on two good legs?

I don't know.

Captain Foster would know.

He's an army surgeon with Reeves' outfit.

Slim and I've know him for a long time.

I think I'll ride out to the bivouac area tomorrow

and have a talk with him.

But would an army doctor operate on an Indian?

I don't know, Daisy.

But there's not another doctor like him closer

than St. Louis.

It won't hurt to ask.

You gonna stay here tonight with him?

Yeah, I think I better.

If he wakes up, he'll tear the bunkhouse apart.

We wouldn't have a patient for our doctor

to look at tomorrow.

You better take this with you.

Oh, thank you. Goodnight.

Goodnight, Daisy.

Like to talk to your captain, soldier boy.

State your name and business.

Just tell him it's Earl Droody.

He knows my business.

A civilian to see you, sir, name of Droody.

Send him in.

After he leaves, roll up the walls of this tent,

it'll need airing.

Howdy, Captain Reeves.

What you want, Droody?

Ain't the general published an order

against harboring hostiles, Captain?

You know he has.

Well, I wanna tell you about some ranchers

that run a relay station over on Laramie Road.

All right, what about them?

They're harboring hostiles.

They're what?

Yeah, I know you savvy English.

You dreamed out loud last night, plenty good.

You still don't believe we want to help you.

We want to be your friends.

You make me prisoner for pony soldier,

take back to reservation.

That's not true.

Soldiers don't know you're here and they're not going to either.

Until I get a doctor to look at your leg.

White men not touch leg again.

Again?

Was it a white man who hurt your leg in the first place?

Mmm.

Was it a soldier?

No, leg crippled in battle, mark of courage.

Agent on reservation crippled Lame Wolf.

Agent?

Well, they're supposed to help you.

Help?

Agent sell beef army give us, with money buy whiskey,

drink until I swim and he sleep.

You're trying to tell me he have cut your leg off

while he was asleep?

Mmm.

Agent make father chop wood, Lame Wolf pickup pieces,

axe old, head loose, head fly off, cut leg,

Lame Wolf fall on ground, flap bleed like chicken,

agent not let father help.

How awful. Why not?

He know Red Wolf brave warrior,

with crippled leg I never grow to fight like father.

Jess, Aunt Daisy, it's Slim!

He brought some soldiers!

You go out with Mike and meet them, Daisy.

I'll be out in a minute.

Just take it easy. You're gonna be safe.

Good morning, Daisy, Mike.

You know Captain Reeves, don't you?

Met him and his men coming into the ranch.

Seem to think we've got a Blackfoot on the place.

Whatever made him think that?

That beats me.

First they run our horses off in the mountains

and now the army's saying we're opening a hotel for 'em.

Stay to the north trail,

it's hard ground and slow tracking.

I not know your thought,

maybe you call pony soldier, maybe not.

You follow me, I kill you.

Where's Jess?

Here I am, Slim.

Harper, you take a hostile in last night?

Not a hostile, Captain, just a crippled boy.

Where is he now?

Well, he must have heard you coming.

He broke out of the bunkhouse.

That was not just a crippled boy, Harper,

that was the son of Red Wolf.

Now both of them have escaped.

The chief got away?

Saw him shot off his horse early in the fight.

Our prisoners say he was only wounded.

All we know is we couldn't find his body.

Well, a limping boy is slow, easy to track.

He might lead us right to his father.

Which way did he go?

East, you'll probably pick his trail up

in one of those shallow canyons.

Thanks.

Good day, ma'am. Sherman.

Somebody gonna tell me what's going on around here?

All right, Jess.

Mike and Daisy will tell you the whole story,

I got to saddle up.

Now wait a minute.

Hey, we still have some stock to round up.

Where are you hurrying off to so fast?

I'm trailing north, Slim.

I got something more important to do than herd stock.

They'll tell you about it.

He's going after the Blackfoot boy.

Jess brought him home last night

and he slept in the bunkhouse.

And he broke out?

Yeah, that's right, he did.

Slipperiest fella I ever saw.

Pretty smart Indian, prying outside boards

loose from the inside.

You and Daisy better have a lot to tell me.

[ gun cocks ]

I've come to help you, boy.

You fool, white man.

Maybe.

Maybe standing in front of these rocks in plain sight,

taking off my gun belt

and putting it by your boot track,

something that's as plain as a trail marker

and then turning my back on it,

maybe that's being a fool...

if I had come to kill instead of help.

I say I would kill you.

Your father is alive, Lame Wolf.

Now I know you lie.

Red Wolf was shot during the battle,

but he wasn't counted among the dead.

White men always lie.

Not important.

It's not important to you that your father got away,

that he might be in these mountains?

Son with crippled leg counted among dead.

To a father a son is a son, a part of him no matter what.

I told you white medicine can fix that leg.

You can go back to your father as a brave,

counted among the living, as his son,

if you'll just trust me.

