Stolen by Indians Filming Locations

Although the advent of the railroads tended to bring the far west within the realm of civilization, it was still in a comparatively wild state, and still sparsely inhabited, when Mrs. Hardy with her two boys, John and William, aged eleven and seven years, respectively, accompanied by a neighbor and his wife and child, Grace, sets out from her farm in Vermont in a prairie schooner to journey across the country to the western home already provided by her husband, Peter Hardy. In his letter to his wife, Hardy has taken precautionary measures by dispatching a band of cowboys to take them safely across the Indian infested country. This detachment is now well on its way within the same territory through which the settlers are journeying, when they scent suspicious signs of marauding Indians. Sending a scout ahead they soon ascertain that a band of Indians are trailing the prairie schooner. Dashing forward they are soon upon the hostile Indians who have already surrounded the settlers. They scatter the Indians and find them all unharmed. During the excitement they have failed to notice the children, but now little William comes rushing into camp with the alarming news that his elder brother John, with whom he had gone to fetch water from the spring, had been carried off by the fleeing Indians. A hurried search is instantly made by the cowboys in all directions but all attempts are futile. The heartbroken and frantic family continue their journey westward and arrive eventually at their home. The grief of the parents when they meet is pitiful and when the last of the cowboys return with sorrowful faces, they resign all hope of finding the lad. Twenty years roll by, and west has progressed in population, civilization and industry, and little William, now a tall man of 27 years, is engaged to marry Grace, the daughter of that neighbor who so many years before accompanied them across the prairie. It is while strolling about one balmy evening that they notice the young chief of a group of Indians, who have come to town to form their camp, and it appears rather peculiar in that he is of fair complexion and rather blonde. The brothers, for the young Indian is none other than the stolen boy, gaze at each other and pass on without evincing any signs of recognition. The following day, Grace visits the Indian camp to inspect the different curios and fancy handiwork. Her friends, becoming alarmed at her absence, hurry to the Indian village and find her in the young chief's tepee. The white folks threaten him, and when he bares his right arm, vehemently asserting that he would rather cut it off than harm the girl, his mother notes the birth mark on his wrist, and recognizes, in the Indian her long lost boy. Following the identification he at first hesitates at the thought of leaving his tribesmen, but later, beset with conflicting emotions, he appeals to the old chief who grants him permission to return to his own people. On entering his home and seeing his mother weeping before the fireplace for her lost son, he sinks to his knees, and with a great cry from each, mother and son are clasped in each other's arms.