The Savage in Bonanza

Unlike the other episodes of Bonanza I've reviewed, The Savage (airdate: 12/3/60) is plainly stupid. For a detailed synopsis, see Pictorial Synopsis: The Savage. Most of the online summaries are partially incorrect, including this one, so I'll tell you what happens and why it's wrong.

[**spoiler alert**]

Beginning

Two white trappers enter a Shoshone burial ground because it contains the best fur-trapping west of the Mississippi. Which is ridiculous because they're in an arid mountain area devoid of running water. It doesn't matter because two Indians kill them for their effrontery.

The two Indians are part of a party led by Chato. The credits call Chato "Chief" but he's a shaman, which is still incorrect. "Medicine man" probably would be the correct term.

Chato sends his two sons into the Mountain of the Dead, the Shoshone burial ground, to contact White Buffalo Woman. They need her help to cure the illness devastating their tribe. Chato doesn't expect his sons to come back alive, but they're desperate for her help.

Meanwhile, Adam Cartwright is passing by on his way to see a windmill. He sees the dead trappers, then hears an Indian calling for White Buffalo Woman. He watches as a blond woman in Western dress appears.

The Indian implores her to help his tribe, but she refuses. He grabs her arm and realizes she's a flesh-and-blood woman, not a spirit. He threatens her. Adam intervenes and kills the two Indians, but not before one of them wounds him with an arrow in the leg.



I don't know anything about Shoshone burial practices, but I doubt the Mountain of Dead thing is real. Anyway, that's not a big deal. The real problem is the so-called White Buffalo Woman.

1) The Shoshone Indians have been in contact with white people for decades--at least since the Lewis and Clark expedition. But they think a white woman is a supernatural being? Why, because she lives on the Mountain of the Dead without being struck by lightning? Or what, exactly?

She doesn't appear out of nowhere, float in mid-air, or conjure things. In fact, she looks exactly like a standard pioneer woman. Why wouldn't the Indians consider the possibility that she's mortal? Because they're primitive and superstitious and can't think rationally, I presume.

2) Why do they call her White Buffalo Woman? Because she's a white woman, which is similar to a white buffalo woman? The supernatural being is a "White Buffalo" Woman, not a White "Buffalo Woman." It's idiocy to equate one with the other.

3) As Adam correctly notes, White Buffalo Woman is a "spirit woman of the Plains Indians." So what the heck are the Shoshone Indians of the Lake Tahoe area doing worshiping her? After Adam points out this glaring flaw, the episode ignores it. Did Bonanza's writers think western Nevada was part of the Great Plains?

Middle

The woman, whose name is Ruth Halverson, nurses Adam back to health. He takes to wearing a headband for no discernible reason. Perhaps it's to show he's living primitively, getting closer to nature, like an Indian.



Mr. and Ms. Savage, above.

Ruth tells Adam her story. She was a girl in a Norwegian immigrant family that headed west from Missouri. Her father disappeared and Bannock Indians captured and raised her. White hunters killed the Bannocks, leaving her to live alone. She preferred the solitary life because she had no one left.

Is Ruth supposed to be the savage of the title, or is Adam? Either way, the generic title doesn't fit the episode. It's even less fitting than The Last Hunt.

Adam and Ruth fall in love for no discernible reason--perhaps because they're the only two white persons for miles around. Adam proposes to Ruth, which means the relationship is doomed. She'll be lucky if she gets out of the episode alive.

End

Two Indians enter the Shoshone village of tipis (wrong). They go to the "shaman" (wrong) to tell him his sons are missing. Wearing a buffalo helmet (wrong), the shaman says he'll have to do the job himself.

The Indians find Chato's sons dead and attribute their demise to White Buffalo Woman's powers. Apparently they're not able to distinguish between bullet wounds and magic. They go to her camp and demand her help. Knowing she isn't a supernatural being, she again refuses.

Since she's turned down every Indian plea, it's not clear why they think she has healing powers. Because she's a white woman who lives in a sacred burial ground? Why not ask other Indians or white men for help? Other episodes have established that the Indians deal with white men occasionally.

The Indians depart but return to capture Adam when he's alone. They'll threaten to kill him unless she cooperates. Suddenly they're not too worried about her alleged ability to strike people dead. Maybe she'll miss them when she fires her invisible thunderbolts.



Chato the Plains-style Shoshone shaman, above.

Ruth appears and ignores Adam's warnings. When an Indian prepares to kill him, she agrees to go with and help them. Adam is left distraught and alone when the other Cartwrights find him. Ruth has survived but Adam probably won't see her again.

