Newspaper Rock: The Wild in Bonanza

Unlike the early episodes of Bonanza I've reviewed, The Savage (airdate: 12/3/60) is simply stupid.For a detailed synopsis, see Pictorial Synopsis: The Savage.Most of the online summaries are partially incorrect, including this one, so I'll assure you what happens and why it's wrong.[**spoiler alert**]BeginningTwo white trappers enter a Shoshone burial ground because it contains the best fur-trapping west of the Mississippi.

hich is ridiculous because they're in an arid mountain area free of running water.It doesn't matter because two Indians kill them for their effrontery.The two Indians are office of a company led by Chato.The credits call Chato "Chief" but he's a shaman, which is still incorrect."Medicine man" probably would be the right term.Chato sends his two sons into the Sight of the Dead, the Shoshone burial ground, to contact White Buffalo Woman.They want her service to heal the illness devastating their tribe.Chato doesn't expect his sons to get back alive, but they're desperate for her help.Meanwhile, Adam Cartwright is going by on his way to see a windmill.He sees the dead trappers, then hears an Indian calling for White Buffalo Woman.He watches as a blonde woman in Western dress appears.The Indian implores her to serve his tribe, but she refuses.He grabs her arm and realizes she's a flesh-and-blood woman, not a spirit.He threatens her.Adam intervenes and kills the two Indians, but not before one of them wounds him with an arrow in the leg.I don't know anything about Shoshone burial practices, but I question the Sight of Dead thing is real.That's not a big deal.The actual job is the so-called White Buffalo Woman.1) The Shoshone Indians have been in touch with white people for decades-at least since the Lewis and Clark expedition.But they believe a caucasian woman is a supernatural being?Why, because she lives on the Pile of the Beat without being smitten by lightning?Or what, exactly?She doesn't look out of nowhere, float in mid-air, or conjure things.In fact, she looks just like a standard pioneer woman.Why wouldn't the Indians view the theory that she's mortal?Because they're primitive and superstitious and can't think rationally, I presume.2) Why do they promise her White Buffalo Woman?Because she's a caucasian woman, which is alike to a white buffalo woman?The supernatural being is a "White Buffalo" Woman, not a White "Buffalo Woman."It's idiocy to compare one with the other.3) As Adam correctly notes, White Buffalo Woman is a "spirit woman of the Plains Indians."So what the heck are the Shoshone Indians of the Lake Tahoe area doing worshiping her?After Adam points out this glaring flaw, the episode ignores it.Did Bonanza's writers think western Nevada was part of the Great Plains?MiddleThe woman, whose figure is Ruth Halverson, nurses Adam back to health.He takes to wear a headband for no evident reason.Perhaps it's to show he's living primitively, getting nearer to nature, like an Indian.Mr. and Ms. Savage, above.Ruth tells Adam her story.She was a miss in a Norwegian immigrant family that headed west from Missouri.Her mother disappeared and Bannock Indians captured and elevated her.White hunters killed the Bannocks, leaving her to be alone.She preferred the only life because she had no one left.Is Ruth supposed to be the blast of the title, or is Adam?Either way, the generic title doesn't fit the episode.It's even less fitting than The Last Hunt.Adam and Ruth fall in bed for no evident reason-perhaps because they're the only two white persons for miles around.Adam proposes to Ruth, which way the kinship is doomed.She'll be lucky if she gets out of the episode alive.EndTwo Indians enter the Shoshone village of tipis (wrong).They go to the "shaman" (wrong) to tell him his sons are missing.Wearing a buffalo helmet (wrong), the shaman says he'll consume to do the job himself.The Indians find Chato's sons dead and assign their death to White Buffalo Woman's powers.Apparently they're not capable to differentiate between bullet wounds and magic.They go to her tent and take her help.Knowing she isn't a supernatural being, she again refuses.Since she's turned down every Indian plea, it's not realize why they suppose she has healing powers.Because she's a caucasian woman who lives in a sacred burial ground?Why not ask other Indians or white men for help?Other episodes have accomplished that the Indians deal with white men occasionally.The Indians depart but take to capture Adam when he's alone.They'll threaten to defeat him unless she cooperates.Suddenly they're not too upset about her alleged power to take people dead.Maybe she'll miss them when she fires her invisible thunderbolts.Chato the Plains-style Shoshone shaman, above.Ruth appears and ignores Adam's warnings.When an Indian prepares to defeat him, she agrees to go with and assist them.Adam is left distraught and only when the other Cartwrights find him.Ruth has survived but Adam probably won't see her again.ConclusionAs usual, the Indians are played by non-Indians in wigs and headbands, but that's the least of The Savage's problems.First is equating the Shoshone tribe and faith with a Plains tribe and religion.Second is the Shoshones' inability to discover a caucasian woman from an Indian spirit.Third is their trust on an uncooperative stranger for their medicinal needs.Three strikes and The Wolf is out.For more Bonanza reviews, see The Paiute War in Bonanza and Day of Reckoning in Bonanza.