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Ned’s draw or: the murder of Hi Good

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Ned’s draw or: the murder of Hi Good

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Content NED’S DRAW OR: THE MURDER OF HI GOOD

by
Lee Lynch

__________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
August 2009

Copyright 2009 Lee Lynch

ii
Table of Contents

List of figures iii

Abstract iv

Chapter 1
Inroduction 1

Chapter 2
The Shooting Script 25

Bibliography 68

iii
List of Figures

Figure 1: Unknown, Oroville Gamblers 13

Figure 2: Unknown, Hi Good and Sandy Young, Tehama County, Ca 14

Figure 3: Lee Lynch, Hi Good’s Sheep Camp 16

Figure 4: Lee Lynch, Ned Shaving Hi 20

Figure 5: Lee Lynch, Grizzly Bear Cult Medicine 22

Figure 4: Lee Lynch, Ned’s Branding 23

iv
Abstract
This thesis supports the research for a completed feature length true-murder
revisionist Western set in Tehama County California 1870. The film is based on the
infamous Indian hunter Hi Good, who was presumably killed by his half-Indian
indentured servant, whom he had raised.

1
Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of Hi Good
Chapter 1
Introduction

The winning of the American “West” was not so easily won. In fact it was a
bloody battle fought with guns, steel and germs. I believe that a new form must be
established to better address this anarchic gothic reality that is American history.
Alexander Whipple

calls for a true American saga sating, “Most Americans seem to
have a strongly ingrained hankering for the primitive and a good deal of the childlike
quality of mind, possibly as an inheritance from our three centuries of pioneering.
Whenever a holiday comes along, we reproduce primitive conditions and play at
pioneering as much as possible. The age of the pioneers, especially in the west, is
taking on more and more the air of a heroic and mythic period. The glorification of
the red-blooded he-man, the pioneer ideal, is a national trait, and even those who
have learned better cannot rid themselves of a sneaking respect for the brute in their
hearts. They are like stray Vandals wandering bewildered through the streets of
Byzantium. Only the pure at heart could be so impressed by decay and corruption.
We turn to crude epic stories as we might an old Norse skald, maker of the sagas of
the folk”.
1

1
Quote from Whipple, Alexander “American Sagas”, Study out the Land. University of California
Press, 1943

2

Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of Hi Good heeds Whipple’s call as a new
“crude epic story” in the form of a feature length live action video-film based on
various historical and oral historical accounts during the spring of 1870 in Northern
California, Tehama County. It is about Ishi, the last Yahi Indian, and Hi Good, the
last Indian hunter, whose paths crossed briefly but fatefully in “The Incident of the
Five Bows.”
2
On his final hunt, Good encountered a pocket of Yahi seeking refuge
in the hills around Deer Creek, California. Taking these peaceful, “aboriginal”
Indians for a violent “renegade” tribe, Good opened fire on the settlement killing an
elder and taking three women hostage. The rest of the group scattered into the
countryside only to surrender two weeks later at Good’s cabin. Presenting their
traditional peace offering of five bows, the fugitive Yahi hoped to barter back their
captive women. Instead, Good’s henchmen set about hanging these surviving
tribesmen. The Yahi escaped into the hills, but continued negotiations with Good,
trying desperately to get the hostages back.

One month later, Indian Ned, (Hi’s teenaged Indian-slave sheep herder)
murdered Hi Good. Though local historians have never agreed upon the motive for
this killing, Richard Burrill
3
maintains that the Yahi influenced Ned to kill his
“master.” At any rate, Ned openly admitted to the murder to Good’s companions

2
For the first anthropological mention of the “Incident of the Five Bows” see Waterman, T.T. "The
Yana Indians," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology Vol.
13, 1918

3
Burrill, Richard. “Ishi Rediscovered”, Chester, Calif., The Anthro Company, 2001

3
who summarily killed him. After the murder of Good, the Yahi managed to escape
back into the wild. Among them was the sixteen-year old Ishi who went into a forty-
year long exile. The crux of my film is the transition of the half-breed teenager
“Indian Ned” from his slave life into a Yahi warrior, eventually killing Hi Good as
retaliation for the Yahi. This act of vengeance and then later, his confused confession
is meant to symbolize the current dilemma of the hybrid, and transitional identities.
Ned is a mixed-blood poised between Indian and Anglo worlds. His character re-
mains unresolved. The sub-theme deals specifically with the redemption of Hi Good
as a sympathetic American Westerner.

My interest in this particular history began in fourth grade when I first read
Theodora Krober’s, Ishi: The Last of His Tribe.
4
A young-adult book based on the
life of North America’s last wild Indian, who spent thirty years of his life in hiding
among the foot hills of Mt. Lassen. In the year 1911, he was discovered hiding in a
slaughterhouse outside Oroville, California. Subsequently he was taken to the
University of San Francisco and was made a living museum exhibit by Theodora’s
late husband and anthropologist, Alfred Krober. After six short years in the Anglo
American modern world, Ishi died of tuberculosis in 1916 at the age of 62. Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, the leading publisher of textbooks in the
United States, lists Theodora Krober’s book as supplemental reading material for
fourth grade curriculum in California’s public school system. The book presents to

4
Kroeber, Theodora. “Ishi, last of his tribe,” Drawings by Ruth Robbins. Berkeley, Calif., Parnassus
Press 1964.

4
school children a politically correct narrative that would help justify the importance
of the old world in modern society while providing an Indian martyr (not unlike Nazi
Germany’s Anne Frank story) so as to better humanize the atrocities enacted unto the
California Indians some 70 years prior.

Growing up during the 1980’s in Shasta County, Northern California, the idea
of Indians living a wild existence and hiding out among the foothills within the same
century captivated my imagination. My captivation suddenly turned to devastation
when I learned, for the first time through Krober’s book, the tragic fate of all the
California Indians brought on by the pioneers and 49ers of the Gold Rush. The
brilliance of Thoedora’s book was her ability to demonstrate to such a young
textbook-audience the genocide committed some 80 years prior. Before this book, I
was completely unaware of the history of the Californian Indian’s. This would
remain the case throughout my entire public education.

In fourth grade, the history of the California Indian’s is first and only
5

introduced into the states public school system as required curriculum through the
“California Mission Project”. The required curriculum of California Department of
Education for the Mission Project summarizes that; “Students describe the social,
political, cultural, and economic life and interactions among people of California
from the pre-Columbian societies to the Spanish mission and Mexican rancho

5
For a complete list of California’s K-12
th
grade required History class curriculum, see History-Social
Science Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee, “History- Social Science Framework for
California Public Schools” Published by California Department Of Education, 2005.

5
periods”. Out of the 8 listed curriculum requirements, only one deals specifically
with the California Indian perspective during the Spanish inquest. It asks “that
students also discuss the major nations of California Indians, including their
geographic distribution, economic activities, legends, and religious beliefs; and,
describe how they depended on, adapted to, and modified the physical environment
by cultivation of land and use of sea resources”. The California Mission Project
requirements present the Missions as great cultural and economic centers for the
California Indians. While failing to mention that they were used to convert local
Indians to Catholicism, most of the time forcibly. Throughout the Spanish
inquisition, there were many revolts against the Missions by natives. The most
important was the 1824 Chumash revolt
6
, which involved Indians living in the Santa
Barbara Missions. A significant number of Indians fled deep into the “pagan”
interior of the lower San Joaquin Valley, beyond Mexican control. In response to
pleas to return, the leaders of the fugitive community responded “we shall maintain
ourselves with what God will provide us in open country. Moreover, we are soldiers,
stonemasons, carpenters, and we will provide for ourselves, by our work.”

The specific problems in the misrepresentations of California Indians goes
beyond California Indian history, in fact Indians are generally misrepresented in most
American Text books. Helen L. Harris
7
states that descriptions of American Indian’s

6
For a comprehensive history of California Indian Mission revolts see, Jackson, Robert H. “Indians,
Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of the Mission System on California Indians”,
University of New Mexico Press 1996.

7
Harris, Helen L. "On the Failure of Indian Education," Clearing House, 48, 1973

6
are usually limited to six general areas: “noble Savage,” “white man’s helper,”
“Indian Maiden,” “red varmint,” “warrior/fighter,” and “chief”. Harris claims,
“Native Americans are never described, "protesting" or in roles that suggest self-
determinism against the Anglo world. Descriptions, when they do appear, are
superficial, with Native Americans depicted as subordinate characters acted upon by
others. It is white Americans who popularize the plight of "Indians" and who come
to their rescue.” In Theodora’s children’s book, the anthropologist Alfred Krober is
described as a sort of hero to Ishi. Much like Harris’s concerns, the anthropological
museum rescues Ishi from exile in turn, giving his life a historical purpose.

As I continued my public education throughout high school, my interest in
California Indian history prevailed, despite the lack of resources found within the
history-textbooks that I was being tested on. Theodora Kroeber’s second Ishi book
8
,
“Ishi in two worlds: a biography of the last wild Indian in North America”, I found
extremely formative and interesting as it delved further into the history of Massacres
that her young-adult book dared not to. It described in great detail the injustices
inflicted upon the Yahi by local settlers and vigilante parties. This was the text that
prompted my interest in the character of Hi Good, the infamous state sponsored scalp
hunter who lead the many vigilante massacres against the Yahi Indians. While much
of the book is reserved for the telling of Ishi’s life and character within the museum,
forty to fifty years after the genocide occurred, five chapters are reserved to describe

8
Kroeber, Theodora. “Ishi in two worlds: a biography of the last wild Indian in North America,”
With a foreword by Lewis Gannett. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1962

7
the violent conditions before the young Ishi began his long concealment.
Unfortunately, the text never succeeds in providing any answers as to whom these
brute settler characters actually were, and why they had chosen a life path of mass
murdering. This left me with a confusion I would came to call, Ned’s Draw or: The
Murder of Hi Good.

