Run of the Arrow (1957) - full transcript

Ain't that Trevlor?

- I said, ain't that Lee's horse?
- Yes.

- What's Lee doing here?
- He's surrendering to Grant.

Lead looks mighty close to heart.

That's the first Yankee I missed in 4 years.

I bet it's because the bullet warped.

Well, why didn't you
cut it out, look for yourself?

Because I didn't want to
dirty my hands, that's why.

Then why you bring him in here? Why didn't
you leave him out there to bleed to death?

There's General Lee,
he's still got his sword.

- Grant must've let him keep it.
- Well, maybe he didn't want to give it up.



We lost the war soldier,
Lee has struck his last hand.

So there he is, the great
and glorious General Grant.

If you going to shoot Grant, you better
shoot Lee too, else the shame will kill him.

Just like I said.

Like I said from the beginning,
the bullet warped, warped.

It's the last bullet shot in this war.

♪ I am a good old rebel
soldier and that's just what I am. ♪

♪ And for this Yankee
nation I do not give a damn. ♪

♪ I hate the starry banner
it's stained with Southern blood ♪

♪ And I hate the paisan
Yankees and fit them all I could. ♪

♪ I hate the Yankee
nation and the uniform of blue. ♪

♪ I hate the constitution
of this great republic too. ♪

♪ I hate the mighty gold
with all its brass and fuss. ♪

♪ Gold thieving lying Yankees
I hate them once in a while. ♪



♪ I can't pick up my musket
to fight them anymore. ♪

♪ But I ain't going to love them
and that is part of the show. ♪

♪ And I don't want no pardon
for what I've done around, ♪

♪ And I won't be reconstructed
and I do not give a damn ♪

Let me get out of this thing, thank you.

Well, he went and done it.

General Lee got right down
on his hands and knees...

and begged President Johnson for pardon.

But if it's good enough for Marshall Robert.

I reckon it's good enough for me.

He never begged.

He never begged? I wish you was right.

What makes you so sure?

Oh, when I went back to town
to get that bullet, I had it official.

- That he swallowed his pride and begged.
- What bullet?

Why, the bullet that you
had cut out of that Yankee...

lieutenant you shot the last day of the war.

- How you get it?
- Your Ma gave it to us.

Why?

Well, look at that.

That ain't the bullet,
that's a brand new one.

I know but the head,
it's been fixed to shoot again.

- And there's writing on it.
- Writing? What kind of writing?

Well, it says, Private
O'Meara, 6th Virginia Volunteer...

who shot this last bullet in war and missed.

It's a little token,
it's a little token from us to you.

But the best news,
the best news was when your Ma...

- said that you'd come home in one piece.
- Best news I got was when Lincoln was dead.

What's the matter mama?

A man shows respect even if it's
for a dead damn Yankee president.

Have you lost your reason?
The baboon was shot too late.

The bullet which killed him can
prove worse for us than for the North.

You talk like you're sick in the head.

Well, he said he was going to take all of
us secesh back in the Union, didn't he?

- Who cares about the Union?
- Whole lots of us do son.

I know it seems a downright shame we got to
take

the oath of allegiance to the
United States to become Americans again...

- but we got to...
- Jeff Davis is in jail.

Lee is begging in
the mud. Now, that's a fine...

fitting way to take us
back into the Union, ain't it?

Well, no man is beaten without some hatred.

And I hat, mama.

I hate.

I don't understand you Ma.

Pa was killed at Chickamauga, Jeff
had his head cut off at Fredericksburg.

Eli.

Eli lay with his belly in his hand bleeding
to death on the wheat fields of Gettysburg.

Mama, I know, I've seen them.

I seen their skin
and blood and I buried them.

I had to bury them mama,
I buried them, you didn't.

What am I supposed to say now to the Yankees?

Welcome home sir.

I love you Yankees.

How did you, how did you
expect me to come home?

I expected you to come home a man with honor.

A man with honor?

You expected me to come home with honor?

What's the matter with you Ma?
What's the matter with all of you?

They came here and they tore our land mama.

They chased us when we had no legs.

They stuffed their mouth with our
food when we were starving to death.

Where is your pride?

What's happened to all of you?

