chunk: It is 1868. Ethan Edwards (Wayne) returns after an eight-year absence to the home of his brother Aaron (Walter Coy) in the wilderness of West Texas. Ethan fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, and in the three years since that war ended he apparently fought in the Mexican revolutionary war as well. He has a large quantity of gold coins of uncertain origin in his possession, and a medal from the Mexican campaign that he gives to his eight-year-old niece, Debbie (played as a child by Lana Wood). As a former Confederate soldier, he is asked to take an oath of allegiance to the Texas Rangers; he refuses. As Rev. Captain Samuel Clayton (Ward Bond) remarks, Ethan "fits a lot of descriptions".