The short instances in which Kroeber does ponder Hi Good’s character, she
quotes the romantic and adventurous texts written by other Indian fighters from the
region. These men fit the worst stereotypes about heartless pioneer death squads:
“After Good had taken all the scalps, he took a buckskin string and sack needle and
tied a knot in the end and salted the scalp and run (sic) the needle through it down to
the knot, then tied another knot about two inches above the scalp and it was ready for
the next one. The string was fastened to his belt and you can imagine a great tall man
with a string of scalps from his belt to his ankle.”
9
Sim Moak and Robert Anderson
10

were both Hi’s contemporaries. Both men went on to write their tall-tale memoirs,
boasting of fighting Indians. Good was of course, murdered while still a young man
and a personal journal has never surfaced. Anderson became sheriff of Butte County
and worked as a lawman for over 30 years. In detailing his exploits some fifty years
later, he styled himself as a mountain man not unlike Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, and
the other great tamers of the Wild West. Theodora goes on to cite Anderson’s body

9
Moak, Sim, “The Last of the Mill Creeks and Early life in Northern California”, Chico, California
1923

10
Anderson, R. A., “Fighting the Mill Creeks, Being a Personal Account of Campaigns Against
Indians of the Northern Sierras”, Chico Record Press, 1909

8
counts as if they were established fact. She wanted to highlight white guilt, and it
suited her to give the most awful numbers possible for the atrocities committed
against the California Indians.

With over one million copies sold of Theodora’s Ishi in two worlds, Ishi has
become the most popular California Indian. Though many California Indians have
similar stories to Ishi’s, theirs haven’t been the subjects of such monumental and
profitable works of historical fiction. The plight of the Plains Indians still remain the
most poplar historical subject in dealing specificity with warring Indians, and
American genocide. Western genre writers like Cormac Mccarthy and Larry
McMurtry continue to be heralded as the most influential and well researched when
dealing with a more contemporary understanding of this gothic American frontier
history. Their books explore such subjects as the Texas Calvary and Custer’s Last
Stand
11
. It’s interesting that these themes seem to re-occur throughout the many
popular genres and institutional forms. A new generation has come again to this
same history with new interpretations and revisions. And yet, the California Indian
Wars remain mostly un-discovered despite an even more volatile and tragic history.
Custer wasn’t even a General; the only United States Army general killed by Indians
was General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby on Good Friday, April 11
th
, 1873. He
was shot in the face during a peace treaty by Captain Jack, the leader of the little
known Modoc war, fought in the lava beds of northern California. California Indians

11
See Mccarthys, “Blood Meridian or: The Evening Redness in the West”, Random House, 1985, or
McMurty’s, “Oh What a Slaughter”, Simon and Schuster, 2005

9
themselves seem to understand the power of referencing Plains Indian history and
iconography, adoring their many casinos with Plains Indian warrior statues and
imagery. This apparently, is a marketing ploy.

Anthropologist Dr. Robert Heizer dedicated his life to writing about the
California Indians Wars and authored of over 15 books specifically on the subject.
He studied under Alfred Kroeber receiving his doctoral degree from the University
of California, Berkley. He states, “it seems to me that California historians have not
been interested in providing the public with the story of what really happened to the
California Indians during the twenty bloody years following the discovery of gold”
12

Nothing is said of California’s cultural artists. In 1979, and once the story of Ishi had
been adapted into a television movie, and a wilderness park was created within his
ancestral lands, Heizer (in the year of his death) urged Theodora Krober to
collaborate on a ethno-historical document titled, “Ishi the Last Yahi: A
Documentary History”. This book is an extensive collection of historical documents
that Theodora merely referenced in her first two books on Ishi.

This new book, for the first time, brought together ethnographic and
anthropological sources to create a near complete version of “The Incident of the
Five Bows”, which became the historical event that ultimately shaped my film. My
initial interest in this event was the realization that it eventually led to Hi’s Murder.

12
Heizer, Robert, “The Destruction of the California Indians”, University of Nebraska Press, 1973

10
On the morning of March 15
th
1870, near by cattleman William Seagraves
13
losses
some cattle and thought that the culprits might be Mill Creek Indians (this was the
pioneer name given to all the local Indian tribes). Seagraves calls upon Hi’s help and
soon Hi is convinced to go back on the trail, ascending Deer creek canyon one last
time. After some hours, they saw a group of seven or more Indians coming
downstream loaded with baskets and freshly gathered acorns. The posse,
undiscovered to the Indians, took positions behind tress with their guns cocked.
What happened follows as Seagraves told it to Waterman: “as the Indians came
abreast of us, we motioned to the squaws to squat down so as not to be in the line of
fire. One old woman, when she saw that the group was covered, did so. A young
woman freed herself of her pack in a flash and started to run. A little girl was also
with the old woman, and was held by the hand. The Old Doctor tried to get away.
Good did the shooting while I called the shots. The first two missed. At the third I
called distance. At the fourth the Old Doctor collapsed.” Seagraves and Good
returned home with their one scalp and their three captives where Indian Ned is told
to watch over the women. Two weeks later (April 1
st
, 1870) the remaining members
of the tribe show up at Seagraves camp bringing with them five staunch bows. With
much formality they lined up while the leader made a speech, at the end of which
each man presented Seagraves with his bow. Seagraves did not know what was being
said, but he knew he was being offered some sort of an exchange for the three
captives. This confusing scene is re- envisioned through Robert Altman style humor,

13
William J. Seagraves, in 1914 during the Pan Pacific of International Exhibition of San Fransisco,
positively identified Ishi to graduate student Thomas Waterman as one of the young warriors who
presented themselves at his cabin during the “Incident of the Five Bows”. Seagraves confession was
first published in its entirety in Ishi: the Last Yahi.

11
(See pages 42-44 of my shooting script). Thoroughly confused about what to do,
Seagraves motioned the Yahi along with him to Good’s sheep camp, hoping to leave
the decision to Good. Good was not at the sheep camp and the Indians settled down
to await his return. There were some of Good’s men there and one of them as
Seagraves told it, “took a notion to weigh himself on a set of steelyards. He throws a
rope over a limb to suspend the steelyards by, when the Indians take a notion that
they are to be hanged. So they all run away are never seen again.”

Thoedora writes, “The ultimate significance of the effort to communicate
with Seagraves is that it was the first occasion so far as is known when any Yahi
made a gesture of compromise and bargaining. The three captives with Good, and
the emissaries from the hills faded into the covering brush, to be seen no more. The
time of the long concealment had come.” The presentation of the five bows was a
climatic last act in Yahi history. Five men, the last five able to string the bow, able to
fight and hunt, laid down their weapons in exchange for peace. Five is the sacred
number of most California Indian tribes. If five was the sacred number of the Yahi,
the peace offering carried added symbolic and formal meaning. The Yahi retreated
deeper into the dark gorges of their homeland, there they constituted what A. L. calls
“the smallest free nation in the world, which by an unexampled fortitude and
stubbornness of character succeeded in holding out against the tide of civilization
twenty-five years longer even than Geronimo’s famous band of Apaches”.
14
But
what happened to the hostages and Indian Ned who was asked to watch over him?

14
Kroeber, A.L., “The Elusive Mill Creeks”, Travel Magazine, 1911

12
Coincidently, Hi was murdered by Indian Ned some two weeks later and shortly
after the hostages were sold to the near by rancher “Carter”. The fact that Kroeber or
Hezier didn’t present Hi’s murder as being a part of the Five Bows baffles me.
Surely his murder and Ned turning traitor has something to do with this historical
event.

My film speculates on the many reasons for Hi’s murder. Providing sub-
versions of this history thus making the film into a literal subversive telling of this
history. Inevitably this attention to remaking narrative leads to questions concerning
history. Not just the history of the frontier but of history in general. What constitutes
history? What are the range of practices that give one history legitimacy over
another? One version explored is that the Yahi sought revenge on Good after their
formality didn’t end in their favor (see pages 48-49 of the shooting script). Could
Theodora have been aware of this likely scenario, but chose instead to not combine
these events? This scenario of revengeful Yahi would not have fit so well into
Kroeber’s peaceful and innocent vision of Ishi and the history of his people. Surely
Dr. Heizer noticed how close the dates were between the “Five Bows” and Good’s
murder. Quite possibly his failing health took precedence of such speculative
theories. The combing of these two events inspired my imagination to create a
mythic and postmodern western story.

13
It was also within the pages of Ishi: the last Yahi, that I found (in the form
of a historical photo), the subject’s of my saga titled, Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of
Hi Good.
Figure 1, “Oroville Gamblers”

Oroville, 1870, From left to right: Sandy Young, Bill Sublett, Hi Good
(seated) and Indian Ned.
Everything I had read about Captain Hi Good in Theodora’s first two books
didn’t prepare me for the information that this one photo gave me. Taken the same
year as his death, Hi looks more like a dandy than the bloodthirsty and hate filled
back woods he-man he is always made out to be. Undoubtedly handsome, Hi’s
contemporary facial hair was the first sign that my preconceived notions of this brute

14
were far from any sort of historical reality. Through this photo I was also
introduced to the character that is the main focus of film: Indian Ned, who is seen
leaning affectingly against the man he is to kill that same year. On the other side of
Hi is Sandy Young, another older half-breed Indian who is leaning affectionately
against him. Sandy was the eventual murder of Ned, in retribution for killing Hi.
Sandy and Hi are also seen holding hands in an earlier picture taken some five years
prior.

Figure 2, Hi Good and Sandy Young, Tehama County, Ca

Hi Good (left) and Sandy young (right) Holding hands.
These two photos are the only existing photos of these infamous historical
characters.

