Dimension X:The Martian Death March (Ernest Kinoy)

[james_davis_nicoll]

The Martian Death March

A young boy is caught up in a religious nut's quest to help the Martian natives return to their homeland; the majority of human settlers oppose this and express their disapproval with heavy weapons fire. Thousands set out from the reservation; hundreds are left by the end of the march.

This is a fairly pointed commentary on settler/native american relations and the first time I ran into this (on X Minus One) I was a bit surprised to see it in a story of this vintage.

Comments

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of Futurama now.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I remember the X-1 version and the remarkably large anvil.

"It's common for aliens in the Trek universe to be metaphors created to address contemporary political or cultural issues, but in the case of the Kohms and Yangs subtlety was set on fire, strapped to a dump truck full of dynamite and rolled off a cliff."

Religious nut? No.

[(Anonymous)]

The leader of the Martian march seems to be loosely based on abolitionist John Brown, even though this story is a Cowboy / Indian allegory. Although this story - with a few tweaks - could just as well be a tale revolving around a slave revolt.