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, desperate moments of the Indian Wars at Wounded Knee in 1893. It was a period when the West was settled, brought under control, plundered for its resources, 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 dis