Plot
Following mistreatment by agency authorities, Ulzana breaks out of the San Carlos Indian Reservation with a small war party. Soon news reaches the local military commander, who sends messengers to local homesteads. Both are ambushed and killed; to avoid capture one kills the woman he is escorting and then himself. The warriors play catch with his heart. The woman's husband, who stayed behind, is captured and tortured to death. Army scout MacIntosh (Lancaster) is given the job of finding Ulzana (Martinez) for a troop of soldiers led by an inexperienced Lieutenant Garnett DeBuin (Davison). Joining them on the mission is a veteran sergeant (Jaeckel) and Apache scout Ke-Ni-Tay (Luke). Ke-Ni-Tay knows Ulzana, as their wives are sisters.
The cavalry troop leaves Fort Lowell and soon finds evidence of the brutal activities of the Apache war party. The film then focuses on the soldiers' reality, facing a merciless enemy with far better local skills. We follow the lieutenant through his struggles with his Christian conscience and view of humanity. MacIntosh and Ke-Ni-Tay attempt to outthink and outfight their enemies, while advising the Lieutenant what to do. Ulzana and most of his men abandon their horses, led circuitously by two others in an attempt to tire the pursuers' heavily loaded mounts. Ke-Ni-Tay notices that the trail is now of unladen horses, and Macintosh works out a plan which leads to the loss of the horses and the death of their two Apache escorts, including Ulzana's son. The lieutenant prevents his men from mutilating the dead.
The raiders attack a nearby farm, torturing the homesteaders and seizing two horses. McIntosh realizes that remaining Apaches physically and psychologically need horses and will try to obtain them by raiding the troop. The woman of the burned out farm, instead of being raped to death, has been left alive so that the cavalry will be forced to send her to the fort with an escort. By splitting the troop, Ulzana hopes to successfully attack the escort and seize its horses. McIntosh suggests a decoy plan to make Ulzana falsely believe that his tactics are successful.
Ulzana's warriors ambush the small escort detachment, obtaining all of its horses and killing most of the soldiers before DeBuin can arrive with the rest of his force. McIntosh is fatally wounded. Ke-Ni-Tay scatters the captured horses as sounding bugle calls which alert Ulzana of his approach. Ulzana flees afoot as the remnants of his band are killed. Ke-Ni-Tay confronts him and shows him the Army bugle taken from the body of his son. Ulzana puts down his weapons and sings his death song before Ke-Ni-Tay kills him. The troopers suggest that Ulzana, or at least his head, should be taken back to the fort. The lieutenant orders him to be buried. MacIntosh knows he won't survive the journey back to the fort and chooses to stay behind.
Read more about this topic: Ulzana's Raid
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