Episode Details

Originally Aired: April 6, 1958

In Gunsmoke #313, "Yorky," Marshal Matt Dillon faces an unusual challenge when rancher Mr. Brandt arrives in Dodge City with a troubling problem. During an Arapaho horse raid on his ranch, Brandt's son captured a young boy—no more than twelve years old—who turns out to be white, not Indian. The wild child, who calls himself Yorky, has lived with the Arapaho tribe since his parents were killed in a raid years ago. Now wounded in the leg from the skirmish, Yorky thinks and acts like an Indian warrior, believing he must make a "big coup" by taking a scalp or stealing horses to redeem himself for exposing the raiding party. He's attempted to kill Brandt twice already, and the rancher refuses to keep him any longer.

Matt reluctantly brings the boy back to Dodge, where Doc Adams treats his infected wound. As Yorky recovers in Doc's office, he remains defiant and dangerous, understanding only the Arapaho way of kill or be killed. When Doc is called away, Matt enlists Kitty Russell to help care for the boy, hoping a woman's touch might reach him where men have failed. The challenge becomes how to save this young white child from himself and help him understand he's returned to his own people.