Plot: Tom Jeffords, a white man who only wants peace between the whites and the Indians, finds himself caught between cultures, as he learns the Apache ways enough to communicate with their great chief Cochise, who is a reasonable, wise man willing to work for peace. Not only does Tom find hope for peace in the Indian camp, he also finds love.
Starring . . .
James Stewart
Jeff Chandler
Debra Paget
Basil Ruysdael
Will Geer
Joyce Mackenzie
Robert Foster Dover
Arthur Hunnicutt
William Wilkerson
John Doucette
John War Eagle
Jay Silverheels
Raymond Bramley
Chris Willow Bird
Mickey Kuhn
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Storyline Roundup: (note: SPOILERS)
This is the story of a land, of the people who lived on it in the year 1870, and of a man whose name was Cochise. He was an Indian. Leader of the Chiricahua Apache tribe.
I was involved in the story, and what I have to tell happened exactly as you'll see it. The only change will be that when the Apaches speak, they will speak in our language. What took place is part of the history of Arizona. And it began for me here, where you see me riding. Since getting out of the Union Army, I'd been prospecting for gold off and on, and one day I got a message that a new colonel had come to Tuscon and wanted to see me.
The story started when I saw some buzzards circling in the sky. A buzzard's a smart bird. Something . . . or somebody was getting ready to die. I figured it was a hurt deer, or a rabbit, or snake.
Not a rabbit, not a deer. His kind was more dangerous than a snake. He was an Apache. For ten years we'd been in a savage war with his people. A bloody, no give, no take war.
Tom Jeffords (Stewart), the narrator, rides down into the ravine where the Indian (Dover) is struggling along. He is only a young teenager and several red marks on his back witness to a shotgun blast. Tom helps him—gives him water, and makes a camp and tends to the boy's wounds. While the boy is healing, Tom pans a stream nearby for gold. Talking with the boy gives Tom a new perspective on the Indian people. He realizes they have feelings just like white men.The boy says that the Apaches pray for all white men to die, but now he prays to keep Tom safe. "At sunset last night, I threw pollen to the four winds for you," he adds.
"Well, thanks, boy."
Just as the boy hands him a necklace that is "very big" against headaches and sickness, several arrows whiz out of the brush and lodge in the tree that Tom is leaning on. A small band of Apaches overtake Tom.
"You did not kill. We will not kill this time. But not again!" they tell him. They let him go, but before he has a chance to break up his camp, a group of prospectors on horseback approach. The Apaches gag and tie Tom to a tree while they attack the prospectors.
Out of eight men in the group, two men are killed, and three were wounded. The wounded men, along with Tom, are taken back to the Indians' camp. Tom is forced to watch as the men are horribly tortured to death.
After that is over, Tom is again set free. He goes back to town to meet the colonel (Bramley) who sent for him. No one in town understands Tom's story, especially the part about not killing the Indian boy. The colonel wants Tom to scout for him, but Tom turns down the job, leading to even more hostility.
Tom hires Juan (Wilkerson), apparently a Mexican-Apache, to teach him the ways of the Apaches, their language, and their religion. Tom intends to go talk to Cochise about letting the mail go through.
For a month, he studies, and then he rides up into Apache country, where he meets the great chief himself.
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| Cochise |
Cochise (Chandler) listens to Tom, and agrees to think about his proposition of letting the mail carriers get through. Cochise states that Tom will spend the night in the village. The men quickly develop respect for one another.
Cochise introduces Tom an Indian girl (Paget), Sonseeahray, or "Morning Star," who is going through "the most holy time" of her life: a special, four-day ceremony. He takes him in to the wickiup to meet her, since it is good luck and she will pray for an old wounds he has.
As Sonseeahray looks him in the eye and takes his arm to bless it, there is an immediate connection between them. They meet again the next morning as Tom is shaving down by the creek. He shows her his mirror and explains what shaving is. "I thought you were skinning yourself!" she says.
When he tries to give her the mirror as a gift, she refuses and starts to leave, saying that she should have run in the first place, because it is not fitting for unmarried girls to speak with young men. As Tom asks some questions, he learns that it is all right for Apache boys and girls to meet by accident where no one sees them. But Sonseeahray's mother can see them together now, so Sonseeahray leaves to go pick juniper berries.
"Where?" Tom asks.
"Up there," she replies.
"I was going to walk up that way myself—by accident."
Tom confesses how he feels about Sonseeahray, saying that in all his life, he never felt lonely until he saw her. Before she can reply, Cochise approaches and she runs off.
Cochise informs Tom of his decision: he will let the mail riders go through.
Back in town, attitudes against the Apaches haven't improved—and attitudes against Tom aren't so great either. Tom bets a large sum of money that Cochise will let five mail runs through.
Four riders have gotten through when an army wagon train (not a mail carrier) is ambushed. The number of white men lost is high. Fifty men are killed and one hundred are wounded. Colonel Bernall is among those killed. While the town is getting worked up over the latest tragedy, the final mail rider comes through.
Tom is accused of being a spy for Cochise. He is drug out into the street and nearly lynched. A man in uniform—a general's uniform—stops the hanging.General Howard, known as the "Christian General," wants to make peace with the Apaches. He is free from any prejudice, and when Tom realizes this, he agrees—with reservation—to be a go-between for the General and Cochise.