Conclusion

As usual, the Indians are played by non-Indians in wigs and headbands, but that's the least of The Savage's problems. First is equating the Shoshone tribe and religion with a Plains tribe and religion. Second is the Shoshones' inability to distinguish a white woman from an Indian spirit. Third is their reliance on an uncooperative stranger for their medicinal needs. Three strikes and The Savage is out.

For more Bonanza reviews, see The Paiute War in Bonanza and Day of Reckoning in Bonanza.

The Last Hunt in Bonanza

The Last Hunt is the 15th episode of the Western TV series Bonanza. Here's a synopsis from AllMovie.com:While on a mountain expedition in the dead of winter, Hoss and Little Joe come upon an Indian woman (Chana Eden) who is about to give birth. Building a shelter for the woman, the two Cartwright boys stay by her side until the baby is born, then bring both mother and child back to the Ponderosa. Written by Donald S. Sanford, "The Last Hunt" was originally telecast on December 19, 1959.A fan adds some comments:Hoss, a dimwit just a few episodes ago, now seems to have the knowledge it takes for this childbirthing. Presumably, his knowledge comes from delivering farm animals; a few episodes previous to this, he didn't know what a naked female looked like, but he seems to figure everything out here, and handles the task just as skillfully as Dr. Welby might have done. If that's not absurd enough, the pregnant Native American doesn't look like a Native American, nor does she look pregnant.Rob's review

The Shoshone woman is played by Chana Eden. Judging by her birthplace in Haifa, Israel, she's probably Jewish. She certainly doesn't look like an Indian except for her slightly dark skin.

The norm in Bonanza is that non-Indians wearing black wigs with braids and headbands play the Indians. The Last Hunt is no exception.

Other than the headbands and a chief's suspect headdress, Bonanza's Indians wear nondescript buckskins. This is better than the half-naked men and mini-skirted women we often see.

With its references to the Shoshones and Paiutes, Bonanza continues to get its basic geography straight. Which is more than many movies and TV shows can say.

The episode is another in Bonanza's series of episodes sensitive to Indians. Although the Cartwright (innocently) use the words "Injun" and "squaw," they don't have a negative thought about Indians.

In fact, Hoss and Joe seem to have an inordinate amount of Indian-style survival skills: preparing meals from native plants, making weapons and hunting without guns, etc. Did they ever show these skills again, or were they a one-time invention for this episode?

Secrets revealed

[**spoiler alert**]

The baby is blue-eyed, which means its father is white. The woman is fleeing to join the man, a resident of Virginia City.

Her people are chasing her, but it's not clear why. Do they want to kill her for consorting with a white man? Or do they want the male baby to continue the chief's line?

With a title like The Last Hunt, you can guess this episode doesn't end well. The woman makes it to the Ponderosa, but then gets a fever and dies. Nobody except the white men did any hunting, but when an Indian dies, I guess it's automatically "the last hunt."

Jason, the baby's father, arrives and says he married the woman in an Indian ceremony. Naturally Jason's father, a wealthy businessman, doesn't approve. But the Cartwrights don't bat an eye because they're as tolerant as a liberal TV writer in 1959.

Alas, Jason is too late. As they bury the woman, the Shoshone chief rides up. Jason gives him the baby, then gets in his horse-drawn carriage and rides off with the Indians. "I'm going home," he tells his father. He's going to live among the Shoshones with his child, presumably.

I guess that means the Shoshones approved of the marriage and would've let the couple live with them. But Jason left them because he was too weak to go against his father's wishes. Which means the Indians probably weren't trying to kill the woman, but only to return her and the baby.

Romantic tragedy

The Last Hunt a reasonably effective episode, although it would've been better to introduce Jason and his father earlier. Hoss and Little Joe wring a fair amount of humor out of their "stranded in the mountains" scenario.

Of course, the Shoshone woman remains a cipher. Other than loving her baby, she has no significant traits. The show doesn't even give her a name.

This is Bonanza's take on innumerable legends about an Indian woman--usually the chief's daughter--who falls in forbidden love--with an Indian from another tribe, or a white man--and dies. We've seen such legends several times--e.g., in Legends of Chief Matilija, Legend of Lovers Leap, and The Myth of Princess Wenonah. The common theme is the tragic romance of Indians embodied in the star-crossed lovers. So noble, so sad to see them go, so gone. Doomed to die and disappear in a world that couldn't let them live.

Of course, this tragic presentation obscures the role of the US government and land barons like the Cartwrights in robbing the Indians. And it obscures the fact that Indians continued to live, fight, and demand justice from their oppressors. You'd never guess from this simple tale that Indians were locked in political and legal battles with the white-ruled system.

