by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Martha Vickers was given a rare leading-role opportunity in Daughter of the West. Vickers plays Lolita Moreno, a part-Native American girl who falls in love with college-educated Navajo Navo (Philip Reed). The film's Indian characters are depicted in a dignified, respectful manner: not so the white villains, headed by crooked Indian agent Ralph Connors (Donald Wood). When Connors and his flunkies try to cheat the Navajos out of their land, Navo gets wise to their scheme and nips it in the bud. The film's highlight is an authentically staged Indian harvest sequence, lensed in Cinecolor.
characteristics
- Journey
- Land
- Indian
- Identity
- Good-guy
- Half-breed
- Love
- Native
- Tribal
- Tribe
- Trial [courtroom]
- Self-discovery
- Rights
- Fire
- Discovery
