500 Nations
Encyclopedia
500 Nations is an eight part documentary on the Native Americans
of North
and Central America
. It documents from pre-Columbian to the end of the 19th century. Much of the information comes from text, eyewitnesses, pictorials, and computer graphics.
The series was hosted by Kevin Costner
, and directed by Jack Leustig. It included the voice talents of narrator Tom Jackson
, Wes Studi
, Gary Farmer
, Floyd Red Crow Westerman
, Patrick Stewart
, Eric Schweig
, Michael Horse
, Gordon Tootoosis, Edward James Olmos
, Graham Greene
, and Tantoo Cardinal
.
"500 Nations tries to crystallize the sweeping events that reshaped North America- one of the largest and most pivotal stories in human history - a story we feel is widely unknown. Often painful, sometimes shocking, but in the end it is simply about understanding." Kevin Costner
A 468 page book by the same name, published in 1994, containing far more detailed information, is based upon the documentary.
n culture
s, including the 800-room Pueblo Bonito
in the arid southwest, the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, and Cahokia
, the largest city in the U.S. before 1800.
from pre-Columbian
times, through the period of Europe
an contact and colonization, including the rise and fall of the Toltec
s and the growth of Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec
empire.
expeditions in the Caribbean
and what will become the southeastern United States
, two undefeatable attacks, musket
s and disease
, cause thousands of deaths.
, the story of the Powhatan
princess, Pocahontas
, unfolds. Thanksgiving
at Plymouth
leads to a bloody colonial Indian war in 1675.
n resources, turning native homelands into a Cauldron of War. Many indigenous
nations side with France
, but when the defeated country leaves its native allies vulnerable, a determined leader, Pontiac
, rises to prominence.
displaces Native Americans even though they adopt American ways. Shawnee
leader Tecumseh
sparks a return to traditional ways but The Indian Removal Act
is enforced in 1830. Many stoically accept; others resist.
It has been reported that huge buffalo
were seen throughout this episode in the background, in the forms of shadows and ghost-like figures.
end as American settlers destroy huge buffalo herds. Though native leaders pursue peace, they are massacred at Sand Creek
. The massacre provokes severe repercussions.
the same year it was released.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
of North
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. It documents from pre-Columbian to the end of the 19th century. Much of the information comes from text, eyewitnesses, pictorials, and computer graphics.
The series was hosted by Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
, and directed by Jack Leustig. It included the voice talents of narrator Tom Jackson
Tom Jackson (actor)
Thomas Dale Jackson, OC , is a Canadian born Métis actor and singer perhaps best known for the annual series of Christmas concerts, called the Huron Carole, which he created and starred in for 17 years...
, Wes Studi
Wes Studi
Wesley "Wes" Studi is a Cherokee actor, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in well-received Academy Award-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An...
, Gary Farmer
Gary Farmer
- History :Farmer was born in Ohsweken, Ontario into the Cayuga nation and Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy. Farmer attended Syracuse University and Ryerson Polytechnic University, where he studied photography and film production....
, Floyd Red Crow Westerman
Floyd Red Crow Westerman
Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman, also known as Kanghi Duta was a Sioux musician, political activist and actor. After establishing a career as a country music singer, later in his life, he became a leading actor depicting Native Americans in American films and television. He is sometimes credited simply...
, Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
, Eric Schweig
Eric Schweig
Eric Schweig is a First Nations actor best known for his role as Chingachgook's son Uncas in The Last of the Mohicans .-Early life:...
, Michael Horse
Michael Horse
Michael Heinrich Horse is an American actor, jeweler, and ledger painter.-Early life:Michael Horse was born in a Yaqui Native American reserve near Tucson, Arizona, and is of Yaqui, Mescalero Apache, Zuni, European and Latino descent...
, Gordon Tootoosis, Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos is an American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt...
, Graham Greene
Graham Greene (actor)
Graham Greene is a Canadian actor who has worked on stage, and in film and TV productions in Canada, England and the United States.-Early life:...
