02x33 - Bad Medicine

[bunniefuu]

[knife flies through air and hits door]

♪ Jim Bowie Jim Bowie

♪ He was a bold adventurin' man ♪

[background chorus]

♪ Jim Bowie Jim Bowie

♪ Battled for right with a powerful hand ♪

♪ His blade was tempered and so was he ♪

♪ Indestructible steel was he

♪ Jim Bowie Jim Bowie

♪ He was a fighter, a fearless and mighty adventurin' man!♪

- [Jim] In May of 1830,

[trumpet music]

the Congress of the United States, after bitter debate,

enacted into law the Indian Removal bill.

It simply meant that the Indians had to clear out

of all states east of the Mississippi.

[music changes to soft violin]

Greenwood LeFlore and Musholatubbi, two Choctaw chiefs,

signed a treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek,

agreeing to leave their homes in Mississippi

and move across the river into the unfamiliar territory

of Arkansas.

But the third chief, Nittucachee, would not sign.

- Son of Nittucachee very sick.

When my son get well, I will sign treaty.

- May we look at the boy, Chief?

[hand hits doorsill]

- Bad medicine move sick boy.

We stay 'til boy get well.

[soft violin]

[high-pitched suspenseful music]

[horses gallop]

- [Jim] General Heaton's urgent message reached

me at Natchez.

I was tempted to ignore it, for at the time I had

important business awaiting me in Texas.

- But, General, I haven't got time for an Indian palaver.

I'm due back in Texas.

I'm in the midst of setting up a textile mill down there.

- You were President Jackson's choice, boy.

Read it yourself, here.

All I'm asking is that you escort a doctor

to Nittucachee's lodge.

If you must know, Bowie, I hate this job as much as you do,

but I also happen to be Jackson's Secretary of w*r,

and I'm trying to prevent bloodshed.

A w*r that could be as bloody as Jackson's campaign

against the Creek Indians.

You can prevent it.

Ahh, well, if you're not interested, go to Texas.

Or worse for all I care.

- All right, General, if Mr. Jackson says the job

has to be done and he thinks I'm the one to do it,

all right I'll do it, but I won't do it happy.

- Thank you, Jim.

- Now how about gettin' a doctor?

- We've got one.

Fine young man, Dr. Gibson.

Right out of Edinburgh, brilliant, dedicated

- Well, where will I find him?

- In the next room, Jim, he's been waiting for you.

[bouncy music]

- Is that a fact?

[General chuckles]

[slow trumpet]

It was three days to Nittucachee's lodge.

We kept pushing the horses and ourselves,

so I didn't get a chance to learn too much

about the young man of medicine until we pulled up

at a cabin for a breather before moving on

the last few miles to the Choctaw area.

[horse hooves]

- Howdy.

- Hello, uh, do you mind if we uh

- As long as there's water in the trough,

y'alls critters is welcome.

- Well, thanks.

- Same goes for humans, help yourself.

- Thanks kindly.

[splashing]

- Government men?

- Uh, not exactly.

- I hear the Choctaws are gonna be movin' soon.

You fellers got anything to do about that?

- Well, we might have eventually.

- Better be quicker than that.

Ol' Nittucachee and his Indians are squatting

on some of the finest bottomlands in these parts.

Settlers are gettin' mighty restless.

- Ah! Thanks for the water.

Come on, Doctor, let's go.

- Did he call you Doctor?

- My name is Dr. Gibson.

- The kind of doctor that helps sick folks?

- I'm a physician, yes.

- Ooh wee.

Then the good Lord sure enough answered my prayers.

My wife took to bed this morning.

She said the baby's coming any minute now.

Would you go help her, sir?

She's awful scared.

I don't mind owning up, I'm a mite uneasy myself.

- Well, go on in and take a look.

We're not in that much of a hurry.

[door opens]

- This way, Doctor.

In here

Everything's gonna be all right now, Sarah.

The doctor's here.

- Doctor?

- Yes, Sarah, a medical doctor.

- Your wife's young and healthy.

She'll get along fine, I'm sure.

Let's go, Bowie.

- You ain't gonna stay?

- Well, you won't be a father for at least another day.

Under the circumstances, Mr. Bowie and I couldn't

possibly wait.