For more on romanticized Indians, see Painting Natives in Ceremonial Garb and Love/Hate Relationship with Indians. For more Bonanza reviews, see The Paiute War in Bonanza and Day of Reckoning in Bonanza.

Below:  The Last Hunt's ending with its gentle message that love is thicker than blood.

"Squaw" and Sammy on Bonanza

A survey of Bonanza on the 50th anniversary of its debut mentions the role of Indians:

A half century of Cartwrights:  Bonanza’s 50th anniversary

NBC’s Bonanza brought location shooting, tourists, and money to Nevada

By Dennis MyersThe earliest episodes of Bonanza relied on local history more than the later ones did, but the program had a way of sanitizing that history, though not so much that it broke from the prejudices of the time. “Like they say,” guest star Charles Bronson said in one episode, “an Indian takes better care of his horse than his squaw.”And:When Roberts departed Bonanza, it damaged the program because he had fought for better scripts. Roberts’ own interpretation of the Adam character and his dark looks and brooding personality had been the disharmony the strait-laced program often needed. The show lost not just Roberts’ acting but his healthy challenges to the show’s producers. One of his last attempts to break out of the formula was a plan to marry off the Adam character. He proposed that Adam fall in love with a Native American woman to be portrayed by an African-American actress.

It was a bold stroke, the very opposite of the tokenism that plagued television in those days—an interracial marriage with interracial casting, no less. Within the safe confines of a family-oriented program, blacks and Indians would have achieved a permanent showcase rather than a one-time guest appearance, while Roberts’ misgivings about the cookie-cutter shows would have been appeased.

Unfortunately, producer David Dortort’s response to Roberts’ proposal was pure tokenism—a counterproposal for Sammy Davis Jr., to make an unrelated guest appearance which, as it happened, never came off.Comment:  As I've suggested before, Bonanza was only average in terms of portraying Indians physically. But in some early episodes, it did an above-average job of humanizing Indians and their stories.

For more on the subject, see:

The Paiute War in Bonanza
Day of Reckoning in Bonanza
The Lone Ranger vs. Bonanza
El Toro Grande in Bonanza
Death on Sun Mountain in Bonanza

The Paiute War in Bonanza

Surprisingly, the fourth episode of Bonanza (airdate: October 3, 1959) was one of the most complex presentations of Anglo-Indian relations up till that time. Perhaps it was the most complex. Here's the story:

Bonanza: The Paiute WarUnscrupulous trader Mike Wilson (Jack Warden) molests two Paiute Indian women, then manages to place the blame on Adam Cartwright. This incident, added to others sparked by Wilson, mushrooms into a full-scale war between the Paiutes and the California Militia. In the thick of the hostilities, the Indians take Adam hostage. Also appearing are Anthony Caruso as Chief Winnemucca and Mike Forrest as the Chief's son. First telecast October 3, 1959, "The Paiute War" was written by Gene L. Coon.For a detailed synopsis, see:

"Bonanza" The Paiute War (1959)

Bonanza--The Paiute War (part 1)  [video]

I'll try to summarize the story. Mike Wilson and his followers grab and "molest" two Paiute women. (Whatever the Anglos do, it happens off-screen, so it's implied.) After Adam Cartwright frees them, their Paiute husbands don't go to their own Chief Winnemucca for help. Instead they go to Ring Nose of the Bannock Indians, who is spoiling for a fight.

A war party of Bannock Indians attacks the Wilsons, killing half a dozen or more people and burning several buildings. Wilson retaliates by telling everyone the Paiutes did it. He hates Indians in general and wants the Paiutes out of the way.

Ben Cartwright leads an Anglo force to parlay with Chief Winnemucca, but Wilson surreptitiously fires a shot. Shooting breaks out and the Paiutes take Adam hostage. They threaten to kill him unless Ben can get Ring Nose to confess and end the unjustified war against the Paiutes.

Major Hungerford leads the California militia against the Paiutes, but stalls to give Ben a chance to succeed. Ben convinces Ring Nose to turn himself in and hurries to stop the fight. But Wilson surreptitiously fires a shot again and warfare breaks out. The militia uses cannons against the Indians and "wins" the battle.

What's interesting about this is that it dramatizes how many Anglo-Indian conflicts may have happened. A few white men do something predatory against a few Indians. The Indians react (or overreact) and take the conflict to a higher level. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the white men blame the wrong Indians (because they all look and act alike). Communication breaks down because both sides think they're right. Anglo pressure forces the US military to act against the "wild" Indians, even if the military is reluctant to. The warfare ends badly for the overmatched Indians.

The only truly evil person in this scenario is Mike Wilson. Everyone else is either seeking justice for real or perceived crimes or trying to avoid bloodshed. Yet the events lead almost inexorably to a military campaign and dead Indians.

