Page "Red River (1948 film)" Paragraph 2

Thomas Dunson ( John Wayne ) is a stubborn man who wants nothing more than to start up a successful cattle ranch in Texas.

Shortly after he begins his journey to Texas with his trail hand, Nadine Groot ( Walter Brennan ), Dunson learns that his love interest ( Coleen Gray ), whom he had told to stay behind with the wagon train with the understanding that he would send for her later, was killed in an Indian attack.

Despite this tragedy, Dunson and Groot press on.

That night, Dunson and Groot, keeping watch, heard a group of Indians planning to attack them.

They kill the Indians, and on the wrist of one, Dunson finds a bracelet he had been left by his late mother.

One day before, he had presented it to his young love as he left the wagon train.

The bracelet reappears significantly later in the film.