Into the West (TV miniseries)
Encyclopedia
Into the West is a 2005 miniseries
produced by Steven Spielberg
and Dreamworks
, with six two-hour episodes (including commercials
). The series was first broadcast in the U.S. on Turner Network Television
(TNT) on six Fridays starting on June 10, 2005. It was also shown in the UK on BBC2 and BBC HD
from 4 November 2006, and in Canada on CBC Television
.
The miniseries begins in the 1820s and is told mainly through the third person narration of Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle
) and Loved By the Buffalo (Joseph M. Marshall III), although episodes outside the direct observation of both protagonists are also shown. The plot follows the story of two families, one white American
, one Native American
, as their lives become mingled through the momentous events of American expansion. The story intertwines real and fictional characters and events spanning the period of expansion of the United States in the American West, from 1825 to 1890.
The show has a large cast, with about 250 speaking parts. The series features well known performers including Josh Brolin
, Gary Busey
, Michael Spears
, Tonantzin Carmelo
, Skeet Ulrich
, Steve Reevis
, Rachael Leigh Cook
, Wes Studi
, Irene Bedard
, Alan Tudyk
, Christian Kane
, Russell Means
, Jay Tavare
, David Midthunder, Keri Russell
, Graham Greene
, Tom Berenger
, Gil Birmingham
, David Paymer
, Raoul Trujillo
, Eric Schweig
, Lance Henriksen
, Simon R. Baker
, Tyler Christopher, Tatanka Means, Tokala Clifford, Gordon Tootoosis, Sheila Tousey, and Will Patton
.
It was filmed in Drumheller, Alberta and Santa Fe, New Mexico
.
, has an apocalyptic vision that the buffalo
his people rely upon will soon vanish from the prairie
. His vision is controversial and his apprentice, Soaring Eagle (Gerald Auger), convinces most of the people to disregard Growling Bear's dark vision. A young boy named White Feather (Chevez Ezaneh
) seeks out the now discredited Growling Bear to learn more about his vision. Before he dies, Growling Bear gives White Feather a necklace symbolizing the Lakota medicine wheel
. This necklace is passed on to various characters through the miniseries.
Later, during a buffalo jump
hunt, many people from White Feather's village are killed during the stampede
, but White Feather is miraculously spared when the spirit of deceased Growling Bear appears to him. The tribe renames him Loved by the Buffalo (Simon Baker III) and begin to regard him as a holy man. This causes Soaring Eagle to become jealous and he does everything he can to undermine Loved by the Buffalo.
Loved by the Buffalo's sister, Thunder Heart Woman (Tonantzin Carmelo
), is married off to a white trapper and his brothers Dog Star (Michael Spears
) and Running Fox (Zahn McClarnon
) begin families, but Loved by the Buffalo realizes that his destiny lies on a different path. Loved by the Buffalo gives Thunder Heart Woman the wooden medicine wheel necklace as a parting gift.
At about the same time, a young wheelwright
named Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle
) is growing discontented with his settled life in the fictional Wheelerton, Virginia
, where he and his brothers work as a wheelwright
s for his grandfather, a veteran of the Battle of Yorktown
. When a mountain man named James Fletcher (Will Patton
) passes through and tells him of the wonders of the western frontier, Jacob decides to leave his family and head west. He convinces his brother Nathan (Alan Tudyk
), to come west with him, but another brother, Jethro (Skeet Ulrich
), cannot bring himself to leave his home and stays behind.
Once the brothers reach St. Louis, Missouri
, they meet up with Fletcher, who rebuffs them. Dejected, Nathan goes into a saloon
to drink and gamble, winning a deed to a land claim in the Mexican province of Tejas
. Nathan tries to convince Jacob to come with him to Tejas, but Jacob has become determined to become a mountain man and travel with Jedediah Smith. The brothers part company and Jacob heads toward the Rocky Mountains
.
Jacob catches up with Fletcher and trapping party captain Jedediah Smith
(Josh Brolin
) who once again rebuffs him. Jacob convinces them to take him in and he eventually becomes a trusted member of the party. He accompanies Smith's party to California
where they are arrested and expelled by the Mexican authorities. On the way back, they are attacked by a group of Mohave, who had been hospitable on the party's first visit; many, including Fletcher, are killed, but Smith and Jacob escape.
Thunder Heart Woman's trapper husband is killed by the Crow, her infant daughter is captured, and she is sold into slavery. Later, Jacob sees her being auctioned off at a trapper rendezvous and attempts to buy her in order to set her free. Fellow trapper Johnny Fox (Gary Busey
) duels Jacob for the right to purchase her. Jacob is victorious in the duel, and soon agrees to return Thunder Heart Woman to her people. She gives him the wooden medicine wheel necklace as a token of her gratitude. When they return to the tribe, Jacob marries Thunder Heart Woman and begins to live as part of the Lakota tribe.
Running Fox trades for a horsecart
, much to the dismay of Loved by the Buffalo, who sees white goods as a corruption of Lakota culture. When Loved by the Buffalo sees Jacob repairing the wheel, he is reminded of a vision he had during a Sun Dance
in which a wooden wheel smashes a stone wheel. Loved by the Buffalo takes Jacob to a sacred hilltop where a stone medicine wheel has been erected. Loved by the Buffalo begins to realize that the wooden wheel symbolizes the wagon wheels of the whites and that the stone wheel is the medicine wheel of the Lakota culture.
This time, Jacob's brother Jethro (Skeet Ulrich
) decides to come along. They are also accompanied by Jacob's three young female cousins; Leah Wheeler (Emily Holmes
), Rachel Wheeler (Jessica Capshaw
), and Naomi Wheeler (Keri Russell
). The three girls have been unlucky in love and are lured by the tales of excitement out west.
Meanwhile Thunder Heart Woman's two brothers, Dog Star and Running Fox argue over whether or not to adopt white technology. The disagreement comes to a boil and the two agree to part ways, splitting the tribe.
After working their way west for several years, the Wheeler clan arrives at Independence, Missouri
. Jacob, now with a second son Jacob Junior High Cloud, wants to go west to California
or the Oregon country
, but Thunder Heart Woman and some of the others wish to remain in Missouri. Jacob eventually convinces the others to go to California and they join a wagon train led by Stephen Hoxie (Beau Bridges
) who is a better salesman than a leader. Among the other settlers is a German immigrant preacher named Hobbes (Derek de Lint
), a free black family fleeing racial prejudice, and several former mountain men.
The wagon train passage is filled with dangers: Leah Wheeler is thrown from the wagon during the crossing of a river and drowns, and the young son of the black pioneers is killed by stampeding cattle during a thunder storm. But life also continues: Rachel and Naomi take husbands from among the wagon trail guides. Later, while traversing a pass
, a wagon breaks free, knocks Rachel down and runs over her leg, causing a severe compound fracture. The leg eventually becomes infected and must be amputated. Preacher Hobbes is the closest thing to a doctor available, but he botches the operation and Rachel dies.
Cholera
breaks out, killing the wife of the black pioneer. Those exposed, including Jacob, Thunder Heart Woman, the children, and Jethro must stay behind under quarantine
while the main body of the wagon train carries on. Naomi and her husband, who have not been exposed, go on with the others.
Jethro is afflicted with symptoms of cholera but recovers, and no new outbreaks occur after Jacob orders that all drinking water be boiled.
They rush to catch up with the main body, but find that the others have been attacked by Cheyenne
warriors.
Naomi has been taken into captivity and sold to Cheyenne chief Prairie Fire (Jay Tavare
) who takes her as his wife. The thought of a forced marriage to an Indian is repulsive to Naomi, who has always considered them as barely human savages. She chants nursery rhyme
s, which put off his amorous advances. In time, she begins to see Prairie Fire in a different light and she grows to become happy in her new life. She eventually gives birth to a son, whom he names One Horn Bull.
Jacob returns to the rest of the wagons, and they are soon attacked. The Indians are fought off, but an arrow is shot through Jacob's chest, and he begs to be left behind to die. After the rest of the party leaves, Jacob prepares himself to die, but is rescued by a hunting party led by Running Fox, that stumble across him half-dead. After recovering his strength, Jacob spends several months in the mountains. Haunted by the faces of the children he sent on with his wife and brother, Jacob eventually tries to find them in California. He searches several years for his family but cannot find them, and eventually gives them up for dead.
The Mexican-American War erupts and Jacob joins John C. Frémont
's militia
to fight the Mexican Army
. During a supply stop in one of the settlements, he sees his wife at a distance but before he can go over to greet her, he sees her and his brother Jethro embrace and kiss. They also have a new child, Cornflower. Dejected that his wife and brother have become romantically involved but not wanting to disrupt their happiness, he decides to leave without making his presence known. Before he goes, he gives the wooden medicine wheel necklace to his young son who does not realize this man is his father.
Meanwhile, Dog Star and Running Fox are still estranged. The other tribes that have been trading with the whites for rifles, particularly the Crow, have grown stronger and the Lakota are now at a disadvantage. Seeking guidance, Dog Star visits the stone medicine wheel, where he meets Loved by the Buffalo. Loved by the Buffalo tells his brother that his lifetime quest is to preserve the traditional ways. The whites at the forts refuse to trade pistol
s to the Lakota, instead giving them whiskey, and drunkenness soon becomes a problem. Loved by the Buffalo also appears to his brother Running Fox in a vision. Running Fox and Dog Star eventually reconcile and agree to no longer trade for white goods.
