They Rode West

They Rode West is a 1954 Technicolor Western film directed by Phil Karlson. It reunites the stars of The Caine Mutiny, Robert Francis and May Wynn. Based on the story Wood Hawk by Leo Katcher, it was filmed at the Corriganville movie ranch.

Waters and Captain Peter Blake are concerned with recovering ten stolen repeating rifles and preventing the so far peaceful Kiowa from leaving their reservation to join up with the warlike Comanche. Both treat the Kiowa roughly as enemies without concern for their welfare as government wards and human beings. Doctor Seward accompanies Blake to the reservation to recover the rifles and meets a white woman who has become a squaw, Manyiten, and the tribal medicine man, Isatai, gaining compassion for the Kiowa. The womans son has malaria but Blake prevents Seward from treating him.Seward tries to prevent an epidemic and suggests that the Kiowa move off their fetid reservation to the high country. An angry Colonel Waters at first places him under house arrest but then sends him on a combat patrol that is ambushed when the two tribes combine against them. With a number of troopers killed and wounded, the command turns on Seward as a wood hawk traitor. Only Laurie, with a growing compassion for the Kiowa, remains loyal to Seward. ........

Source: Wikipedia