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Josef Quinn Memorial Library

Town Biographies IV

Cloud Dancing, Snow Bird, Black Kettle, Walks on Cloud, Ingrid, Jon


 

CLOUD DANCING

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


Cheyenne Medicine Man. (#0101)

Cures Dr. Mike of influenza in by placing her in a "medicine wheel" and dosing her with purple coneflowers. (#0101)

Captured by Custer and beaten. Custer wants information abut the renegade Dog Soldiers. Sully, dressed like an Indian, and Mike save Cloud Dancing - they help him escape. They get away by pony on the West edge of town. (#0103)

Cloud Dancing is grief-stricken and prays to the Cheyenne Gods for answers when he accepts typhus-infected blankets from the Army for the Cheyenne and many of them die. (#0206)

Helps the town (along with the other reservation Indians) when it's afflicted by drought. He and the others do this by bringing tradition Indian fare into town for the annual Thanksgiving dinner. (#0211)

Cloud Dancing's heart-broken when his son, Walks-on-Cloud, joins the renegade Dog Soldiers. (#0219)

Cloud Dancing's almost hung; saved by Mike in the nick of time when she returns to Colorado Springs -- Custer was planning to hang Cloud Dancing and his village in retaliation for Mike's abduction. (#0220)

Cloud Dancing goes on a vision quest to address his grief about his son, Walks-On-Cloud's death. (#0225)

Having made peace with his son's death, Cloud Dancing returns from his vision quest. (#0301)

Cloud Dancing intervenes for Loren (at the bequest of Sully) when Dog Soldiers, in retaliation for the desecration of their burial grounds by a visiting paleontologist, take Loren Bray's deceased wife Maude's bones. Eventually, an exchange of bones is made and Loren gets Maude back. (#0306)

Brian asks Cloud Dancing to help he, Matthew and Colleen make a surprise Thanksgiving supper for Mike and Sully, who're away in Denver, and he agrees to help. Turns out, the dinner gets stretched to feed Kid Cole and Sister Ruth, now married, as well -- Mike and Sully met them in Denver and invited them home for the holiday. (#0313)

Cloud Dancing, enraged that bluecoats have killed Little Thunder, a harmless old Indian man innocently hunting, joins the Dog Soldiers, vowing, "Custer has already tried to kill me once. He will not have another chance." (#0322)

Cloud Dancing's father passed his "medicine man" abilities onto Cloud Dancing. (Cloud Dancing's fathers' history is detailed in script #0322, pg. 47). Cloud Dancing's father died of whooping cough. (revealed in #0322, pg. 48)

Cloud Dancing rejoins the Dog Soldiers at Washita. Cloud Dancing has "seen his shadow," (usually a harbinger of death, though not always) after Washita. (#0323)

Cloud Dancing tells Sully his father has appeared to him in a dream and told him to teach Mike his medicine man secrets. Sully persuades Mike to learn the ways of this Cheyenne Medicine Man. (This will be a psyche healing factor for both Cloud Dancing and Mike.) (#0323)

Cloud Dancing goes away, at the end of episode #0323, taking the sole survivor of the Washita massacre, the infant "Live In Hopes," with him. Cloud Dancing intends to take the infant to a band of Cheyenne in the north, who refuse to live on a reservation. "They hunt the land you call the Yellowstone." He himself is not sure of his destination. (#0323)

Custer puts a reward on Cloud Dancing's head; "$500.00 dollars, dead or alive." (#0326/0327)

Cloud Dancing acts as Sully's best man (though he's almost thwarted by Custer, who puts bounty on his head). (#0326/0327)

Sully cuts a deal for Cloud Dancing that, if he turns himself in to live on the new Palmer Creek Reservation, the $500.00 bounty will be taken off his head. When Cloud Dancing arrives at Palmer Creek, he's saddened to learn that, for now, anyway, he's the lone Cheyenne on the reservation, though he resolves to make the best of it. (#0401)

Cloud Dancing is accepted by the town of Colorado Springs, at least momentarily, when he comes in as a last-minute replacement player for the Colorado Springers (our townsfolk) against the visiting professional team, the All-Stars. (#0402)

Cloud Dancing's "Thanksgiving Indian Ceremony Plans" at the reservation are disturbed when he can't get to the General Store before Loren leaves town for the holidays. (He wants to buy tobacco for the ceremonies.) The reason he can't get there is because he stopped to minister to a drunk, ungrateful Jake Slicker's bleeding forehead -- bleeding because Jake stupidly thought Cloud Dancing, whom he met in the woods while on a drunken binge, was trying to steal his horse. (He was not.) Fortunately, Jake is decent enough to break into the General Store and bring the tobacco out to Cloud Dancing, thereby allowing the ceremonies do go on as planned. (#0411)

