"Washita: Part 1" is the twenty-fourth episode of season 3 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
Brian befriends an Indian boy (No Harm), whose life was spared when his mother concealed him with her body in a massacre. Custer makes a surprise return to Colorado Springs, saying that General Sheridan is the one to have told him to come. Yet again, the Cheyenne are deprived of receiving a proper shipment of supplies, and Sully finally concludes that President Grant has deceived him, having no intentions of saving the Indians, but rather working in this backhanded manner to wear them down until they could be finished off. However, Loren is able to provide the supplies the tribe needs to keep on going. After Dr. Mike and Sully buy supplies for the Cheyenne, Little Thunder is shot and killed. Cloud Dancing is furious and is bent on revenge. Sully tries to deter him, but to no avail. Chief Black Kettle later arrives at the homestead asking about Cloud Dancing. During a dinner that Custer is hosting, he is informed that railroad workers are attacked. Black Kettle moves the Cheyenne to Fort Cobb, as they have been promised protection. Dr. Mike and Sully share an intimate moment. Matthew reads a telegram saying Custer is ordered to go south into Indian territory. Cloud Dancing arrives at the homestead saying Chief Black Kettle was turned away from Fort Cobb and they are camping by the Washita River- directly in the path of the merciless General Custer. However, Cloud Dancing, Dr. Mike and Sully arrive too late to avert Custer's slaughter of the Indians at the Washita River. The entire tribe has been wiped out, and Black Kettle and his family lie shot in the back by a riverbank. Desperately searching for survivors, they find Snow Bird is barely clinging to life and witness her last breath. Her last words to her husband are a lamentation, "What will Cloud Dancing do without me?" Mourning his wife, Cloud Dancing takes his knife, cuts off a piece of his hair, and spills some of his own blood while chanting a prayer in sobs. Sully prevents Dr. Mike from stopping the self-harming part of his ritual because he needs to complete this ritual to find peace. However, Sully then discovers the lifeless body of No Harm among the dead and hears crying coming from beneath it, finding it is huddled over an unscathed baby girl which No Harm helped to conceal, the one and only survivor. Finally unable to bear his grief any longer, he starts crying over how No Harm was destined to die at Washita in the very same way his mother died for him, cradling the baby as Dr. Mike joins him, holding Sully while weeping, utterly broken by the loss of the entire tribe.
This episode provides examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: This is inevitable for a medical drama, but this episode focuses on the massacre at Washita River, and the death of multiple characters.
- Historical Domain Character: General Custer, of course.
- Historical Fiction: Especially this episode, which focuses on the massacre at Washita River.
- Multi-Part Episode: "Washita: Part 1" is followed by "Washita: Part 2".