Say what happened to some of us who
had to take a licking and not cry over it.

You don't have to
fight for the cause no more.

Mama, I don't have to do anything.

I don't have to do anything.

I am a rebel because I want
to be not because I have to be.

Wherever you go there's going to be Yankees
and you got to learn to live with them.

Well maybe, but not the place I'll be.

- What place?
- The West, the Far West.

You mean, where the savages live?

Savages or no, at least
they have more pride than us.

There's no hiding
place for what ails you son.

We're all under one flag now.

I want to tell you something mother.

I'll hang, I'll hang
before I recognize that flag.

Maybe a broken neck is
the best answer for what ails you.

Maybe mama.

Maybe.

What a darn fool way to waste good whiskey.

That's fine whiskey.

The buzzards was all
prepared to pick your eyes out.

Take it from an old army scout, if had come
any closer, I'd have bit their heads off.

Well then, how can a Sioux
scout for the damn Yankees?

Confederate States of America.

Still fighting the war Mr. Johnny Sore loser.

I want tell you something.

You better get one thing straight old man.

You maybe old but
you not ready to be buried yet.

Maybe but I will be
when I run out of whiskey.

I'm carrying a bad heart.

Going home to die.

- Where are you heading?
- Anywhere.

Yeah, anywhere can
be with me until I run dry.

US Cavalry.

Hey, it's a nice piece of
Yankee horseflesh you got there.

That's right.

Plenty of land out here
in the Sioux country, that's for sure.

Not for the white man.

I don't know, now maybe they could use an...

accurate, unemployed
confederate sharp shooter.

That's renegade talk.

My name is O'Meara, what's yours?

- Walking Coyote.
- Walking Coyote.

- What outfit? Georgia Cavalry?
- Oh, no, no, no.

It's the Virginia
Infantry, let's get that straight.

- Infantry?
- That's right.

- Oh, what's so funny?
- Only squaws walk.

What was the name
of that tune you just played?

It's a love song.

It's a darling tune in spite
of the way you played it.

It's for loving.

- Have you got a squaw?
- No.

- You?
- No.

Sometimes I feel it might
be better to curl up with a...

squaw around a
fireplace rather than a saddle.

Well, I wouldn't
argue with you on that point.

Listen...

- How many tribes are there in your nation?
- We're divided into three divisions.

The Santee, the Yankton and the Teton.

I'm an Oglala, that's one of
the seven tribes of the Teton Sioux.

Every tribe has a lot of
bands, every band has a chief.

- I could've been a chief.
- What is Sioux mean in your language?

- It's a French word.
- French word?

Yeah, our real name is Lakota.

Before scalping got to be the thing to do
we used to slit our enemies' throats.

What's that got to do with the French?

Well, we were always fighting the Chippewas
and one day tied up with the French...

They told them we were Sioux,
Sioux means cut throats.

- Why you so interested in Sioux?
- I don't know.

- I'd like to be one.
- Why?

Because...

because cut throats should stick together.

- You serious?
- I'm serious.

I'd like to learn your language.

I'd like to learn it to you, if St.
Christopher will keep you in one piece.

- You like St. Christopher?
- Yeah.

- You a Christian?
- No.

- My religion is Yuwipi.
- Yuwipi. Hey, Yuwipi.

- That's sort of a denomination.
- It's, yeah.

Wait a minute, you said a while back
that you could've been a Sioux chief.

- That's true.
- Well, why didn't you?

Ah, I can't stomach politics.

Let's go now.

What's the horse's head for?

That's so he'll have his pony to ride
when he gets to the happy hunting ground.

Oh look.

What's that there?

- Another Sioux post office?
- Yeah.

3 more babies born to the Miniconjou tribe.

Surprising how quick
you picked up our customs.

Well, it's not too difficult, you know?

Wait a minute., it's a sign of a small
party, eh? Eight to ten, riding light.

Sioux ponies.

I don't see a sign of them.

When you can't see them,
they're looking at you.

Don't touch your gun son.

What you mean don't touch my gun? What
am I going to do? Leave myself wide open?

Don't touch it.

Turn around slow like
and keep your mouth shut.

Turn.

- That white man is no enemy of the Sioux.
- His horse wears the US brand of the enemy.