Thunder Heart Woman finds the wooden medicine wheel necklace and realizes that her husband is still alive. She feels that it is best not to go after him, but their daughter Margaret Light Shines Wheeler (Elizabeth Sage) is determined to find him.
named Martin Jarrett (Sean Astin
) who brings him the first news about the California gold rush
. Jethro soon follows him to the nearby American River
to prospect for gold, although he returns home each night.
Jethro dreams of quick riches but all he finds are a few small grains. Undeterred, he begins to spend more and more time looking for gold. Without Jethro's labor, the ranch begins to run into difficulties, with essential repairs being left undone. Jethro also takes to drinking heavily and becomes abusive towards Thunder Heart Woman and the children. After one too many arguments turn violent, Abe High Wolf Wheeler (Tyler Posey
) decides to leave.
Jethro's nephew (although it is claimed in the movie that he is Jethro's cousin), David Wheeler (Balthazar Getty
), arrives as a 49er and becomes Jethro's partner in prospecting for gold. Angered by the successes of a group of Chinese immigrant miners, Jethro and David drive them off and steal their claim. After finding a huge nugget
of gold, Jethro and David argue over how they will split their new fortune. After Jethro falls asleep, David steals the nugget and heads toward San Francisco. Jethro follows him and the two exchange gun fire. As David tries to escape in a canoe
, the two struggle and both are drowned. To support her family, Thunder Heart Woman starts to sell food and supplies to the miners.
Meanwhile, Margaret Light Shines Wheeler has taken a job in a guest house in San Francisco, but continues to look for her father. Jacob remained with the army, but became disillusioned at the treatment of native Americans in Oregon
and returned to trapping in the mountains in California. After spotting an army unit sporting a Bear Flag, Margaret inquires if any of them know Jacob Wheeler. A sergeant
tells her that Jacob is among them and says he will lead her to him. When the two enter a barn, he tries to rape
her. Margaret is saved by Ethan Biggs (Daniel Gillies
), a British
immigrant photographer. Margaret goes to work for Biggs and the two eventually fall in love and marry.
While working in the photo studio, a local wheelwright tells Margaret a trapper in the mountains has fixed a broken wagon wheel for some settlers. Certain that it's her father, Margaret convinces Biggs to join her looking for the trapper's camp. When they find the camp, Jacob at first takes them for thieves and nearly shoots them. Margaret shows him the wooden medicine wheel necklace and he realizes that she is his daughter. Jacob then goes to Rancho Paradiso and is reunited with his family.
On the plains, white encroachment has become an undeniable problem for the tribes. Running Fox and Dog Star join several other chiefs - including Conquering Bear
(Graham Greene
) - at the signing of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)
. All three agree that the peace is precarious but decide to give the agreement a chance.
A little later, Loved by the Buffalo is visiting Conquering Bear's village. A cow escapes from a passing Mormon
wagon train
and rampages through the village, causing considerable damage. The villagers try to give the cow back to the settlers, but they become frightened at the sight of the Indians and run away. The tribe decides to keep the cow as compensation for the damage and butcher it. Soldiers soon come, demanding that the cow be returned and the "thief" be handed over. Conquering Bear tries to explain the situation to the soldiers but his efforts are thwarted by a drunken scout who mistranslates the negotiations. The soldiers then open fire on the village and the warriors fight back. Many are killed on both sides, including Conquering Bear. (Note: this event is based on the August 1854 Grattan massacre
.)
A few years later, another Wheeler cousin, Samson Wheeler (Matthew Modine
) has moved his family to Lawrence, Kansas
. He allies himself with the abolitionist Jayhawker
s during the days of "Bleeding Kansas
" as tensions rise in the months leading up to the Civil War
. He tries to get his wife Susannah (Rebecca Jenkins
), and children including daughter Clara (Rachael Leigh Cook
) to leave after border ruffian
Bloody Bill Anderson
(Christian Bocher) threatens the Jayhawkers, but they refuse. Lawrence is later attacked by Anderson's bushwackers and Quantrill's Raiders
. In the raid, Samson, Susannah, and two of their three children are killed, leaving Clara as the only survivor. She then leaves Kansas to seek out her cousins in Omaha
.
Jacob Wheeler's sons take different paths. Abe Wheeler (Christian Kane
) has become a rider for the Pony Express
. Despite being an excellent rider, he loses his job when the Pony Express is superseded by the telegraph. Jacob Wheeler, Jr. (Tyler Christopher) also decides to leave the family ranch to strike out on his own. Leaving California for the great plains, his knowledge of the Lakota language is valuable to the army and he is hired as a scout.
Dog Star's son, Brings Horse (Nathaniel Arcand
) is shot by an army sniper
when he climbs a telegraph pole to investigate the wires strung from the top. Sleeping Bear (Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse
), Dog Star's surviving son, pledges revenge against the whites for what they have done.
), Robert Wheeler (Warren Kole), Jackson Wheeler (Glen Powell Jr.), and Lilly Wheeler (Mia Stallard). Daniel is pursuing the family trade as a wheelwright
. He is not happy to see Clara (in the previous episode Samson mentioned that he never was on good terms with Daniel, although the reason is never revealed), but he is persuaded by his wife and his son Robert to take Clara in.
The race is on as the Central Pacific
and Union Pacific Railroad
s lay down tracks across the U.S., bringing East and West together. Jacob Wheeler's son Abe joins the construction crew of the Central Pacific railroad, working east from Sacramento
. Working conditions are hard, and many workers leave to prospect for gold in the Californian goldfields. Chinese workers ("Coolie
s") are brought in from San Francisco to supplement the work crews. Abe meets and befriends Chow-Ping Yen (Garrett Wang
), and they work in difficult conditions into and through the Sierra Nevada. Chow-Ping saves Abe's life when he almost falls from a bosun's chair
while setting dynamite to construct a shelf along a cliff face.
In March 1864, while photographing California Governor Frederick Low
, Ethan Biggs and his wife, Margaret Light Shines (Jacob's daughter), decide to see the Indian Territory, and they take a stagecoach
to Denver. In Denver, they hear LtCol John Chivington
speak against the Indians and recruit for the Third Colorado Cavalry
. Ethan and Margaret's stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne warriors after leaving Denver. The other passengers are killed, but they are captured by Roman Nose
(Rod Rondeaux) and taken to the camp of Black Kettle
. Although the Cheyenne are hostile at first, Ethan and Margaret demonstrate their photographic equipment to the curious Cheyenne, and come to appreciate the Indian's hospitality.
While Ethan photographs the people of Black Kettle's camp, Margaret works to establish peace between the Cheyenne and the local Governor and Army. On September 28, 1864, Black Kettle holds council with Colorado Territory Governor John Evans
, Colonel Chivington and Major Wynkoop (Arron Shiver), to ensure peace. (Major Wynkoop's character is based on Silas Soule
.) The Indians make clear their desire for peace, but the negotiations end inconclusively.
Margaret and Ethan decide to continue their journey, but, on November 29, 1864, the night before they have planned to leave, Colonel Chivington attacks Black Kettle's village at the head of the Third Colorado Cavalry. Most of the village, including Ethan, are killed at the Sand Creek Massacre
. Margaret is saved by Black Kettle and flees with the survivors.
Further altercations between the Indians and the American settlers leads Red Cloud
(Raoul Trujillo) to begin to gather the forces that will lead to Red Cloud's War
. On December 21, 1866, a large band of Cheyenne and Sioux under Crazy Horse
(Tatanka Means) attack a supply train near Fort Phil Kearny
. Capt. Fetterman
(Dylan Kenin) leads a relief party of 80 men. Ignoring orders not to venture beyond Lodge Trail Ridge, he led his troops into an ambush. He and his entire party were killed in the attack, later called the Fetterman Massacre.
General William Tecumseh Sherman
meets with Black Kettle and other Indian Chiefs, and Margaret watches another treaty being signed. Despite the treaty, Col George Armstrong Custer
(Jonathan Scarfe) and the 7th Cavalry
attack Black Kettle's Cheyenne village at the Battle of Washita River
on November 27, 1868. Jacob Jr. has been serving as a scout for the U.S. Army with Custer. Margaret is taken captive with other Indian women. They are taken to an Army Fort, where she is reunited with her brother Jacob Jr., who tries to help her escape. She refuses, insisting on staying with her adopted Indian family. Eventually, the U.S. Army abandons some forts, and the second Treaty of Fort Laramie
creates the Great Sioux reservation
.
Abe Wheeler continues to work on the railroad until the First Transcontinental Railroad
was completed on May 10, 1869, when the driving of the Golden Spike
joins the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory Summit in Utah
(sometimes called Promontory Point, which is, however, a different location at the southern tip of a peninsula in the Great Salt Lake
). Abe parts company with Chow-Ping, and does not appear again. (It is assumed that he died in some manner, although the lack of explanation of his fate could also be considered a plot hole
.)
Meanwhile, Daniel Wheeler, his sons, Robert and Jackson, together with distant cousin Clara seek their fortune in several railroad boomtowns, starting with North Platte, Nebraska
. By May 1868, they are in Cheyenne
. After the Transcontinental Railroad is completed, Robert and Clara decide to strike out on their own.
is discovered
in the Black Hills
in 1874. The Black Hills are considered by the Lakota to be the axis mundi
, or center of the world, and the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie
granted the Indians ownership of the mountain range. Now, settlers trespass on their land to prospect for gold, and the U.S. Army moves in to take possession. Conflict over control of the region sparks the Black Hills War, the last major Indian War
on the Great Plains
.
