After their father commits suicide, leaving them for dead in the middle of the Nevada desert, 15-year old Sarah must lead her 6-year old brother Michael on a journey of survival back to civilization.

ChrisKillen:

It's your assignment, of course, but here's my 2.5 cents worth of ideas to consider as someone who grew up in rural Nevada and has always been keenly interested in its history.

If you go with the 19th century, suicide may or may not work, but there are plenty of other ways for the father (or parents) to die because of the primitive state of medicine and sanitation at the time -- cholera, typhus, infection from a broken bone in an accident, etc.

The main immigrant route to California followed the Humboldt and Carson Rivers -- for obvious reasons (roughly the route of modern day Interstate 80, btw). But there were individuals and groups too impatient to get to California for the gold. Or they foolishly headed west too late in the year to get over the Sierras before snow closed the passes until spring (as was the fate of the Donner party). Such travelers would recklessly gamble their lives on poorly scouted shortcuts that went south away from the rivers route, through arid and even more unforgiving landscapes.

The father (or parents) of the kids could be one of those fools. And he loses his gamble and his kids are left far off the beaten path, on their own hundreds of miles from a White settlement. And then...

Another idea is that the family could be fresh off the boat from Great Britain; after failing in the Old World, the father is starting over in the New World, is seeking his fortune in California. So the kids would have strong accents in addition to weak survival skills. The Native American boy -- and his tribe, not yet exposed and subdued by the White Man's civilization wouldn't know any English. Thus creating the same communication problem as existed in the original movie.

Anyway, best wishes with your assignment.

P.S. Coyotes in rural environments are naturally shy of humans. And they roam in smaller packs than wolves, often only in mated pairs. I never feared them I was growing up, never had to. But when I moved to southern California... Almost all reported incidents of attacks by coyotes have been in areas where urban sprawl has encroached on their habitat - where coyotes have been forced into unnatural contact and familiarity with humans.

I like dpg's idea, as there will certainly be a lot of hostility and mis-trust between whites and natives. A lack of wanting to help the whites from one camp, exploitation from the other, who can you trust and want motives have they to help you? How would outsiders from the other side treat one another
I feel this has the potential to be a great peice of work.
best wishes

To quote the professor, "feel free to deviate as much as you'd like from the original." I actually really like your idea, and that would work much better than if I kept it in present day. The professor is Mark Rosenthal, if you care to know (or check his IMDB, out of curiosity).