Like American Westerns of that same timespan, the hero never runs out of courage, compassion, guts, or ammunition. The scenery is breathtaking with its open valleys and snow-capped mountain ranges. Even the hot and dry lands of the American Southwest seem to have a counterpart in Eastern Europe. Now, I'm not talking like Red Rock or Choco Valley, more like Death Valley or that drive out east on the 10 freeway to Rubidoux.

This type of backdrop was used for Apaches, filmed in 1973, which again was completely over the top in how evil the white settlers were and how easily the Native Americans could turn back the onslaught of white oppression. In Apaches, there is a treaty signed with the Mexican Government, a copper mining company, and the Apaches. The U.S. Government sends out Johnson to exterminate the Apaches to, as Johnson sees it, secure the mine and search for more copper. On the day of celebration of the peace treaty signing, Johnson, who has been given a cannon from the U.S. Army, fires it into a crowd of Apaches receiving flour rations from the mining community. Mitic's character is one of the few survivors. He, along with his old father and a few other braves seek revenge on Johnson and his band of cutthroats.

The final film I found shaking my head to was Chingachgook: The Great Snake made in 1967. Based on a James Fenimore Cooper novel, our red brothers have just recently met with the French and English and are learning the hard way that working with the whites isn't all that they said it would be. Great Snake is a Delaware, and the Huron have swiped his wife-to-be. As always, every white man within earshot is the devil with the exception of Great Snake's only white friend named (are you ready for this?) Deerslayer. Yes, the only good white guy is named after a great symbolic animal of Native culture. Awesome.

The funny thing about these movies and what they had to say is that they do have a point. The Europeans at the time believed themselves better than the native peoples in whatever land they had just "discovered." A good example came in Chingachgook where an older English officer was expressing to one of his junior officers that "...we are here to exploit these natives and make sure that they war with themselves so we may take the land and all that we can profit from." Now, true that's what happened, but I don't think people went around telling it like that. Not every settler wanted to keep an Indian scalp as badge of honor. The bigger picture here is that not every capitalist will kill you for the sake of the bottom line, although a few will.