Daniel, Becky and Israel are on the road again, this time on a wagon trip to Salem, N. C. After setting up the family for an overnight stay in a cave (Becky is less than enthusiastic) Dan goes out on a hunt, but he is attacked and captured by hostile tribesmen.
Enter the Snidely Whiplash of our DB villains, the Shawnee. But they left a complex storyline back at their sinister lair - no guest stars or plot other than the tribesman want to mix it up with the first travelers that cross their path. Israel gets some agency here - he MacGyver's an escape for a beaten-up Dan, and the series matures a bit by allowing four combat deaths in front of Israel (though he is not in the screen when they occur.)
The Shawnee's costumers do achieve an above-average score in portraying a Midwestern tribe, but the war party's maneuverings are more akin to flipping the protagonists of the "Go Go Gophers" cartoon, minus cartoon-level competency. Much of the hour is a chase episode, and its a welcome break from still more time spent around Cincinatus' bar or in Boone's cabin. Dan gets fairly well knocked around, bludgeoned and shot during the proceedings. Becky gets to use a rifle briefly, but as always her standard-issue town wife dress precludes too much running around.
Likely intended as a low-budget road episode, the hour does dramatically evoke the occasional pressing into service of minors and women into combat support, as during the 1778 Siege of Boonesborough during the Revolutionary War.