Arizona Sunrise

Cody visits Jack Allen’s antique gallery looking for Eugene’s help with a History Day project about the Old West. He has thought about the assignment but has not chosen a subject. Jack has just received a saddle from a California museum bearing the name of Reverend James Klinger, a circuit rider in the Arizona Territory. He explains that circuit riders traveled from settlement to settlement, preaching, performing marriages, and serving communities too small to have churches. An account of Klinger’s dangerous work gives Cody the subject he needs.

After more than thirty years of fighting between white settlers and the Apache, fear and hatred remain on both sides. Klinger enters an Apache village and teaches that Jesus dies for sinners while they are still God’s enemies. An elderly chief named Masai struggles to understand why anyone would die for an enemy. Klinger compares God’s sacrifice to a father giving his life for his child and explains that God offers adoption to both white and Apache people. Masai does not accept the message immediately, but he promises to consider it.

Klinger’s companion Reese doubts that the Apache will ever listen. Klinger reminds him that God’s truth and love have already changed Reese, who once lived a savage life himself. Soldiers then escort Klinger to a nearby fort. Their captain warns him that many white people resent his friendship with the Apache and may attack him if he continues preaching. He also argues that the Apache will always remain heathens. Klinger refuses to abandon people whom God has called him to serve, even if the cavalry cannot protect him.

The captain reports that the sick Masai has gone on a traditional desert walk. The old chief intends to spread his war trophies around him and wait for death. Because Masai has seemed receptive to the gospel, Klinger is determined to find him, give him another chance to respond, and perhaps save his life. Reese agrees to accompany the preacher because Klinger has introduced him to God’s love. After they leave, the captain reveals that Klinger’s mercy is especially remarkable: Apache raiders killed his mother twenty years earlier.

At Masai’s village, the leaders refuse to tell Klinger which direction the chief has taken. They insist that dying alone is the Apache way and that neither white medicine nor white religion is welcome. Masai’s young granddaughter Nalicadaeh defies them. She has heard Klinger teach that every person is equal before God, and she chooses to believe in that God and guide the search. The village warns that her decision will separate her from the tribe, but she climbs into Klinger’s wagon anyway.

During the journey, Nalicadaeh tells Klinger that soldiers killed her parents when she was a baby. He tells her about his own family. Apache raiders attacked his wagon train while he and his father were at a creek, carried away his mother, and killed her. His father’s grief eventually overcame him; he walked into the desert with a gun and never returned alive. Because Klinger’s father died without knowing Jesus, Klinger is even more determined that Nalicadaeh’s grandfather receive another chance.

An Apache cavalry scout named Pialsiney rides into their camp and claims the captain has sent him to help. He says young Apache warriors plan to attack when Masai dies and that only the old chief can preserve the peace. Reese is suspicious, since he has heard nothing of an uprising, and Nalicadaeh disappears before they can question her. Believing her grandfather is near and may not survive the night, she has gone to find him alone.

Klinger, Reese, and Pialsiney follow her trail through the darkness and hear her calling from a rocky hill. She has found Masai alive but very ill. Pialsiney then reveals his true purpose: Masai killed his father and brother, and he intends to take revenge. Masai admits remembering their deaths and is willing to be killed. During the confrontation, Klinger notices a necklace among the chief’s trophies and recognizes it as his mother’s. Masai is the man responsible for her death as well.

For one agonizing moment, Klinger wants revenge too. Yet when Pialsiney advances with a knife, the missionary stands between him and Masai. He admits the chief’s murders are evil but refuses to repay evil with evil. Pialsiney warns that Klinger may die alongside the man who killed his mother. Klinger will not move, and Reese also stands ready to defend him. Unable to reach Masai without killing Klinger first, Pialsiney finally withdraws. He tells the chief that, if he lives, he should listen carefully to the message of a man capable of such forgiveness.

Masai asks why Klinger has protected him. Klinger explains that God has commanded him to forgive. The old chief now sees the reality of Klinger’s faith and asks to hear more about his God. As Klinger begins speaking, Nalicadaeh sees light in the east. Masai, who expected never to see another dawn, has lived to see an Arizona sunrise.

An army doctor helps keep Masai alive, and Klinger nurses him back to health. Masai and Nalicadaeh eventually become Christians, the first of many in their village. At the antique gallery, Cody realizes that the Old West contains important heroes besides famous outlaws and gunfighters. He chooses Reverend Klinger’s little-known example of courage, grace, and forgiveness for the story he will tell on History Day.