Red Cloud
(Raoul Trujillo
) continues to talk of peace with the whites at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
, but many young men leave to join Sitting Bull
(Eric Schweig
), including cousins White Bird (Kalani Queypo) - son of Sleeping Bear and grandson of Dog Star (Gil Birmingham
) - and Red Lance (Eddie Spears
) - grandson of Running Fox (Russell Means
) and son of White Crow (David Midthunder). Red Lance's younger brother, Voices That Carry (Nakotah Larance), wants to go with his brother, but is required to stay behind with his uncle Dog Star because of his youth. Red Cloud thinks that the "peace talkers" from Washington will honor the Treaty of Fort Laramie and keep other whites out of the Black Hills.
Robert Wheeler is operating a general store
in Hillsgate, Dakota Territory
, while Clara teaches the town's children. Robert then makes a jump over the fence that signifies he is very determined.Their store prospers as a result of the Black Hills Gold Rush
and the many who rush into the area to find gold. In October 1874, Robert agrees to take a prospector into the Black Hills for $10., but they are attacked by two bushwhacker
s and the prospector is killed. Robert, in turn, kills the two bushwhackers with his Sharps Buffalo Rifle. Clara buys a typewriter
from a traveling salesman. Robert invests the profits from the store in about 100 Buffalo
hides for $3. each, expecting to make a profit from the craze for buffalo bedspreads and overcoats, but finds that fashions have moved on and he can not sell them to Douglas Hillman (Judge Reinhold
) for more than $1. each. Instead, he gives them to the needy Indians at a nearby reservation. While there, he meets Capt. Richard Henry Pratt
(Keith Carradine
).
Margaret Light Shines (Irene Bedard
) has been a prisoner of the Army since the Battle of Washita River
, but she finds purpose helping the women and orphaned children at the same Indian Reservation as Red Cloud. Voices That Carry runs away from the camp of Red Cloud to join his father, White Crow, with Sitting Bull.
In June 1876, Jacob Wheeler Jr. (Tyler Christopher) is still a scout for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
(Jonathan Scarfe
) and the 7th U.S. Cavalry. On the morning of the Battle of the Little Bighorn
, Custer dispatches Jacob Jr. with a message to Captain Frederick Benteen
. Jacob Jr. gives a letter for his parents to a friend who is assigned to Major Marcus Reno
's group, in case he should not survive Custer's plan. As he foresaw, Jacob is killed before he finds Benteen, as Crazy Horse and a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne combined force wipe out Custer's cavalry detachment. Among those who are also killed is White Bird, son of Sleeping Bear and grandson of Dog Star (Gil Birmingham
). Voices That Carry brings the body of his cousin back to Dog Star in Red Cloud's camp.
After the final letter from Jacob Jr. reaches them, Jacob (John Terry
) and Thunder Heart Woman (Sheila Tousey
) go to Hillsgate in an effort to find Jacob Jr. They meet Robert and Clara, who take them to the scene of the battle. We learn that Robert and Clara had a son, William Wheeler, who had died from a fever.
Following the defeat of the Sioux
and their allies later in 1876, the United States "purchased" the Black Hills region (no actual purchase was ever completed and this area is under dispute to this day).
In 1879, Richard Henry Pratt returns to Hillsgate. He invites Robert and Clara to join him in teaching at an experimental school in Pennsylvania designed to "civilize" Native American children. Pratt persuades the Lakota that their children need to learn the white men's ways. He takes 125 Lakota children to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
. President Rutherford B. Hayes
had arranged for the Carlisle Barracks to be made available. Among the children is Voices That Carry, who encourages the other Native Americans to resist assimilation. Voices That Carry's numerous attempts to undermine the process upset Pratt, but Robert tries to convince the boy to work hard so he can record the story of his people. Voices That Carry and Robert form a tentative friendship. After 6 months in Carlisle, Robert falls out with Pratt over his strict teaching methods, and heads back for home with Clara, who is now bearing their second child.
) believes he has found the foretold prophet when a mysterious Indian named Wovoka
(Jonathan Joss
) inspires his people with the Ghost Dance
and a vision of their restored land at a Paiute
reservation, the Yerington Indian Colony near Yerington, Nevada
. But the ritual stirs up more fear among those who wish to contain the Native Americans. Voices That Carry (Chaske Spencer
) is reunited with his brother Red Lance (Eddie Spears
). Within weeks, the Ghost Dance becomes a phenomenon in the reservation. Local white governors and suppliers, who are tasked with the job of providing clothing and food for the Natives, become fearful of an Indian uprising. Local newspaper reporters overly exaggerate the dance as being sadistic and rebellious in nature. Margaret Light Shines is living in the reservation to help tend to the local children and sick. One of the newspaper reporters, not realizing she speaks English and knows how to use a camera, confronts her and trades his camera for a Ghost Shirt.
After Sitting Bull is “accidentally” killed by Indian Police sent by the Indian Agent, the Ghost Dance rebellion grows, which in turn leads to more brutality toward the Native Americans. Indian Agent Daniel Royer (David Paymer
) fearful of the Ghost Dance sends for help and Colonel James W. Forsyth
arrives with the 7th Cavalry Regiment
. The 7th Cavalry regiment moves outward from the reservation into the hills and valleys restricted of Indian settlement where Big Foot and his followers are hiding out. Fearful of the slaughter of his people who are poorly armed, Big Foot agrees to return to the reservation peacefully.
It is not clear who fired the first shot at Wounded Knee. The massacre at Wounded Knee ended the American/Indian Wars and also brought an end to the Ghost Dance.
While on the journey back to the reservation settlement, the groups stop and rest at a valley called Wounded Knee
. While there, Colonel Forsyth requests Big Foot's men turn over all their weapons. The natives do so peacefully; however, when Forsyth sees how few arms Big Foot's men are carrying, he becomes angry. Believing his reports that Big Foot's men were well armed, the soldiers begin tearing apart the camp, taking anything that could be used as a weapon, including sticks and utensils. One of Big Foot's warriors is deaf and did not hear the request to turn in his gun. When a U.S. soldier attempts to pry it from his hands, the gun goes off by accident. The American soldiers then proceed to open fire at will upon Big Foot and his men. While Big Foot's men rush to pick up their weapons and defend themselves, the women and children run in opposite directions only to be mowed down by the 7th Cavalry's gunfire. Most of the Natives, including Big Foot, are slaughtered. Robert Wheeler, who was attached to the 7th Cavalry in supplying Big Foot's men with blankets and food, survives the massacre.
The survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre
are marched back to the reservation. Word goes round rapidly about the slaughter and Margaret Light Shines goes out to the field at Wounded Knee to photograph the massacre. While there, she meets and photographs the newspaper reporter who sold her the camera, who is standing with horror at the sight of the hundreds of frozen dead natives which he indirectly had contributed to. She is also reunited with her uncle Loved By the Buffalo, who is performing the death rites for the deceased. Margaret brings him to meet her parents, Thunder Heart Woman (Sheila Tousey
) and Jacob Wheeler (John Terry
).
Loved By the Buffalo and Jacob Wheeler meet again, closing a circle that began many years ago, and Loved By the Buffalo comes to realize that his destiny was not to prevent what was destined to happen, but to preserve it and the memory of his people; to teach the young Lakota children the ways of their people. "So long as there are still a few Lakota left who understand the traditional ways of their people, the tribe, history, and the memories and lessons of our past can still be preserved so that future generations may also learn from them."
The final scene shows Loved By the Buffalo sitting with a group of Lakota children, Margaret, and Thunder Heart Woman, teaching them the past of the people and his own experiences. At the same time miles away, Jacob Wheeler is sitting on the porch with Robert and Clara's son, telling him about his own experiences, past, and the lessons he has to teach.
The other 14 nominations were:http://www.emmys.org/downloads/images/2006emmys/PrimetimeNoms.php
nomination in 2006
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
produced by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
and Dreamworks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
, with six two-hour episodes (including commercials
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
). The series was first broadcast in the U.S. on Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
(TNT) on six Fridays starting on June 10, 2005. It was also shown in the UK on BBC2 and BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
from 4 November 2006, and in Canada on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
.
The miniseries begins in the 1820s and is told mainly through the third person narration of Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle
Matthew Settle
Jeffrey Matthew Settle is an American actor best known for playing Captain Ronald Speirs on the HBO show Band of Brothers and Rufus Humphrey on Gossip Girl.-Career:...
) and Loved By the Buffalo (Joseph M. Marshall III), although episodes outside the direct observation of both protagonists are also shown. The plot follows the story of two families, one white American
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
, one Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, as their lives become mingled through the momentous events of American expansion. The story intertwines real and fictional characters and events spanning the period of expansion of the United States in the American West, from 1825 to 1890.
The show has a large cast, with about 250 speaking parts. The series features well known performers including Josh Brolin
Josh Brolin
Josh James Brolin is an American actor. He has acted in theater, film and television roles since 1985, and won acting awards for his roles in the films W., No Country for Old Men, Milk and True Grit.-Early life:...
, Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
, Michael Spears
Michael Spears
Michael Spears is an American actor.Spears was born in Lower Brulé Tribe, South Dakota to Native American parents. He is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Lower Brule Tribe of South Dakota...
, Tonantzin Carmelo
Tonantzin Carmelo
Tonantzín Carmelo is an American actress. A California Mission Indian who counts herself a descendant of the original residents of Los Angeles, grew up performing in an Native American dance troupe led by her mother, Virginia Carmelo. Branching out into acting during college, she has since...
, Skeet Ulrich
Skeet Ulrich
Bryan Ray Trout , best known as Skeet Ulrich, is an American actor best known for starring in the CBS drama Jericho as Jake Green and for portraying Billy Loomis in Scream...
, Steve Reevis
Steve Reevis
Steve Reevis is a Blackfoot Native American actor. His best known role as Shep Proudfoot in the Academy Award-winning film Fargo .He grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation...
, Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachael Leigh Cook is an American actress, known for her role in the romantic comedy She's All That and her This is Your Brain on Drugs public service announcement.-Early life:...
, 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...
, Irene Bedard
Irene Bedard
Irene Bedard is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Native American characters in a variety of films. Bedard was born in Anchorage, Alaska...
, Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk
Alan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
, Christian Kane
Christian Kane
Christian Kane is an American actor and singer/songwriter of Native American descent. He currently stars as Eliot Spencer on the TNT series Leverage. He is best known for his roles in the television shows Angel and Into the West, and the movies Just Married and Secondhand Lions.He is the lead...
, Russell Means
Russell Means
Russell Charles Means is an Oglala Sioux activist for the rights of Native American people. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement after joining the organisation in 1968, and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media coverage...
, Jay Tavare
Jay Tavare
Jay Tavare is an American actor. Tavare is perhaps best known as Vega in 1994 film Street Fighter. Tavare has played a number of roles in movies, including a Seminole in Adaptation, an Apache in The Missing, a Cherokee in Cold Mountain, and a Cheyenne in Into the West.His mother was White Mountain...
, David Midthunder, Keri Russell
Keri Russell
Keri Lynn Russell is an American actress and dancer. After appearing in a number of made-for-television films and series during the mid-1990s, she came to fame for portraying the title role of Felicity Porter on the series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002, and for which she won a Golden Globe...
, 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:...
, Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
, Gil Birmingham
Gil Birmingham
Gil Birmingham is an American actor of Comanche ancestry, known for his portrayal of Billy Black in the The Twilight Saga film series.- Personal background :...
, David Paymer
David Paymer
David Paymer is an American actor and television director, seen in such films as Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean's Thirteen, and Drag Me to Hell...
, Raoul Trujillo
Raoul Trujillo
Born Jose Raoul TrujilloAlso known as Raul Trujillo and Max Cheblon|parents= Luis and Lorraine TrujilloHis official website is raoultrujilloinfo.com, created by Charmaine deValois in London....
, 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:...
, Lance Henriksen
Lance Henriksen
Lance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
, Simon R. Baker
Simon R. Baker
Simon Richard Baker III is an Aboriginal Canadian actor, of Cree, Haida, and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh descent. He hails from North Vancouver-Capilano, British Columbia. Baker began his filming career at the age nine in the movie Once in a Blue Moon...
, Tyler Christopher, Tatanka Means, Tokala Clifford, Gordon Tootoosis, Sheila Tousey, and Will Patton
Will Patton
William Rankin "Will" Patton is an American actor.-Life and career:Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. His father is Bill Patton, a playwright and acting/directing instructor who was a Lutheran minister and served as a chaplain at Duke University...
.
It was filmed in Drumheller, Alberta and Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
.
Episode 1 - Wheel to the Stars
Growling Bear (Gordon Tootoosis), an elderly Lakota medicine manMedicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
, has an apocalyptic vision that the 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...
his people rely upon will soon vanish from the prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
. His vision is controversial and his apprentice, Soaring Eagle (Gerald Auger), convinces most of the people to disregard Growling Bear's dark vision. A young boy named White Feather (Chevez Ezaneh
Chevez Ezaneh
Chevez Ezaneh is a young Dene actor who has played characters who are Native Americans, including the young Charles Eastman in the HBO TV film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Ezaneh won a Young Artist Award in 2008 for the "Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special - Leading Young...
) seeks out the now discredited Growling Bear to learn more about his vision. Before he dies, Growling Bear gives White Feather a necklace symbolizing the Lakota medicine wheel
Medicine wheel
Medicine wheels, or sacred hoops, were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone, and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes", or lines of rocks radiating from the center...
. This necklace is passed on to various characters through the miniseries.
Later, during a buffalo jump
Buffalo jump
A buffalo jump is a cliff formation which North American Indians historically used in mass killings of plains bison. Hunters herded the bison and drove them over the cliff, breaking their legs and rendering them immobile. Tribe members waiting below closed in with spears and bows to finish the kills...
hunt, many people from White Feather's village are killed during the stampede
Stampede
A stampede is an act of mass impulse among herd animals or a crowd of people in which the herd collectively begins running with no clear direction or purpose....
, but White Feather is miraculously spared when the spirit of deceased Growling Bear appears to him. The tribe renames him Loved by the Buffalo (Simon Baker III) and begin to regard him as a holy man. This causes Soaring Eagle to become jealous and he does everything he can to undermine Loved by the Buffalo.
Loved by the Buffalo's sister, Thunder Heart Woman (Tonantzin Carmelo
Tonantzin Carmelo
Tonantzín Carmelo is an American actress. A California Mission Indian who counts herself a descendant of the original residents of Los Angeles, grew up performing in an Native American dance troupe led by her mother, Virginia Carmelo. Branching out into acting during college, she has since...
), is married off to a white trapper and his brothers Dog Star (Michael Spears
Michael Spears
Michael Spears is an American actor.Spears was born in Lower Brulé Tribe, South Dakota to Native American parents. He is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Lower Brule Tribe of South Dakota...
) and Running Fox (Zahn McClarnon
Zahn McClarnon
Zahn McClarnon is a Native American actor, who is known for his guest starring roles in various television shows. He recently starred in a 2009 film Not Forgotten and a comedy film Repo Chick. He currently has a recurring role as Bodaway Macawi in Ringer.-External links:...
) begin families, but Loved by the Buffalo realizes that his destiny lies on a different path. Loved by the Buffalo gives Thunder Heart Woman the wooden medicine wheel necklace as a parting gift.
At about the same time, a young wheelwright
Wheelwright
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker...
named Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle
Matthew Settle
Jeffrey Matthew Settle is an American actor best known for playing Captain Ronald Speirs on the HBO show Band of Brothers and Rufus Humphrey on Gossip Girl.-Career:...
) is growing discontented with his settled life in the fictional Wheelerton, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, where he and his brothers work as a wheelwright
Wheelwright
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker...
s for his grandfather, a veteran of the Battle of Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
. When a mountain man named James Fletcher (Will Patton
Will Patton
William Rankin "Will" Patton is an American actor.-Life and career:Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. His father is Bill Patton, a playwright and acting/directing instructor who was a Lutheran minister and served as a chaplain at Duke University...
) passes through and tells him of the wonders of the western frontier, Jacob decides to leave his family and head west. He convinces his brother Nathan (Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk
Alan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
), to come west with him, but another brother, Jethro (Skeet Ulrich
Skeet Ulrich
Bryan Ray Trout , best known as Skeet Ulrich, is an American actor best known for starring in the CBS drama Jericho as Jake Green and for portraying Billy Loomis in Scream...
), cannot bring himself to leave his home and stays behind.
Once the brothers reach St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, they meet up with Fletcher, who rebuffs them. Dejected, Nathan goes into a saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
to drink and gamble, winning a deed to a land claim in the Mexican province of Tejas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Nathan tries to convince Jacob to come with him to Tejas, but Jacob has become determined to become a mountain man and travel with Jedediah Smith. The brothers part company and Jacob heads toward the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
.
Jacob catches up with Fletcher and trapping party captain Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, cartographer, cattleman, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century...
(Josh Brolin
Josh Brolin
Josh James Brolin is an American actor. He has acted in theater, film and television roles since 1985, and won acting awards for his roles in the films W., No Country for Old Men, Milk and True Grit.-Early life:...
) who once again rebuffs him. Jacob convinces them to take him in and he eventually becomes a trusted member of the party. He accompanies Smith's party to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
where they are arrested and expelled by the Mexican authorities. On the way back, they are attacked by a group of Mohave, who had been hospitable on the party's first visit; many, including Fletcher, are killed, but Smith and Jacob escape.
Thunder Heart Woman's trapper husband is killed by the Crow, her infant daughter is captured, and she is sold into slavery. Later, Jacob sees her being auctioned off at a trapper rendezvous and attempts to buy her in order to set her free. Fellow trapper Johnny Fox (Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
) duels Jacob for the right to purchase her. Jacob is victorious in the duel, and soon agrees to return Thunder Heart Woman to her people. She gives him the wooden medicine wheel necklace as a token of her gratitude. When they return to the tribe, Jacob marries Thunder Heart Woman and begins to live as part of the Lakota tribe.
Running Fox trades for a horsecart
Cart
A cart is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people...
, much to the dismay of Loved by the Buffalo, who sees white goods as a corruption of Lakota culture. When Loved by the Buffalo sees Jacob repairing the wheel, he is reminded of a vision he had during a Sun Dance
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a religious ceremony practiced by a number of Native American and First Nations peoples, primarily those of the Plains Nations. Each tribe has its own distinct practices and ceremonial protocols...
in which a wooden wheel smashes a stone wheel. Loved by the Buffalo takes Jacob to a sacred hilltop where a stone medicine wheel has been erected. Loved by the Buffalo begins to realize that the wooden wheel symbolizes the wagon wheels of the whites and that the stone wheel is the medicine wheel of the Lakota culture.
Episode 2 - Manifest Destiny
After living among the Lakota people, Jacob decides to take his wife and daughter Margaret Light Shines back to Wheelerton, Virginia. Jacob's family gives Thunder Heart Woman a much colder reception than her family gave him. After living in Wheelerton for a time, Jacob decides to take his family, now including a young son Abraham High Wolf, back west.This time, Jacob's brother Jethro (Skeet Ulrich
Skeet Ulrich
Bryan Ray Trout , best known as Skeet Ulrich, is an American actor best known for starring in the CBS drama Jericho as Jake Green and for portraying Billy Loomis in Scream...
