Into the West (TV miniseries)
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Into the West is a 2005 miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks, with six episodes of two hours each (including commercials). The series was first broadcast in the U.S. on Turner Network Television (TNT) on six consecutive weeks starting on June 10, 2005, in the UK on BBC2 and on 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 Wes Studi, Irene Bedard, Russell Means, Graham Greene, Raoul Trujillo, Gordon Tootoosis, Michael Spears, Simon Baker, Gil Birmingham and Sheila Tousey.
It received 16 Emmy nominations in 2006 (won two), the most of any program in its year, for:
- Outstanding Miniseries
- 2 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”)
- 2 for Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing (episodes “Dreams and Schemes” and “Hell on Wheels”) (won)
- Outstanding Music Composition (Dramatic Underscore): Music by Geoff Zanelli (won)
- Outstanding Costumes (episode “Hell on Wheels”)
- Outstanding Special Visual Effects (episode “Hell on Wheels”)
- 2 for Outstanding Make-Up (non-prosthetic) (episodes “Wheel to the Stars” and “Ghost Dance”)
- Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup (episode "Wheel to the Stars")
- 2 for Outstanding Hairstyling (episodes “Manifest Destiny” and “Casualties of War”)
Contents |
[edit] Episode 1 - Wheel to the Stars
Growling Bear (Gordon Tootoosis), an elderly Lakota medicine man, 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 (Simon Baker III) 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 through various character 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 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 wheelwrights 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. 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 Crows, her infant daughter is captured, and she is sold into slavery. Later, Jacob sees her being auctioned off at a trapper rendezvous and buys her in order to set her free. He soon agrees to return her 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.
A Lakota man 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.
[edit] 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) 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 Concord, Missouri. Jacob, now with a second son Jacob Junior Touch the Sky, 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 lead 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, and everyone save Naomi has been killed.
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 rhymes, 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 from Thunder Heart Woman's tribe that stumble across him half-dead. After recovering his strength, Jacob spends several years 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 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. 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 pistols 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.
[edit] Episode 3 - Dreams and Schemes
Jethro and Thunder Heart Woman remain together in Califofrnia and a daughter, Corn Flower (Chantelle Webster), is born to them. While working at the Wheeler ranch, now dubbed Rancho Paradiso, Jethro encounters a 49er 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, David Wheeler (Balthazar Getty), arrives as a 49er and becomes Jethro's partner in prospecting for gold. Angered by the sucesses 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 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 montains 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 Jayhawkers 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 (Rachel 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.
[edit] Episode 4 - Hell on Wheels
In December 1863, Clara reaches Omaha and finds her cousins, Daniel Wheeler (Lance Henriksen), Robert Wheeler (Warren Kole), Jackson Wheeler (Glen Powell Jr.), and Lilly Wheeler (Mia Stallard). Daniel is a wheelwright in Omaha, and 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); only through the works of his wife and their son Robert, does Daniel agree to take Clara in.
The race is on as the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads lay down tracks across the U.S., bringing East and West together. Joining the Central Pacific railroad crew is Jacob Wheeler's son Abe, who is working east from Sacramento. He meets and befriends Chow-Ping Yen (Garrett Wang), and works with the Chinese workers ("Coolies"). Chow-Ping saves Abes life at one point.
In March 1864 while photographing California Governor Frederick Low, Ethan Biggs and his wife, Margaret (Jacob’s daughter), decide to see some the Indian Territory and take a stagecoach to Denver. While in Denver they hear LtCol John Chivington speak against the Indians and recruit for the Third Colorado Cavalry. On a stagecoach leaving Denver, Ethan and Margaret are captured by Roman Nose (Rod Rondeaux), taken to the camp of Black Kettle, where they are adopted by the Cheyenne.
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 John Chivington and Major Wynkoop (Arron Shiver), to ensure peace. Major Wynkoop's character is based on Silas Soule.
