The White Squaw (1956)
882While hiding behind some rocks one night, Yotah (George Keymas), Eetay-O-Wahnee (May Wynn) and several other Sioux Indians watch as Wyoming settler Sigrod Swanson (David Brian) and his sons Thor (William Leslie), Eric (Myron Healey) and Knute (Robert C. Ross), poison their reservation's water supply. Rancher Thad Arnold (Paul Birch) appears and reminds Sigrod that because he never filed a claim on the land, it was the U.S. government's right to settle the Indians there. Furious, Sigrod argues that he was too busy building his home and rearing a family to file papers with the government.
In the darkness, Yotah fires on the ranchers, and accidentally wounds Arnold. In the confused shooting that follows, Sigrod sees Eetay-O-Wahnee, whom he calls "the white squaw," among the attackers. After the Indians return to their village, old Yellow Elk (Frank DeKova) hands Eetay-O-Wahnee two thousand dollars, revealing it is from her white father. Determined to use her money to buy cattle for her starving people, she and Yotah ask cattleman Bob Garth to sell his animals, but he claims his herd is worth twice that much. Yellow Elk finally reveals that Arnold is Eetay-O-Wahnee's father, and she rides to his ranch seeking help. Arnold, realizing he is about to die of his bullet wound, tells his daughter Kerry (Nancy Hale) about her half sister Eetay-O-Wahnee, born to him and his Sioux wife, Yellow Elk's sister, when he was a soldier in the Black Hills many years before, and urges Kerry to give Eetay-O-Wahnee half of his property upon his death.
After Arnold dies, Sigrod persuades Kerry to burn Arnold's will and keep it a secret. Eetay-O-Wahnee accuses Kerry of having killed Arnold during the shootout, and rides to town to tell Purvis that Sigrod has been poisoning the water.
Sigrod's hatred of Indians so angers Bob that he defiantly accepts Eetay-O-Wahnee's money. Sigrod attacks Bob. Purvis and the sheriff break up the fight, but later, as Eetay-O-Wahnee and Bob are riding to her village, they discover that Sigrod's sons have killed Bob's friend Joe Hide (Guy Teague) and scattered the herd.
As Bob convalesces in Eetay-O-Wahnee's teepee, she rides back to town and is followed by Yotah. Sigrod's son Eric attacks Eetay-O-Wahnee. Yotah kills him and flees. Sigrod has Eetay-O-Wahnee arrested for Eric's murder. Yotah tells Bob and Yellow Elk that Eetay-O-Wahnee must have killed Eric, whereupon the old Indian gives Bob a duplicate of Arnold's will. Realizing that the will offers Eetay-O-Wahnee her only hope for a fair trial, Bob delivers it to Purvis. Unaware that Purvis has placed the document in his pocket, Kerry tells Sigrod and his sons to destroy the will by blowing up the safe in the Indian agent's office. The dynamite blasts a hole in the jail's wall, and Sigrod takes Eetay-O-Wahnee from her cell and rides away.
Bob forces Kerry to accompany him, Purvis and the sheriff to Sigrod's ranch, and when they arrive, young Knute Swanson, who is opposed to his father's brutal methods, tells them that his father intends to kill Eetay-O-Wahnee. She manages to escape Sigrod on horseback, but as she reaches her village, Sigrod arrives and begins shooting wildly. After Sigrod wounds Yotah, Yellow Eagle shoots Sigrod in the arm, but the enraged rancher begins setting fire to the teepees. Bob and Purvis ride up just as Sigrod is attacking Eetay-O-Wahnee. Bob knocks Sigrod into a flaming teepee, where he is burned to death. Before he dies, Yotah confesses to the killings of both Arnold and Eric, and Kerry opens her heart to Eetay-O-Wahnee. The Indians round up the cattle, and Purvis vows to help build a new village in which the Indians can live in peace. Bob lovingly takes Eetay-O-Wahnee's hand.
A 1956 American Black & White Western film directed by Ray Nazarro, produced by Wallace MacDonald, screenplay by Les Savage Jr., based on Larabie Sutter's novel of the same name, cinematography by Henry Freulich, starring David Brian, May Wynn, William Bishop, Nancy Hale, William Leslie, Myron Healey, Robert C. Ross, Frank DeKova, George Keymas, Roy Roberts, Grant Withers, and Wally Vernon.
William Bishop appeared in two other Nazarro's westerns, "Top Gun" (1955) with Sterling Hayden, and "The Phantom Stagecoach" (1957). MacDonald worked with David Brian again in "Fury at Gunsight Pass" (1956). Brian was big, 6’ 4”.
Wallace MacDonald started as an actor and first appeared, second-billed, in a Western, "Leave it to Susan" (1919). He was the Broncho Kid in "The Spoilers" (1923). He first directed a Western, "Girl from the West" (1923) and as an actor first led in one, "Fighting with Buffalo Bill" (1926). He first produced a movie in 1937 and produced his first Western, "Konga the Wild Stallion" (1939). In the 1950s, the heyday of the Western genre, MacDonald produced quite a few.
A different and interesting western, with a sympathetic attitude towards native Americans and the beginnings of the Indian reservations. Slightly above average.