Lying, dog-faced pony soldier or yellow-bellied polecat?

Captain York (John Wayne) greets Apache Chief Cochise (Miguel Inclán) and his party in pre-war talks in the 1948 movie, “Fort Apache.”

I’ve cracked the code on Joe Biden’s pony soldier yarn. Dog, cat, fibber or coward, I think we can all agree it’s a rather amusing exchange and there’s an insult in there somewhere.

Although many have tried, no one can find a movie with that scene. The 1952 film, “Pony Soldier” starring Tyrone Power and Cameron Mitchell (which has to do with the Cree and the Canadian Mounted Police), has such a line. Yet, that’s not the scene the president describes above. But there is a scene found in the 1948 movie, “Fort Apache,” directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda, that is similar in many ways.

Let’s compare and contrast the president’s retelling with a scene from “Fort Apache.”

“A movie about John Wayne.” Wayne is in the movie, but the movie isn’t about him. He plays Captain Kirby York, second-in-command to Lt. Col. Owen Thursday, played by Fonda.

“Union soldiers.” The movie’s plot revolves around the U.S. Cavalry outpost Fort Apache in Arizona and takes place sometime in the 1870s. The Civil War had ended years earlier, so referring to them as Union soldiers is not accurate. Many were likely former Union soldiers who are now serving with the U.S. Cavalry, the Congressionally-designated mounted force of the Army.

“I think it was the Apache.” Yes, it was the Apache in this movie. Chief Cochise, played by the striking Miguel Inclán, was leader of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua Apache.

“They’re trying to get the Apache back on the reservation.” Yes, the Fort’s commander, Colonel Thursday, was tasked with containing the Apache on their reservation.

“One of the great tribes of America.” That is true about the Apache, but may depend on your definition of great. They were certainly among the fiercest groups. They are portrayed as being betrayed by the government in the movie. In the key exchange, Chief Cochise declares that the “Apache are a great race.”

“He’s an Indian scout.” There is no specific mention in the movie that Captain York is a scout. But in the set-up to this scene, there might be an indication that he was one. York is called up to the front by Colonel Thursday and told to split the regiment to the north and east. York argues that isn’t necessary and points to the dust swirls in the south. Maybe this is considered scouting. Fair enough.

Watch the entire sequence from that point in this clip from the movie to evaluate the similarities and differences with President Biden’s recap:

Let’s consider a few more details from the president’s story to see how it lines up with the meeting scene.

“They’re on their horses in their saddles.” Yes, the soldiers are on saddled horses when they are searching across the territory for the tribe. After both sides see each other, advance parties ride out first to suss things up. But after agreeing to talk, the principals from each side advance on foot (not horseback) to meet in the middle.

“There’s three or four Indians in headdresses.” There are five Apache and six from the Cavalry party in the meeting. No one in the Apache party is wearing a headdress. They are wearing folded bandanas as headbands, including Chief Cochise. Chief Cochise’s party includes “…the Chiricahua medicine man, named Jerome in our language, but in Spanish, Geronimo.”

“The Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying, dog-faced pony soldier.’” Not exactly. But it does seem logical that a Cavalry member would be called a pony solider. The words “pony” or “pony solider” do not appear in the “Fort Apache” script. Neither does the word “dog” or “dog-faced.” There is no mention of “lying” but a few unrelated references to a “lie.”

Sergeant Beaufort (Pedro Armendáriz) translates Chief Cochise’s words in Spanish for the Cavalry party.

Here is the dialogue from part of that scene, with Sergeant Beaufort supplying the translation, as both he and Cochise speak Spanish (emphasis mine):

Well, time to get on with it, Beaufort.

— What’s he saying?

— That the Apache are a great race, sir. They’ve never been conquered.

But it is not well for a nation to be always at war. The young men die. The women sing sad songs. And the old ones are hungry in the winter. And so I led my people from the hills. And then came this man.

— What did he say?

— Well, sir… a free translation would be that Meacham’s a yellow-bellied polecat of dubious antecedents and conjectural progeny.

In other words, he’s a cowardly scumbag with speculative qualifications and imaginary posterity. That put-down might be interchangeable with a lying, dog-faced pony soldier, except Meacham is not a soldier.

Meacham is clearly the focus of the Apache chief’s anger. Meacham is a representative of the U.S. government—not a Cavalry or “Union” soldier, as the president described him. He is accused of promising things to Cochise and then deceiving him, which does make him a liar.

Silas Meacham (Grant Withers, far left) is accused of betraying the Apache and is called a yellow-bellied polecat by Chief Cochise.

As the movie’s storyline goes, five years earlier, the government made a treaty with Cochise and some other Apache bands to move to the reservation. They wanted peace, and they lived in peace for two years. Then, a government Indian ring, “the dirtiest, most corrupt political group in our history,” according to the script, sent Meacham to them. He provided whiskey, not beef, and trinkets instead of blankets. Cochise’s people became sick and drunken. That prompted Cochise to take most of his people across the Rio Bravo and into Mexico. Who could blame him?

Some think the movie reference is a mash-up of “Hondo” and “Pony Soldier.” In the 1953 John Wayne movie, “Hondo,” the term “pony-solider” is mentioned three times in the script. And Wayne’s character is Army scout Hondo Lane, who stumbles across an isolated homestead in the middle of Apache territory. However, “dog-faced” is not found in the script.

Overall, the meeting scene from “Fort Apache” matches the president’s Hanoi press conference retelling in spirit, if not detail. So, there you have it. Dog, cat, fibber or coward, I think we can all agree it’s a rather amusing exchange and there’s an insult in there somewhere.