This is one of those films that can be both confusing and frustrating. Many will ask "why?" "What was the point?" I decided to delve into some internet articles about it and it seems to make a bit more sense when you believe that the bullet was actually poisoned. Teddo's behavior makes more sense. Leaving the gun on counter. Perhaps the pain of the past was too much for him. And he wanted to be put out of his misery. Fast forward to Makwa getting away with murder and coming home to his wife. The poison is why his arm looks so terrible and he goes to the beach looking ill and stumbling a bit. He's dying. And the connection to the starting story.....the native man with small pox. He tried to leave, so he wouldn't make his family sick. But when he comes home his wife is dying, and he did not get rid of his sickness. He died anyway and his sickness has infected his family. Makwa left the reservation and tried to make a new life. Even leaving the bullet casing in Wisconsin. But that sickness that was inside him never went away. And it will finally consume him. As it does at the end. Does it also bleed onto his family? Well yes, because now the wife has lost her husband and their two children will grow up without a father.
Review of Wild Indian
