Vengeance Trail in Northwest Passage

Last year I posted a summary of Northwest Passage the TV series. Last month I posted a review of Northwest Passage the movie that spawned the TV series. Now I've watched eight episodes of the TV series on DVD.

From what I saw, Indians are shown or mentioned in about a quarter of the shows. Oddly, the series reverses the attitude of the movie on which it was based. In the movie, the Indians were the primary antagonists and the French were merely background characters. In the TV show, the French are the primary antagonists and the Indians are merely background characters.

No mention is made of the numerous Indian allies of the British and French. Instead, the show implies the Indians were peaceful bystanders in the French and Indian War. It's an oddly liberal attitude for a 1958 series in the heart of Hollywood's Western era. One could say it's politically correct but historically incorrect, since the Indians did take sides and participate in the war.

On the Vengeance Trail

Only one of the eight episodes--Vengeance Trail--actually shows Indians. The story tells what happens when bounty hunter Joe Waters finds his son Kisheewa, who was captured and raised by Indians. Some notes on this episode:

Waters tells the Rangers he scalps Indians for pay and is proud of it. Major Rogers and his men react only with mild surprise. This might've been a realistic reaction back then, but Rogers is humane and compassionate and it doesn't fit his character.

The Mohican Indians live in what look like wigwams: conical-shaped huts made of branches and bark. This may be culturally accurate.

Most of the Mohicans are bare-chested and have Mohawk hairstyles, which seems reasonable. But their leader Akacita is dressed in buckskins and a headband with two feathers. This outfit seems stereotypical compared to the others.

Akacita is played by Joseph Vitale, a typical Italian actor with "ethnic" features. Of the other Mohicans, only Kisheewa's foster father Gray Bird looks like a real Indian.

When Waters meets Kisheewa, he babbles like an idiot about taking his son home, as if nothing's happened. Kisheewa is fiercely loyal to his tribe, rejects his father, and calls him "Squaw Killer." Both reactions are about right.

Rogers talks to Kisheewa and suggests trying the white man's ways. This is a bit silly since Kisheewa has clearly become a full-fledged Indian.

When Waters and his son square off for a knife fight, Kisheewa wins but can't kill his father. Since he was taken at age 8, he presumably remembers and cares for his father deep down.

At the end, Rogers brings Kisheewa to a broken Waters and they reconcile. This is the only truly jarring moment. Waters has killed many of Kisheewa's friends and family, including his foster father. But now Kisheewa is ready to forgive him, a mass murderer of Mohicans? I don't think so.

Even though Northwest Passage is nominally pro-Indian, you can see the bias of the times. Kisheewa the "white Indian" is the main Mohican character; the others are basically props. In different ways, both Waters and Rogers urge Kisheewa to return to the white world as if it's obviously better. In the end, Kisheewa seems to agree.

More Indians in Northwest Passage

Three other episodes mention Indians:

The Assassin: "Ordered by the French Command to kill Major Rogers, Captain Jacque Chavez lures him into a deadly trap in British-occupied Quebec, using a kidnapped high-ranking English officer as bait." In this episode, a French agent posing as a priest says his mother was Algonquin.

The Witch: "Wounded in an ambush, Rogers is taken in and cared for by a white woman schooled in ancient Indian medicine. Her neighbors have branded her a witch."

Reba Morris was held captive by Indians for 10 years before she escaped. During her captivity she learned the medicine man's techniques.

When a girl is injured, Morris seeks to cure her with herbs and roots while the local healer uses leeches and spider webs. The townspeople think Morris is killing the girl, so they drag her to the lake to drown her. But Rogers and the Rangers save her and she saves the girl.

Stab in the Back: "The Rangers race to unmask French saboteurs who have infiltrated Fort Crown Point determined to kill an envoy from the King of England." The episode begins with a soldier found dead with an Algonquin knife in his back. Major Rogers dismisses the possibility that an Indian tribe or renegades committed the murder.

Conclusion

Overall, Northwest Passage is about as good as any Western-style series of that era. The characters are stock but the plots are varied. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it, but it's tolerable.

Alas, that means it's not the best TV show of the 20th century, as someone claimed it was. Get real, fella. With I Love Lucy, Dragnet, and Sea Hunt on the air, Northwest Passage wasn't even the best show of the 1958-1959 season.

For Trekkies, it's worth noting that DeForest Kelley guest-starred in one episode and Robert Justman was an assistant director. And the second-billed Buddy Ebsen went on to fame in The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, of course.

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