Historical basis of The Paiute War

As various sources note, The Paiute War was based on, well, the Paiute War. Here's the historical background that's missing from the episode:Early white settlement of what is now northwestern Nevada had a tremendous disruptive effect on the Northern Paiute people. The fragility of the Great Basin ecosystem magnified this disruption despite the relatively low density of white settlers. These disruptions included the felling of Single-leaf Pinyon groves (a major food source for the Paiute) for the mining industry and monopolization of water sources. In addition, settlers and Paiutes competed for grazing lands.

Several murders of whites, including famed mountain man Peter Lassen, were widely attributed to Paiutes. Murders of Paiutes by whites also occurred. The lack of effective government in the area meant that there was no formal judicial response to these incidents, leading to private retribution and a general atmosphere of fear and distrust.The episode hews rather closely to history. The molested women, the attack on the Williams Station (i.e., Wilson Station), and the escape of one witness (i.e. Mike Wilson) happened.

Only a few details keep it from being a docudrama:

Wilson blamed the wrong band of Indians.

The first skirmish--i.e., the First Battle of Pyramid Lake--ended with the Indians victorious. In Bonanza, it was more of a standoff. And it didn't start because someone disobeyed orders and fired a shot.

The second skirmish--i.e., the Second Battle of Pyramid Lake--was more of a standoff, with few people injured. In Bonanza, it was a US victory. It also didn't start because someone disobeyed orders and fired a shot.

In reality, of course, the Cartwrights weren't involved in trying to keep the peace.

Stereotypes in The Paiute War

Despite its relatively complex portrayal of Indians, The Paiute War engages in the usual stereotypes. The Paiutes live in teepees and their chief wears a headdress. They stand around half-naked in war-paint. When they prepare to fight, they skulk behind rocks (the Anglos tend to stand up straight in the open). When they attack, they whoop like banshees. And they're all played by white men.

There are also more subtle problems. When Little Joe says he can't believe the Paiutes will go to war, Ben responds, "They're primitive and proud." While Ben is trying to stop the war, Winnemucca soliloquizes that "Our ways are ways of the 'wild things.'" He speculates that it may be his day to die.

Winnemucca is cruel to insist Ben stop the war or he'll kill Adam the hostage. He talks of "defending the Paiute nation" as if warfare is the only option. After the initial parlay, he basically seeks a confrontation, which isn't the way of a true peacemaker.

His son Young Wolf is a pure Indian savage. He's tired of talk; he wants to kill Adam and get on with the war. Even his "wolf" name says "savagery."

And the Indians aren't very good fighters. In the climactic battle they have the high ground, hidden in the rocks. But two cannon shots are enough to send them flying and kill them. In reality, the Indians were the superior fighters in this war, winning one battle and avoiding a second.

Star Trek connections

Also worth noting are the Star Trek connections. Gene Coon wrote this episode and Death on Sun Mountain. So he was responsible for two of Bonanza's first four episodes featuring Indians.

A nearly unrecognizable Anthony Caruso played Winnemucca. Caruso later played Bela Oxmyx in the Coon-written A Piece of the Action. A highly recognizable Michael Forrest played Young Wolf. Forrest later played Apollo in the Coon-produced Who Mourns for Adonais? Coon also wrote Bonanza's The Ape episode, which guest-starred Leonard Nimoy.

On Star Trek, Coon wrote such "clash of civilizations" episodes as A Taste of Armageddon, The Devil in the Dark, Errand of Mercy, and Bread and Circuses. He produced many others. He was central to the creation of the Klingons and the Prime Directive.

Apparently something made Coon sensitive to the plight of indigenous cultures even before his Bonanza days. That and his Bonanza experience influenced his Star Trek writing and casting choices. Indirectly, therefore, Indians had more of an influence on Star Trek than people have realized.

For more on the subject, see The Lone Ranger vs. Bonanza and TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  Gene L. Coon.

Mercurie on 1960s Westerns

Another excerpt from Mercurie's The Invisible Minority:  Native Americans on American Television Part Two:The first cycle towards Western TV shows ended in 1960, after producing numerous series in the genre. This did not mean that Native Americans would cease to be seen on American network broadcast television. Some shows from the first cycle from the first cycle of Westerns, such as Gunsmoke and Bonanza, would remain on the air for years. In 1965 a new cycle towards Westerns would begin that would produce a new, if smaller, crop of Westerns. In fact, the Sixties would even see Native American characters featured in settings outside of frontier dramas and Westerns.