15
Studying the two photos together, I began to imagine a bizarre love
triangle between the characters. One that points to a more complicated and nuanced
understanding of such infamous historical figures. Being such a lack of historical
evidence revolving around these figures, it was of the utmost importance for me to
film my movie in the actual historical landscapes that these characters once
inhabited. In my film, the California western landscape, with its deep dark volcanic
canyon lands, and rolling hills of blue oak and chaparral, stands in place of the actual
people whom the story is about. The western landscape makes visible these
characters ghost’s. Jacques Derrida states that, “a traditional scholar doesn’t believe
in ghosts. Yet as Carlton Smith makes poignant in his book, Coyote Kills John
Wayne,
15
“the western landscape is a place both haunted and haunting. It is landscape
of ghost towns and restless spirits- Native, Anglo, Mexican, black, and Chinese. It
continues to the larger American psyche, bequeathing to us a mythology of frontier
and uninhabited wilderness, of rugged individualism and a blithe belief that
individuals can constantly reinvent themselves.” D. H. Lawrence, however argued
that America itself is haunted. He wrote, “There are terrible spirits, ghosts, in the air
oh America”.
16
Summarily, Hi’s line shack was built on the original site of his sheep
camp for the filming of “Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of Hi Good”.

15
Smith, Carlton, Coyote Kills John Wayne: “Postmodernism and contemporary fictions of the
transcultural frontier”, University Press of New England, 2000

16
Lawrence, D.H., “Studies in Classic American Literature” Reprint, London: Penguin, 1971

16
Figure 3, Hi Good’s Sheep Camp

Film still from “Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of Hi Good”

Today, the site remains a working ranch owned and operated by the Hamilton
brothers of Tehama County, whom I am indented to.

Not only were all the historical accounts of Hi Good the infamous Indian
fighter first officially published within, Ishi the Last Yahi, but also were the dime
novel and hunting periodical fiction writings that placed Good amongst the great
mythic frontiersmen of the times. These works by H.H Sauber
17
, I found most
interesting. They seemed to me, to have been written not by a singular author, more
over they had the feeling of the Icelandic folk sagas that Whipple had referenced. In,

17
Sauber, H.H., “Hi Good and the Mill Creeks”, Overland Monthy, Vol. 30 1897, pp. 122-127

17
“Hi Good and the Mill Creeks”, Sauber describes a great warrior (not unlike the
Icelandic hero Njal, who could jump upwards the distance of his own height, in full
Viking armor); “Looking back I saw Hi Good spring recklessly from a perilous
height and crash into the head of the gorge. A shriek, as of some wild beast, burst
upon the air, followed by a fierce execration from Good; and then with a swish and a
thud a copper-colored body shot violently through vines and shrubs and fell at full
length upon the rocks above the gorge”. It is true that Sauber combined the oral
history from the community when he went to write his fictional accounts of Good.
It’s the voices of the pioneers and settlers that knew and revered Good that help to
create Sauber’s texts.

Sauber’s writings, along with the two photos, became the source material for
my understanding and telling of Hi’s character. Many of Hi’s spoken lines
throughout the film are taken verbatim from Sauber’s texts, such as the ambush
scene in which Hi goes to scalp the old Mill Creek headman. Before doing so, Hi
says, “I guess that dog will quit muttering”. Sauber referred to Hi as the “Boone of
the Sierra’s”, and goes on to describe him as a “swarthy yet handsome tall, dark
man” while admiring his “sinewy lithe figure” and that was “straight as an arrow”.
Hi must have enjoyed his tile as “Boone of the Sierra’s” as it is Sauber who admitted
to the settlers of the region first giving him the name. Part of the myth of the
frontiersman like Boone and Carson, was that they knew their Indian enemy so well,
and they could turn his own weapons against him. In fact, Good prided himself on
speaking several Indian languages. The line between Whites and Indians was not

18
always clear-cut, and if the whites knew something of the Indian ways, the reverse
was always true.

The eventual murder of Hi Good demonstrated the frontier’s society of mixed
genealogies and uncertain allegiances. Hi’s obituary
18
had it that the Sioux had killed
Good’s wife while crossing the plains in route to California, turning Good into the
most pitiless of the pioneers when it came to the Indians. Even so, the two photos
show that he was quite close with his mixed blood farm hands. Further investigation
shows that there are no existing marriage records for the man. Another Obituary
from a near by paper reports states that it was in fact his father that was killed by
Indians.
19
But, a census report form Ohio found by historian Richard Burrill shows
that Hi’s father outlived his son for many years. Through the gathering of this
information, it soon became apparent to me that, unlike Boone and Carson, Hi Good
was a living result of the frontier mythos. He helped in creating and shaping the true
and un-true stories that surrounded him. It would have been a childhood dream of his
to become a western hero, and so he established himself on the only and final
frontier; California. It is worth mentioning that he was aided by a great technological
advancement, which was essential in aiding him to kill Indians effortlessly; the first
repeating rifle dubbed “the Henry”. The more I researched this character the more I
realized how difficult it would be to give any sort of truthful representation. Not
simply because the character hadn’t ever written a first hand account of his life

18
“Killed by Indians” (Hi Good’s Obituary). May 14
th
, 1870, The Weekly Butte Record.

19
Burrill, Richard, “Hunting for Hi Good” Chester, Calif., The Anthro Company, 2005

19
before his death, but because the man himself chose to allow himself to become
the subject of mythic lore amongst the settlers and Indians. It is through this type of
narrative gaming that I approached my subject and I challenge my viewer to engage
in this process of continuously remaking of the West as did the actual HI Good.

Good had grown up in Ohio and was an educated young man, working as a
hotel clerk before he came to the gold fields of California. The Indians wars of Ohio
had long past by the time he was born, and he had enjoyed listening to his family’s
exploits of Indian fighting. In order to illustrate Good as sympathetic character, I
chose to start the film in 1870 and long after Hi has retired from Indian hunting. It
had been five years since his last massacre of the Yahi, in which he supposedly
killed Ishi’s Father. He is now living a banal, uneventful existence and is found in a
state of decay .

20
Figure 4, Ned Shaving Hi

Fillm still from Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of Hi Good. “Ned shaving Hi”.

This banal existence is further emphasized when the character of William
Seagraves arrives at Seagraves cabin and tries to convince Hi to go back on the trail,
but convincing Hi to go kill Indians is harder than it seems. Living out the myth of
western hero has only made Hi into a decadent man from a bygone era. He would
rather stay at home, having his half-breed Indian slave wait on him as he smokes
Opium.

I was interested in emphasizing though my film, the idea that both Good and
the Yahi could no longer exist in the changing California of 1870. The settlers and
Indians from this era are irredeemable. Hi is never going to change, his past weighs

21
too heavy on his character, and the Indians have lost their fight long before my
story begins. After the completion of the transcontinental railroad, and the winning
of the civil war by the Union, California was quickly becoming domesticated and
their remained no room for “brutes” like Good or “savages” such as the Mill Creek
Indians. The winning of the West had only brought Hi boredom and banality. For it
was not easy. His fleeting taste of frontier-ism that was momentarily much too sweet
now leaves a bitter taste. It is as if the thought of it made him weary and withdrawn.
Once back on the trail, Hi reverts to his old self, forgetting how novel Indian hunting
can actually be. The men assume their old roles and begin to play their child like
games of killing and hunting. Seagraves, in my film, and in the historical accounts
seems to have conjured this whole episode out of his own boredom. Historically the
hunting party never does find his cattle, nor is there is any mention of cattle once the
Indians are spotted.

Hi and his henchmen view killing Indians as a fun sport. They saw the
Indians as lesser forms not unlike how we might view coyotes today. But Hi, unlike
the goons that hang around his property, has a certain affection and understanding
for Ned. Through Hi’s relationship with Ned, we begin to see that Hi has a more
complicated respect and for the Indians. This coincides with Ned learning that he has
more complicated respect for the Natives. Throughout the film Ned realizes that he is
being lied to about who he is. His self-realization and power comes when he learns
that he is branded as a slave, or an object owned by Hi much like the native hostages.

22
Through a series of montages and dreams, the native women brand Ned by using
their bear medicine on him.

Figure 5, Grizzly Bear Cult Medicine

Film still from, Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of Hi Good, “Grizzly
Bear Cult medicine”.

23

Figure 6, Ned’s Branding

Film still from, Ned’s Draw or: The Murder of Hi Good, “Ned’s branding”

Ned eventually emerges as a hero by killing Hi in retaliation for the Yahi. The
expectations of the narrative are thwarted when he is never fully accepted as an
Indian (see page of the 63-64 of the shooting script). After killing Hi, Ned confesses
and begins to cry. He regrets shooting Good but soon becomes prideful when he gets
attention from Hi’s goon squad. This complex set of actions and emotions represent
the complicated histories from which Ned’s character was born. Ned as a character
remains unresolved like the collision of the modern Anglo world and the old, Native
world.

24

Many Native Americans are coming to terms with who they were in history
and who they are in the present. Part of this exploration and understanding requires
the restoring of true gothic histories, and of stories of anarchy and resistance. For the
Native’s of California, the stories now being told of the massacres are what help give
their lives purpose. Such is the case of Sally Bell, a Sinkyone woman who recently
published (in horrid detail) how her family was murdered in front of her; “My
grandfather and all of my family- my mother and father and me- were around the
house and not hurting anyone. Soon, about ten o’clock in the morning, some white
men came. They killed my grandfather and my mother and my father. I saw them do
it. I was a big girl at the time. Then they killed my baby sister and cut her heart out
and threw it in the brush where I ran and hid. My little sister was a baby, just
crawling around. I did’nt know what to do. I was so scared that I just hid there a long
time with her heart in my hands.”
20
As it is with the constructed nature of history, as
Californians we are forced to re-think or re-remember history, borrowing the
communication systems of the past but arranging them in alternative patterns. The
mapping of history is revealed as both arbitrary and illusory. This new genre is
California or, the Californian frontier and the history therein.

20
Margolin, Malcolm, “The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs and Reminiscences”,
Heyday Books, 1993

25

Chapter 2
The Shooting Script

Ned’s Draw or The Murder of Hi Good
When the Spaniards arrived in what is now California 250,000 Indians speaking 135
different languages had called the region home for over 8,000 years.

By the California Gold Rush, most had been either murdered or driven to
reservations where many died of starvation and disease.

