A Native American boy, Little Bear (Ric Natoli), is left parentless by the death of his mother. Daniel oversees his adoption by a settler family, but his imprisoned Tuscarora father Hawk (Peter Mark Richman) breaks free with the intent of recovering Little Bear and seeking revenge on Daniel, who was apparently instrumental in his incarceration.
Peter Mark Richman graced prime time TV a very long time -1955-2016 to be exact, notably as the detective boss in "Mannix." Not his fault he was drawn into a system in which non-Native actors were inserted into Native roles, but that aside, his Hawk exerts sufficient menace and complicated motive to sufficiently fill the hour; Hawk might have been a good recurring character. Mingo is along for the ride, but mainly as wounded baggage than as a needed interlocutor. One can sense Disneyfication seeping in through the orphan story, but Rick Husky's scriptwriting style has for decades signaled good use of a prime time hour, and he keeps things fairly taut here.
A cabin siege centers most of the action, and there is a plethora of flintlock firing. No Boonesborough story blocks to navigate here, and an "Assault on Precinct 13" vibe is easily established. And, Little Bear's adoptive mother is pressed into service during the cabin fight as a musketeer, which ratchets up the fight stakes considerably.
A intriguing tableaux scene shows Dan and company manufacturing believable homespun hand grenades. For the second time in two seasons the Tuscarora are the adversaries, but as mentioned previously, they were mainly Northeastern exiles by the Revolutionary period. But to their credit, they are costumed as relatively believable mid-South tribesmen. Hawk's prison break assumes an unlikely well-developed Kentucky territorial prison system, complete with inmates uniformed as a 1930's chain gang. And while its unfair to expect an introduction to the issue here, the adoption of Native children by non-natives has acquired a fair share of historical controversy, and as of early 2023 is the subject of a current Supreme Court case.
Continental soldier count - a strange one here. Two prison guards are wearing Revolutionary War dragoon helmets, and Civil War Union shell jackets, blue trousers, and cavalry boots. This outfit was present exactly nowhere in the Kentucky territorial period.
A fairly full hour of action keeps the viewer engaged, and is a welcome tonic to the previous week's Israel-centered contrivances.
