Der Scout (1983)

North America, 1877. The U.S. military has already exterminated numerous Native American peoples or driven them onto reservations, and now turns its attention to the lands west of the Rocky Mountains, home to, among others, the peaceful Nez Percé tribe. A cavalry detachment under Colonel William Howard takes the tribe’s considerable herd of around 1,000 horses to prevent the Nez Percé from escaping the reservation by fleeing to Canada. Unlike the neighboring warlike Cayuse, who resist the superior forces with weapons, the Nez Percé are determined not to shoot at white soldiers. Their subchief, White Feather, sets out alone to reclaim the herd without violence, initially following the soldiers and watching them. When the detachment stops to rest, Cayuse Indians provoke them but do not attack. Colonel Howard nevertheless has the incident entered in the logbook as an attack and pursues the fleeing Indians in order to strike back and be regarded as their military victor. He leaves the herd with six soldiers under the indecisive Major Bannigan. They realize they cannot keep such a large herd in one place—the horses would go home on their own if they were not driven. So they decide to drive the herd to Fort Lapwei and wait for the colonel there. After a failed attempt to lead the herd away at night, White Feather lets the soldiers capture him and pretends to be a fisherman looking for a bride. Since he knows the area well and the horses also obey him, the white men hire him as a scout, and he takes the lead. Along the way, however, he parts company with the soldiers without telling them, intending to secretly warn a nearby Cayuse settlement about Howard. He arrives too late: the settlement has been burned down, and almost all the women and children are dead. He finds one young Cayuse woman still alive, takes her to the cavalry detachment, and tends to her injuries. Later, two other Cayuse tell him that they will destroy Fort Lapwai in retaliation for Howard’s bloody deeds. He keeps this information to himself. The white men grow increasingly suspicious of White Feather, but for the time being they still depend on him as a scout. After another act of insubordination, Sergeant Anderson stages a mock execution and then tells White Feather that he recognized him early on as the Nez Percé subchief. Rivalries among the soldiers and disagreements over how to deal with the scout increasingly arise, culminating in Major Bannigan’s accidental death. After that, they once again have to rely on the scout’s knowledge. He takes them by a roundabout route to Fort Lapwai to evade the pursuing Cayuse. In the fort’s smoking ruins, they encounter Colonel Howard, who is trying to hold the post against the Cayuse with a few soldiers. At last, White Feather has to fire a shot, for once, to defend himself against Howard. During another attack by the Indians, Howard’s soldiers are driven off or die in the fort. At the end of the film, the young woman rides away. White Feather takes his herd of horses back to his tribe alone.