The Only Good Indian (1:44) 2009

The Only Good Indian opens with a Kickapoo teenager being forcibly taken from his family and transported to a distant Indian boarding school located in Kansas. Charlie, as he is renamed, does not conform to the rules of the school and runs away. He is captured by a Cherokee bounty hunter played by Wes Studi. While they are returning to the school, the pair encounter three white bounty hunters who will force the Cherokee to give up Charlie so they will get the reward. There is a skirmish and Charlie and Sam, the bounty hunter, are now both on the run. The rest of the movie entails the pair trying to keep ahead of the sheriff, the well known McCoy. The movie is filmed entirely in Kansas so there is plenty of interesting scenery. The Only Good Indian is set in the early 1900s so the first cars, motorcycles, and silent movies are shown. This is an unusual time period which adds novelty to the film. I would have preferred for the movie to stay focused on Charlie's life at the boarding school and the lengths the school went to assimilate Charlie and the other students. During the movie, all I could do is shake my head at the terrible wrongs that has been done to our native people. Shame on us.