Hiram Brown and his family decide to emigrate to the west and cast their lot in the then-almost uninhabited country known as Minnesota, leaving their improvised home on the Ohio River. They started on their long journey in old fashioned covered wagons. Two months later, they reach the Mississippi River; being in the early fall the water was low and easily forded upon their landing. They camp for the night. Indians not relishing the invasion of the pale face watch them under cover of darkness, the Indian village nearby give the family warning to move on, but this the sturdy farmer refuses to do and is seen cultivating with his team of oxen. An Indian girl (a spy) under the guise of selling Indian wares, is admitted to the camp, gaining the information she sought, reports quickly tribesmen, who resolve upon decisive action at once. In the meantime Spotted Eagle has formed an attachment for one of Brown's daughters. A plan of complete capture of the family is arranged and carried out with all the cunning and fearlessness that characterized the American Indian of that period. They take their captives to the village where they are tied to the stake. A trapper taking his life in his hands, runs the gauntlet, mounts a running horse and hurls the Indian to the ground (a sensational scene in the extreme). The young girl who had previously warned the camp of Indian uprising is seen making her way to the military post to report the capture. When the soldiers reach the Brown camp, they find the settler that had made good his escape on Indian horse and who guided them to the village where a spectacular rescue of the prisoners is affected and again reunited.
—Moving Picture World synopsis