Episodes 13-14 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman give us more Indian bits, including the first real example of Indian culture.
Happy Birthday (episode 13): Dr. Quinn faces her 35th birthday. After a brief horse race, Cloud Dancing (Larry Sellers) advises Sully not to wait too long to pursue her.
Rites of Passage (episode 14): Matthew wants to marry Ingrid, but Dr. Quinn objects. Sully persuades Matthew to prove his manhood like a Cheyenne. Cloud Dancing has Matthew retrieve a perfect egg from a nest, participate in a sweat lodge, and go on a vision quest.
Throughout the process, the tribe takes an inordinate interest in Matthew the white boy. A dozen or so warriors join him in the sweat and guide him to the site of the vision quest. In Dr. Quinn, everyone cares enough to help everyone else.
It's unclear how long Matthew sits alone on the mountainside, but it's at least 24 hours. He sees horses galloping and a hawk landing, but learns nothing special from them. He suffers no ill effects after a night in the Rockies during pouring rain.
The lesson he learns is that a "man" doesn't do something reckless like marrying his sweetheart. The only real clinker is a canoe shown in the Cheyenne village. Yeah, because there are a lot of navigable streams in the Colorado Rockies...not.
For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.
You are still slogging through these.... The show can be too "sweet and romantic" at times.
ReplyDeleteBut it did bear the torch of "TV Western" (the only one at the time, I think). for several years.