- Who are you?
- Walking Coyote, one of your tribe.

- Walking Coyote?
- Yes.

Yes, I've heard all about you.

- A renegade, paid by the whites to kill us.
- Oh no, I was a scout and meat hunter.

But me kill a Sioux? I'm a
Sioux myself, I came home to my tribe.

- You have no tribe.
- That's up to Blue Buffalo to decide.

- He is still your chief, ain't he?
- Yes.

But it's up to me to decide, me, Crazy Wolf.

- We're going to hang you old man.
- I demand a hearing.

Drunk and mean, all of
them and painted for trouble.

In my day we showed
a little respect for the aged.

I don't know what the
world is coming to nowadays.

The way these young bucks run wild,
drink whiskey, loot lodges, attack girls.

They look like they
getting ready to hang you.

- You learned our lingo good.
- I learned good, I learned too good.

Otherwise you wouldn't be sweating
out the fact they going to skin me.

You're lucky to be going that way
even though it takes longer dying.

- I wish they carve me alive.
- What are you talking about?

In my religion you don't
go to heaven if you're hanged.

We're faster than the run of the arrow.

It worked.

They ask for the run.

Come on.

- Why did they let us go?
- Save your wind.

Put that arrow down, even to a renegade
and a white, we do not violate the run.

What's he mean about violate the run?

A man could get skinned alive from sunset...

to sunrise if he violated it.
This game is called run of the arrow.

When we get to the spot where his arrow
fell, we start running, they run after us.

- On foot?
- Yeah.

Except they're not barefooted like we are.

He fired the arrow quite a ways,
maybe we got a chance, eh?

That's the idea, they torture us
with a chance to make an escape.

- You cannot run though, you are too old.
- You ain't.

There's one thing I got to tell you son.

Nobody ever made the
run and lived to tell about it.

Now, if we just keep this
distance between them and us..

Stay out of bow shot,
we got a running chance.

But you see what
Crazy Wolf can do with an arrow.

So don't let him get a bow range on you.

Well..

I, I want to say..

- I think it's a, a shame that...
- Yeah, it's a pity.

Well, just pray to God and start running.

Have you seen a white man running?

Have you?

Have you seen a white man?

You speak our language without an accent.
You do not speak Sioux like an American.'

I'm not an American, I
was, I was, I was running.

I was running.

- You must be quiet.
- How many guards are there?

No one knows you're here,
no one knows but Silent Tongue.

And he can't speak,
he was born without voice.

- Is that your son?
- No, his people are dead.

You know that means to violate the run?

I know.

I wish, I wish to speak
to your chief, Blue Buffalo.

I'm Blue Buffalo.

I've lived the run of the arrow.

This the man who outrun you?

- Yes.
- You're the first to live the run.

You'll never die by
the hands of a Sioux for this.

Give him back his horse and
everything else that belongs to him.

I don't understand, you speak Sioux
like a Sioux, not like a white man.

- My teacher was Walking Coyote.
- Oh, that poor renegade.

He's sick with the fever.

Our law prevents us from killing
any man who has lived the run...

but we have no law to help him live.

The choice is yours, who among
you will help him through the night?

I will.

I will help him through the night.

They're heading for the wheat field.
Here's the rifle, here's the rifle.

Pick up his head, that's my brother.

He begged, he begged.

Where's Pickett? Where's Longstreet?

Watch out Bro.

Buried the bodies Ma, I buried them Ma.

If she can keep him in there all
night and steam that fever out of him...

I think then maybe he'll live.

Buried Pa and buried Jeff.

And buried Eli.

Buried them bodies Ma.

Is that for me? Thank you.

What's the matter with him?

Among our people, when one takes
something, one gives something in return.

'Blow.'

That is the first sound
to ever come from his mouth.

What is it mean? Honeymoon?

- Honeymoon, eh?
- Yes.

- Why are you laughing?
- You want to know what it means?

- Yes.
- Honeymoon?

- Yes.
- Well, honeymoon is...

Yeah, honeymoon is a, a white man's word...

Honeymoon is a white man's word for the...

For the private passing of time between
two people after they've been married.

- You understand, eh?
- Yes.

He's here.