A few groups of survivors escaped to eke out a hardscrabble existence in some of
northern California’s roughest terrain. Referred to collectively as “the Mill Creeks”
these Indians were forced by hunger to rob settler’s cabins and kill their cattle. In the
process, some tribes killed white property owners while other, peaceful tribes
confined themselves to occasional theft.

Bands of Indian hunters formed to purge the countryside of these “renegade”
Indians. Among the most famous was Hiram “Hi” Good, who had crossed the plains

26
from Ohio. Good defended the Workman family at the Three Knolls massacre,
after English sovereigns were stolen, and two white women were murdered.

By 1867, with the Mill Creeks believed to be all but extinct, and the state’s bounty
on scalps withdrawn, Good settled down to try his hand as a sheep rancher, buying as
an indentured servant a half Indian boy named “Ned.”

Good’s ranch bordered the hills where a few remaining peaceful Yahi Indian’s
struggled to survive off the land.

Act 1

Tehama County, California, March 15th 1870.
Ext. Hi Goods cabin and pasture at dawn, a crude cabin stands amongst a herd of
sheep. The small rolling knolls are littered with volcanic rocks.

Int. Hi Good’s Cabin. Morning
Indian Ned, Hi Good’s indentured servant is hammering the floorboards in
the corner of the cabin. Ned replaces the small wood stove, and sets the flume back
together. The sound of dozens of sheep can be heard outside the cabin wall.
Hi Good: That’s fine Ned, now these maggots are grazing to close to
the stead. Better Git scab herd’n.

27
Ned ducks out the cabin door as it bangs behind him. Hi Good lays down on his
cot, staring up at the ceiling. His bare feet rest on the frame.
The door bangs back open
Ned: Sorry Hi, but I’as just watchin Billy show’n up on the sky line, and
he’s towing his cribber.
Good: Wonder why he’s huntin strays this late ‘n winter?
Good gets out of bed, pulls on his boots and follows Ned back out side.
Ext. Hi Goods cabin
From atop the bluff comes Hi Goods neighbor, William Seagraves.
Seagraves: Halloo…Hi, Hi. Seems the last of em Mill Creeks got
some of my beeves last night. God dam gut eaters!
Good: Aw that’s bunkum, cant be Mill Creeks, I finished em all off in
65. ‘Sides, Aint my problem no more.
Seagraves: I can’t make it to spring with out those beeves, you gotta
help me, you’re my only hope.
Good: You know I haven’t been gunnin’ diggers nigh ‘pon five years
now.
Seagraves pulls a broken arrow shaft out of his scabbard showing it to Good
Seagraves: I found one of these near my trough…
Good: (examining the workmanship) Guess some ‘dem nits made
lice…(laughs)
Seagraves: I’d give my range word its Mill Creeks, ‘sides they may
have that killin gold stolen from the Workmen.

28
Good: I guess I gotta ride herd on ‘em… could be a hoot, and
there’s no time like the present. Lets git b’fore the tracks go cold .
Int. Goods canvas cabin.
Montage sequence of Hi tossing aside his bedroll made of sewn Indian
scalps, and pulling out his “war sack” from beneath the cot. He proceeds to dress in
his “Indian hunting outfit”, a Boone esq yellow buckskin’s complete with leggings of
Indian scalps sewn down the side. Finally, he polishes his Henry repeating rifle
(Golden Boy model), and takes a long draw off his opium pipe. Before exiting the
cabin he fixes himself in the mirror.

Ext. Good’s Cabin. Day.
Ned works a sheep by the stable.
Good slams out of his cabin, copper-plated Henry rifle in hand, yelling:
Good: Ned, you son of a rooster. Mount up Buck. We’re gonna hunt
yer kin. Shake George and Bill out the hay. Tell em to bring their
rods.
Ned obeys, muttering.
Ext. Hi Goods stable
Goods long time mentor Obe Fields, (an old time oxen driver, and Goods mountain
man-mentor) struggles to mount his horse,
Obe: I can’t cut her boys, my knees be jes to stiff to mount this dink…
Hi Good chuckles at Obe. Seagraves darts his eyes to the ground. Ned helps Obe
down off his horse.

29

Ext. Deer Creek Canyon. Dusk.
The Four horseman, George and Bull (Goods goon ranch hands), Seagraves,
and Good, ascend Deer creek canyon. Indian Ned rides a mule behind.
Hunting dog’s straggle from the party, their whines echo in the gathering dusk. The
party halts atop Deer Creek falls.
Good announces that they will proceed on foot; they tie up their horses.
Seagraves: What? If my beeves made it through here, why not our
horses?
Good: You clack like a biddy. Here. Pull some a this.
Good hands Seagraves a bottle of moonshine; Seagraves takes a long gulp.
Good drinks lustily, too. Soon he is drunk and ornery. Seagraves, nervous in
the presence of Good, begins to pry him for Indian fighting stories.
Good: During these severe days our rations consisted principally of
sugar. Each man could carry enough to last him several days, and, eked out
with manzanita berries, this ration really kept us in good strength. The time
ordinarily spent in cooking was saved and gave us that much more time for
the business of following the trail. We soon got in the habit of keeping our
hunger appeased by frequently dipping into our little sugar sacks, and not
infrequently followed the trail for ten or even twelve hours at a stretch
without a single stop of more than a few minutes' duration. When it grew too
dark for us to read the ground sign, we had but to scrape together a pile of
leaves or pine needles and sleep until daylight should come again, and then

30
proceed on our way. We made camp at a little spring near the present site
of the Cole place on the Cohasset ridge. The next morning we Crossed Chico
Creek Canyon and finally discovered what seemed to be a large camp at or
near the present site of the Forest Ranch. After a careful study of the ground,
we returned to our camp. On this return trip we ran upon an Indian scout,
and after a long, hard chase, killed him. I carried his scalp to camp with us,
this being the first trophy I had taken in the campaign. Upon receiving my
report, Captain Breckenridge at once gave orders for an advance. Of course,
we had to move in the night. It was a weary climb out of Chico Creek
Canyon in the darkness, but we made it and succeeded in surrounding the
hostile camp before daylight. Our number being limited and having a pretty
large circle to form, it left us separated, man from man, by spaces of about
seventy-five yards. As the gray dawn melted into daylight, the outlines of the
camp became clearer. It was evidently a permanent meeting place, as there
were signs of its having been frequently occupied. Directly in front of me
and standing something like a hundred yards apart were two lofty pine trees,
trimmed of branches except for small tufts of foliage on their tops, and, what
was my surprise, as the heavens grew brighter, to behold a large American
flag depending from the top of each tree. The Indians, as we afterward
learned, had been enjoying a celebration in company with their friends from
Butte Creek, and did not prove to be early risers. The sun had crept up to the
tops of the pines on the hill east of us before there was any stir in the camp.
Then a man emerged from a cluster of little firs and came shuffling up the

31
trail directly toward where I lay. Captain Breckenridge had not yet given
the signal to commence firing, so I slipped around my tree in order to
remain hidden. As the man approached and passed me, I perceived that he
was not an Indian, but a Spaniard. However, birds flocking together on this
occasion were to be considered birds of a feather. The man had got but a few
paces past me when my rifle spoke, and the Spaniard, wounded, sprang back
toward the camp. As he ran another rifle over on the other side of our circle
cracked, and he fell dead. The camp was roused. In a twinkling, up the
Indians sprang, men, women and children, and as if with one impulse they
swarmed up the slope directly toward where I lay. In a moment I was
enveloped in the wild stampede. I shot and then clubbed my rifle and
struggled against the rush. The balance of our party were pouring shots into
them and they soon began to seek shelter amid the logs and thickets of small
forest trees. Our orders from Breckenridge had been to allow no one to
break through the circle, but to spare the women and children. This was a
most difficult program to carry out. The bucks were armed and were
returning our fire. The squaws soon perceived that we were seeking to spare
their lives, and so they clung to the bucks. This made it difficult to get a
bead upon the one without endangering the other. Seeing that this state of
affairs would not do, we sent word from man to man around to the captain
and asked him for new orders. Soon the word came back: "Let the squaws
and children pass out.” We were soon to learn that the order was a serious
mistake. A warrior would wrap himself in a blanket, throw another blanket

32
or a basket over his head, with a rifle concealed next his body, seize a
child by the hand, or hoist one upon his back, and go shuffling past us.
Soon we came in possession of the camp. There was not a bad Indian to be
found, but about forty good ones lay scattered about. Two barrels, partly
filled with whiskey, were in the camp, as well as other evidences which
pointed to the fact that whites had joined with the redskins in the recent
celebration. We soon took our departure for our own camp across Chico
Creek, each man well burdened with plunder from the captured camp. I had
found three good six-shooters, which I thrust under my belt, thinking these to
be about as useful as anything to be had.

Seagraves: Was it true that you became a captain to avenge the
murder of your wife by plains Indians, when you was first set’n out west?
Bull: What? I heard that was your brother! You aint never had no
catalogue woman… right Hi?
Good: Your both wrong, it was my pa who was murdered, but not
b’fore he was tortured, and the red devils tied me up and made me watch. (pulling
out his bowie knife, and pointing towards Seagraves) It was my pappy, and if you
here any one tell’n that story, you make sure and set them right. Square?
Seagraves: Sorry Hi, were square.
Good: I did it for my country, and I did it for the future, so that no
more a sorry fool will have such a dirty job as I did.
Silhouetted against the sunset, Good urinates off the falls.

33
Good: Sun’s fallin…lets cut a swath…But not ere we paint for war.
The hunting party uses a mixture of black gun-powder and creek water to blacken
their hands, faces, and guns.
Good: (to Seagraves) Keep you eye open, young fellow, and don’t
lose your head, and you’ll double up a mill creek yet ‘fore you get home.

