Good story concept (John Dunkel) and well-honed script. Frontier family has decided to move west after hardships of homesteading in Kansas. Their move is complicated by a marauding band of Kiowa and a pregnant family member. Dillon and Chester happen by, and encourage them to stay and tough it out, since that's what they'll have to do wherever they settle on the frontier.
Though the real settings are the unmistakably scrubby hills of southern California, the dirt dugout of a farm house helps compensate along with good performances from a no-name cast as the family members. The care-worn grandmother's (Helen Wallace) little graveyard scene with Matt also lends a poignantly authentic note. Good thing for settlers (and the movies) that Indians never learned the military techniques of small-unit tactics. Here, once again, they attack as a mass target that can hardly be missed by defenders with repeating rifles, no less. Look fast for the beloved Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame as the rather thick-headed cavalry officer.