Drums across the River (Western) {Murphy, Brennan} [1954]

The once booming gold town of Crown City, Colorado has fallen on hard times. The only gold left is across the river, on Ute Indian land. Crown City resident Sam Brannon, and the Ute leader Chief Ouray, have worked hard to keep peace between the whites and the Indians, but Sam's wife was killed by a drunken Ute brave, and Sam's son Gary blames all Utes for her death. When Frank Walker hatches a plan to start an Indian war so that the Utes will be forced off their lands and on to a reserva- tion, he starts by conning desperate townspeople, including Gary, into joining him in an expedition to find gold on Ute land. Once across the river, the expedition is quickly intercepted by Ute braves. Sam Brannon arrives and succeeds in negotiating a truce and exchange of prisoners, but during the prisoner exchange, Walker's men open fire on the Indians. Sam is wounded in the ensuing skirmish, as is Chief Ouray's son, Taos. It falls to Gary Brannon to return Taos to the Ute camp and plead with Chief Ouray not to retaliate against the people of Crown City. Gary succeeds, but his success is short-lived. Walker kidnaps Gary's father, and forces Gary to participate in a stagecoach massacre designed to look like the work of a Ute war party. Gary must find a way to prove his innocence, rescue his father, and expose Walker's scheme before Walker succeeds in inciting war between the whites and Indians.