It was in the 1962-1963 season that Gunsmoke added a character who was part Native American to its cast. The character of blacksmith Quint Asper was born of a father of Northern European descent and a mother of Comanche descent. The character was played by a young Burt Reynolds, who is a quarter Cherokee in ancestry. As Dodge City's blacksmith, Quint was a very important character. In fact, he often assisted Marshal Matt Dillon as a deputy. Reynolds remained with Gunsmoke until the end of the 1964-1965 season.

Native Americans would play a large role in the frontier drama, Daniel Boone, which debuted in the 1964-1965 season. In fact, for the first of the series' six seasons, a Native American character numbered among its leads. Mingo was a half Cherokee who was educated at Oxford in England, but chose to return to North America to live in the ways of his people. Mingo was Daniel Boone's comrade in arms on the vast majority of the show's episodes, making him yet another manifestation of the faithful Native American companion. That having been said, Mingo was a far cry from such Native American companions as Tonto and Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah. He did not speak in broken English; in fact, he spoke very proper English with an English accent (he was educated at Oxford, after all). Mingo was not a man of few words and was actually more talkative than many of the settlers on the show. Mingo also had his own mind, actually disagreeing with Daniel Boone on occasion.

The character of Mingo can be criticised for a few reasons. The first is that he is yet another Native character helping the settlers. Unlike Tonto and Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah, Mingo did have a life of his own, but much of his time was spent aiding Daniel Boone. The second is that although Mingo is Cherokee, he displays very little in the way of the cultural traits of Cherokee. Indeed, I must point out that Mingo dresses like no Cherokee I have ever seen. The third reason is that Mingo is yet another example of what I call "redface"--an individual with no Native blood playing a Native American character. Ed Ames was one of singing artists The Ames Brothers, who were of Russian Jewish descent. Of course, it must be pointed out that like Michael Ansara and Ricardo Montalban in their portrayals of Natives, Ed Ames endowed Mingo with a dignity and respect that was sorely lacking in many Native American characters of the time.

Over all Daniel Boone offered a more balanced view of Native Americans than many series. Natives such as the Shawnee and Cherokee were most often portrayed sympathetically. That having been said, Daniel Boone could be wildly inaccurate in its portrayal of Native cultures. As I said, Mingo dressed like no Cherokee I have ever seen. And the Shawnee were often portrayed as living in tipis and dressing as Plains Natives like the Sioux. I must also point out that the show tended to oversimplify Daniel Boone's relations with the Natives (especially the Shawnee), which were considerably more complicated than portrayed on the show.

The 1965-1966 season saw the debut of a series which featured several Native American characters in lead roles. It would also become one of those series most often cited when mentioning offensive Native American stereotypes. The comedy F Troop followed the adventures of a fictional Calvary unit of that name in the fictional Army post of Fort Dodge, Kansas. Its commanding officer was the incredibly inept, accident prone Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry), whose command was complicated by the often illegal money making schemes of his NCOs, Sergeant O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Corporal Agarn (Larry Storch). Sgt. O'Rourke and Cpl. Agarn were often assisted in their schemes by the local Native American tribe, the fictional Hekawis. In fact, the Hekawis were full partners in O'Rourke Enterprises, which produced such products as moonshine.

In some respects it is easy to see why some would be offended by F Troop. The Hekawis lived in tipis and dressed like Plains Natives, just as many of the generic Native American characters did in the 20th Century (of course, here it must be pointed out that the Hekawis appear to have been a Plains tribe anyway). The Hekawis generally spoke in the same broken English that Tonto and other Native characters did, although it is possible this was simply an act to fool the Calvary and the settlers (in asides they often spoke very proper English). In its casting, F Troop is a perfect example of redface, as the vast majority of Native characters are played by Jewish comics (here one must wonder if this wasn't meant as a parody on the notion that Native Americans are the 13th, lost tribe of Israel).

That having been said, I must confess I find it difficult to be too offended by F Troop. The show was so broad and outlandish that it must be considered a fantasy similar to many other sitcoms of the era such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan's Island, and The Monkees. The characters on F Troop were no more meant to represent real people than Giligan or Elly Mae Clampett. And while the Hekawis do conform to some Native stereotypes (living in tipis, broken English, funny animal names, et. al.), they also depart from them in dramatic ways. Indeed, unlike many of the generic "Indians" appearing in American pop culture in the 20th Century, the Hekawis actually do have their own cultural identity, albeit one unlike any actual Naive tribe. Namely, the Hekawis are extreme capitalists, whose motto may well be "Make money, not love or war." Through the Hekawis, F Troop was more making fun of such capitalists as Thurston Howell III and Daddy Warbucks than anything else. In some respects, through the Hekawis, F Troop even parodied Native stereotypes themselves, among them the "wise elder" stereotype through the character of Chief Wild Eagle (Frank Dekova). Parmenter and O'Rourke often came to Wild Eagle for advice, whereupon he would utter some old Hekawi saying, of which he would often confess to not knowing the meaning. Here it must also be pointed out that the Hekawis were the most intelligent characters on the show, quite the opposite of many Westerns which portrayed Northern Europeans as superior in intellect to the "primitive" Natives.

