Michael Anderson Jr.: Clayt Monroe

Quotes 

• Major Mapoy : So you want to make it on your own, do you? You don't have any idea what you're up against.

  Clayt Monroe : I can learn. And I will.

  Major Mapoy : Build your cabin. There's a band of brigands named Wales that will knock it down again. That Indian, he's your ward now. If he steals just once, I shall hang him and drive you out.

  Clayt Monroe : Then we'll stay.

  Major Mapoy : Hmm. You're not listening. They never listen. Well, go on then. Get back to your valley and try if you must. You've wasted quite enough of our time. There are horses waiting for you outside.

  Clayt Monroe : Thank you. Thank you.

• Kathy Monroe : Clayt, while you were gone, the twins and I and Amy had a little meeting.

  Clayt Monroe : Oh?

  Kathy Monroe : We decided we don't want to go back to Illinois no matter what. And we know there'll be problems ahead. Still, like Ma said... we trusted Pa. When it comes right down to it, I guess we'll have to trust you from now on. We'll do whatever you say, Clayt.

  Clayt Monroe : We'll not be going back. I told the Major we'll stay. I told him I'd fight if I had to. It's just like Pa said, if it were easy, it ain't worth having.

• Dirty Jim : Ho-um... Ho-um.

  Clayt Monroe : Home? Home.

• [first lines] 

  Clayt Monroe : [voiceover]  My name is Clayt Monroe. The year 1875. Coming here was a wild dream my Pa had - to find a valley somewhere in Wyoming. He sold a good farm in Illinois and brought us a thousand miles west to build a new home, start a new life. But we had to drag our wagon through the fiercest country we'd ever seen. Storms would hit sudden, lightning, rains, snow. Finally, lay and waiting was the last river we had to cross: The Snake... I carried my brothers and sister over on horseback. All of our belongings were on the wagon. We even had to tow the family milk cow. Pa fighting the current, my sister Kath, and Ma worrying... I tried, but it wasn't enough. They were gone in seconds. Now we were orphans. I was eighteen, the oldest. I'm Clayt. Fennimore... We call him Little Twin. Jefferson... Big Twin. They were nearly twelve. Amy was six. Kathleen, sixteen. I kept wondering what Pa would do. We couldn't stay here, and we didn't have a farm anymore to go back to. And up ahead there was nothing but wilderness, and one valley Pa had marked with a pile of rocks. But I was the pa now, and I had no choice. I had to find that valley - for him.

• Clayt Monroe : [voiceover]  I didn't have any idea what he was going to do. But whe I saw it, it scared me. He built a sweat house. The Indian way to break the fever violently, quickly, die or live. Ice-cold water. The shock was enough to kill her. All I could think of: Did I do the right thing?

• Clayt Monroe : [voiceover]  After that I didn't call him "Indian" anymore. He was Jim, one of the family.

• Clayt Monroe : [voiceover]  The rocks were just where Pa said. With his old belt buckle put there ten years ago, he'd marked it for us. Now, it was ours. To root down. To hold.

  [pause] 

  Clayt Monroe : If we could.

• Clayt Monroe : [voiceover]  I tried to keep the happiness we shared in the afternoon, but I couldn't help but worry. How could a farm family from Illinois survive in this wild country they call Wyoming?

• Clayt Monroe : Kath, you don't understand. This is a wilderness. There's just me and the four of you. And you're just a child, too.

  Kathy Monroe : Clayt, I'm not a child. I'm sixteen. I'm a woman.

• Clayt Monroe : You're lyin'.

  Buttermore : What did you say?

  Clayt Monroe : It ain't private ground here. I seen the map in Cheyenne. There ain't been no survey. It's squatters' rights, take what you want.

  Ham : Well, whaddaya know? We found us a lawyer.