In extreme slow-motion, the four hunters crest a piney ridge, their dogs
surging before them.
Six Yahi Indians (five women, one man) approach from the opposite ridge,
carrying baskets of acorns and berries.
Camera pulls back to reveal Good hiding behind a rock.
The hunters lie in wait as the merry, chattering group creeps towards their doom.
As they near the hunter’s ambush, Good steps into their path, letting out an Indian
war cry.
Two younger women flee.
An older woman pulls a toddler and a pregnant teenager to the ground with her.
The only male, an old, one-handed medicine man, makes for the hills.
Good takes four shots at the absconding target; Seagraves calls distance.
The fourth shot blows the old man to bits as he leaps from a rock; his handless arm
spins in the dusky air.
Drawing his bowie knife, Good walks over the dead man and pulls him up by
the hair.

34
Seagraves: Why the hell you wanna bark him? They ain’t shelling out
coin for fleece no more, Hi.
Good looks at Seagraves then out at horizon, letting the dead body sag as he
thinks. Finally, Good shrugs and takes the scalp as Seagraves wrinkles up his face
and turns away.
Good turns to George, Bull and Ned.
Good: Take this lot back to the station. We’re gonna find that camp.
As the three men press on into the canyon, Good stops to admire a White
Admiral butterfly perched on a cattail bobbing in the evening breeze.
Bull packs the native toddler on his back.

Ext. Deer Creek Canyon. Later.
Good and Seagraves crawl up a sharp rise. As they peer over the ridge, the
camera pans to reveal an Indian encampment; its inhabitants appear to be elsewhere
for the moment. The 360 shot comes to rest on the two hunters sifting through one
of the smoldering fires. A wary camp dog hides in a bush watching the raiders.
Two Yahi Indians, an old man and a teenage warrior are returning to the
camp, spy the white men and scramble away.
Seagraves: Them’s the diggers that stole my beeves, I’ll plug em!
He takes aim with his rifle; Good pushes the barrel aside.
Good: Stay your hand, These noble creatures may yet lead us to the
lost workmen treasure. They’ll shell out to ransom their squaws.

35
Good and Seagraves overtake the old man. Good forces him to the top of a
large rock and bribes him with a gold piece to call his tribesmen back to camp.
Instead, the old man cries out a warning in his native language to the Indians. The
three men wait together.
When no one returns, the old man assures the hunters that his people will
return by morning.

Ext. Deer Creek Canyon. Night.
The men squat around a fire. Good cleans his rifle and beds down.
Seagraves: Aren’t you worried about the digger?
Good: He ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Dawn. The old man asks the hunters’ permission to try again to reach his
people; they agree. The old man mounts the boulder, cries out, and scurries away.
Segraves starts after him, but Good pulls him back.
Good: No worry. We still have their breeding stock.
The hunters return to their horses and bid farewell.
Good: If they show themselves on your land, send word to me… and
keep it dark.

Ext. Good’s Ranch. Day.
Cradling his rifle, Ned sleeps in a chair outside the stable holding the
hostages.
Good approaches, kicking the chair out from under Ned.

36
Good: If you wanna come buck the tiger tonight you best do your
chores.
Booting Ned’s sheep dog, Good walks away.
Ned: Forgive me, Hi. Them witches must’ve hypnotized me.

Ext. Good’s Ranch. Day.
Ned switches his post with Obe and goes to attend to his chores.

Ext. Gambling Tent. Night.
Good, Sandy Young (Hi’s closest friend, an Indian rancheria foreman), and
Ned disembark with their horses and mule from the ferry and walk into a large
glowing canvas tent. Soon they are among the swirling, drunken, motley crowd of
Indians, whites, blacks, Chinese, cowboys, miners, freemasons, confederate KKK
soldiers, and Lemurians. They pass bear-baiters, bare-knuckle boxing, sword-
swallowers, fire-eaters, ghost dancers, and other exotic entertainments. Through tent
flaps they glimpse opium dens, strip shows, sex shows, freak shows, Faro card
games, and Russian roulette showdowns. Peddlers hawk their wares: whiskey,
absinthe, laudanum, marijuana, peyote, Indian girls, Indian boys, knives and guns.
The incongruous image of a man hauling a rough-hewn wooden cross through this
Sodom inspires us briefly. Then we see a wheel fixed to the foot of the cross to
relieve his burden; he melts into the crowd. The scene ends with a mirror being
broken by a whiskey bottle.

37
Ext. Good’s Cabin. Night.
Good, Young, and Ned stumble back home. After sending Ned to keep
watch over their prisoners, Good persuades Young to spend the night, insisting it’s
too late to take off his “heifer brand (a white handkerchief tied around a man’s arm
to designate that he is to play the part of a female at a dance). He insists that they
“cut the bed”

Int. Good’s Stable. Night.
Ned inspects the sleeping Indians. The younger Indian woman wakes and
motions that she is thirsty. Ned goes to fetch water.

Int. Good’s Cabin. Night.
Young climbs into bed. Good slips in behind Young, spooning him.

Int. Good’s Stable. Night.
Ned returns with a bucket of water. As he ladles the young Woman water,
she squeezes his hand and looks him in the eye. Ned drops the bucket and hurries
from the stable.

Ext. Good’s Ranch. Ext.
Ned dashes across the yard to Good’s cabin.

Int. Good’s Cabin. Night.

38
Ned flings the door open.
Ned: My apologies, Hi, but them witches aim to hypnotize me again!
Good: Confound you, Ned! They’re likely slipping their hobbles as we
speak. Get back to your post, you blackguard.
Ned stumbles back outside.

Ext. Feather River. Dusk.
Gaggles of geese black out the evening sky.
Good, Young, and Ned ride the crude river sift back to the mining camp.
The boat cuts a swath through the millions of fallen goose feathers floating
on the river’s surface.

Ext. Gambling Tent. Night.
More scenes of madness and autonomy.
A traveling photographer tries to entice passerby to commemorate the
evening.
Good and Young consent to pose. Ned stands on the sideline until the
photographer urges him to stand with his party; Ned demurs.
Good: Don’t mind him, my good man. He’s half dirt-worshipper. Afeard
your contraption will steal his eternal soul.
He and Sandy laugh. Ned accepts the challenge and poses.
Good: Don’t be a piker, Ned. Leastways, look like you’re one of the boys.
He stuffs a cigar in his mouth and forces Ned’s hand onto his shoulder.

39
The photographer takes the picture.
Later, Good and Young chase after a young Indian boy wearing a dress.
Ned stops to watch a shadow-play of Macbeth. The crude, angular Weird
Sisters captivate him.
All Three Witches
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
MACBETH
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
What is't you do?

All Three Witches
A deed without a name.

MACBETH
I conjure you, by that which you profess,
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:

40

First Witch
Speak.

Second Witch
Demand.

Third Witch
We'll answer.
MACBETH
Tell me, thou unknown power,--
All Three Witches
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.

MACBETH
That will never be

41
Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!
Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood
Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
To time and mortal custom.

Ext. Gambling Tent. Night.
Good and Young drink absinthe and watch Grizzly Bear-cult members fight.
Good holds Young’s hand while a native transvestite sucks him off.

Ext. Good’s Ranch. Night.
Two native men, the old man and the teenage warrior, hide in a stand of trees
watching Obe as he dozes in front of the stable.
A horse ambles up to the stable with Ned asleep in the saddle.
The natives duck down in the underbrush.
The horse slurps water at the trough; the sound rouses Ned.
He slides off his horse and sticks his head in the trough.

Int. Good’s Stable. Night.
Dripping wet, Ned enters and stares at the sleeping captives.
The younger woman stirs, her eyes fluttering open.
Slowly, Ned lowers himself to the ground and stretches out.

42
He and the woman blink drowsily at each other.

Int. Whore Tent. Night.
Good sways drunkenly as two pubescent Indian girls strip off his clothes.
Young sits in the corner in his union suit swigging from an absinthe bottle.
A warped “looking glass” distracts Good and he stares at his reflection.
He inspects the markings on his torso: scars of gunshot, knife wounds and
Masonic tattoos.
One of the girls kneels and begins to service him; he hardly notices.
Young giggles from the corner, brandishing the green absinthe bottle.
Young: Que paso, Hi? Has the Green Witch flown away with your pecker?
Good looks down at his flaccid penis.
He looks up at the glass and sees a strapping young brave staring back at him.
Good throws his empty green bottle at the looking glass; it shatters.

Ext. Forest. Night.
Ned wanders through the trees. He follows the sound of crackling logs.
Soon he sees the flickering light of a fire emanating out the entrance hole of a
large, underground roundhouse.
Ned stops and strains to hear a low, thrumming faraway in the woods. The
faint snapping of trees and brush punctuates the whirlwind sound.
He peeks into the earthen hole and sees the three female captives grouped
around a large caldron over the fire.

43
Hideously made-up and crudely decorated as grizzly bear-cult members,
the women wail the Yahi “Song of the Dead” as they stir the roiling brew;
All three women:
He takes one person at a time.
They shut the door and climb up the sky.
They don’t believe it.

The witches notice Ned peering in on them, and prophesize to him that he
will die a “Yahi Death”
The whirlwind increases in volume. Ned turns and sees a God-head made of
Skins cutting a swath through the distant trees. The head pushes through the
forest with such force, even the largest trees in its path snap and break at their
roots.

Int. Good’s Stable.
Ned opens his eyes to see the oldest Yahi woman holding the sleeping child;
she sings the last lines of the “Yahi Song of the Dead” under her breath:
“They go back down, go down and walk, the dead,
Walk around on the ground.
Then they whirl,
A whirlwind, people say”.

44

Ext. Pasture. Day.
Ned herds Good’s flock of sheep with a dog.
The three captive women and the girl sit bound together with leather and
chain hobbles.
The younger woman lifts her bark skirt to pee. Ned stops what he’s doing
and goes over to watch her.
Dropping to his hands and knees, he crawls over and watches the rivulet of
urine twist through the grass.
Creeping up behind her, he places a hand on her back; she stops peeing.
He tips her forward gently and examines her bare crotch.
Suddenly, she spins and slaps Ned’s face.
Stunned, Ned stares at her a moment; he scurries back to the flock.