He wants to become a Sioux,
to take Yellow Moccasin as his squaw...

and to adopt Silent Tongue as their son.

- But his skin is enemy.
- I'm not an American.

- But your skin is white.
- But my heart's with the Sioux.

- Why?
- Because I love your people.

I've learned from Yellow
Moccasin that a man can't live alone.

He must've allegiance to a people.

To a nation, in my heart, my nation is Sioux.

Would you kill the Americans in battle?

Yes.

Are there any objections?

Mix the blood.

Before you mix the
blood I must speak of my faith.

- Faith?
- Yes.

- What do you mean?
- I'm a Christian.

I will live as a Sioux...

I will hunt as the Sioux...

I will fight, I will even die as a Sioux...

But my God is a Christian
God, I can't serve your Great Spirit.

We respect a man who respects his faith.

This God of yours, is he
the giver and creator of all life?

Yes.

Do you look to him...

for the cure of disease and
illness and to make you strong and healthy?

I do, yes.

How many gods do you serve?
Do you have more than one?

- No, no, just one.
- Just one.

Americans, are they, they all Christians?

No, some are, some are of other
denominations like your religions.

You are a Christian.
Would you kill Christians in battle?

Well...

My nation fought for
liberty against the United States.

And Christianity is always
the brother of liberty in all wars.

We have the same God,
but with a different name.

Mix the blood.

And the things that you feel
in your hearts for one another...

will mark your feelings
for the rest of your life.

And the marriage is the
beginning of life for both of you.

Death is the final parting.
Now you are two bodies and one blood.

So many times I've asked, why
won't you tell me what you carry in that?

I tell you, it's a bullet.

It's a bullet that was used
in the war with the white men.

Why do you carry it?

I carry it because was...

a trophy that was given to me by the
people of my village, a war trophy.

- It's got writing on it.
- Writing?

Writing you know,
like the signs on our tepees.

- You want to hear what it says?
- Yes.

It says, to Private
O'Meara, 6th Virginia Volunteers...

who shot this last
bullet in the war and missed.

Uncover the guidon and flag.

Sound the trumpet and put spirit into it.

Lieutenant Driscoll sir, commanding B troop

2nd Cavalry, 1st Division, 16th Corp.
Reporting to Colonel Taylor, as directed.

Glad to meet you Driscoll.

My compliments for being
selected for this mission.

Nothing very complimentary about wet nursing
army engineers and civilian carpenters sir.

- Itching for combat, eh?
- That's what I'm getting paid for.

You're getting paid to escort a
non combatant train, nothing else.

This is Captain Clark,
he'll be the boss of that train.

- Captain.
- Lieutenant.

Well sir, may I ask about the area?

If we can come to terms with the Sioux...

that area will be designated by
Chief Red Cloud and General Allen.

I thought we had that Indian
on his knees begging for terms.

You've been reading too many of those
stupid stories in the Eastern newspapers.

B troop can make that Indian beg.

A young officer at Fort Phil Kearny had
the same sickness you've got lieutenant.

His name was Fetterman.

He said he could ride through
the Sioux Nation with 80 men.

He tried it.

- 81 men were massacred by the Sioux.
- Captain Fetterman was infantry sir.

There would've been a different story if
he had some cavalry to back him up.

For your information lieutenant, we're
the ones asking Red Cloud to meet our terms.

- See to your men.
- Yes sir.

Here we are, breaking
our backs trying to make...

peace with the Indians and they send
us officers like that, scratching for combat.

Ah, I guess, he's not the only
frustrated Custer in the army.

Like you General Allen,
we're tired of fighting.

Then I don't see why we can't come to terms.

What's your government's request?

Permission from the great chief
Red Cloud to build Fort Abraham Lincoln...

What the United States promised your people?

To keep the road open
to the Montana goldfields.

I can't give you
permission to build this fort.

Why?

If I let you build this fort you
will frighten away our buffalo.

Then we will have to eat our dogs.

We'll not go through your
hunting territory, I give you my word.

And the fort?

It'll be built wherever you and I agree.

- There is one condition.
- What's that?

One of my warriors
must scout for your people.

But we already have three Indian
scouts, they're paid soldiers in the army.

But they're not Sioux.

