Red Wing's Gratitude

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Red Wing is a little Indian maiden, who is the drudge of her tepee. Her brutal father shares the Indian contempt for women and regards her as little better than a beast of burden, though she is developing into an attractive maiden who some day will bring him many ponies and blankets from some amorous brave. Finding her sitting beside the fire at the camp, he drives her forth to gather wild berries, and when her weary feet will carry her no further and she sinks exhausted to the ground, her father happens to cross her trail, and with blows and hard words drives her to her task. His brutality excites the anger of some emigrants who are hurrying to make camp, and the leader of the little band of pioneers drives the cruel chief from the prostrate form upon which he is raining blows. Naiuchi is armed only with a knife against revolvers in the hands of several determined men and he slinks away. That night the emigrant camp is visited and the little daughter of the leader is carried off to be tortured. Red Wing recognizes in her the little daughter of her benefactor and in the early morning she rouses the child before the warriors are awake and leads her down to the river, where she places the wondering child in a canoe and swiftly paddles down the stream. Soon the camp is astir and the absence of the pair is noted. There is a rush for the stream, where a second canoe is manned and some of the red fiends furiously paddle away while the rest of the band turn to rush across country, hoping to reach a point below the fugitives by working in a straight line instead of following the many windings of the stream. Red Wing is overtaken and wounded by a bullet, but before the pursuers can come up with her, the emigrants, who have been searching for the little one, are attracted by the sound of the shot and they reach a bend in the river just in time to fight off the redskins. This is the point for which the land party has been heading, and though they come up in support of those in the canoe, they are beaten off and the sorrowing emigrants make easy the last moments of the grateful girl. This is a notable Indian picture in many important particulars. All of the Indian dresses are of actual native manufacture and are worn as the Indians wear them. The rich bead work and the handsome headdresses add to the picturesqueness of the scene, and Indian customs are observed throughout under the direction of the real Indians, who take the leading roles.