Synopsis

The westward expansion of the United States, a six-hour chronicle of loss and conquest, unfolded from the first echoes of the Gold Rush in 1848 to the final, tragic moments at Wounded Knee in 1893. It was then that the West was settled, subdued, exploited, and ultimately absorbed into the burgeoning American empire. The Lakota, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Ponca, Apache, Nez Perce, and Ute peoples resisted fiercely, only to witness the systematic dismantling of their world, their traditions eroded, their ve