Gunsmoke Indian White (1955–1975) Online

Offbeat story, again showing vitality of the early series. Bereaved mother (Seldes) adopts white-skinned Indian boy (Votrian) to replace son lost earlier to Indians. However, the resistant boy refuses to adopt white man ways, causing trouble in town, especially when his tribe escapes from Fort Dodge.

Fairly uncompromising narrative of boy caught between two worlds. Votrian, a popular young actor of the time, delivers an extraordinarily fine performance in the pivotal role—catch his apt expressions even when not speaking. I particularly like the realistic way the screenplay treats the interests of both sides, which makes the climax even more thought provoking.

Combine here the expert cast with a thoughtfully suspenseful script and pretty good production values, and you can see why the series caught on big time with the viewing audience.

This episode begins at Fort Dodge where the Cavalry has picked up an white Indian boy that appears to around 11 years of age. Mrs. Cullen has arrived and tells them that the boy is her son Dennis that was captured by the Indians nine years ago. Mrs. Cullen really does not believe that this is her son but wants to take the white child and give him a good home thinking her real son had the same opportunity.

But the young Indian boy does not take kindly to civilization. And with the Indians on the war path, the citizens of Dodge are not happy having a savage Indian running around the streets of Dodge acting like he wants to kill them. It is not long before trouble starts and Mrs. Cullen has little control over the boy.

One evening the boy leaves the house, steals a horse and sets out to the prairie. Matt and Chester follow his tracks hoping to find the boy.

With Mrs. Cullen (Marian Seldes) always trying to get the young Indian to obey her (which never happened) the story was getting old. The viewers had a good guess how this episode was going to turn end but the writers threw in a nice little twist at the end to bring the show to a surprise closure. Not as entertaining as some of the previous shows but an episode that turned into a nice watch with the ending twist.

**SPOILERS** In spite of the really sketchy history, I liked this episode. It is true that the Cheyenne would capture kids and raise them as their own, and in several cases, they did not want to go back to white ways; maybe they liked the "Way of Earth" (Jimmy Looks Twice, "Thunderheart, 1992") better. The Cheyenne love children, and would have taken good care of them. He was raised from when he was captured, when he was 2yrs. old, so he was Cheyenne. Fort Dodge, Kansas, was an outpost on the Santa Fe Trail, and most likely would not have had the strength to support an attempt to control a breakout of Little Wolf, and Dull Knife. This breakout really happened, and although it was very costly for the Northern Cheyenne, it was eventually successful. The 3rd Cav? - hard to find information about them in this dramatic chase. Most of their units were being transferred to Arizona to help corral Geronimo. Matt was definitely wrong about that result; The Cheyenne outfoxed the U.S.cavalry at almost every turn, being captured only when they were starving and freezing. Their incredible determination and courage are legendary.