Ext. Pasture. Day.
Clouds in the afternoon sky.
Ned sprawls on his back in the grass watching them drift by.
The dog at his side perks up his ears and chases after a passing rabbit.
Ned bolts up and curses at the dog.
The charging dog spooks the flock; the sheep peel off to one side revealing
the teenage warrior crawling on his belly toward the captives.
Ned scrambles to his feet and grabs his rifle.

45
The teenager rises slowly and steadily to his feet and squares off with Ned.
Ned edges toward him brandishing his rifle; he whoops and hollers to scare
the teenager away.
Holding his ground, the teenager gently lays his bow and quiver on the
ground.
Ned stops at a safe distance and continues to thrust his rifle at the teenager.
The teenager gazes calmly into Ned’s eyes.
Ned yells and shakes his rifle, but his bluster gradually loses steam.
Suddenly, the younger Yahi woman calls to the teenager; she beckons to him.
Slowly, the teenager moves toward her, holding Ned’s gaze the while.
Desperate, Ned curses at him and orders him to freeze; he aims the rifle at the
teenager.
The younger Yahi woman thrusts her hand at Ned and motions for him to
lower his weapon.
As if hypnotized, Ned obeys; he points the barrel at the ground and watches.
The teenager caresses the 2 women, murmuring to them. He unbinds the
younger Woman’s wrists and massages the grooves they’ve cut into her skin.
In Yahi dialect, the young warrior tells the women and child not to worry, he
and the rest of the men intend to surrender.
Hearing distant hoof-beats, Ned backs up to peek over the rise; he sees Good
on horseback approaching at a gallop.
Ned looks beseechingly at the teenager who nods and re-binds the younger
woman’s wrists before melting into the trees.

46
Soon, Good arrives in a huff.
Good: You half-breed, half-ass! What are my sheep doing over on
Seagraves’s spread? That goddamn dog’s doing a better job punching mutton
than you! I’m like to promote him and send you packing!
Ned hurries after the flock.
Good dismounts and offers the ladies peppermint candies.

Ext. Good’s Ranch. Dusk.
Ned helps Good and Young ready their horses for a journey.
Good: Hear me, Ned. While I’m in Chico I want those three ewes felled.
He mounts his horse.
Good: And be warned: whatever those squaws suffer under your hand, you
will suffer under mine from soda to hock.
Ned watches Good and Young trot away.

Title Card:
April 1
st
1870
Incident of the Five Bows

Ext. Seagraves Cabin. Dusk.
Seagraves comes outside, picking his teeth after dinner.
He lights a cigar and heads for the outhouse.

47
Leaving the door wide-open to admire the sunset, Seagraves drops his
trousers and sits down.
Soon his view is invaded by shadowy figures; it’s the natives.
Coming from either side they converge and array themselves before the open
door of the outhouse: seven men and five women in ceremonial regalia.
Seagraves sits watching in dumb wonder, his smoking cigar clenched in his
teeth.
Five men step forward and with unstrung bows. The teenage warrior, Ishi, is
of their number.
As they string the bows in unison, the old man begins to speak in Yahi.
Old Man: These five bows are the traditional peace offering of our people.
We hope that you will accept them along with our proposal.
Seagraves: Hold on, now, old-timer. I don’t speak Digger. Tell them to put
up those weapons there!
Old Man: We will all surrender in exchange for the freedom of our captive
women and safe passage to Nom Lackee reservation.
Seagraves: Put up those bows!
The men finish stringing the bows and lay them on grass before the outhouse.
Seagraves: Good. Now. Let’s talk sensible.
Old Man: We offer this in confidence of your fair nature and noble bearing.
They all bow their heads at Seagraves.
Seagraves stares at them then rips up a sheet of paper and closes the door to
wipe him self.

48
The natives exchange uneasy looks.
The outhouse door bangs open and Seagraves appears cinching up his pants.
Seagraves: Listen, I told you I don’t speak Digger Spanish (Spigger) and I
don’t want to buy any a these here bows. If you aim to get your women folk
back, well, you’d better speak to Hi Good on that account. But I don’t think
he wants any bows, nuther. Now take all this bunch here and go talk to Hi
Good. He’s the one that wanted to lock up those squaws up in the first place.

Dumbfounded at the white man, the natives stare at Seagraves.
Seagraves: You diggers are just like a bunch a dumb children, ain’t you? I
guess I’ll have to lead you by your grubby little hands. Hold on, let me get
my hat.
Seagraves ducks into his cabin to turn down the lamp and grab his hat. He emerges
and walks off towards Good’s. He turns to see the natives standing quietly in a
circle.
Seagraves: Well, come along you dirt heads!
He continues on. The natives talk amongst themselves and decide to send only the
five warriors with the bows.

Ext. Deer Creek. Dusk.
As the sun sets, Seagraves walks the path to Good’s muttering; the natives
follow at a distance.

49
Ext. Good’s Place. Night.
Good’s hands (George and Bill) work near the woodpile.
Splitting logs and sweating, George glowers at Bill who just whittles away
intently on a piece of wood.
Bill: George!
Bill holds up his handiwork; a detailed penis carved out of wood.
George: Well, bully for you, Bill. You finally got one of your own. You
want to pitch in here? It’s getting dark.
Bill: You ever get the feeling Hi doesn’t like us?
George: Well, he may not like you, but he’s partial to me, I guess.
Bill: Then why is it we’re out here slaving away, while that half-breed gets to
put his feet up and watch a couple squaws?
He gestures across the yard where Ned sits in front of the stable.
George: Give the matter some thought, Bill. Hi just wants to keep those
bitches to himself. He knows if he dangled those squaws under the noses f two
studs like ourselves, we’d lick their bones clean. It’s just our nature. And Hi being
of a like nature, appreciates that. Don’t mean he’s not fond of us. That half-breed
poof couldn’t find the poontang with a guide, a mule, and a waybill.
Seagraves (O.S.): Hallooo!
George and Bill turn to see Seagraves and his parade of Indians approaching.
George: Go wake up Obe…Go!
Bill staggers backward and dashes for the bunkhouse.
George: Ned! Bring us that bird-gun! Make haste!

50
Ned jogs over and passes the shot-gun to George.
George breaks the gun to check the shells, then snaps it closed and raises the
barrels as Seagraves arrives.
Seagraves: Put it up, George. These diggers aren’t on the warpath. They
wish to ransom their squaws with these bows here.

George: Are the bows made of solid gold?
Seagraves: Of course not.
George: Then what in hell would Hi want with em?
Seagraves: Christ, George it wasn’t my idea. It’s digger logic. Go and fetch
Hi, let him haggle with em.
Bill runs up with Obe; both men carry rifles.
Obe: Hi went calking cement in Ophir city with Sandy… had some
automaton show they was wantin to see, He won’t return till late. (he turns to Ned)
Get back to your post you camp dog. (handing him the shot-gun)
Obe returns to the cabin, as George and Bill, hoping to impress Good,
interrogate the natives about the location of the “killing gold.” When their questions
are met with innocent shrugs, the two farmhands decide to start hanging their
captives until one of them cracks. Seagraves protest to the hanging stating that he
doesn’t think its right to be “playing Judge Lynch” with the warriors. Gorge and Bill
respond by asking Seagraves how far he’s willing to go in order to defend the
natives. Seagraves quickly backs down against the brutes, but before leaving, his
eyes are met with the intense gaze of the youngest Yahi warrior (Ishi), who is also

51
taller and lighter in complexion than the other Yahi. Soon after Seagraves leaves,
George and Bill hem and haw about which one to hang first, and where, and how,
obviously shrinking from the task at hand. Finally, on the pretext of fetching a coil
of stronger rope, they head out to the whiskey still to steel themselves for the raw
work at hand. In their absence they lock the warriors with the women in the stable
and leave Ned to guard them all.

After struggling with his conscience and the enigmatic gaze of the old
woman, Ned rashly decides to free the captives. The warriors don’t comprehend the
danger and refuse to go until Ned takes Ishi aside and makes his meaning clear.
Panic breaks out as the natives flee for their lives, and Ned, fearing Good’s wrath,
must fight to make sure that only the men go while the women remain. Striking
several confused warriors, he finally succeeds in chasing them off and containing the
female prisoners.
George and Bill return stinking of whiskey and thirsty for blood. Finding the
warriors gone, they fall first on the hostages, then quickly subvert their anger onto
Ned, taking out years of resentment. As they pass the bottle and switch off on the
beating, Good appears, melting out of the trees. George and Bill rat out Ned and
invite Good to join in the fun. Fuming, Good spurs his horse to a gallop and bears
down on the scene apparently to take over the beating. But when he leaps from his
horse Good attacks George, thrashing him within an inch of his life. After doing the
same to Bill, Good rushes to Ned’s side and holding him tenderly in a pieta pose.

52
Act 2

After Ned’s shared beating with the hostages he begins to experience an
identity crisis. He becomes withdrawn from the rest of Good’s band, and begins to
notice more the suffering of the Indian women.
Ned is seen eating a meal with Good and his bunch, though he eats on the
floor next to the hostages.
Good marks this change in Ned, Telling him to “hit the timber line”, and
sends him herding the sheep to the spring grazing grounds alone, but before doing
so, he makes a big show of giving Ned a new jacket for the cold.
With the hostages gone, Ishi the youngest Yahi warrior tries to win over Ned
by meeting with him secretly in his sheep camp and showing him the native ways,
(making bows, arrow heads out of bottle glass, showing him the fire hand drill, and
how to call various animals while hunting). Ned is awed by the potential of another
world existing in the not too distant hills and the Yahi warrior culture appeals to him
significantly.
Good marks this change again in Ned who begins to wear the native gifts
given to him by Ishi.