, and Tantoo Cardinal
Tantoo Cardinal
Rose Marie "Tantoo" Cardinal, CM is a Canadian film and television actress.-Career:Cardinal was born in Anzac, Fort McMurray, Alberta. Her mother, Julia Cardinal, was a Métis of Cree descent...
.
"500 Nations tries to crystallize the sweeping events that reshaped North America- one of the largest and most pivotal stories in human history - a story we feel is widely unknown. Often painful, sometimes shocking, but in the end it is simply about understanding." Kevin Costner
A 468 page book by the same name, published in 1994, containing far more detailed information, is based upon the documentary.
Episode 1: Wounded Knee Legacy and The Ancestors
The Ancestors explores three early North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s, including the 800-room Pueblo Bonito
Pueblo Bonito
Pueblo Bonito, the largest and best known Great House in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico, was built by ancestral Pueblo people and occupied between AD 828 and 1126....
in the arid southwest, the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, and Cahokia
Cahokia
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the area of an ancient indigenous city located in the American Bottom floodplain, between East Saint Louis and Collinsville in south-western Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The site included 120 human-built earthwork mounds...
, the largest city in the U.S. before 1800.
Episode 2: Mexico
A history of the native nations of MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
from pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
times, through the period of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an contact and colonization, including the rise and fall of the Toltec
Toltec
The Toltec culture is an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo in the early post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology...
s and the growth of Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
empire.
Episode 3: Clash of Cultures
As Native nations defy a plundering advance of SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
expeditions in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and what will become the southeastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, two undefeatable attacks, musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
s and disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
, cause thousands of deaths.
Episode 4: Invasion of the Coast
Tensions rise as more foreigners arrive in North America, and affect the lives of native peoples. At JamestownJamestown
-Saint Kitts and Nevis:*Jamestown, the name of a former town on the edge of Morton Bay on Nevis in the late 17th century-United Kingdom:*Jamestown, Rossshire, Scotland*Jamestown, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland*Jamestown, Fife, Scotland...
, the story of the Powhatan
Powhatan
The Powhatan is the name of a Virginia Indian confederation of tribes. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 of these native Powhatan people in eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607...
princess, Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...
, unfolds. Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
at Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
leads to a bloody colonial Indian war in 1675.
Episode 5: Cauldron of War
European powers fight to control AmericaUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n resources, turning native homelands into a Cauldron of War. Many indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
nations side with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but when the defeated country leaves its native allies vulnerable, a determined leader, Pontiac
Pontiac
Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...
, rises to prominence.
Episode 6: Removal
Being forced to follow the Trail of TearsTrail of Tears
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...
displaces Native Americans even though they adopt American ways. Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
leader Tecumseh
Tecumseh
Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...
sparks a return to traditional ways but The Indian Removal Act
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.The Removal Act was strongly supported in the South, where states were eager to gain access to lands inhabited by the Five Civilized Tribes. In particular, Georgia, the largest state at that time, was involved in...
is enforced in 1830. Many stoically accept; others resist.
It has been reported that huge buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
were seen throughout this episode in the background, in the forms of shadows and ghost-like figures.
Episode 7: Roads Across the Plains
Lifestyles of native peoples of the Great PlainsGreat Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
end as American settlers destroy huge buffalo herds. Though native leaders pursue peace, they are massacred at Sand Creek
Sand Creek
-Communities:* Sand Creek, Wisconsin, a town** Sand Creek , Wisconsin, an unincorporated community within the town of Sand Creek* Sand Creek Township -Streams:...
. The massacre provokes severe repercussions.
Episode 8: Attack on Culture
Legislative attacks on native ways included the disbanding of communal land. Today, native cultures are allowed to renew, and to remember the lifestyles of America's original people, and the hardships they endured.Software
There was a educational computer game based on the documentary made by Microsoft HomeMicrosoft Home
Microsoft Home is a defunct line of software applications and personal hardware products published by Microsoft. Microsoft Home software titles first appeared in the middle of 1993. These applications were designed to bring multimedia to Microsoft Windows and Macintosh personal computers...
the same year it was released.
External links
- http://web.archive.org/web/20080714052109/www.500nations.tv/home.htm Official 500 Nations website, (archived).