- As a baby, John Ermine is stolen from a wagon train by the Crow Indians and is adopted by Chief Fire Bear. John grows to manhood, ignorant that he is a white man until his parentage is disclosed to him by Crooked Bear,.
- White Weasel has been brought up as an Indian by Fire Bear, chief of the Crows, having been captured as a baby. Grown to manhood, he is sent to Crooked Bear to learn the ways of the world. Each man is startled to find that the other is white. The old man convinces the boy that he is not an Indian and gives him a white man's name, John Ermine. John finds a photograph of Katherine Searles, daughter of the post commander, which was dropped by Lieutenant Butler, on his way ask Crooked Bear for assurance that the Indians will keep the peace. Word comes that the Sioux and Cheyennes are on the warpath, and a scout is sent to John Ermine to ask for help against them from the Crows. John sets out and reaches the post just as it has been set on fire by the other Indians, who have stolen Katherine. John rescues her. Searles is grateful, and John becomes a scout. Butler is jealous. One day Butler sees the photograph which John is gazing at and demands that John return it to him. John refuses and goes to Katherine to ask if the photograph belongs to Butler. She tells him that Butler took it of his own accord, but asks John where he found it. John tells her and adds that he loves her. When he asks her to be his wife she shrinks from him, and he is upbraided at his camp by the girl's parents, when they learn that John has approached their daughter with the question of matrimony. John listens impassively, but when Searles mentions John's taking advantage of their gratitude, John tells them to cease, that the John Ermine they insult is dead; to beware lest they force White Weasel, the chosen son of Fire Bear, the chief to avenge the memory of John Ermine. They realize what John's threat might mean to them. Katherine has followed her parents and hears all. She is really in love with John. When they leave she enters, and is expressing her regret over her parents' attitude when Butler appears. Katherine hides in a closet and the two men begin to fight. Katherine through a slit in the door sees Butler fall dead. John sends Katherine to her home while he rides to the hut of Crooked Bear, whom he tells of the affair. They hurry to the Indian camp and prepare for an attack by the soldiers. However, an affray is prevented by Katherine, who tells her father that John killed Butler in self-defense, and that she saw the argument herself. She sends a note to John telling him that she has cleared him of the stigma of murder. Sometime later Katherine and John with Mr. and Mrs. Searles visit the camp of Fire Bear, where the son of John and Katherine amuse the squaws and braves by his antics.
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