Ned is alone in the sheep camp when his sheep dog corners a rattle snake,
Ned quickly runs over pull his dog away when he is stuck by the snake, and falls
down screaming in agony. Ishi who is on his way to rendezvous with Ned, hearing
his cries comes running to the scene. In this short amount of time, Ned’s leg has

53
swollen immensely and his dog franticly licks the froth from Ned’s mouth. After
examining his leg, Ishi runs away and quickly returns with a small, freshly dead toad,
that he binds to Ned’s leg. Soon the pain subsides, and Ned falls into a deep sleep.
He awakens later in the night, next to Ishi and a warm fire. Ned is feeling better,
even though a bit delirious, and gets a notion to return the favor to his native friend.
Pulling from his sack, he presents Ishi with the photo of himself taken earlier in the
gambling tent. The young warrior has never scene a photograph before and is
dumbfounded. An intense vision is seen subliminally of a California Indian gaming
casino of the future. Its facade consists of a giant, California Indian basket, with
beams of light shooting out of it. Cars riddle the parking lot. Ishi explains to Ned that
if he helps free the hostages, elder uncle will offer Ned refuge in his tribe.

Ned, Ishi, elder uncle, and a few other Yahi warriors attempt to raid goods
cabin by night. While the warriors wait in the trees, Ned enters the cabin and finds
Obe alone. Asking where the hostages are, Obe tells him they were sold earlier that
morning to a neighboring rancher. Obe demands to know why Ned isn’t watching
the sheep, so Ned quickly makes up a lie that Hi asked him to cook Obe’s chuck, this
satisfies Obe who asks him to prepare his favorite dish, dunderfunk. Complaining of
Ned’s absence, he finishes his meal and demands his favorite desert, niggers in a
blanket. After finishing the desert, Obe steps out onto the porch and is soon asleep.
Ned slips out the cabin door to rendezvous with the awaiting warriors.

54
Ned tells Ishi and the rest of the Yahi that the hostages have been stolen
and that the natives should just give up the stolen gold from their raid on the
Workman home. They insist they don’t have it and were never involved in the raid;
eventually Ishi convinces Ned that the tribe speaks the truth. Elder Uncle, quickly
holds council and states in Yahi, “The Hi God must die, you (Ishi) must make him
(Ned) a warrior tomorrow” Ishi asks elder uncle why he can’t carry out the murder
himself. Elder uncle replies, “he is invincible to us”. The Yahi slip back into the dark
forest. Ned is left standing in the pines alone.
The next day, Ned is skulking alone in the forest, suddenly an arrow whizzes
by his head and sticks into the tree. Ned turns and sees Ishi alone, he has already
knocked his bow and fire’s another arrow at Ned. As the arrow flies through the air,
Ned, quickly dodges the arrow by leaning backward. As the arrow flies toward his
face, it’s amber bottle glass arrow-head is seen in macro, with the landscape
reflecting through its many sparkling facets. Slowly Ned’s face comes into focus
through the glass. His expression is one of liberation and enlightenment.

Ext. Night. Ned’s sheep camp
Alone, Ned stares into the amber bottle glass arrow head given to him by
Ishi, the firelight reflection of the shards have a strobe effect, which leads to another
vision of the Godhead cutting a swath through the trees.

Ned travels by night to the Yahi camp and finds Ishi alone. Feeling
responsible for the Yahi Women, Ned tells him Hi Good has buried gold he made

55
from selling sheep. Ned believes Good’s gold is buried in a Dutch oven
somewhere on the property, most likely under the cabin.

Ishi and Ned have a vision together of crawling into a hole beside the cabin
that leads to small earthen room filled with treasure of gold coins, gems, and crystals.
Suddenly the room is perceived to be larger, as many Yahi ancestors awaken from
the dead, sitting up and pulling off their mummy-like deer skin wrappings,

Ned and Ishi decide to try and find the buried gold, so Ishi sends Good on a
goose chase after the non-existent workman gold. By drawing a map in the dirt, he
describes a cave with a supposed cache of coins.
Good: (to Obe) I think I might know what cave this boy’s telling of, and if I
member correctly, I decided not to venture on account of a strong smell of bear.
Good decides it would be fun to go and convinces Sandy and Obe.

With Good and the rest of his group out of camp they can make a final push
to uncover Good’s treasure.

Atop Deer Creek, Good and his group find the cave, upon exploring it they
find a bear medicine-cult cape, a small cache of coins, and a little white girls blond
scalp.

56
Ned and Ishi take apart the stove, frantically tear apart the floor boards,
and begin to dig under the floor. They dig with their hands until Ned finds a trowel
underneath Goods bed. They continue to dig intensely running the dirt out in mess
buckets. Suddenly Ned yells for Ishi, who comes running back into the cabin. Ned’s
trowel has hit something! The two pull from the earth a rusty Dutch oven. Opening it
they find a weathered picture frame. Ned spits on his shirt, and wipes away the years
of dirt that has caked to the glass, revealing the picture taken only weeks earlier in
the gambling tent.
(For this scene the actual original historical photo of Hi Good, Sandy young, and
Indian Ned is used.) Suddenly Ishi pulls out one of his arrows and stabs it through
the glass, puncturing Hi Goods head.

Act 3

Int. Hi Good’s Cabin. Later that night
Ned opens the cabin door, mess bucket in hand, he lights the lamp and throws
water on the floor. Suddenly Good comes from out of the dark corner.
Good: What you doin boy?
Ned: While you were gone I thought I’d try and clean the cabin, seems the
floor needed some scrubin’ I was hopin to finish ‘fore you’s got back. Sorry Hi.
It’s obvious to Good that Ned is in cohorts with the Yahi. He notices that
Ned wears a dentallium shell necklace. Good, feeling betrayed by Ned, slowly takes
off his shirt, and begins to show him his Masonic tattoos. Pointing at a chest tattoo of

57
a skull, compass and the letter “G”, Good asks Ned if he knows what the symbol
means,
Ned replies, “no”
Good: It means that I am white god, just like the Sun, and you are a brown-
dirt digger, a neophyte made out the’ dirt.
Ned: I’m sorry Hi…
Good: You digger thief! (he smacks hi upside the head) Your not sorry, (he
grabs a hold of his arm and throws a rope over his body, Ned tries to run but Good
pulls him back) your no different from the diggers of the forest… just like the
murderers of Hiram, you only want my secret, you are a cheat… I am the master. I
know the secret word, not the forest dwellers, and I will never give it to those ruffian
Mill Creeks! (He finishes wrapping the rope around Ned three times, then places a
hoodwink on Ned)
Ned: Hi what’s going on? I’m sorry…I wont talk to those diggers no more…
Good: Relax boy
Good lights three large yellow candles and places them in directions (east, west,
south) on a crude alter, then he turns to Ned and asks “do you know my name boy”?
Ned: “Hi…”
Good: Is that it?
Ned: Hi A. Good
Good: Do you know what that stands for? Hasn’t any one told you?
Ned: Na sir…

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Good: It stands for Hiram, Hiram Abiff…this means master, (he pulls
Ned’s pants around his ankles, and pulls his shirt down to his waist)
Ned: I’m sorry master…
Good: (stroking Ned’s penis) Don’t you want to be a master too? Like me? A
bright master, made out’a white light?
Ned: Yes
Good: (laying his hand on Ned’s head, his other hand holds a small Masonic
book from which he reads) Brother, in your present situation what do you desire
most?
Ned: More light
Good: I am going to make you a master mason of this lodge…
Ned: A mason?
Good: yes your catching on, I am going to give you a secret word, and you
mustn’t tell anyone, this word will let you into this lodge for any reason, with this
word, this lodge will become yours as it is mine, Obe’s and Sandy’s.
Ned: What’s the word?
Good: If you are willing to take it, you must solemnly and sincerely promise
in this worshipful Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, that you hereby and heron
most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, that you will always hail, ever
conceal, and never reveal any part or parts, art or arts, point or points of the secrets,
arts and mysteries of ancient Free Masonry except it be a true and lawful brother
Mason. Do you in addition to your former obligation, swear that you will not give

59
the secrets of Free Masonry to any one of an inferior order, nor to any other being
in the known world, except it be to a true and lawful brother?
Ned: Yes Master, I want the word
Good: Then kiss the book twice (Ned kisses the Masonic text book two
times)
Good extends his hand and grabs a hold of Ned’s hand squeezing it.
Ned: What is this?
Good: This is the pass-grip of a Master Mason, and it has a name…
Ned: What’s it called?
Good: repeat after me… Tubal-Cain
Ned: Tubal-Cain…
Good releases his grip from Ned and grabs a sheep-skin apron from the altar and ties
it around Neds waist now covering him up below his waist.
Good: Brother, I now have the honor to present you with a lambskin apron,
which, I hope you will wear with credit to yourself. You are now clothed and it is of
course necessary you should have tools to work with.
Good takes a trowel form the altar, the same one Ned and Ishi used to dig beneath
the cabin, and places it in the sheep-kin apron Ned wears.
Good: I have now presented you with the working tools of the Master
Mason, which are all the implements of Masonry indiscriminately, but more
especially the trowel. The trowel is an instrument made use by operative masons to
spread cement, which unites a building like this one into a single common mass; but
we as free and excepted Masons are taught to make use of it for the more noble and

60
glorious purpose of spreading brotherly love and affection, that cement that unites
us into one sacred band, or society of friends and brothers, among whom no
contention should ever exist.

Good pulls off Neds Hoodwink and yells;
God: Let there be light
Ned runs straight out of the door with his arms still tied to his side, suddenly he is
stopped on the porch by Sandy, who was listening while drinking whiskey with Obe.
Sandy throws out his hand and gives Ned the pass grip
Ned: Let me go Sandy (he quickly returns the pass grip)
Good slips behind Ned and bangs his gavel on the door jam. Ned jumps and faces
him.
Good: Brother, you no doubt think yourself a Master Mason, and that you are
entitled to all our privileges. Is it not so?
Ned: I want your privileges…
Good: It them becomes my duty to undeceive you, and to inform you that you
are not a Master Mason, neither do I know that you ever will be one, until I can
ascertain how you withstand the amazing trials and dangers that await you. (pushing
Ned back into the cabin) There is yet another word to learn, the most secret of all
Master Mason words, the Omnific word. Before you learn the word, you first must
now undergo one of the most trying scenes that human nature ever witnessed. You
are to travel a rough road, where you will meet with ruffians, and you may meet with
death- for some have suffered death who have traveled this road before you. You

61
must pray for yourself. You will now be hoodwinked, and go and kneel at the
altar, where you can pray mentally or orally.