Trust?

White men make much talk, mean nothing.

All right,

if Lame Wolf kills his friends, kill me now.

I wish you'd say something, Slim,

and get me to thinking whether I should have brought him back.

Well, quit thinking.

I rode out and got Doc Forster, didn't I?

What about it, Doc?

Well, it's a bad lesion.

Bring me that small table over there, will you, Slim?

What are the odds?

I can quote your odds on poker acey-deucey

but not on operations.

I'm sorry, Doc.

We all know you've taken more of a gamble than any of us.

Maybe even more than the boy is.

Well, thank you, Jess.

I guess the young man means a lot to all of us.

That's the weight of things, Doc.

That leg heals right, I guess a lot of things

around this territory will heal right up with it.

I figure that way too.

Well, bring him in.

[ door opens ]

You ready?

Doctor lie.

He say he cut my leg.

I would feel nothing.

That's right, you won't.

You'll breathe something that'll make you go to sleep,

it's called chloroform.

I sleep, white knife cut leg?

Sleep will soften the muscles,

so the knife can do its work better.

I not like breathe white medicine.

Well, you like being left behind by your people,

hobbling like a dog

who's had his leg caught in a beaver trap?

I could have killed you, white man.

If I wanted you dead, do you think you'd be here now?

You take me to medicine like white man.

Captain Foster, you're under military arrest.

Any particular charge?

Do you know what's in this letter?

Depends on who wrote it.

It charges you with performing an operation on a hostile.

Do you deny it?

Who wrote the letter?

But it isn't signed.

Oh, anonymous?

Well, now, Captain,

you shouldn't believe everything you read.

Do you deny the charge

of giving aid and comfort to the enemy?

A charge which is, as you know, punishable by...

Death or such as a punishment as a military court may direct.

Yes, I deny it. What?

All right, Captain, I performed that operation.

Yes, on a crippled boy.

But you're going to have a rough time proving it.

That's giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

In fact you're gonna look like

12 different kinds of a fool if you try.

Now look, Doc--Sir.

Hold it.

All right, that's enough, that's enough.

You bet it's enough.

Give me my gun.

Just a minute, Sherman.

Where did you find him?

On the way to Laramie, sir.

He didn't want to come along.

Well, good morning, Slim, welcome to the club.

Hiya, Doc.

You better have good reason sending your troopers out

to haul in a civilian off the road.

I have. Give him his gun, corporal.

That's all, let me know

when the patrol's ready to ride.

Yes, sir.

Inside, Sherman.

You're pretty good at giving orders, aren't you?

Well, let me tell you something, Captain,

I'm not in your army anymore.

Slim, come on.

Now, Mr. Sherman,

you wish to bring charges against me

for detaining you, no one's going to stop you.

While you're at it, you better have some answers ready

when you're accused of harboring a hostile at your ranch.

All right, so you found out.

What are you gonna do now?

I'm going to bring him in.

Do you realize who he is?

He's Red Wolf's son.

He's an Indian boy with his leg in a sling,

that's mostly who he is.

And maybe your 10-man patrol

is not gonna be enough to take him, Captain.

You ought to bring along some artillery too.

No one's going to harm him,

the patrol is merely a deterrent against any action by Red Wolf

or any of his braves that might show up

when we take his son into custody.

Now, after we leave, you are free to go, Mr. Sherman,

I-- I invited you here

to keep you from interfering with me

when I ride to your ranch.

One thing you better know, if you move that boy now,

I can't answer for his healing properly.

No one will ask you to, Doctor.

You don't seem to understand, Captain.

Why, if Lame Wolf can walk again without a limp,

it'll do more for this territory than 10 military campaigns.

When will you and the rest of the civilians learn?

What guarantee have you

that this Blackfoot won't turn on you?

Doctor, you think you've cured his limb, that's fine.

Now he'll be able to fight better.

Next year or the year after maybe,

he'll put a lance through your throat.

No, no, he goes back to the reservation

where he belongs, now!

Captain Reeves,

what about that order from Washington,

the one that says, "Every effort will we made

to recruit the Blackfoot tribe as military scouts"?

I know that order was issued 3 days ago

because I got a copy too.

I also know that you haven't done anything about it.

Well, what do you expect me to do about it?

Those prisoners I took,

they'd make a great bunch of scouts, wouldn't they?

You know as well as I do they'd kill us all right now

if they thought they could.

Lame Wolf wouldn't.

You want me to recruit him, is that it?

What kind of a military scout would a cripple make?

Not the boy, Captain, his father, Red Wolf.

If you could sign him up as scout,

you'd have the whole tribe right in your pocket

and I think the boy would lead you to him.

Oh, sure and get us all ambushed.

You know what that savage has been doing up in those hills

while your own town posted a reward for him?

No one's proven he's done a thing

and personally, I don't think he has.

Well, how do you propose to find out?