- Well, Doctor, if it's just gonna be a short time

- Babies are born every day without doctors, Mr. Bowie.

After this one, I'm sure the young man will think

nothing of it.

- He's the doctor.

Good luck.

[sad slow music]

[abrupt suspenseful tuba]

Concha!

[dramatic tuba]

[water splashes]

- Didn't seem very friendly, did he?

- No

- Did you mistake him for someone else?

- Uh uh, that was Concha, Chief Nittucachee's oldest son.

- They aren't giving us much of a welcome, are they?

- Tell me something, you ever delivered a baby?

- Of course, lots of them.

- Where?

- Edinburgh

- By yourself?

- Yes

- But under supervision?

- Why this line of questioning, Mr. Bowie?

- How long you been practicing in Natchez?

- Not long.

- You got many patients?

- Not too many, not yet.

- Well, just how many do you have, Doctor?

- Three.

- Did you tell the general that you didn't have

any experience?

- He didn't ask me.

- Come on, Dr. Gibson, let's go on back.

- I'm not going back, Mr. Bowie.

I came out here to do a job, I'm gonna do it.

- Like you did the job back there?

- There's plenty of time.

I'll attend to her on the way back.

- Well, suppose you can't leave the Indian boy.

- What he has must be chronic

or he'd be well or dead by now.

I'll prescribe for him and then stop back here

on the way back.

Then I'll stay in the neighborhood until they're both

on their feet.

- Well, you certainly don't lack for confidence, do you?

- I believe that I am as equipped as any other physician

to help that boy or deliver that baby.

Now my duty is clear to me, Mr. Bowie, if not to you.

- Is that a fact?

Well, I don't know whether that's a boast or a promise,

but time will soon tell, Doctor.

Come on.

[suspenseful music swells]

- You have not been here for long time, Big Knife.

- I've been many moons in Texas, Chief.

- Come in.

- A friend from Natchez, Dr. Gibson, Medicine Man.

- Medicine Man?

- Chief

- Very smooth face, no wrinkles.

He makes good medicine?

- The best, Chief.

[Jim chuckles]

He made be kind of young, but he's also pretty smart.

He had very old, very wise teachers across the big waters.

- We drink coffee, we talk.

[Native American singing in distance]

Sit.

- Nittucachee, I hear tell that your little boy is sick.

Is that true?

[pouring of drink]

- Little boy very sick here

- President Jackson asked me to bring this white

medicine man to cure your boy.

- We have Medicine Man, Choctaw Medicine Man,

many wrinkles, very wise.

- Dr. Gibson has traveled a long distance, Chief.

Would you mind if he just looked at your boy?

[singing in distance]

- Come

[singing]

Look, do not touch.

- [Jim] Look, let the doctor fix your boy.

He'll be well in no time.

- Choctaw Medicine Man fix my boy

- I'm not leaving here 'til I get a true medical opinion

of that boy's condition.

- You are no friend of Choctaws, Big Knife.

- Friendship is not the point, Chief.

The point is you're gonna have to move into Arkansas

whether you like it or not, and hiding behind a sick boy

like some old woman is not gonna help you solve anything.

- Get out, white men.

Get off Choctaw land now!

[dramatic slow music builds to crescendo]

[horse hooves]

- [Dr. Gibson] They stopped.

- [Jim] That's the limit of their land.

- I don't like this, Mr. Bowie, gettin' run off.

- It's better than gettin' your hair lifted.

We'll find a place to spend the night and think it over.

- How 'bout Tobley's?

- You're gonna have to deliver that baby?

- I can't do any worse with my job than you've done

with yours, Mr. Bowie.

[slow clarinet and string music]

[horse hooves]

- Doctor, quick!

You got back just in time!

[door slams]

- What's your wife's name, Luke?

- Sarah

- How 'bout the baby?

You got a name picked out yet?

- Elmer if it's a boy.

That's my pa's name.

- Yeah

- Elvira if it's a gal.

That was Sarah's aunt, Aunt Elvira.

Raised Sarah from a baby.

Sure wish she were here now.

- What are you hoping for, a boy or a gal?

- I ain't particular, Mr. Bowie, so long as it's one

or the t'other.

It's got two good legs, two good arms, and one good head.