Cloud Dancing (with Sully's help) strikes a deal with Loren to sell corn to Loren for 45 cents a bushel, though Loren is initially reluctant to trust the Indians. (#0416)

The Reservation's new school causes much distress to Cloud Dancing, who feels he's watching his people die again (spirtually) as the well-meaning but misguided Reverend teaches Christianity and other white man's ways to his reservation's children. Eventually, the problem is solved when Mike and Sully introduce the idea of multi-culturalism (a mutual exchange of ideas/philosophies, etc.) to the classroom. Not only will the Reverend (who teaches at the school) learn some Indian ways, the cross-polination of ideas will help the Indians themselves, since they've all been rounded up from different tribes, regions, etc., and are divided themselves. (#0421)

Cloud Dancing is stabbed by a new-to-the-reservation Pawnee named Two Spears. Cloud Dancing is severly wounded, but Sully gives him a blood transfusion, and Cloud Dancing lives. Cloud Dancing is disappointed in Sully when Sully sends Two Spears to another reservation -- he'd counseled understanding for Two Spears, but Sully, in a dilemma because he'd wanted to trust Two Spears and Two Spears got into another fight, made the decision to send Two Spears away. (#0424)

(This goes under "Cloud Dancing"/"Catalyst" and "Sully"): When Plenty Horses accidentally shoots young Private Reilly in a reservation scuffle, (Reilly's gun goes off as the two men struggle for it and he dies of gunshot wounds, even when Mike operates to remove the bullet) no one owns up to the crime and tensions mount. Before violence can escalate against the Indians, however, Cloud Dancing steps forward to take the blame, especially since the overzealous commander, Sergeant O'Conner, is doing little to defuse existing tensions. Sully and Mike, knowing their friend Cloud Dancing as they do, are puzzled that Cloud Dancing won't come clean re: who really killed Private Reilly and what really happened, but Cloud Dancing has an ulterior motive behind his confession -- that is, he wants to unify his people by showing them through his actions that they should all act as people -- brothers -- whether they are Pawnee, Arapahoe or Cheyenne. Cloud Dancing's noble sacrifice does instill a sense of unity between the Indians, and after Sully cleverly defends Cloud Dancing (see "Byron Sully: General Biographical Information #0426") we see the Indians Elders altogether, welcoming Cloud Dancing to the reservation after he's been released. (#0426)

Cloud Dancing has a pow-wow with several reservation chiefs which results in him asking Sully to help the Indians sell Pawnee necklaces at the train Depot. In same episode, the overzealous Army commander at the Reservation, Sergeant Bryan O'Conner, wires General Wooden that he wants the Indians separated. Sully, the Indian Agent, takes steps to invervene, but not before Cloud Dancing has been taken away in handcuffs with some Arapahoe... However, it is Cloud Dancing who comes, under cover of darkness, to lead Mike to Sully, who's been injured in the Indians' escape from Sergeant O'Conner which Sully helped engineer and in which he is injured. (#0427)

Cloud Dancing is apprehended by the Army when he leads Mike to the injured Sully. At end of episode, we learn that Cloud Dancing has definitely been moved to a different reservation; we also learn that Sully has been fired as Indian Agent. (#0428)


MEDICAL:

"Ran into a rifle-butt" (actually beaten by Custer's men) and dislocated his shoulder. (#0103)

Rope burns around his neck when Custer almost hangs him? (#0220)

Cloud Dancing is shot in the arm when two men, seeking the $500.00 bounty Custer placed on his head, hunt him down. (Sully rescues Cloud Dancing, and Mike treats him.) (#0401)

Cloud Dancing is stabbed between the ribs by Two Spears; an angry Pawnee Indian new to the reservation; Sully gives Cloud Dancing a blood transfusion which saves his life. (#0424)


SNOW BIRD

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


Cloud Dancing's wife. Gives Dr. Mike her horse, "Flash in the Sky," aka "Flash." A fast little pinto mare, Flash wins the Colorado Sweepstakes in which Mike, dressed as a man, rides her. (#0201)

Snow Bird freaks out when she thinks Cloud Dancing's going to take another bride. She refuses to be a "second wife", even at the risk of being shunned by the tribe, and moves into her own teepee. Fortunately, another groom, White Crow, is found for Grey Eyes, Cloud Dancing's dead brother's widow and the maiden in question, and Cloud Dancing's and Snow Bird's marriage is saved. (#0203)

Snow Bird is killed on banks of Washita. (#0323)

Snow Bird presents Mike with an Indian "good-luck" house-warming charm made of feathers and quills. (#0322)


MEDICAL HISTORY:

Snow Bird becomes pregnant but loses the baby to miscarriage due to malnutrition. (#0307)

Snow Bird is killed on banks of Washita. (#0323)



BLACK KETTLE

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


High-cheeked Indian, wearing chief's feathers woven through black braids. (Pilot)

Thinks Dr. Mike is crazy white woman, since only men doctors among the whites. (Pilot)