You could ask him.

I'll ride out with you, Captain, we'll talk to the boy.

Doc will talk to him too. I think he'll listen.

And deliberately lead us to his father?

When he's well enough to ride, yes.

You know what I think?

I think you're both crazy.

But you give us a change to prove it.

Had me a sorrel like that once, color of the morning sun

through river mist, lost him to a pair of jacks.

How you be, boy?

What-- What are you doing here?

Oh, now don't take fear, boy.

I come as a friend.

All I got to do is yell

and they'll hear me in the kitchen.

Who will?

Harper's out hazin' mustangs.

Sherman into Laramie,

seen him ride off just a couple hours back.

No one home but one woman and a--

Daisy's got a shotgun

and she knows how to use it too.

One woman and a Blackfoot.

Blackfoot?

What Blackfoot?

Oh, now don't play dead with me,

boy, I tell you I come friendly.

I know the Indian cub's there

and I know the folks had the doctor

fixin' over his leg.

And it was a proper Christian doin' too.

Now, of course, the army looked at it different.

The army?

Uh, sure, one of them soldier boys told me.

They're borrowin' the Blackfoot from your folks

to stake him out in the hill.

Stake him out?

Yeah, for bait.

They gonna bush up nearby and they gonna kill Red Wolf

when he comes sniffin'.

Then the reward will be all theirs.

What reward?

Don't you know, boy?

Here, I guess it can't make up for the cub,

what I've done, but that warrant might help,

bein' as I'm leavin' the country.

I wouldn't say nothing to the woman in there,

on account of

women take on so when men go bravin'.

Goodbye, boy.

You can't do it alone.

How'd you mark by yourself?

How'd you catch your pony if he's straight?

We may be many days in mountains.

I'll bring some food and a blanket.

When we get to your pa, I'll turn back.

Slim and Jess will find me.

You get pony, chika-san.

What?

That Blackfoot word, mean "friend."

Chika-san.

Mike.

Mike, are you in there with Lame Wolf?

Mike?

[ horse neighing ]

Jess, Jess...

Mike's gone.

Well, where did he go to?

He went off on his horse with Lame Wolf.

He knows better than to do that,

so does Lame Wolf.

He could tear those stitches out.

Yes, but that isn't all of it,

look what I found in Lame Wolf's room.

Well, how'd this get here?

Slim and I wouldn't allow nothing like this

to be posted on the ranch.

Oh, someone must have ridden by and left it the barn.

Mike was working in there.

Yeah, this could do it.

Mike was worrying all morning about that trooper

who came for Slim, kept asking me why.

He kept asking me too, I didn't know.

I guess he figured they were after Lame Wolf.

Daisy, fetch me something to eat on the run, will you?

Yeah.

Which way now?

How do you know?

These are my father's markings.

When I'm small boy like you, we hunt here.

Maybe Red Wolf camp near here.

How do you know?

Since yesterday, I have seen Blackfoot sign.

[ calling ]

[ calling ]

That Red Wolf, my father.

[ calling ]

[ cocks gun ]

[ calling ]

[ cocks gun ]

Hold it, mister!

[ cocks gun ]

Gonna pleasure me plenty taking you hair, friend.

[ groans ]

[ gunshot ]

Jess!

Come on, tiger.

Come on, Lame Wolf.

No.

Father, not shoot, these friends.

Friends?

They bring the scalp hunter and pony soldier

and you call them friends?

Pony soldier not come yet, we come to warn.

Look behind you, son.

Lame Wolf...

Lame Wolf, we didn't know they were following you.

You got to believe one thing, we didn't try to betray you.

Tell him, Mike.

No, we didn't, chika-san.

We still want to be your friends.

We still want to keep you at the ranch if we can.

I believe.

Do not shoot, Father.

These friend have white medicine, can save you.

You save yourself, crooked leg,

I have no son.

I have a fool.

No, Red Wolf.

White medicine strong, make leg straight.

A liar is worse than a fool.

Stop, I'll kill until I die.

White medicine make this leg straight.

You kill me, Red Wolf, if I lie.

My son, you are again my son.

Corporal,

get a letter, take it forward on the double.

Yes, sir.

By this paper, the father in Washington

agrees with Chief Red Wolf's request

that mountain land be found for his people,

in return for the services of yourself

and your bravest warriors as scouts.

It is good.

Not quite, Chief, we need your mark.

Mark?

I have already given my word.

Why do they need my mark?

Oh, Washington strong on paper and marks.

Chief Scout,

on behalf of the government of the United States,

congratulations to both of you.

Well, we'll be riding now.

Goodbye, Sherman.

Harper. Madam.

Goodbye, son.

Word is not heart,

but if heart have word--

We have words, my son.

Kataki abska chika-san.

Come, we ride.

What is "kataki abs-- abs..."?

That's Blackfoot, Mike. It means "the hatred has flown."