This William S. Hart film would never pass muster with present day Native Americans! Hart plays half-breed Joe Elk who wavers between the "civilized" nature of his white father and the passion of his Indian mother. He falls in love with Alice McRae (Blanche White), but Alice is in love with fellow paleface Bruce Smithson (William Desmond), who is an officer at the Hudson Bay Trading Company, where her father (J. Frank Burke) is factor. This doesn't stop her from flirting with Joe and it breaks his heart when she becomes engaged to Smithson. Joe's tribe murders Mr. McRae and loot his storehouse in anticipation of a coming blizzard. They head south, leaving the newlywed Smithsons to die of starvation. But Joe, who has a love for the white race, saves the pair before expiring himself in the freezing cold. This picture was not Hart's finest moment.
by Janiss Garza
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