AllMovie

An average Columbia B-Western, Prairie Schooners once again features William Elliott as a highly fictitious Wild Bill Hickock. When local farmers are ready to string up nasty banker Dalton Stull (Kenneth Harlan), who had taken advantage of a drought to foreclose on their loans, Wild Bill agrees instead to negotiate on their behalf. When that fails, the hero suggests that the farmers sell their property and move to the hopefully more congenial Colorado. En route, the wagon train guided by Bill is attacked by Sioux Indians, who have been armed by Stull and his chief henchman Wolf Tanner (Ray Teal). Lovely Virginia Benton (Evelyn Young) is taken hostage by Stull, but Wild Bill and sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) finally convince Chief Sanche (Jim Thorpe) to join the forces of good and the villains are rounded up. Prairie Schooners, which premiered in October of 1940, was based on a 1930 magazine story by George Cory Franklin.