The 1966-1967 season would see a very historic moment with regards to Native Americans on network broadcast television. On September 8, 1966, Hawk debuted on ABC. Like a few shows before it Hawk featured a lead character who was a Native; unlike any show before it, it was set in the present day. Hawk followed the adventure of Detective Lt. John Hawk, a half Iroquois serving on the New York City Police Department. Hawk was played by Burt Reynolds in his first lead role in a television show. While Hawk was the first American television show to feature a Native lead character set in the present day and while the character was played by someone of Native descent himself, the show generally did not explore Iroquois ethnicity, nor did it delve into Native American issues. Hawk only lasted 17 episodes.

During the 1966-1967 season, Hawk was not the only show to feature a Native American in a present day setting. In the episode "The Battle of Mayberry" of The Andy Griffith Show, Andy's son Opie stirs up trouble among the townsfolk of Mayberry when he researches an early battle settlers had with the Cherokee, including the town's only Native resident Tom Strongbow (played by Norman Alden). Sadly, Tom Strongbow would not become a recurring character on the series, only appearing in "The Battle of Mayberry."

Another series would feature a Native American character in a milieu other than the Old West or the present day. The Sixties would see a cycle towards war television shows that produced such series as Combat, Twelve O'Clock High, and Rat Patrol. Among these shows was Garrison's Gorillas, a series which sought to capitalise on the popularity of the film The Dirty Dozen. The show centred on a team of commandos gathered from stateside prisons and commanded by Lt. Craig Garrison (Ron Harper) during World War II . The team consisted of four men: Actor (Cesare Danova), the Italian American con man; Casino (Rudy Solari), the safecracker; Chief (Brendon Boone), a Native American proficient with switchblades; and Goniff (Christopher Cary), the Yiddish speaking cat burglar. Unfortunately Chief was a bit of a stereotype. He spoke very little, never laughed, and was very proficient with knives. Garrison's Gorillas lasted only one season.

At the end of the Sixties, Native American characters were still frequently seen on American network broadcast television. It would be last time that Native Americans would be seen in substantial numbers on American, prime time TV shows. While Native American characters would continue to appear in shows in the Seventies, the Eighties would see them all but disappear.Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  Burt Reynolds as Quint Asper.

Day of Reckoning in Bonanza

Day of Reckoning (Season 2, Episode 7) was the 39th episode of Bonanza. Premiering in 1960, it offered a complex take on Indians. Let's take a look:

Episode RecapSynopsis

After being injured in a fight, Ben is nursed back to health by Matsou and his wife Hatoya. In return, Ben give the two Indians land to settle and farm. However Matsou's brother and a neighbor are set on making sure that Matsou and his wife don't succeed in their new life.

Full Recap

Ben is ambushed on his own property by the son of an Indian chief, rabid with hatred for the white man. Matsou, the Indian's brother, and Matsou's wife Hatoya, find Ben and take him back to their tent to nurse him. Matsou's brother (Largosa) comes to look for him, but Matsou hides Ben and forbids Largosa to enter his home. Matsou's brother chides and tries to humiliate Matsou for being soft "like a woman" ever since he married Hatoya; but he finally leaves without seeing Ben. It is the spiritual influence of Hatoya's living three years with a white couple that has led her to Christ, and Matsou's love and devotion to her compel him to respect what she says.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ben's neighbor Ike, who is living on land acquired from Ben, complains to Joe and Hoss and Adam that he refuses to live with "Injuns," after finding a skull of one of them on his property and glimpsing some of the tribe nearby.

Matsou and Hatoya bring Ben back to the Ponderosa. Out of goodwill, Ben gives them a piece of land to farm, which at first Matsou does not want. He has no knowledge of being a farmer, but his wife urges him to accept it, and he does. Members of the white community help them learn to plant, and Matsou and Hatoya also adopt the fashions and hairstyles common to the white man.

One day, Matsou's brother Largosa pays a visit and warns him that their people want payback for their property and for being driven out by the whites. He also tells Matsou that their father has just died, making him (Largosa) the new chief. Matsou refuses to heed the warning out of love for his wife, and also the child that she is now carrying.