They are Delaware Kiowa,
Quahadi Comanche but they're not Sioux.

- Then, you don't trust them, eh?
- No.

My warrior knows the country,
he knows where our buffalo is.

He speaks your language like a white man...

and he is not like your Indian scouts.

What's most important, he's a Sioux.

This is the scout I've selected,
he'll be my voice on the expedition.

He has no love for the Americans
but his word is the word of a Sioux.

Every officer,
soldier and civilian will obey...

his instructions regarding trails to follow
where to camp and where to build the fort.

General Allen speaks for the
President of the United States.

You have heard his words.

We're grateful to have you scout this
expedition for the American government.

American government?

I'm not scouting for the American
government, I'm scouting for the Sioux.

Well, I, I must say it's the
first time I ever met an Irish Indian.

I must say it's the first time
I ever met a Yankee general.

By the way this is
Captain Clark, Army Engineers.

He'll be in command.

Lieutenant Driscoll, commanding B troop,
will act as escort for the expedition.

There's a wire cut on his hock joint.

I treated that cut myself, this is my horse.

- I know.
- You what?

I took him from you.

- You took him from me?
- That's right.

I'm the Johnny Reb that fired
a bullet the last bullet of the war...

right there, the last
day of the war at Appomattox.

- Was there any trouble?
- No.

No, there was no trouble.

Red Cloud agreed to build the fort
and I think he's making a big mistake.

Anyway, I got to go scout with them,
make sure they stay out of our meat country.

- Will there be many soldiers?
- No, it'll be a peaceful expedition.

Then we don't have to be
left behind in the village.

I don't think so because
you know what a bad cook I am.

Is something wrong between you and that man?

Yes.

- Do you know him from the war?
- Yeah.

I shot him with that bullet.

- Does he know it was you who shot him?
- Yes.

When you wounded him, why did you bring
him to your medicine man to be healed?

I don't know.

A Sioux wouldn't save an enemy.

- Well, you saved me, didn't you?
- I didn't try to kill you.

That's right.

Wheeler got hit.

- What's that?
- Wheeler is hit, arrow on his back.

- He was killed inside the corridor.
- That's right.

What report do I send back now?

Send back that this is an arrow that
belongs to an Indian named Crazy Wolf.

- Is he a Sioux?
- Yes, yes, he's a Sioux.

And he's a renegade.

- Red Cloud didn't waste any time.
- Crazy Wolf was acting on his own.

- Why?
- Because he doesn't trust the white men.

- And you?
- I just don't trust Yankees, that's all.

We haven't broken our word.

I'm here to see that you don't.

- I'm going to run down Red Cloud...
- He'd nothing to do with it.

I'll go along with that.

How can you take the word of
this Reb? He'll sell us out in two seconds.

I say, string him up, him and his squaw.

I'll tell you when to hang a man.

What about that detail?
Do we go after them or don't we?

No, we don't.

I came up from the ranks captain,
I always had respect for West Point...

but I never knew they turned
out officers to be Indian lovers.

You trust Red Cloud, don't you?

Yeap.

More important right now I trust you.

Come on, we still got a fort to build.

Alright, let's go.

We'll pitch right here...

and stay away, away from the quicksand
area over there. Quicksand, right there.

You know, I don't understand Driscoll.

Rounding up a bunch
of cowpokes to make a B troop.

Yeah, there's nothing cavalry about them.

You know, they don't
ride cavalry like you and me.

No, they're just good in
war horse soldiers, not fighters.

- He's got them.
- Yes, he has.

I wish that kid would stop
playing that mouth organ.

Let's get some grub.

Take it easy boy, take it easy.

Give me your hand boy.
Come on, give me your hand.

Wait a minute corporal, wait a minute.

- Look.
- Yes sir.

I don't care why they made it this way,
the point is it's a medieval torture wreck.

My stern can't stand it one more day.

- Now, look, you see this, you see that?
- Yes sir.

Well, a McClellan saddle was
designed to favor the animal sir.

- We in the cavalry like...
- I don't care about you and the cavalry.

Just fill up that hole, see?
Put something in it.

See what you can do to make
it a little friendly, eh corporal?

Yes sir.

Horses.

- How's the boy? Alright?
- He fine, fine.