) decides to come along. They are also accompanied by Jacob's three young female cousins; Leah Wheeler (Emily Holmes
Emily Holmes
Emily Holmes is a Canadian television and film actress.Holmes was born in Ottawa, Ontario. She has appeared in such television series as Night Visions, Mysterious Ways, The Dead Zone , Stargate SG-1, Dark Angel and more. In 2002, Holmes appeared in Steven Spielberg's Taken as Julie Crawford...
), Rachel Wheeler (Jessica Capshaw
Jessica Capshaw
Jessica Brooke Capshaw is an American actress. She is known for her role as Jamie Stringer in The Practice and for her role as Dr...
), and Naomi Wheeler (Keri Russell
Keri Russell
Keri Lynn Russell is an American actress and dancer. After appearing in a number of made-for-television films and series during the mid-1990s, she came to fame for portraying the title role of Felicity Porter on the series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002, and for which she won a Golden Globe...
). The three girls have been unlucky in love and are lured by the tales of excitement out west.
Meanwhile Thunder Heart Woman's two brothers, Dog Star and Running Fox argue over whether or not to adopt white technology. The disagreement comes to a boil and the two agree to part ways, splitting the tribe.
After working their way west for several years, the Wheeler clan arrives at Independence, Missouri
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
. Jacob, now with a second son Jacob Junior High Cloud, wants to go west to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
or the Oregon country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...
, but Thunder Heart Woman and some of the others wish to remain in Missouri. Jacob eventually convinces the others to go to California and they join a wagon train led by Stephen Hoxie (Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
) who is a better salesman than a leader. Among the other settlers is a German immigrant preacher named Hobbes (Derek de Lint
Derek de Lint
Dick Hein de Lint is a Dutch film and television actor.De Lint was born in The Hague. In 1977, he played the character Alex in the film Soldier of Orange, directed by Paul Verhoeven. In 1986 he played the role of Anton Steenwijk in The Assault, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language...
), a free black family fleeing racial prejudice, and several former mountain men.
The wagon train passage is filled with dangers: Leah Wheeler is thrown from the wagon during the crossing of a river and drowns, and the young son of the black pioneers is killed by stampeding cattle during a thunder storm. But life also continues: Rachel and Naomi take husbands from among the wagon trail guides. Later, while traversing a pass
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
, a wagon breaks free, knocks Rachel down and runs over her leg, causing a severe compound fracture. The leg eventually becomes infected and must be amputated. Preacher Hobbes is the closest thing to a doctor available, but he botches the operation and Rachel dies.
Cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
breaks out, killing the wife of the black pioneer. Those exposed, including Jacob, Thunder Heart Woman, the children, and Jethro must stay behind under quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
while the main body of the wagon train carries on. Naomi and her husband, who have not been exposed, go on with the others.
Jethro is afflicted with symptoms of cholera but recovers, and no new outbreaks occur after Jacob orders that all drinking water be boiled.
They rush to catch up with the main body, but find that the others have been attacked by Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
warriors.
Naomi has been taken into captivity and sold to Cheyenne chief Prairie Fire (Jay Tavare
Jay Tavare
Jay Tavare is an American actor. Tavare is perhaps best known as Vega in 1994 film Street Fighter. Tavare has played a number of roles in movies, including a Seminole in Adaptation, an Apache in The Missing, a Cherokee in Cold Mountain, and a Cheyenne in Into the West.His mother was White Mountain...
) who takes her as his wife. The thought of a forced marriage to an Indian is repulsive to Naomi, who has always considered them as barely human savages. She chants nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
s, which put off his amorous advances. In time, she begins to see Prairie Fire in a different light and she grows to become happy in her new life. She eventually gives birth to a son, whom he names One Horn Bull.
Jacob returns to the rest of the wagons, and they are soon attacked. The Indians are fought off, but an arrow is shot through Jacob's chest, and he begs to be left behind to die. After the rest of the party leaves, Jacob prepares himself to die, but is rescued by a hunting party led by Running Fox, that stumble across him half-dead. After recovering his strength, Jacob spends several months in the mountains. Haunted by the faces of the children he sent on with his wife and brother, Jacob eventually tries to find them in California. He searches several years for his family but cannot find them, and eventually gives them up for dead.
The Mexican-American War erupts and Jacob joins John C. Frémont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
's militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
to fight the Mexican Army
Mexican Army
The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and largest of the Mexican Military services; it also is known as the National Defense Army. It is famous for having been the first army to adopt and use an automatic rifle, , in 1899, and the first to issue automatic weapons as standard issue...
. During a supply stop in one of the settlements, he sees his wife at a distance but before he can go over to greet her, he sees her and his brother Jethro embrace and kiss. They also have a new child, Cornflower. Dejected that his wife and brother have become romantically involved but not wanting to disrupt their happiness, he decides to leave without making his presence known. Before he goes, he gives the wooden medicine wheel necklace to his young son who does not realize this man is his father.
Meanwhile, Dog Star and Running Fox are still estranged. The other tribes that have been trading with the whites for rifles, particularly the Crow, have grown stronger and the Lakota are now at a disadvantage. Seeking guidance, Dog Star visits the stone medicine wheel, where he meets Loved by the Buffalo. Loved by the Buffalo tells his brother that his lifetime quest is to preserve the traditional ways. The whites at the forts refuse to trade pistol
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...
s to the Lakota, instead giving them whiskey, and drunkenness soon becomes a problem. Loved by the Buffalo also appears to his brother Running Fox in a vision. Running Fox and Dog Star eventually reconcile and agree to no longer trade for white goods.
Thunder Heart Woman finds the wooden medicine wheel necklace and realizes that her husband is still alive. She feels that it is best not to go after him, but their daughter Margaret Light Shines Wheeler (Elizabeth Sage) is determined to find him.
Episode 3 - Dreams and Schemes
Jethro and Thunder Heart Woman remain together in California and a daughter, Corn Flower (Chantelle Webster), is born to them. While working at the Wheeler ranch, now dubbed Rancho Paradiso, Jethro encounters a 49erCalifornia Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
named Martin Jarrett (Sean Astin
Sean Astin
Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, voice artist, and producer better known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24...
) who brings him the first news about the California gold rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. Jethro soon follows him to the nearby American River
American River
The American River is a California watercourse noted as the site of Sutter's Mill, northwest of Placerville, California, where gold was found in 1848, leading to the California Gold Rush...
to prospect for gold, although he returns home each night.
Jethro dreams of quick riches but all he finds are a few small grains. Undeterred, he begins to spend more and more time looking for gold. Without Jethro's labor, the ranch begins to run into difficulties, with essential repairs being left undone. Jethro also takes to drinking heavily and becomes abusive towards Thunder Heart Woman and the children. After one too many arguments turn violent, Abe High Wolf Wheeler (Tyler Posey
Tyler Posey
Tyler Garcia Posey is an American actor and musician. Tyler is best known for his role as Scott McCall in MTV's show Teen Wolf.-Career:...
) decides to leave.
Jethro's nephew (although it is claimed in the movie that he is Jethro's cousin), David Wheeler (Balthazar Getty
Balthazar Getty
Balthazar Getty is an American film actor and member of the band Ringside. He is known for the roles of Thomas Grace on the American action drama Alias and Tommy Walker on the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters.-Early life:...
), arrives as a 49er and becomes Jethro's partner in prospecting for gold. Angered by the successes of a group of Chinese immigrant miners, Jethro and David drive them off and steal their claim. After finding a huge nugget
Gold nugget
A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate and grow the nuggets. Nuggets are recovered by placer mining, but they are also found in residual deposits where the gold-bearing veins or lodes are weathered...
of gold, Jethro and David argue over how they will split their new fortune. After Jethro falls asleep, David steals the nugget and heads toward San Francisco. Jethro follows him and the two exchange gun fire. As David tries to escape in a canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
, the two struggle and both are drowned. To support her family, Thunder Heart Woman starts to sell food and supplies to the miners.
Meanwhile, Margaret Light Shines Wheeler has taken a job in a guest house in San Francisco, but continues to look for her father. Jacob remained with the army, but became disillusioned at the treatment of native Americans in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and returned to trapping in the mountains in California. After spotting an army unit sporting a Bear Flag, Margaret inquires if any of them know Jacob Wheeler. A sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
tells her that Jacob is among them and says he will lead her to him. When the two enter a barn, he tries to rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
her. Margaret is saved by Ethan Biggs (Daniel Gillies
Daniel Gillies
-Early life:Gillies was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to a pediatrician father. He was raised in New Zealand and went to Southwell School and the Hamilton Boys' High School.-Acting career:...
), a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
immigrant photographer. Margaret goes to work for Biggs and the two eventually fall in love and marry.
While working in the photo studio, a local wheelwright tells Margaret a trapper in the mountains has fixed a broken wagon wheel for some settlers. Certain that it's her father, Margaret convinces Biggs to join her looking for the trapper's camp. When they find the camp, Jacob at first takes them for thieves and nearly shoots them. Margaret shows him the wooden medicine wheel necklace and he realizes that she is his daughter. Jacob then goes to Rancho Paradiso and is reunited with his family.
On the plains, white encroachment has become an undeniable problem for the tribes. Running Fox and Dog Star join several other chiefs - including Conquering Bear
Conquering Bear
Matȟó Wayúhi was a Brulé Lakota chief who signed the Fort Laramie Treaty . He was killed in 1854 when troops from Fort Laramie entered his encampment to arrest a Sioux who had shot a calf belonging to the Mormons. Little Thunder took over as chief after his death...
(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:...
