In 1886, Geronimo, chief of the
Chiricahua Apaches, finally surrenders to the U.S. Cavalry. As
he carries a white flag to the victors, however, Massai, a young
warrior who refuses to accept surrender, shoots at both the flag and
the assembled soldiers. Massai is soon subdued, and as cuffs
are placed on his hands, Indian fighter Al Sieber scoffs, "You're
not a warrior any more; you're just a whipped Injun."
Geronimo, Massai and the other warriors are separated from the
women, children and old men of the tribe and herded onto a train
bound for Florida.
Near St. Louis, the train stops for
water, and a photographer takes a picture of the Apaches. As
the photographer focuses on Weddle, an Indian hater who falsely
claims to have captured Geronimo, Massai quietly slips from the
train and begins running. Massai is alternately baffled and
fascinated by city life in St. Louis, but he is forced to flee when
a group of citizens sees his handcuffs.
Massai moves on until, in Oklahoma
territory, he meets a Cherokee Indian who owns his own farm.
When Massai angrily accuses him of living like a white man, the
Cherokee explains that after years of fighting and running, his
people finally realized that rather than living on a reservation,
the Cherokee must grow their own food and live in peace with the
white man. Massai looks skeptical, but as he works his way
back to the mountains of New Mexico, the idea begins to take hold.
The new chief, Santos, and his daughter
Nalinle are surprised when Massai appears in their dwelling.
After listening to his plan of negotiating a "warrior's peace" with
the white man, as the Cherokee had done, Nalinle tells Santos that
Massai will again breathe life into the tribe. Santos,
disheartened and muddled from drinking too much aguardiente, binds
and gags Nalinle and then turns Massai over to Sieber.
Believing that Nalinle loves a traitorous Apache named Hondo, Massai
assumes that she helped her father and vows revenge on them both.
Weddle is again ordered to transport
Massai and several other Apache men to Florida, but this time,
Weddle gives his prisoners an opportunity to run away as an excuse
to shoot them all. Massai catches him off guard, however, and
the Indians escape. Consumed by hatred, Massai launches a
private war against white civilization, destroying telegraph lines,
causing cattle stampedes and damaging the fort.
The Apache kidnaps Nalinle, forcing her
to travel for days without food or water. When Sieber and the
soldiers approach, Nalinle warns Massai and he lets her go.
Nalinle wants to remain with Massai, but he angrily orders her to
return to the reservation. Exhausted and bleeding, she crawls
up a hillside after him, whereupon he finally accepts her love.
Sieber and his soldiers later find signs of the couple's marriage:
Nalinle's beads placed carefully on a rock pile. This deeply
disappoints Hondo, who swears that she soon will be a widow.
Some time later, Nalinle informs Massai
that she is pregnant, and the two decide to spend the winter in the
western mountains. Although the mountains offer them refuge
from their pursuers, it is bitterly cold, and there is little food.
Nalinle tries to persuade Massai to end his war and plant the
Cherokee corn, but he protests that because he is the last remaining
Apache warrior, he must continue to fight.
In the spring, the couple moves to
warmer ground, and Nalinle steals more seed corn from the nearby
trading post. Angry at first, Massai finally joins her in
planting the corn. By this time, the Cavalry wants to call off
the search for Massai, but Sieber insists on tracking the Apache.
When Sieber learns that an Indian stole seed corn from the local
merchant, he contacts the fort for reinforcements. Massai sees
the troops coming and returns to the hut just as Nalinle goes into
labor. She urges him to go out and die a warrior's death,
whereupon he leaves the hut and charges some of the soldiers.
Shot in the side, Massai takes refuge among the corn stalks.
Sieber crawls in after him, but Massai tricks him and points a gun
at his head. Just then, a baby cries, and Massai is mesmerized
by the sound. Slowly he returns to the hut, throws down his
rifle, and goes in. The Colonel remarks that no Apache has
ever grown corn before, adding that the war has been called off.
Regretfully, Sieber replies that "it was the only war we had."
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