That night, Largosa and some of the tribe attack the home of Ike, Matsou's neighbor, killing Ike's wife and burning their house. The next day at the funeral, Matsou and Hatoya appear at a distance, Hatoya offering prayers for the slain woman. In a fit of hysteric rage, Ike grabs a gun and shoots Hatoya and her unborn child dead. Matsou tries to go after him, but is deterred by the Cartwrights.

Matsou takes his revenge by defacing Ike and sending him back to the Cartwrights, and Ben comes looking for Matsou. Stringing Ben up with rawhide, Matsou lets the sun beat down on Ben and stretch the rawhide, hoping that Ben's suffering will ease his own pain. As the heat grows more intense, Ben begins praying "The Lord's Prayer" and Matsou tells him to stop. Ben continues, and finally, Matsou can no longer take it. It was the prayer so often that he'd heard his wife say. He finally cuts him loose, telling Ben that he was hoping his hatred for Ben would cause Ben to retaliate, and set him free from the knowledge of this grace.

The episode concludes with Matsou stating that, since his brother was killed, he--Matsou--is now chief of his people, and he leaves Ben to return to them. There is a sense that there will be new hope for them as this courageous man--now no longer harboring hatred--will be leading them.Comment:  Here's my review of the episode's high, medium, and low points.

The good

The basic premise is probably realistic for the late 19th century. Some Indians want to keep fighting the white man, while others want to convert to the white man's ways. The overall context is that whites are winning the Indian wars and "taming" the West, so the Indians don't have many options left.

The three Indian characters show a range of emotions. Largosa: hatred of the white man. Matsou: Unwilling and afraid to change, but ultimately flexible. Hatoya: Christian love making her amenable to the white man's world.

Largosa's main reason for scorning his brother is that Matsou the Shoshone married Hatoya the Bannock Indian. These are the right tribes for Nevada and the prejudice seems plausible. (I don't know if this particular prejudice has any basis in fact, but enmity between tribes was commonplace.)

The Cartwrights stand up for the Indians against their neighbor Ike, reminding him the land was once theirs.

The bad

The Indians' appearance conforms to the revisionist standard: Western clothes, braids, headbands. I believe Hatoya wears a stereotypical buckskin dress until she moves to the farm.

Matsou and Hatoya initially live in a tipi, which would be terribly out of place in Nevada.

The Indians have no real Native beliefs, values, or culture. They're a white screenwriter's version of Indians: all surfaces, no depths.

The Cartwrights don't acknowledge how they came to possess the Indians' land. The Indians lost this land just a few years earlier, but everyone acts as if it's the longstanding status quo. The Cartwrights are the unquestioned lords of the Ponderosa as if the deed came directly from God.

The ugly

Matsou and Hatoya are played by Ricardo Montalban and Madlyn Rhue (!). Yes, Khan Noonien Singh and his mate Marla McGivers from the Star Trek episode The Space Seed.

Montalban has a swarthy ethnic look, at least. But Rhue? She's a less believable Indian than Audrey Hepburn (The Unforgiven), and that's pretty unbelievable.

But they have decent chemistry together. Is this where Gene Roddenberry and company got the idea to cast them together seven years later? It seems like too much of a coincidence to believe otherwise.

For more on Bonanza, see Death on Sun Mountain in Bonanza and El Toro Grande in Bonanza. For more on the subject in general, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

El Toro Grande in Bonanza

In the 16th episode of Bonanza, titled El Toro Grande (airdate: January 2, 1960), Little Joe and Hoss travel to California to buy a prize bull from a Spanish rancher.

Not that it's relevant to this blog, but the episode is full of Mexican stereotypes. The hot-blooded young man who dresses like a Flamenco dancer and wields a rapier. The hot-blooded young woman who is pure as the driven snow but who lusts after Little Joe. The happy-go-lucky peasant who strums a guitar and sings songs. The mischievous little boy in the sombrero. The burros. Etc.

Recall that Bonanza is set around the year 1860. This is a decade after the Gold Rush, with its huge influx of white settlers, and California's becoming a state. Yet none of that is evident in this episode. The Spanish hacienda is so typically Mexican that the Cartwrights could've traveled 50 years into the past as well as across the state.

The Native aspect

On the way back, five Indians grab the bull. On the plus side, all five are wearing the loose Western clothes typical of the time. And they say they're just taking the bull because they're hungry.

On the minus side, three of the four "braves" have headbands with feathers. The main Indian is a phony Plains chief. And when he departs, it sounds like he says "good night" in Italian.

This scene must take place in eastern California. Yet the Indians are purely generic or stereotypical. It's a far cry from the broadly accurate portrayal of Paiute Indians in Death on Sun Mountain.