) - at the signing of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)
Although many European and European-American migrants to western North America had previously passed through the Great Plains on the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, the California gold rush greatly increased traffic...
. All three agree that the peace is precarious but decide to give the agreement a chance.
A little later, Loved by the Buffalo is visiting Conquering Bear's village. A cow escapes from a passing Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
wagon train
Wagon train
A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. In the American West, individuals traveling across the plains in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance, as is reflected in numerous films and television programs about the region, such as Audie Murphy's Tumbleweed and Ward Bond...
and rampages through the village, causing considerable damage. The villagers try to give the cow back to the settlers, but they become frightened at the sight of the Indians and run away. The tribe decides to keep the cow as compensation for the damage and butcher it. Soldiers soon come, demanding that the cow be returned and the "thief" be handed over. Conquering Bear tries to explain the situation to the soldiers but his efforts are thwarted by a drunken scout who mistranslates the negotiations. The soldiers then open fire on the village and the warriors fight back. Many are killed on both sides, including Conquering Bear. (Note: this event is based on the August 1854 Grattan massacre
Grattan massacre
The Grattan Massacre was the opening conflict of the First Sioux War, fought between United States Army and Lakota Sioux warriors on August 19, 1854. It occurred east of Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory, in present-day Goshen County, Wyoming...
.)
A few years later, another Wheeler cousin, Samson Wheeler (Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
) has moved his family to Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
. He allies himself with the abolitionist Jayhawker
Jayhawker
Jayhawkers is a term that came to prominence just before the American Civil War in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause. These bands, known as "Jayhawkers", were guerrilla fighters who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri known...
s during the days of "Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...
" as tensions rise in the months leading up to the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. He tries to get his wife Susannah (Rebecca Jenkins
Rebecca Jenkins
-Acting:She had starring roles in the 1990s CBC series Black Harbour, and the films Bye Bye Blues, Marion Bridge, Wilby Wonderful, Whole New Thing, South of Wawa and Supervolcano. She also had a supporting role in the 1992 film Bob Roberts, as Dolores Perrigrew...
), and children including daughter Clara (Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachael Leigh Cook is an American actress, known for her role in the romantic comedy She's All That and her This is Your Brain on Drugs public service announcement.-Early life:...
) to leave after border ruffian
Border Ruffian
In the decade leading up to the American Civil War, pro-slavery activists infiltrated Kansas Territory from the neighboring slave state of Missouri. To abolitionists and other Free-Staters, who desired Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a free state, they were collectively known as Border...
Bloody Bill Anderson
William T. Anderson
William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson was a pro-Confederate guerrilla leader in the American Civil War.Anderson was known for his brutality towards Union soldiers, and pro Union partisans, who were called Jayhawkers. Anderson participated in Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863...
(Christian Bocher) threatens the Jayhawkers, but they refuse. Lawrence is later attacked by Anderson's bushwackers and Quantrill's Raiders
Quantrill's Raiders
Quantrill's Raiders were a loosely organized force of pro-Confederate Partisan rangers, "bushwhackers", who fought in the American Civil War under the leadership of William Clarke Quantrill...
. In the raid, Samson, Susannah, and two of their three children are killed, leaving Clara as the only survivor. She then leaves Kansas to seek out her cousins in Omaha
Omaha
Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...
.
Jacob Wheeler's sons take different paths. Abe Wheeler (Christian Kane
Christian Kane
Christian Kane is an American actor and singer/songwriter of Native American descent. He currently stars as Eliot Spencer on the TNT series Leverage. He is best known for his roles in the television shows Angel and Into the West, and the movies Just Married and Secondhand Lions.He is the lead...
) has become a rider for the Pony Express
Pony Express
The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierra from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861...
. Despite being an excellent rider, he loses his job when the Pony Express is superseded by the telegraph. Jacob Wheeler, Jr. (Tyler Christopher) also decides to leave the family ranch to strike out on his own. Leaving California for the great plains, his knowledge of the Lakota language is valuable to the army and he is hired as a scout.
Dog Star's son, Brings Horse (Nathaniel Arcand
Nathaniel Arcand
Nathaniel Arcand is a Canadian actor and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is Nēhilawē , from the Alexander First Nation Reserve. Essential supports throughout his life are Nathaniel's mother and his great grandparents...
) is shot by an army sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
when he climbs a telegraph pole to investigate the wires strung from the top. Sleeping Bear (Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse
Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse
Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse is an American actor. He is a member of the Rosebud Lakota Sioux Nation, the son of Chief Joseph Chasing Horse and Winifred Chasing Horse....
), Dog Star's surviving son, pledges revenge against the whites for what they have done.
Episode 4 - Hell on Wheels
In December 1863, Clara reaches Omaha and finds her cousins, Daniel Wheeler (Lance HenriksenLance Henriksen
Lance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
), Robert Wheeler (Warren Kole), Jackson Wheeler (Glen Powell Jr.), and Lilly Wheeler (Mia Stallard). Daniel is pursuing the family trade as a wheelwright
Wheelwright
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker...
. He is not happy to see Clara (in the previous episode Samson mentioned that he never was on good terms with Daniel, although the reason is never revealed), but he is persuaded by his wife and his son Robert to take Clara in.
The race is on as the Central Pacific
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
and Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
s lay down tracks across the U.S., bringing East and West together. Jacob Wheeler's son Abe joins the construction crew of the Central Pacific railroad, working east from Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
. Working conditions are hard, and many workers leave to prospect for gold in the Californian goldfields. Chinese workers ("Coolie
Coolie
Historically, a coolie was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century...
s") are brought in from San Francisco to supplement the work crews. Abe meets and befriends Chow-Ping Yen (Garrett Wang
Garrett Wang
Garrett Richard Wang is an American actor. Wang is best known for his role in Star Trek: Voyager as Ensign Harry Kim.-Early life:...
), and they work in difficult conditions into and through the Sierra Nevada. Chow-Ping saves Abe's life when he almost falls from a bosun's chair
Bosun's chair
A bosun's chair or boatswain's chair is a device used to suspend a person from a rope to perform work aloft. It is distinguished from a climbing harness by the inclusion of a more or less rigid seat, providing more comfort than even the best-padded straps for long-term use...
while setting dynamite to construct a shelf along a cliff face.
In March 1864, while photographing California Governor Frederick Low
Frederick Low
Frederick Ferdinand Low was an American politician, US congressman and the ninth Governor of California.-Life:Born in Frankfort in 1828, Low attended the Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. Low moved to California, entering the shipping business in San Francisco in 1849...
, Ethan Biggs and his wife, Margaret Light Shines (Jacob's daughter), decide to see the Indian Territory, and they take a stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
to Denver. In Denver, they hear LtCol John Chivington
John Chivington
John Milton Chivington was a colonel in the United States Army who served in the American Indian Wars during the Colorado War and the New Mexico Campaigns of the American Civil War...
speak against the Indians and recruit for the Third Colorado Cavalry
Third Colorado Cavalry
In the mid-1860s, increased traffic on the emigrant trails and settler encroachment resulted in numerous attacks against them by the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Hungate massacre and the display in Denver of mutilated victims raised political pressure for the government to protect its people...
. Ethan and Margaret's stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne warriors after leaving Denver. The other passengers are killed, but they are captured by Roman Nose
Roman Nose
Roman Nose, a.k.a. Hook Nose , was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne, and possibly the greatest and most influential warrior during the Plains Indian War of the 1860s...
(Rod Rondeaux) and taken to the camp of Black Kettle
Black Kettle
Chief Black Kettle was a leader of the Southern Cheyenne after 1854, who led efforts to resist American settlement from Kansas and Colorado territories. He was a peacemaker who accepted treaties to protect his people. He survived the Third Colorado Cavalry's Sand Creek Massacre on the Cheyenne...
. Although the Cheyenne are hostile at first, Ethan and Margaret demonstrate their photographic equipment to the curious Cheyenne, and come to appreciate the Indian's hospitality.
While Ethan photographs the people of Black Kettle's camp, Margaret works to establish peace between the Cheyenne and the local Governor and Army. On September 28, 1864, Black Kettle holds council with Colorado Territory Governor John Evans
John Evans (governor)
John Evans was a U.S. politician, physician, railroad promoter, Governor of the Territory of Colorado, and namesake of Evanston, Illinois; Evans, Colorado; and Mount Evans, Colorado...
, Colonel Chivington and Major Wynkoop (Arron Shiver), to ensure peace. (Major Wynkoop's character is based on Silas Soule
Silas Soule
Silas Stillman Soule was a Massachusetts abolitionist, Kansas Territory Jayhawker, and a soldier in the Colorado infantry and cavalry during the American Civil War. Captain Soule, as commander of Company D, 1st Colorado Cavalry, was present at the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864...
.) The Indians make clear their desire for peace, but the negotiations end inconclusively.
Margaret and Ethan decide to continue their journey, but, on November 29, 1864, the night before they have planned to leave, Colonel Chivington attacks Black Kettle's village at the head of the Third Colorado Cavalry. Most of the village, including Ethan, are killed at the Sand Creek Massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, were resigned to negotiate peace. The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites...
. Margaret is saved by Black Kettle and flees with the survivors.
Further altercations between the Indians and the American settlers leads Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
(Raoul Trujillo) to begin to gather the forces that will lead to Red Cloud's War
Red Cloud's War
Red Cloud's War was an armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho and the United States in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central present day Wyoming...
. On December 21, 1866, a large band of Cheyenne and Sioux under Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
(Tatanka Means) attack a supply train near Fort Phil Kearny
Fort Phil Kearny
Fort Phil Kearny was an outpost of the United States Army that existed in the late 1860s in present-day northeastern Wyoming along the Bozeman Trail. Construction began Friday July 13, 1866 by Companies A, C, E and H of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, under the direction of the regimental...