Army is negotiating with Indians for land north of Sand Creek. (Pilot)

Gives Dr. Mike her Cheyenne name - "Medicine Woman" after she removes a bullet from his neck, performing a tracheotomy. (Pilot)

Lincoln gave him an American flag. Cloud Dancing thinks the president is his friend. Black Kettle mediates/officiates when Jake's fate hangs in the balance. (Jake accidentally shot an Indian, Little Eagle, in ep. #0205.) The truth is sorted out and he eventually makes restitution to Little Eagle surviving family). (#0205)

Black Kettle trusts the Army; accepts blankets infected with typhus; lives to regret the decision. (#0206)

Black Kettle dies on bank of the Washita river, killed by Cavalry Soldiers in a mass Indian execution. (#0323)

Before the Washita Massacre, Black Kettle tells Mike and Sully, "I live in hopes;" as such, Mike and Sully name the Indian baby they find at the slaughter "Live In Hopes" in honor of Black Kettle. (#0322/23)

We learn that Black Kettle's wife's name is "Medicine Woman Later," implying that the name "Medicine Woman" given to Mike is a very special name indeed. Unfortunately, Medicine Woman Later meets her maker at the Washita, along with Black Kettle and the rest of the tribe. (#322/23)


MEDICAL:

Sand Creek Massacre - Colonel Chivington responsible. He is shot - bullet lodged in neck - Mike saves him. (Pilot)

Black Kettle dies on bank of the Washita river, killed by Cavalry Soldiers in a mass Indian execution. (#0323)



WALKS ON CLOUD

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


Snow Bird's and Cloud Dancing's son. It is established that he has a fiance. (#0113)

Walks on Cloud's fianceé, Little Moon, dies when she becomes infected with typhus from blankets with which the Army "gifted" the Indians. (#0206)

Walks On Cloud, frustrated with the treatment of his people, joins the renegade Dog Soldiers against his father Cloud Dancing's wishes. Later, he's killed by them for helping Mike escape when she's been abducted by them. (#0219/0220)


MEDICAL HISTORY:

Walks On Cloud dies at hands of hostile Dog Soldier "One Eye" for helping Mike escape. (#0220)



INGRID

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


Lovely Swedish girl with whom Matthew's smitten.

Father dies in epidemic. (#0101)

Lives in immigrant camp/shantytown. Hurdy-Gurdy dancer. Upset when no one dances with her on the opening night of the Hurdy-Gurdy - runs off crying, until Matthew confesses he bought all her tickets but he can't dance. (#0103)

Ingrid and Matthew engaged; Matthew gives Ingrid Mike's engagement ring (she was engaged to David). (#0112)

Sister Ruth, a faith healer, treats Ingrid for her asthma, much to Mike's dismay, as she has a relapse. (#0202)

Ingrid runs a laundry. Mike's one of her customers. Ingrid breaks up with Matthew when he becomes a gambler. (#0217)

Catches Myra's wedding bouquet. (#0226)

Ingrid agrees to marry Matthew quickly (neither she nor he want to die virgins) when she thinks a meteor is going to end the world. Fortunately, the Reverend refuses to perform the ceremony. (#0316)

Ingrid is cast as Lady Montague in Dorothy's production of "Romeo and Juliet." She gives Matthew some red boots to wear for his role as Romeo. He first refuses, then agrees to wear them. (#0320)

Ingrid makes a big mistake when she goes behind Matthew's back to accept a loan from Preston, the new banker, in order to enlarge the homestead. (#0401)

Ingrid's bitten by Pup, who has rabies, and dies. (#0404)

Ingrid had one brother, JON, and two little sisters, BECKA and ANNA, who appear for the last time. (#0404)


MEDICAL:

Ingrid suffers from malnutrition; Mike diagnoses when Matthew brings her home for supper. (#0105)

Ingrid is treated by Mike and Colleen for asthma. (#0112)

Ingrid has a relapse of her asthma when she stops taking Mike's medicine; preferring Sister Ruth's brand of faith-healing instead. (#0202)

Ingrid's little sister comes down with typhus when Matthew gives her a blanket which the Army intended for the Indians. (#0206)

Ingrid is bitten by Brian's wolf, Pup, who has rabies, and dies. (#0404)



JON

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


Ingrid's older brother. He's arrested and almost hung when he steals (with Matthew) a steer to feed his family. (#0107)

Jon gets trapped in the mine with Matthew during the cave-in, but he's rescued before Matthew is. (#0212)

Jon makes his last appearance is when his sister Ingrid dies of rabies. Jon's little sisters ANNA and BECKA make their first and last appearances. (#0404)

Mention is made of Jon when Matthew tells Sully that he's given his cattle to him in the aftermath of Ingrid's death. Jon takes the cattle and goes with the rest of his family to Montana. (#0405)

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