On November 29, 1864, Colonel Chivington attacks Black Kettle's village with the Third Colorado Cavalry, and most of the village, to include Ethan Biggs, are killed at the Sand Creek Massacre. Margaret is saved by Black Kettle.
Red Cloud (Raoul Trujillo) is introduced in the miniseries and begins his gathering of 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.
Jacob Jr., becomes a scout for the Army, and works for Col George Armstrong Custer (Jonathan Scarfe) and the 7th Cavalry.
General William Tecumseh Sherman meets with Black Kettle, other Indian Chiefs and while Margaret watches another treaty is signed. Despite the treaty, on November 27, 1868, Col Custer and the 7th Cavalry attack Black Kettle's Cheyenne village at the Battle of Washita River. Margaret is taken captive to an Army Fort and reunited with her brother Jacob Jr., who tries to help her.
Abe continues to work on the railroad until the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed on May 10, 1869, with the driving of the Golden Spike, joining the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory Summit (sometimes called Promontory Point, which is, however, a different location at the southern tip of a peninsula in the Great Salt Lake).
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. But after the transcontinental railroad is completed on May 10, 1869, Robert and Clara decide to strike out on their own.
- When Abe Wheeler walks away from Chow-Ping, he is no longer seen in the series, although it is assumed that he died in some manner. This could also be considered a plot hole in that there is no explanation of what has become of him.
[edit] Episode 5 - Casualties of War
About five years have passed since the end of episode four, and begins in July 1874.
Gold is discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, the U.S. Army moves in to take possession of the land, and the conflict over control of the region sparks the Black Hills War, the last major Indian War on the Great Plains. The Black Hills are considered by the Lakota to be the axis mundi, or center of the world and a treaty (the Treaty of Fort Laramie) had granted them ownership of the mountain range before the discovery of gold.
Red Cloud (Raoul Trujillo) continues to talk of peace with the Whites at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, however many young men leave to join Sitting Bull (Eric Schweig), including White Bird (Kalani Queypo) and Red Lance (Eddie Spears) who is grandson of Running Fox (Russell Means) and son of White Crow. Voices That Carry (Nakotah Larance) wants to go with his brother, Red Lance, but is required to stay behind 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. Their store prospers as a result of the 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 jumped by two bushwhackers 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, but finds he can not sell them to Douglas Hillman (Judge Reinhold) for more then $1. each and instead gives them to the needy Indians at a nearby reservation. While there he meets Capt. Richard Henry Pratt (Keith Carradine).
Since the Battle of Washita River, Margaret Light Shines (Irene Bedard) continues to be a prisioner of the Army but 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, and Sitting Bull.
In June 1876, Jacob Wheeler Jr. (Tyler Christopher) is a scout for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (Jonathan Scarfe) and the 7th U.S. Cavalry. 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 House 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 brought 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 where Robert and Clara are enticed into teaching at an experimental school in Pennsylvania designed to “civilize” Native American children. Clara and Robert join Pratt and with 125 Lakota children they head off 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 write down the story of his people. Voices that Carry and Robert form a tentative friendship, but after a season of challenge, Robert and Clara head back for home. Ready to try again after the death of William, Robert and Clara decide to have a child and when the episode ends, Clara is with child.
[edit] 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 III) 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 near Yerington, Nevada. But the ritual stirs up more fear among those who wish to contain the Native Americans. Voices That Carry (Chaske Spenser) is reunited with his brother Red Lance (Eddie Spears). Within weeks, the Ghost Dance becomes a phenomena 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 battle 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, the Colonel Forsyth requests Big Foot's men turn over all their weapons. The natives do so peacefully; however, when the 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 proceeds 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 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
[edit] DVD
A 4-Disk DVD boxset was released on October 4, 2005. There will be producer, director, and cast interviews among the 6 episodes of the series and other various features. Some violent scenes were edited out from the DVD to make it more "classroom friendly"[citation needed]