. Capt. Fetterman
William J. Fetterman
William Judd Fetterman was an officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and the subsequent Red Cloud's War on the Great Plains. Fetterman and his immediate command were killed during the Fetterman massacre....
(Dylan Kenin) leads a relief party of 80 men. Ignoring orders not to venture beyond Lodge Trail Ridge, he led his troops into an ambush. He and his entire party were killed in the attack, later called the Fetterman Massacre.
General William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
meets with Black Kettle and other Indian Chiefs, and Margaret watches another treaty being signed. Despite the treaty, Col George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
(Jonathan Scarfe) and the 7th Cavalry
U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment
The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army Cavalry Regiment, whose lineage traces back to the mid-19th century. Its official nickname is "Garryowen," in honor of the Irish air Garryowen that was adopted as its march tune....
attack Black Kettle's Cheyenne village at the Battle of Washita River
Battle of Washita River
The Battle of Washita River occurred on November 27, 1868 when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 7th U.S...
on November 27, 1868. Jacob Jr. has been serving as a scout for the U.S. Army with Custer. Margaret is taken captive with other Indian women. They are taken to an Army Fort, where she is reunited with her brother Jacob Jr., who tries to help her escape. She refuses, insisting on staying with her adopted Indian family. Eventually, the U.S. Army abandons some forts, and the second Treaty of Fort Laramie
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further...
creates the Great Sioux reservation
Great Sioux reservation
The Great Sioux Reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and includes all of modern western South Dakota and modern Boyd County, Nebraska...
.
Abe Wheeler continues to work on the railroad until the First Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
was completed on May 10, 1869, when the driving of the Golden Spike
Golden spike
The "Golden Spike" is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory...
joins the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory Summit in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
(sometimes called Promontory Point, which is, however, a different location at the southern tip of a peninsula in the Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...
). Abe parts company with Chow-Ping, and does not appear again. (It is assumed that he died in some manner, although the lack of explanation of his fate could also be considered a plot hole
Plot hole
A plot hole, or plothole, is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot, or constitutes a blatant omission of relevant information regarding the plot...
.)
Meanwhile, Daniel Wheeler, his sons, Robert and Jackson, together with distant cousin Clara seek their fortune in several railroad boomtowns, starting with North Platte, Nebraska
North Platte, Nebraska
North Platte is a city in and the county seat of Lincoln County, Nebraska, United States. It is located in the southwestern part of the state, along Interstate 80, at the confluence of the North and South Platte Rivers forming the Platte River...
. By May 1868, they are in Cheyenne
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
. After the Transcontinental Railroad is completed, Robert and Clara decide to strike out on their own.
Episode 5 - Casualties of War
GoldGold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
is discovered
Black Hills Gold Rush
The Black Hills Gold Rush took place in Dakota Territory in the United States. It began in 1874 following the Custer Expedition and reached a peak in 1876-77.Rumors and poorly documented reports of gold in the Black Hills go back to the early 19th century...
in the Black Hills
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
in 1874. The Black Hills are considered by the Lakota to be the axis mundi
Axis mundi
The axis mundi , in religion or mythology, is the world center and/or the connection between heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet...
, or center of the world, and the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further...
granted the Indians ownership of the mountain range. Now, settlers trespass on their land to prospect for gold, and the U.S. Army moves in to take possession. Conflict over control of the region sparks the Black Hills War, the last major Indian War
Indian Wars
American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe a series of conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America before and after the American Revolutionary War. The wars resulted from the arrival of European colonizers who...
on the Great Plains
Great 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...
.
Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
(Raoul Trujillo
Raoul Trujillo
Born Jose Raoul TrujilloAlso known as Raul Trujillo and Max Cheblon|parents= Luis and Lorraine TrujilloHis official website is raoultrujilloinfo.com, created by Charmaine deValois in London....
) continues to talk of peace with the whites at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was established in 1889 in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border...
, but many young men leave to join Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
(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:...
), including cousins White Bird (Kalani Queypo) - son of Sleeping Bear and grandson of Dog Star (Gil Birmingham
Gil Birmingham
Gil Birmingham is an American actor of Comanche ancestry, known for his portrayal of Billy Black in the The Twilight Saga film series.- Personal background :...
) - and Red Lance (Eddie Spears
Eddie Spears
Eddie Spears is an American actor. He is a member of the Kul Wicasa Oyate Lakota Lower Brulé Tribe of South Dakota.He has 5 brothers and 1 sister. His older brother Michael is also an actor....
) - grandson of Running Fox (Russell Means
Russell Means
Russell Charles Means is an Oglala Sioux activist for the rights of Native American people. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement after joining the organisation in 1968, and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media coverage...
) and son of White Crow (David Midthunder). Red Lance's younger brother, Voices That Carry (Nakotah Larance), wants to go with his brother, but is required to stay behind with his uncle Dog Star because of his youth. Red Cloud thinks that the "peace talkers" from Washington will honor the Treaty of Fort Laramie and keep other whites out of the Black Hills.
Robert Wheeler is operating a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
in Hillsgate, Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
, while Clara teaches the town's children. Robert then makes a jump over the fence that signifies he is very determined.Their store prospers as a result of the Black Hills Gold Rush
Black Hills Gold Rush
The Black Hills Gold Rush took place in Dakota Territory in the United States. It began in 1874 following the Custer Expedition and reached a peak in 1876-77.Rumors and poorly documented reports of gold in the Black Hills go back to the early 19th century...
and the many who rush into the area to find gold. In October 1874, Robert agrees to take a prospector into the Black Hills for $10., but they are attacked by two bushwhacker
Bushwhacker
Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, American Civil War and other conflicts in which there are large areas of contested land and few Governmental Resources to control these tracts...
s and the prospector is killed. Robert, in turn, kills the two bushwhackers with his Sharps Buffalo Rifle. Clara buys a typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
from a traveling salesman. Robert invests the profits from the store in about 100 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...
hides for $3. each, expecting to make a profit from the craze for buffalo bedspreads and overcoats, but finds that fashions have moved on and he can not sell them to Douglas Hillman (Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold is an American actor, perhaps best known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause trilogy.-Early life:...
) for more than $1. each. Instead, he gives them to the needy Indians at a nearby reservation. While there, he meets Capt. Richard Henry Pratt
Richard Henry Pratt
Richard Henry Pratt is best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.-Military career:...
(Keith Carradine
Keith Carradine
Keith Ian Carradine is an American actor who has had success on stage, film and television. In addition, he is a Golden Globe and Oscar winning songwriter. As a member of the Carradine family, he is part of an acting "dynasty" that began with his father, John Carradine.-Early life:Keith...
).
Margaret Light Shines (Irene Bedard
Irene Bedard
Irene Bedard is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Native American characters in a variety of films. Bedard was born in Anchorage, Alaska...
) has been a prisoner of the Army since the Battle of Washita River
Battle of Washita River
The Battle of Washita River occurred on November 27, 1868 when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 7th U.S...
, but she finds purpose helping the women and orphaned children at the same Indian Reservation as Red Cloud. Voices That Carry runs away from the camp of Red Cloud to join his father, White Crow, with Sitting Bull.
In June 1876, Jacob Wheeler Jr. (Tyler Christopher) is still a scout for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
(Jonathan Scarfe
Jonathan Scarfe
Jonathan Scarfe is a Canadian actor. He is married to actress Suki Kaiser and is the son of actors Alan Scarfe and Sara Botsford....
) and the 7th U.S. Cavalry. On the morning of the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
, Custer dispatches Jacob Jr. with a message to Captain Frederick Benteen
Frederick Benteen
Frederick William Benteen was a military officer during the American Civil War and then during the Black Hills War against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. He is notable for being in command of a battalion of the 7th U. S...
. Jacob Jr. gives a letter for his parents to a friend who is assigned to Major Marcus Reno
Marcus Reno
Marcus Albert Reno was a career military officer in the American Civil War and in the Black Hills War against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne...
's group, in case he should not survive Custer's plan. As he foresaw, Jacob is killed before he finds Benteen, as Crazy Horse and a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne combined force wipe out Custer's cavalry detachment. Among those who are also killed is White Bird, son of Sleeping Bear and grandson of Dog Star (Gil Birmingham
Gil Birmingham
Gil Birmingham is an American actor of Comanche ancestry, known for his portrayal of Billy Black in the The Twilight Saga film series.- Personal background :...
). Voices That Carry brings the body of his cousin back to Dog Star in Red Cloud's camp.
After the final letter from Jacob Jr. reaches them, Jacob (John Terry
John Terry (actor)
John Terry is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Terry was born in Florida, where he attended Vero Beach High School. He was also educated at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Windsor, Connecticut, and began a career building original custom log homes in North...
) and Thunder Heart Woman (Sheila Tousey
Sheila Tousey
Sheila May Tousey is an Native American actress.-Biography:Born in Keshena, Wisconsin, Tousey is a Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Indian, raised on both Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Reservations.-Filmography:-External links:*...
) go to Hillsgate in an effort to find Jacob Jr. They meet Robert and Clara, who take them to the scene of the battle. We learn that Robert and Clara had a son, William Wheeler, who had died from a fever.
Following the defeat of the Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
and their allies later in 1876, the United States "purchased" the Black Hills region (no actual purchase was ever completed and this area is under dispute to this day).
