Playing Indian: Fort Laramie (January 22, 1956)

“Playing Indian” is an episode of Fort Laramie, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 22, 1956. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Captain Quince returns to Fort Laramie on leave, planning to resign from the army and seek his fortune in business. He arrives to find that Arapaho raiders have been striking settlements and stealing horses, killing an entire family in the basin. Major Daggett orders Quince to take B Company out immediately to stop the raids, despite Quince's suggestion that a smaller scouting party would be more effective.

Fort Laramie and a town nearby, 1956, during a period of Arapaho raids on settlers in the basin

Characters: Captain Quince, Sergeant Gorse, Major Daggett, Lieutenant Cyberts, Rudeo, Moilin

Listen for: The tension between Quince's desire to leave the army and his immediate reassignment to dangerous duty; the conflict between Quince's tactical judgment and Major Daggett's direct orders; the hostility toward soldiers from civilians in town.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.