A gun will buy you time on the frontier but intelligence will keep you alive in Yellowstone prequel series starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the ancestors of the Dutton family, looking to Sam Elliot's Shea Brennan to get them from Fort Worth, Texas to a new life in Oregon. Accompanied by several immigrant families and a few cowboys, it will take everyone's collective resourcefulness to survive the journey.
Intelligence takes on many forms over the course of the trek, from knowing how to track bandits like Wade, to figuring out how to trade for a pair of pants like Elsa, but the smartest characters have a combination of survival skills, emotional astuteness, and have a high probability of being able to predict the next impending threat.
Aunt Claire
Of everyone involved in the wagon party, Aunt Claire is the least experienced in frontier living. Her preference for painted walls, velvet curtains, and society functions don't lend her any of the skills necessary to make the onerous journey to Oregon.
When the group of bandits arrives at the settler's camp, her first inclination is to hurl rocks at half a dozen men with guns. While the gesture is brave at face value, it's also incredibly unintelligent, because it only exacerbates the situation and causes them to shoot up the camp where they might have only stolen supplies. Aunt Claire's inability to correctly gauge threats and when to exercise diplomacy over violence forces her to pay a very dear sacrifice — her daughter's life.
Josef
As the de facto leader of the immigrant families making up the bulk of the wagon party, Josef must find a way to communicate effectively between them and the wagon boss, but he often shirks his responsibility, resulting in small problems becoming much bigger.
When he doesn't keep abreast of infighting in the families, it leads to stolen supplies which, when Shea Brennan gets involved, turns into a violent display of authority. Given his ability to speak and translate English, Josef should also be the one paying attention to Shea's invaluable survival tips and interpreting them. Josef doesn't do this, and many people suffer and die from failing to boil poisoned water.
Ennis
Despite being a young cowboy, Ennis still knows a lot about living on the frontier, especially given that driving a herd requires weeks of moving cattle across large swathes of a territory full of thieves, bandits, and Comanches. That being said, he lacks a fair amount of social and emotional intelligence.
His behavior around Elsa Dutton — whom he begins to court — demonstrates an unawareness that threatens to cause problems for the wagon party, particularly when her father gives him strict instructions not to "get handsy with her." Ennis doesn't proceed with caution in their Western romance but instead kisses her in full view of James Dutton, an act that could at best ruin his chances at a future with her and at worst guarantee he takes a bullet.
Wade
Less naive and more authoritative than his partner Ennis, Wade is more often than not the voice of reason among the cadre of cowboys the wagon team rides with. He cautions both Shea Brennan and James Dutton about the rigors of the routes they select, an insight that earns him a place of respect among the wagon party.
Wade has 15 years of experience riding, which has given him a practical approach to life on the move. When he helps orchestrate driving the herd of wild cattle, his expertise and intelligence are heavily relied upon to ensure that none of the bulls go missing, and when the wagon team crosses the Brazos, he encourages the immigrant families to lighten their wagons so that they won't sink. Later, Wade's tracking skills prove invaluable when rooting out bandits.
Sheriff Jim Courtright
Forth Worth's sheriff (based on a real gunslinger) is a shrewd man who doesn't like to waste time with a lot of inane palaver, preferring instead to keep his service of law and order efficient. After the wagon train gets into trouble with bandits, Sheriff Jim Courtright brings Josef to the local saloon to point them out while they gloat over their spoils, acknowledging which outlaws to serve justice to.
Sheriff Courtright proceeds to summarily and methodically kill all of the outlaws in cold blood, including those who are unarmed. This is done to eliminate the option of a trial and to curtail any possibility of their defense, but it also seems to James Dutton that it's murder just the same. The sheriff knows the sort of men he's dealing with, and the wild way Fort Worth operates, and so enforces the law in a manner that will ensure its adherence.
Elsa Dutton
What Elsa Dutton lacks in survival skills she makes up for with emotional intelligence, often displaying perspicacity well beyond her years. She's much more open than anyone else on the wagon party — other than her younger brother John — and uses that to forge strong interpersonal relationships.
She learns how to herd and drive cattle, and when she wants to wear pants to make her riding more comfortable, she works out a trade with one of the immigrant women. Elsa hasn't learned to be mistrustful of others, and so enters into relationships based on authenticity rather than duplicity, and those around her gravitate to that sort of resourcefulness because it doesn't feel contrived.
James Dutton
An ex-Confederate captain well trained in combat and frontier survival, James Dutton may look like a farmer but he's one of the most experienced of the wagon train. In one of the earliest scenes in the series, he's able to take out a half dozen thieves simply by being patient in the long grass and using a long barrel-sighted rifle to pick them off from an obscured vantage point.
Dutton's irascible and sometimes stubborn approach to the journey often makes it hard for his family to relate to anyone around them, and if he was slightly more emotionally intelligent, he would favor a more cooperative approach.
Margaret Dutton
Margaret Dutton might try to force her eldest daughter to be more ladylike, but she knows when pearl-clutching won't solve any problems. Even though she wants Elsa to wear corsets, Margaret's not worried about bearing her own undergarments when it comes to getting into the Brazos, unfettered by the weight of her dress to make the crossing easier.
When she's not eschewing her decorum in favor of saving lives, Margaret's herding cattle alongside her husband and daughter, encouraging the immigrant families to boil their water before they drink it, and foraging for edible plants. Margaret is one of the most intelligent of the wagon party because of her competent threat level assessment and ability to adapt to any situation, and she's part of a positive mother-daughter relationship on TV.
Shea Brennan
With decades of war and range riding in his past, Shea Brennan is an experienced wagon boss who knows how to make difficult decisions, like when to lighten the load, how to ford a river, when to discipline thieves in camp, and how to watch out for rattlesnakes in the brush.
After burying too many young men during the Civil War and then his family a decade later, his trauma sometimes overrides his reason, and he can let his temper get the better of him. But the cornerstone of Shea's intelligence comes from predicting the perils of the journey, which ensures that the most families can get to Oregon safely.
Thomas
As an ex-cavalryman and Pinkerton Detective alongside Shea Brennan, Thomas knows as much about survival as the wagon boss but has the ability to be more introspective. Though he carries trauma from his past, Thomas doesn't let it define him, and has the capacity for a larger world-view as a result of it. Unlike Shea and James, his dwelling on past catastrophes doesn't cloud his ability to make prudent decisions.
When Shea wants to take the wagon train North, Thomas persuades him to travel West, and when Shea wants to use his fists instead of his words, his friend reminds him of the value of diplomacy. Thomas tempers his knowledge of the land with his knowledge of people to make him the most intelligent character of the series.