[2] It is believed to be the first dramatic film in the Western genre,[3] pre-dating Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery by four years.

[2] The British Film Institute (BFI) questions the ethnicity of the costumes used[3] but Holman has maintained that they are authentic as tomahawks, head-dress and other Western stereotypes are in evidence.

[4] Holman says many cotton workers from Blackburn went to America after the American Civil War and brought back stories of the wild frontier which whetted local interest.

[4] According to Bryony Dixon, a curator at the BFI, Kidnapping By Indians is a significant film in the Western genre.

Ms Dixon admits the film lacks some of the usual Western elements, but then again, so does The Great Train Robbery.