Synopsis
Buffalo Hair
Published by Dramatists Play Service
8 Male 0 Female
He is a black man who has chosen to live among the Cheyenne ever since they saved his life
The soldiers find their captive to be a foe from without and within, being so much alike and different from themselves
To Buffalo Hair, his captors are slaves to the white man and enemies of his true people, the Cheyenne
In the morning, a hundred Cheyenne warriors will come to the river to take Buffalo Hair back
Now the soldiers must choose whether to stay loyal to the army and fight, or let Buffalo Hair go and have a chance at saving themselves
Disagreement between the troopers builds to a confrontation
In the excitement a pistol is fired, bringing a hundred Cheyenne warriors down on the island
When the dust clears, the soldiers are captives and now it is Buffalo Hair's turn to choose
He can kill and scalp the black soldiers to prove he is a true Cheyenne, or let them live and become one of them
In the end, Buffalo Hair chooses the warrior's road, and extracts ritual atonement from the abandoned black soldiers
Race, war and history collide in this play, set in 1874, the year of the Red River War on the southern plains, when a group of black troopers of the Tenth Cavalry, Buffalo Soldiers, are sent to suppress an uprising of the Southern Cheyenne