In 1879, Richard Henry Pratt returns to Hillsgate. He invites Robert and Clara to join him in teaching at an experimental school in Pennsylvania designed to "civilize" Native American children. Pratt persuades the Lakota that their children need to learn the white men's ways. He takes 125 Lakota children to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
Carlisle Indian Industrial School
Carlisle Indian Industrial School was an Indian boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1879 at Carlisle, Pennsylvania by Captain Richard Henry Pratt, the school was the first off-reservation boarding school, and it became a model for Indian boarding schools in other locations...
in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...
. President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
had arranged for the Carlisle Barracks to be made available. Among the children is Voices That Carry, who encourages the other Native Americans to resist assimilation. Voices That Carry's numerous attempts to undermine the process upset Pratt, but Robert tries to convince the boy to work hard so he can record the story of his people. Voices That Carry and Robert form a tentative friendship. After 6 months in Carlisle, Robert falls out with Pratt over his strict teaching methods, and heads back for home with Clara, who is now bearing their second child.
Episode 6 - Ghost Dance
Ten years have passed since the end of Episode 5. Robert and Clara Wheeler return home, disillusioned by the school they have been hired to run, and Clara begins to teach Native American children on the reservation. Loved by the Buffalo (Joseph M. Marshall IIIJoseph M. Marshall III
Joseph M. Marshall III is a Lakota historian, writer, teacher, craftsman, administrator, and public speaker. His first language is Lakota. He can craft a Lakota bow in the traditional style, has helped found a hospital and a university, and makes his home on the Northern Plains with his wife...
) believes he has found the foretold prophet when a mysterious Indian named Wovoka
Wovoka
Wovoka , also known as Jack Wilson, was the Northern Paiute religious leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "cutter" or "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.-Biography:...
(Jonathan Joss
Jonathan Joss
Jonathan Joss is a Native American actor. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he went to McCollum High School alongside independent filmmaker and best friend Mark A. Watson, where they studied both Drama and Choir, and worked together on such theatrical plays together such as El Gallo...
) inspires his people with the Ghost Dance
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times...
and a vision of their restored land at a Paiute
Paiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
reservation, the Yerington Indian Colony near Yerington, Nevada
Yerington, Nevada
Yerington is a city in Lyon County, located in western Nevada, USA. The population was 2,883 at the 2000 census. It is named after Henry M. Yerington, Superintendent of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad from 1868 to 1910. It is the county seat of Lyon County....
. But the ritual stirs up more fear among those who wish to contain the Native Americans. Voices That Carry (Chaske Spencer
Chaske Spencer
Chaske Spencer is an American actor of Native American heritage.-Life and career:Spencer was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and grew up in Montana, Kooskia, Lapwai, and Lewiston, Idaho. His heritage includes Lakota, Nez Perce, Cherokee, Creek, French, and Dutch. He has two younger sisters...
) is reunited with his brother Red Lance (Eddie Spears
Eddie Spears
Eddie Spears is an American actor. He is a member of the Kul Wicasa Oyate Lakota Lower Brulé Tribe of South Dakota.He has 5 brothers and 1 sister. His older brother Michael is also an actor....
). Within weeks, the Ghost Dance becomes a phenomenon in the reservation. Local white governors and suppliers, who are tasked with the job of providing clothing and food for the Natives, become fearful of an Indian uprising. Local newspaper reporters overly exaggerate the dance as being sadistic and rebellious in nature. Margaret Light Shines is living in the reservation to help tend to the local children and sick. One of the newspaper reporters, not realizing she speaks English and knows how to use a camera, confronts her and trades his camera for a Ghost Shirt.
After Sitting Bull is “accidentally” killed by Indian Police sent by the Indian Agent, the Ghost Dance rebellion grows, which in turn leads to more brutality toward the Native Americans. Indian Agent Daniel Royer (David Paymer
David Paymer
David Paymer is an American actor and television director, seen in such films as Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean's Thirteen, and Drag Me to Hell...
) fearful of the Ghost Dance sends for help and Colonel James W. Forsyth
James W. Forsyth
James William Forsyth was a U.S. Army officer and general. He was primarily a Union staff officer during the American Civil War and cavalry regimental commander during the Indian Wars.-Early life:...
arrives with the 7th Cavalry Regiment
U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment
The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army Cavalry Regiment, whose lineage traces back to the mid-19th century. Its official nickname is "Garryowen," in honor of the Irish air Garryowen that was adopted as its march tune....
. The 7th Cavalry regiment moves outward from the reservation into the hills and valleys restricted of Indian settlement where Big Foot and his followers are hiding out. Fearful of the slaughter of his people who are poorly armed, Big Foot agrees to return to the reservation peacefully.
It is not clear who fired the first shot at Wounded Knee. The massacre at Wounded Knee ended the American/Indian Wars and also brought an end to the Ghost Dance.
While on the journey back to the reservation settlement, the groups stop and rest at a valley called Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee Creek
Wounded Knee Creek is a tributary of the White River, approximately long, in southwestern South Dakota in the United States. Its Lakota name is '....
. While there, Colonel Forsyth requests Big Foot's men turn over all their weapons. The natives do so peacefully; however, when Forsyth sees how few arms Big Foot's men are carrying, he becomes angry. Believing his reports that Big Foot's men were well armed, the soldiers begin tearing apart the camp, taking anything that could be used as a weapon, including sticks and utensils. One of Big Foot's warriors is deaf and did not hear the request to turn in his gun. When a U.S. soldier attempts to pry it from his hands, the gun goes off by accident. The American soldiers then proceed to open fire at will upon Big Foot and his men. While Big Foot's men rush to pick up their weapons and defend themselves, the women and children run in opposite directions only to be mowed down by the 7th Cavalry's gunfire. Most of the Natives, including Big Foot, are slaughtered. Robert Wheeler, who was attached to the 7th Cavalry in supplying Big Foot's men with blankets and food, survives the massacre.
The survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre
Wounded Knee Massacre
The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...
are marched back to the reservation. Word goes round rapidly about the slaughter and Margaret Light Shines goes out to the field at Wounded Knee to photograph the massacre. While there, she meets and photographs the newspaper reporter who sold her the camera, who is standing with horror at the sight of the hundreds of frozen dead natives which he indirectly had contributed to. She is also reunited with her uncle Loved By the Buffalo, who is performing the death rites for the deceased. Margaret brings him to meet her parents, Thunder Heart Woman (Sheila Tousey
Sheila Tousey
Sheila May Tousey is an Native American actress.-Biography:Born in Keshena, Wisconsin, Tousey is a Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Indian, raised on both Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Reservations.-Filmography:-External links:*...
) and Jacob Wheeler (John Terry
John Terry (actor)
John Terry is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Terry was born in Florida, where he attended Vero Beach High School. He was also educated at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Windsor, Connecticut, and began a career building original custom log homes in North...
).
Loved By the Buffalo and Jacob Wheeler meet again, closing a circle that began many years ago, and Loved By the Buffalo comes to realize that his destiny was not to prevent what was destined to happen, but to preserve it and the memory of his people; to teach the young Lakota children the ways of their people. "So long as there are still a few Lakota left who understand the traditional ways of their people, the tribe, history, and the memories and lessons of our past can still be preserved so that future generations may also learn from them."
The final scene shows Loved By the Buffalo sitting with a group of Lakota children, Margaret, and Thunder Heart Woman, teaching them the past of the people and his own experiences. At the same time miles away, Jacob Wheeler is sitting on the porch with Robert and Clara's son, telling him about his own experiences, past, and the lessons he has to teach.
- "The only history a man knows for certain is that small part he owns for himself." - Jacob Wheeler
- "I always told my children - you are one part Lakota and one part Virginia - be proud of both." - Jacob Wheeler
- "When you tell these stories, you touch the Grandmothers and Grandfathers." -Loved by the Buffalo
Wheeler Family Tree
2006 Emmys
It received 16 Emmy nominations in 2006, the most of any program in its year. It won two http://www.emmys.org/media/releases/2006/crtvarts2006_rel.pdf:- Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing (episode “Dreams and Schemes”)
- Outstanding Music Composition (Original Dramatic Score): Music by Geoff ZanelliGeoff ZanelliGeoff Zanelli is a composer working primarily in the medium of film music. His early career was notable for scoring additional music on roughly 30 film scores written by Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, Klaus Badelt and Steve Jablonsky including several blockbuster films...
The other 14 nominations were:http://www.emmys.org/downloads/images/2006emmys/PrimetimeNoms.php
- Outstanding Miniseries
- Two nominations for Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie (episodes “Dreams & Schemes” and “Wheels to the Stars”)
- Outstanding Art Direction
- Outstanding Casting
- Outstanding Sound Editing (episode “Manifest Destiny”)
- A second nomination for Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing (“Hell on Wheels”)
- Outstanding Costumes (episode “Hell on Wheels”)
- Outstanding Special Visual Effects (episode “Hell on Wheels”)
- Two nominations for Outstanding Make-Up (non-prosthetic) (episodes “Wheel to the Stars” and “Ghost Dance”)
- Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup (episode "Wheel to the Stars")
- Two nominations for Outstanding Hairstyling (episodes “Manifest Destiny” and “Casualties of War”)
2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards
It received 1 Screen Actors GuildScreen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
nomination in 2006
- Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries (Tonantzin CarmeloTonantzin CarmeloTonantzín Carmelo is an American actress. A California Mission Indian who counts herself a descendant of the original residents of Los Angeles, grew up performing in an Native American dance troupe led by her mother, Virginia Carmelo. Branching out into acting during college, she has since...
)
DVD
A four disc DVD boxset was released on October 4, 2005. There are producer, director, and cast interviews among the six episodes of the series and other various features.External links
- Into the West official TNT site
- Into the West at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...