- That's right.

- I'll be needing your help, Luke.

- Everything's all right, ain't it, Doctor?

- I think so, fill it up.

- Even if I'd stayed this morning I couldn't have been

sure until now.

Sometimes the easy ones turn out hard

and the hard ones turn out easy.

At least that was the theory of old Dr. McIntosh.

He's considered the finest man in the field of obstetrics.

- The easy ones turn out hard and the hard ones

turn out easy.

[slaps knee]

[splashes]

Hey, Luke, tell Dr. Gibson that I've gone to test

that theory of old Dr. McIntosh.

[slow dramatic music]

[music intensifies]

[toy clacks]

[boy stretches]

[music abruptly goes high]

[lamp falls and breaks]

[music intensifies]

[punching]

Don't worry, Chief!

I'll take care of him.

He'll be back safe and sound.

[music crashes and intensifies further]

[high-pitched violin]

All right, little fella, come on.

Down you get.

We won't be here long.

I'll get you home before you know it.

There we are.

- Who's this?

[boy whimpers]

- Chief Nittucachee's boy

It's all right.

- Well, what'd you bring him here for?

- He's sick, to see the doctor.

- Well, the doctor's busy, take him away.

- Doctor?

Doctor?

- Oh no.

- Take a look at him.

- Not now, Bowie, I can't leave her.

[whooping]

- Hey!

[chair falls]

All right, young fella, come on.

Now, Doctor, I want an opinion now.

- It takes time, Bowie.

- I'll give you all the time I can.

- No man can do two things at once.

- Now you got two hands and a fine education.

Now come on, get busy.

- You can do it, Doctor.

- [Sarah] Doctor!

- I don't know what's goin' on here, Doctor,

but you look after Sarah, you hear?

[horse hooves]

- My son, Big Knife.

- You'll get your son just as soon as the doctor's

examined him.

I want an answer for President Jackson.

- My son, Big Knife, or you die.

- If I die, Chief, you'll touch off something

that neither your son nor any other Choctaw

will live through.

- Give him his son, Mr. Bowie.

- Go on back inside the house, Luke, with your wife.

Tell the doctor to hurry.

[c*ck g*n]

Now I'll sh**t the first one of you who starts to fight.

[footsteps]

[door opens]

[boy struggles]

What's wrong with him?

- Nothing, absolutely nothing.

- You sure?

- He's sound as a dollar.

I'd stake my reputation on it.

- Well, that's just what I thought.

- My son, Big Knife.

- What're you gonna do?

- Give him to me.

- [Sarah] Luke!

- Your son was very sick, Chief, but the white

medicine man has cured him.

I'll tell the president that he's well now.

- Hya!

[abrupt high-pitched music]

[g*nsh*t]

- Blood of life flows from my son

If life flies from him, life will fly from many white men

- The white doctor can save him.

- Be careful, Bowie.

- Well, do what you can.

- Concha hurt bad.

Indian medicine no good

White medicine no good

- The right brachial artery has been punctured.

- Fatal?

- Might lose the arm

- Might?

- [Luke] Doctor!

You gotta come now!

- Tie his arm tight above the wound.

- White doctor will not help Concha?

- You want him to try?

- If white doctor help my boy, Nittucachee will sign paper,

move his people across the river.

- Good

I'll need some help to get him in the house.

[dramatic music]

[music lightens]

- Change the poultice every day as I showed you.

- Nittucachee will take long trail across river.

Concha?

[baby coos]

- That wasn't so bad now, was it, Luke?

- No, sir.

- Nothing to it, babies are born every day,

isn't that right, Doctor?

- That's what I said yesterday.

[baby cries]

- You sure picked up a lot of experience fast, didn't you?

- All in a day's work, Mr. Bowie.

- Nothin' like a fine Edinburgh education to start

a man off right.

- Well, I learned one lesson they didn't teach me

at Edinburgh.

- Oh, what was that?

- Well, now, anytime I'm hard up for a patient,

I can always go out and sh**t me one.

[Jim laughs and snorts]

- Why, Doctor, you'll do all right.

[brief music]

♪ Jim Bowie Jim Bowie

♪ He was a fighter, a fearless and mighty adventurin' man ♪