Incident of the Hostage Child

S4 E22: A starving Indian boy inadvertently causes his sister, married to an Indian-hating Army officer, to reveal that she is an Indian. Ramrod Rowdy Yates takes a starving Tonkawa Indian boy, Arnee, to Fort Lacey to meet his sister. Fort Lacey is commanded by Col. Mathew "Butcher" Briscoe, an Army officer who kills Indians the way ordinary people kill gophers. He thinks his wife, Azuela, is Mexican but she is really Arnee's sister and a Tonkawa Indian. However, when Arnee confronts her, Azuela refuses to admit this kinship and Col. Briscoe orders the boy jailed. That night, Azuela rides out of the fort in a carriage, taking her infant son with her. She seeks the help of Gil Favor and his drovers, requesting that they take the infant to the Tonkawa reservation to be used as a hostage in case her husband decides to shoot down her starving people when they leave the reservation in search of food. (TV-PG)