Hidalgo (continued)

PoP ***

Frank Hopkins, as a dispatch rider, carries and delivers the orders which result in the Wounded Knee massacre. He witnesses the massacre, and later as a performer in the Buffalo Bill show, he witnesses the cruel manner in which the native people in the show are treated. This troubles him as he is a half-breed, and has always hidden his native blood.

The arabs he meets in the race assume him to be a cowboy white man with no appreciation of the desert environment. In his conduct durring the race, many of the native ways taught him by his Lacota mother surface to aid him in staying alive.

By the end of the race, he finds that his ancestry has been awakened and uses the prize money to rescue a herd of wild mustangs from slaughter by the U. S. Army. In the end, Hidalgo is released back to this released herd to resume his life as a wild mustang.