Tom goes back to the Indian village, but Cochise is away at another stronghold, so Tom waits for him. He "wears out his feet" trying to meet Sonseeahray by accident, while she does her laundry and washes her hair over and over until he finally finds her.
They are in love more strongly than ever. They talk for a while and share a kiss.
Cochise returns with the news that some of their braves have been lost in battle. He and Tom have a pow-wow about the new General and his treaty proposal. Cochise does not want to trust white man's treaty again, but Tom vouches for the General, persuading Cochise to talk with him.
At a dance that night, Cochise notices Tom attraction to Sonseeahray, and warns him that she is spoken for already. She chooses to dance with Tom, which only makes the attraction more obvious.
Later, Tom meets Sonseeahray outside of camp, and while they are embracing, Cochise comes up and chastises him for seeing her. Tom defends himself and says that he want to marry the girl. He is willing to do it the right way by Indian custom. Sonseeahray says that she had turned down the her Apache beau before, and will again. Cochise is somewhat placated and agrees to vouch for Tom to Sonseeahray's parents, but warns them of the life they will have to live. Will they live with white men or Indians? Will they have to go far away? What will they do? he asks.
Cochise talks with Sonseeahray's parents and comes to Tom, who has been waiting nervously in his wickiup. "You have no luck with women," he tells him. "They refused."
Tom's face falls. He thinks a moment. "I'll take her away from here! She'll go with me, too!"
Cochise smiles. "They did not refuse. I make a joke. It is always a good joke."
Cochise insists on providing the horses and saddles her parents requested. The marriage will take place at the next full moon.
For now, Tom will go back to town and solidify his faith in the General's integrity, while Cochise calls the leaders of several groups of Apaches together to consult them.
That night, as Tom lies sleeping in his wickiup, a young Apache (War Eagle) slips in and tries to kill him with a knife. In the struggle, Tom knocks the Apache cold. Cochise comes to see what the noise was about and he quickly sizes up the situation. The Apache is Sonseeahray's would-be-husband, Nahilzay. When Nahilzay comes to, Cochise tells him, "To attack someone who has been given safety here is forbidden. It is a terrible wrong—it cannot be allowed!"
Cochise asks forgiveness of Tom, and proceeds to shoot and kill Nahilzay for betraying their people.
Tom leaves the next day, and after a week of studying and questioning General Howard, he is satisfied and brings him to the Apache village.
Cochise, Tom, and General Howard present the treaty plans to the other Apache leaders. Cochise says he will make a test of the treaty for three months. He breaks an arrow to represent the end of fighting. A handful of men chose to walk away from Cochise, including one outspoken Chiricahua Apache (Silverheels), named Geronimo by the Mexicans.
Several days into the armistice, Tom is riding with a Butterfield stagecoach when it is attacked by a band of renegade Indians. Tom slips away and sends a smoke signal to Cochise, who sends aid directly. Cochise continues to hold to the treaty, and protect the whites from the renegade Indians, as well.
Twelve days into the armistice, Tom and Sonseeahray are wed in traditional Apache style. Afterwards, they ride a pair of white horses to the wickiup she built for their honeymoon. As the days go by, they are very happy together.
But one day, tragedy strikes.
A young white man named Bob Slade (Kuhn) rides into Indian territory claiming Apaches stole two of his horses. He says that their trail led toward Cochise's village, and he will lead them down into the canyon where he last saw the trail.
Tom, Sonseeahray, Cochise, two Apache men, and Bob go to the canyon. Bob suddenly spurs his horse and takes off, just as gunfire rains down on Tom and the Indians. Cochise dashes into the bushes and gets behind the men to fight back. Tom is shot several times and falls back, unconscious. In her anger, Sonseeahray grabs a knife and runs at the attackers. She is shot down and killed.
The attackers that aren't dead or wounded retreat and run for the border, when they realize they cannot get Cochise.
Tom wakes up and finds Sonseeahray fallen across him, dead. He is cradling her body in his arms when Cochise rides up. Devastated, Tom wants to get revenge on one of the attackers left wounded, but alive. Tom says peace is a lie, but Cochise tells him, "You are a child that you thought peace would come easy. You, who taught me so well. Is it my brother who asks me to spit on my word?"
"Why do you speak to me?" Tom says, still holding Sonseeahray. "Speak to her. What she hears, I'll hear."
"You'll hear me now. You'll bear this. This was not done by the military. Geronimo broke the peace no less than these whites. And as I bear the murder of my people, so you will bear the murder of your wife. I am Cochise. I do not betray my people or their children. No one on my territory will open war again! Not even you."
Tom finally gathers himself together. Both white men and Indians express their condolences to him for the loss of Sonseeahray.
The movie closes with Tom's narration:
These words meant very little to me then, but as times passed, I came to know that the death of Sonseeahray put a seal on the peace. And from that day on, wherever I went—in the cities, among the Apaches, in the mountains—I always remembered my wife was with me.
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Broken Arrow is a 1950, color film released through 20th Century Fox.
Directed by: Delmer Daves
Produced by: Julian Blaustein
From a novel by: Elliot Arnold
Screenplay by: Albert Maltz
Michael Blankfort
Music by: Hugo Friedhofer
Editing by: J. Watson Webb Jr.
Sound by: Bernard Freericks
Harry M. Leonard