User Reviews

Joe Don Baker plays an Modoc Indian named Lightfoot that grew up in Stockton and now has graduated from Harvard Law School and is returning back home. However upon his return his attitude has changed. He is now a bitter person that is mad at all white men mainly because the California Legislature turned down a bill that would return stolen land to the Modoc Indians.

Two brothers, Ben and Clem Watson, is not helping matters. They set up Lightfoot for a fight after being false accused of inappropriate comments to a white lady. When the fight was broken up by Sheriff Madden, Lightfoot vowed to kill the Watson brothers.

The next scene show some conflict inside a barn then the picture pans down to show Clem Watson dead. Lightfoot is arrest and charged with murder after two suspicious witnesses agree to testify.

In court Lightfoot does not help his case when he says that he wants to kill all white men including the people on the jury. This sets the town ablaze with the hatred for Lightfoot and also Jarrod for defending Lightfoot. And when he escapes from jail the town forms a posse to bring him in.

For an episode that has a very predictable script, the show seemed to play out well. There is plenty of hatred in Stockton but by the end all appeared to be forgiven. Not really the best acted program but one people will remember for many years to come.

Substitute Native American for Afro-American and you have in this Big Valley story, a plot concerning the civil rights movement. One can only imagine the feelings of frustration among the civil rights activists of post war America before the civil rights act and the voting rights act passed. That's the frustration that Harvard educated Modoc Indian Joe Don Baker is feeling concerning a bill in the California State Legislature that will give reparations to the Modocs for their land.

This is also a bill that Jarrod Barkley has been an unofficial lobbyist for and it's frustrating for Richard Long as well. Still Baker uses the same kind of rhetoric that some black activists used in the troubled Sixties. Baker is all for Burn Baby Burn and that doesn't make him too popular among the population of Stockton.

When a pair of lout brothers Harry Lauter and Dan Kemp and friends beat up Baker after he allegedly molested saloon girl Amy Thomson, Baker's even more angry. Then after Kemp is found dead in a barn it's Baker arrested for his murder. Of course Richard Long is compelled to defend him, but Baker is no easy client.

Baker really owns this episode and it's a fine allegory for the civil rights struggle of recent memory.