Doc's Indians

Originally Aired: June 7, 1959 Gunsmoke #374, "Doc's Indians," finds Doc Adams and Kitty Russell returning from house calls when they're stopped on the trail by armed Cheyenne warriors. The Indians force them to their riverside camp, where Chief Little Wolf reveals his desperate situation: his young son is gravely ill, and after the tribe's medicine man failed to cure him, Little Wolf wants Doc to use the white man's medicine he witnessed while imprisoned by soldiers. Doc agrees to stay and treat the boy, but only if Little Wolf allows Kitty to leave safely. Despite the risk that she might bring the cavalry, Doc gives his word that she won't, and the chief reluctantly agrees to let her go. Kitty arrives back in Dodge exhausted after riding through the night, but she refuses to tell liveryman Moss where Doc is, honoring the promise that saved her life. With Marshal Dillon out of town on other business, Kitty must wait anxiously for his return while Doc remains alone in the Indian camp, facing the challenge of saving Little Wolf's son and navigating the dangerous tension between his medical duty and the volatile situation.