Non-Natives cast as Natives

Three of the "braves" appear to be played by non-Natives. The chief is played by Ralph Moody, who has the typical "ethnic" features of a white actor playing an Indian. But curiously, one of the "braves" is played by Rodd Redwing, a Native actor.

Both Moody and Redwing had long careers playing Indians on TV shows and in movies. But casting them both in this episode seems strange. Why hire one Native and one non-Native for the Indian roles? I could see two Natives or two non-Natives, but one of each?

It's as if they trusted a Native actor in a truly insignificant role but not in a slightly bigger but still insignificant role. Perhaps they didn't think an actual Indian could handle his 4-5 lines. Or it could've been the actors' looks. Perhaps Moody's face was more lined and "heavy" than the faces of handy Native actors.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  Ralph Moody in a non-Indian role.

Death on Sun Mountain in Bonanza

To handle this year's digital TV conversion, I had to purchase our local basic cable service. Fortunately, it hasn't been a total loss. Now I can watch old episodes of Hawaii Five-0, Get Smart, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the British spy series MI-5, and...Bonanza.

The second episode ever of Bonanza, the famed TV Western, tells a Native-themed story. Here are a couple of synopses:

Death on Sun MountainBen Cartwright finds out that Mark Burdette (Barry Sullivan) and Early Thorne (Leo Gordon) have been illegally slaughtering the antelope on the Paiute Indians' property, then selling the meat to the miners at an exorbitant price. To thwart the two poachers and protect the Indians' food supply, Ben offers to sell his own meat at a much lower price. Burdette and Thorne then hatch a scheme to foment a war between the Paiutes and the Cartwrights. First telecast on September 19, 1959, "The Sun Mountain Herd" (aka "Death on Sun Mountain") was written by Gene L. Coon and David Dortort, who based their teleplay on a true story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide"Bonanza" Death on Sun Mountain (1959)Burdette and Thorne are selling native antelope meat to the "diggers of Sun Mountain" (the miners) at outrageous prices. The lack of their native food causes the Paiutes to steal Ponderosa beef. The Cartwrights decide to sell their beef directly to the miners, hoping to ease the tensions with the Paiutes and keep their herd from being rustled. This interferes with Burdette's business plan and he tells Thorne to stop the beef from arriving in Virginia City. Thorne and his men accomplish this by dressing up as Indians and killing all but one miner. Harris is left alive to tell everyone it was the Paiutes that ambushed them. Thorne then dresses a miner and kills Tukwa, one of the Cartwright ranch hands. An Indian war is imminent unless the Cartwrights can get to the bottom of this. They go to speak to Harris only to discover that he is too dazed to identify anyone and the only other person who knows Burdette is guilty, a saloon girl named Glory, has been kidnapped. They track Burdette and Thorne and their captive to the desert where a gunfight breaks out.When it comes to the Native aspects, Death on Sun Mountain is mostly successful. The Paiutes are a real tribe living in the Lake Tahoe area and Winnemucca was their actual chief. Because it was based on a true story, the Paiutes' dilemma is realistically non-savage. If the white man kills all their game, they'll have to rustle a few distressed cows or starve.

The Paiutes are dressed in regular clothes and Apache-style headbands, not "leathers and feathers." They speak good English, only slightly stilted, not Tonto talk. Bonanza occasionally shows them, along with Chinese "coolies," as background characters in town.

Another casting failure

The only real problem is the casting of non-Natives as Paiutes. Harry Bartell is Winnemucca and Ron Soble (Wyatt Earp in ST:TOS) is Tukwa. They and the other "Paiutes" don't look much like Indians.

It's interesting to see how Hollywood operated (and still operates?). Because these actors had vaguely "ethnic" looks, they got to play outlaws or Indians. Heaven forbid that a show might have starred someone who didn't look classically Anglo-American. That would've put pretty boys like Michael Landon out of work.

As you can see below, Winnemucca is an order of magnitude more "ethnic" than Bartell or Soble. It's clear he comes from an entirely different race. Casting someone who looked like Winnemucca would've been much more challenging to American viewers the the comfortingly familiar Bartell.

Bleeding-heart cowboys

One thing I didn't remember about Bonanza is what bleeding-heart liberals the Cartwrights were. Ben Cartwright worries that the Paiutes won't be able to continue living in harmony with nature. By selling meat directly to the miners, he's willing to forgo something like half his profits.

In another episode, when a mine collapses, Adam Cartwright doesn't care about the cost involved to safeguard the men. He cares only about the safety of the workers.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

P.S. Gene L. Coon went on to write for Star Trek, of course. I wonder if this episode led to the casting of Ron Soble as Wyatt Earp.

Below:  Chief Winnemucca; Harry Bartell and Ron Soble in non-Paiute roles.