About the sergeant sir

I'd like to say something
about that sir, I'm sorry, I, I didn't.

I guess there just some
things I don't quite understand.

You know Yankees are human.

You not the only Johnny Reb fighting a one
man war against the United States, you know?

Some of them went down to South America.

- I know sir.
- Why didn't you?

I don't know, I guess
because I just consider this...

country not being part of the United States.

Not now but will be pretty soon.

What was your outfit, 6th Virginia...

- 6th Virginia Infantry sir.
- Infantry.

You know, I just don't have
to tell you how to fight a war.

But it's why there's fighting
that's, that's what's important.

Think we were wrong?

Oh, blood and kin and home
are worth fighting for sure.

But no man can put that above his country.

You don't understand sir, wait a minute.

We had a right to fight for our rights.

- But Lincoln had to keep the Union together.
- No, Union be damned, Union be damned now.

It's something you
Northerners don't understand.

We don't like it, we
don't like you making up laws.

We don't like it here...

we never liked it, telling us what to do, how
to think, what to think. Who to live with.

No sir, we don't like it and we'll fight it.

We may go down fighting
but at least we go down like a...

like a free white Christian country.

Free, white and Christian, eh?

Burning crosses and hiding under
pillow cases and terrorizing families.

Free, white and Christian?

- I don't know anything about that sir.
- Oh yeah, it's always the other fellow.

Captain, I'd like you
to understand something.

No matter what you believe,
no matter how you believe in it...

no matter how good you may
think it is for everybody else...

you'll never make the South accept it
by jamming it down their throats...

Nobody is asking you
to be a 4th of July patriot.

But look, coming out
here, living like an Indian...

fighting your own people,
that's not going to cure you.

- Cure me of what?
- Hate.

Blind hate.

You ever heard that
old story about Philip Nolan?

No sir, I never did.

Well, Philip Nolan was an
officer in the American Army back in...

1807, something like that anyway...

got himself mixed up with
Aaron Burr, you know Burr, the traitor.

Yeah, I know Burr sir, we
happen to read books in the South.

Alright.

Anyway, he was like you.

Hated all the Americans..

Some reason or other, so one day he
upped and said, damn the United States.

I wish I may never hear
of the United States again.

And he got his wish.

- They hang him?
- No, was worse.

They kept him alive on an American ship.

Fifty five years.

Fifty five years, he was
known as the man without a country.

He never saw his country again.

Died at sea, what do you think of that?

I don't know sir, I'm, I'm a Reb.

And I'll die a Reb even if the North consider
Lee's surrender the death of the South.

Let's get one thing straight.

Lee's surrender was not the death of
the South, the birth of the United States.

- What's the matter? Something wrong?
- Oh, it's nothing wrong.

- This is as far as I go, that's all.
- Well, I guess we better get to work.

- Stockwell?
- Yes sir.

- We build here.
- Yes sir.

You're not serious?

- What's that?
- You're not going to pitch the fort here?

This is the site the general
and Red Cloud agreed on.

- Afraid of losing your bars?
- Meaning what?

If I was running this picnic,
I'd hightail a courier right back...

to Taylor and tell him this area stinks.

You're not running
this picnic, so you'll take...

orders or I'll have
you clean up after the mules.

- Understand?
- Yes sir.

Now, order your troop to be at the
disposal of the engineers at all times.

Is that all sir?

No, stagger your men so some of them
hit the grub pile while the rest work.

- Is that all sir?
- That's all.

Excuse me sir.

I think we're about ready to pull out now.

- Oh, well. I won't say thanks.

You don't have to say thanks,
nobody is obliged to anybody sir.

What you going to do now?
Go back to your Sioux village?

That's right.

You going to remember
what I told you about Nolan?

Yes sir, only I don't think it
hurts me the way it hurt him.

- Ah, for your sake I hope it doesn't.
- Thank you sir.

You got plenty of grub and everything?

Yes sir, we got plenty of
everything, we'll manage nicely sir.

Good.

Well..

Thank you sir.

The wood train is been attacked.

Six civilians and three troopers killed.

Took Private Dean alive.

Those smoke signals that Reb sent
to his brass didn't stop any sniping.