The hoodwink is put back on Ned’s head, and as he is lead back to the altar Good
whispers to him;
Good: Brother, it was the custom of our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, when he
was in charge of building King Solomon’s temple, everyday at high twelve, to enter
into the sanctum sanctorum, and offer up his devotions to the Grand Architect of the
Universe. Let us, in imitation of Hiram, kneel and pray.

Ned pretends to pray urgently and then stands up quickly and turns to run out…
Suddenly all the candles blow out at the same time and the sound of Good tackling
Ned is heard in the darkness. A lamp comes on and Good hold’s Ned tightly and
leads him toward Sandy who stands near the window.
Good: When the master architect Hiram was asked to build the sacred temple
he swore to the his brother masons that he would not give the Omnific word to the
builders and neophytes who labored on the temple until it was finished. But one day
as the Master left his devotions he was assassinated by three of these laborers, who
had stationed themselves at the East, West and South gates of King Solomon’s
temple
Sandy: who comes here?
Good: (answering for Ned) Our grand Master.

62
Sandy: Our grand master Hiram Abiff! He is the very man I wanted to see.
(Sandy seizes Ned’s throat) Give me the Master Masons word or I will take your
life!
Good: (answering for Ned) I cannot give it now, but if you wait till the
temple is completed, and the Grand Lodge assembles at Jerusalem, if you are
worthy, you shall then receive it, otherwise you cannot.
Sandy: Talk not to me of Temples or Grand Lodges- give me the word, or
die!

Sandy strikes Ned across the throat. As Ned gasps for air Good leads him to the west
side of the cabin where Obe is standing.
Obe: Who comes there?
Good: (answering for Ned) Our Grand Master Hiram Abiff.
Obe: (grabbing Ned by the throat) Give me the grip and word of the Master
Mason or die!

Obe punches Ned in the chest, knocking the wind out of Ned as he falls to the floor.
The three men laugh, as Ned stands up, he pulls off his hoodwink and makes a run
for the door, but it is blocked by Good.
Good: Never give the word to a digger!
Good hits Ned with his gavel right between the eyes and Ned falls to the floor
lifeless.

63
Good: And he set the cherubims within the inner house, and they stretched
fourth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall,
and the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched one
another in the midst of the house.
The Yahis “induct” Ned into the tribe as a warrior, Ishi leads the ceremony by giving
Ned a septum piercing as elder uncle oversees.
Good pours his heart out in town, heartsick at beating Ned.
Good goes back to his cabin and burns his scalp collection.

Title Card: May 4
th
1870

Good is leading his horse Buck across the barren, volcanic landscape towards his
cabin, a single Oak grows along a small trickling draw of water. Good burst into
singing “Sweet Betsy from Pike” as Ned jumps from behind the Oak wearing full
warrior regalia, he brandishes his rifle and quickly shoots Good in the hip. Silently
he falls to the ground. Ned begins to load his cap and ball gun as he slowly walks
over to Good.
Good: Don’t do it boy, I raised you, I made you a brother. Ned: Shut Up! (he shoots
him in his arm)
Good: Well finish it then! End it!
Ned re-loads his gun.
Good: Hurry it up before they get to me…

64
Confused by this statement, Ned turns in the direction Good motioned and sees
two small Mazanita trees on the horizon.
Good: You cant see ‘em, they’re in those scrubs, they’re gonna take you soon as
your done with me. Come on boy, help me up, I can save you.
Ned: Give me the word and I’ll let you live.
Good: You dumbass, there IS no word, it’s a bunch of bull, now fetch me my gun,
make haste.
Ned turns to see the Manzanita shrubs have moved closer. Ishi and Elder Uncle hide
behind them.
Ned: Give me the word and they wont kill you. Make me the Master.
Good grabs for his secret vial of strychnine, but drops it before he has a chance to
bite into it and kill himself.
Good: Damn…Ned, Didn’t I keep you warm? Did’nt I make sure you had ‘nuff
feed?
Ned: (crying) …shore
Good: Well if you care about me at all, like I do you, you’ll give me that damn
poison vile, and allow me the decency to bite the white ‘fore those savages get to me.
Brother, I know yous aint no savage like them.
Ned: (holding the gun up again) Give me the word, and I’ll let you live.
Good: Okay, fine, but I’m gonna sing it to ya, and the word is gonna be in this song.
It’s a song my daddy used to sing me, before he was kilt, goes: Ol’ Hi Good he had a
farm, and on that farm there was some diggers, E I E I OM. (starts to laugh)

65
Ishi and Elder Uncle throw aside the shrubs they were using to hide running
towards Good and Ned. Ned turns sharply and shoot’s Good a third time in the
shoulder. Good falls on his back. Ishi grabs a hold of Goods horse as Elder Uncle
takes out Good’s Henry from the scabbard and begins to unload it on Good. Over the
shooting Ned hears high pitched wails and turns to see the rest of the tribe running
full speed toward the scene, some warriors carry large stones.
Ned passes out.
He awakens to Good’s horse nuzzling his face. It is quiet and a few birds are
chirping. He stands up and looks around; all the natives have left him. He looks for
Good’s body and follows a few bloody stones to the draw, where Good lies dead. His
face and body are unrecognizable. Quickly Ned begins to try and hide the body with
stones.

Ext. Yahi camp.
Ned walks into the camp and finds it abandoned. He pokes his head into one on the
structures. Nothing is inside.

Ned’s goes back to the cabin to fix Obe’s dinner, bringing Good’s horse with him.
Obe asks where Hi is and why he has his horse, he also demands to know why he’s
got that thing hanging outta his nose (Ned’s septum piercing). Ned lies that he
doesn’t know where Hi is, and that he found Buck tied to a tree about a mile back.
Ned fixes up some dunderfunk. Sitting at the dinner table, Obe notices that Ned
wears Hi’s boots and Masonic ring. During the meal Obe asks, “where did the first

66
shot hit him?” Ned replies with gusto “in the hip.” Obe begins to laugh, Ned
jumps up and grabs Obe around the neck “don’t tell anyone they’ll kill me.” He
releases his grip, and sits down on the bed starting to cry. Soon there is a knock at
the door. It’s Sandy; Obe opens it and immediately tells Sandy that Ned killed Hi.
Sandy asks how he knows, and Obe tells him that Ned just admitted to it. Sandy cries
and asks to have Ned come outside. He ties up Ned and leads him to the scene of the
crime. Sandy ties Ned to a tree and asks him why he did it. Ned replies, “to see if I
could” Sandy shoots him in the back of the neck. The shots ring out through the
chaparral. Ishi, the young warrior is making for the tree line, when the shot
reverberates through the canyon, he stops a moment to listen. The rays of sun make
the young warrior seem as if he is a ghost, and he vanishes into the trees.

Epilogue-
Hi Good is given a Masonic burial. The Masons recite a line from the funeral prayer
over his headstone, “where will we write his faults?” one brother asks, the two others
reply in unison “in the sand”

Sandy composes a letter to Hi’s father, and sends him his Masonic pocket watch.

Neds Skeleton lies underneath the tree until two students from the new high school
collect it.

Neds Skelton hangs in a crude science class room.

67

The Yahi retreat further into the depths of deer creek canyon, described by
anthropologist as “the long concealment” the Yahi survive in hiding for forty years.
In 1911, near a slaughterhouse outside Oroville, an Indian man is found emancipated
and freighted. He is locked in the town jail until the Anthropologist Thomas
Watterman arrives in San Francisco and establishes communication with him, The
native explains that he is a Yahi, the last of his tribe. The rest of his tribe had either
died of old age, or met either tragic or untimely deaths. The Native is taken to the
University of San Francisco campus, where he is given the name Ishi meaning Man
in Yahi, and becomes a living museum exhibit, helping to popularize the newly
formed Anthropology program.

Ishi attends the pan pacific exposition, and Buffalo Bills Wild West Show.

In 1914 William Seagraves travels to the museum to tell the anthropologist Thomas
Watterman his story of the Incident of the Five Bows. He claims that Ishi was one of
the warriors who presented him self at his cabin, when he was just a teenager.

68
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Harris, Helen L. "On the Failure of Indian Education," Clearing House, 48,
1973

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Heizer, Robert and Kroeber, Theodora, “Ishi the Last Yahi: A Documentary
History”, University of California Press, 1979

History-Social Science Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee, “History-
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Jackson, Robert H. “Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of
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1996.

Kroeber, A.L., “The Elusive Mill Creeks”, Travel Magazine, 1911

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Kroeber, Theodora. “Ishi, last of his tribe,” Drawings by Ruth Robbins. Berkeley,
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Margolin, Malcolm, “The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs and
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Whipple, Alexander “American Sagas”, Study out the Land. University of California
Press, 1943

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This thesis supports the research for a completed feature length true-murder revisionist Western set in Tehama County California 1870. The film is based on the infamous Indian hunter Hi Good, who was presumably killed by his half-Indian indentured servant, whom he had raised.

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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

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Asset Metadata

Creator Lynch, Lee (author)

Core Title Ned’s draw or: the murder of Hi Good

School School of Fine Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Fine Arts

Publication Date 08/10/2009

Defense Date 05/05/2009

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag 1870,California history,Hiram Good,Indian Ned,Ishi,OAI-PMH Harvest,Tehama County

Place Name California (states), Tehama county (counties)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Lockhart, Sharon (committee chair), Hainley, Bruce (committee member), White, Charlie (committee member)

Creator Email lynchlee@hotmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2562

Unique identifier UC1150557

Identifier etd-lynch-3131 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-251904 (legacy record id),usctheses-m2562 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-lynch-3131.pdf

Dmrecord 251904

Document Type Thesis

Rights Lynch, Lee

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu