Wild Wild West

Night of the Arrow, #6716

An Army fort is attacked while its commander, General Baldwin, expresses his Indian-hating views to agent James West. West and agent Artemus Gordon suspect that the attack was staged by Baldwin to make it look as if the Indians were breaking a peace treaty. Later, president Grant pays a visit to West's railway car and tells the agent he's worried that Baldwin, gaining popularity through bloody Indian massacres, may become a Presidential candidate. West arranges to meet the head chief, Strong Bear, but finds that the chief has been murdered, and West has been implicated as the killer. At a sacred burial ground, Oconee, the Indians' liaison, tries to convince several chiefs that West is responsible for the murder and encourages all the Indian nations to join together in war.

Actor Bob Phillips, who co-stars as Oconee, remembers the dilemma of dialogue for the actors playing Native Americans. "During the scene where I speak to the chiefs, I just talked gibberish. Director Alex Nicol asked me where I learned to speak Sioux. I told him it was just double-talk. When it came time to loop some of my lines, Bruce (Lansbury) wanted me to dub over my speech with authentic Sioux. But Bruce wasn't happy with how the real Sioux sounded and we decided to keep my original, with the double talk."

Editor's note: The US Army used trackers from the peaceful Crow tribe, who had suffered attacks from the Sioux for generations. When the Army officer asked his Crow tracker who they were chasing he answered "sioux," the Crow word for "enemy."

Aimee Baldwin: Jeannine Riley
General Baldwin: Robert Wilke
Jailer: William Massey
Guard: Barry Cahill
Major Lock: Paul Sorenson
Colonel Rath: Frank Marth
Lt. Carter: William Bassett
President Grant: Roy Engel
Oconee: Robert Phillips
Directed by Alex Nicol
Written by Leigh Chapman
* The above information was compiled from The Wild Wild West: The Series by Susan E. Kesler (Arnett Press), "Michael Garrison's Wild Wild West," an article by Robert Alan Crick in Epi-Log Journal #11 and other sources.
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Animated graphics (c) 2001 by The Animation Factory