Can you read smoke signals? How do you
know what he said? How can you trust them?

You're playing right into their hands.

Don't use me to start a war.

Don't move, don't move.

Well, what are you waiting for?

To take your moccasins off, come on,

Take them off, take them off.

You violated the run.

- What do you mean violated the run?
- I gave him a chance to run for his life.

He's a disgrace to our nation, they
killed Americans inside the corridor.

Are they building
the fort in the place chose.

Yes, yes.

I'm assuming full
responsibility for the change of area.

If you pitch your post here...

every wood train and
water detail will be ambushed.

You want to build your fort...

or your grave?

I'll give you five minutes
to make up your mind.

It's nothing out
in front sir, it's all clear.

Tell them to push forward another five miles.

Yes sir.

Let's go.

I can understand why
Driscoll would break the pact...

but I can't understand why the others agreed.

They agreed because it was always their plan.

What plan?

To drive our buffalo and starve us to death.

You think that killing
them will solve everything?

At least it'll serve
as a warning to all the others.

And you, what do you think?

Would you kill the Americans
if we should go into battle?

Well, they're...

they're in our meat
country, they got to be stopped.

- Yes but would you kill?

- I'm a Sioux.
- Are you?

I demand to lead
the first attack against them.

You are a man of two countries...

but you can't kill Americans.

If you kill or do not kill
you always be unhappy as a Sioux.

A man must choose
to live with his conscience.

In my heart you were never a Sioux,
to all of us you were never a Sioux.

- I was accepted as one.
- But never tested as one.

You were born an American
and what you were born you will die.

I'll die a Sioux.

You'll never get
captain's bars looking for a scrap.

Never get them dodging one.

They must've had a good reason
for holding you down to one bar.

I should've had my own regiment by this
time, none of the brass don't agree with me.

But after this little picnic
explodes I'll put myself in for captain.

Three sides natural protection,
rear and flanks impossible to hit.

Only one way anybody can attack us and
we'll have that covered so well the whole...

- division of Sioux won't be...
- But this is outside the corridor.

Perfect observation,
look at that field of fire.

We passed water and timber you could spit at.

What happens when Colonel
Taylor learns we're building here?

No Stockwell, I'll come up fine in this.

You know why?
Because what I'm doing is right.

Find your best defensive position.

Keep your troops
on one big, fat, healthy piece.

That's how this site will pay off.

That Johnny Reb is coming back again.

- Is he alone?
- Yes sir.

Corporal...

You got about five minutes to
surrender Fort Lincoln to the Sioux Nation.

Hey Trent, you see any Sioux?

No sir.

My lookout sees nothing.

But when you can't see them
that's when you looking at them.

You know, you got
a lot of brass for a Johnny Reb.

I'm speaking for the Sioux,
I'm not speaking for the Confederacy.

And what happens if we surrender?

You surrender, then you and your men,
you'll be escorted back to Colonel Taylor.

Maybe you'd like my trumpeter
to play Dixie while the fort burns.

This ain't Appomattox, lieutenant.

You just four minutes, four
minutes to strike your flag.

I never strike my flag
for an enemy or a rebel.

Now, put that
in your piece of pipe and smoke.

Oh, for goodness sakes,
grow up man and stop playing...

soldier, why don't you give your
men a chance to save their scalps?

I'll give you the same
chance Grant gave to Lee.

You got 60 seconds
to ride out of rifle range.

It's two men you can listen to.

One is me and the other is Driscoll.

You listen to me and I tell you to move out
right now if you want to save your scalp.

You listen to Driscoll
and I promise we'll have your...

Scalp to my belt by tomorrow morning.

- He came under a flag of truce.
- Hang him.

- For what?
- For treason.

The left rear outpost is dead, cover it.

Judson, give me a hand.

Cover the flank.

For violating the run,
I saved your life for this ceremony.

A Sioux can watch an American skinned alive.

An American cannot watch.

They had a right but not like that,
somebody had to be an executioner.

They, you said they.

You didn't say we had a right to his life.

- This is your flag.
- It's not my flag.

Is your tribe in this flag?

Is it?

Yes.

Then, it's your flag.

Lee's surrender was not
the death of the South...

the birth of the United States.