Burt Reynolds plays a half-breed (half-white, half Yaqui Indian) native American in this movie. Reynolds had previously played a Navajo Indian in the western movie Navajo Joe. Reynolds is of part Cherokee Indian descent.
In both of the 1960s big screen westerns where Burt Reynolds plays an Indian character, he is called Joe. He is Navajo Joe in Navajo Joe and Yaqui Joe Herrera in 100 Rifles.
Part Cherokee Indian, Burt Reynolds plays a Yaqui Indian in this movie. Prior to the making of this film, Reynolds had played characters of Indian descent in two productions of television series. The first was as the half-breed blacksmith Quint Asper in _"Gunsmoke (1955)"_ whilst the other was as the New York DA's office cop Detective Lieutenant John Hawk, a full blooded Iroquois Indian, in Hawk.
Playing the lead part of the Yaqui Indian Yaqui Joe Herrera in this movie, Burt Reynolds was not actually of Yaqui descent but of part Cherokee lineage.
This movie is one of a number of screen westerns that Burt Reynolds made during the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s. These movie westerns include Navajo Joe; 100 Rifles; Sam Whiskey and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.
This movie was apparently one of the first movies to feature a sex scene between people of different races. They were African-American Jim Brown and white American Raquel Welch.
This movie was filmed in the same Almeria, Spain region as the director Tom Gries' TV series, The Rat Patrol. Both starred Eric Braeden.
Though this movie was filmed in Almeria, Spain, it is not actually a spaghetti western. Only a parts of this movie were influenced by that western sub-genre such as the opening titles. Burt Reynolds' previous movie Navajo Joe was a spaghetti western, the only one he did.