Synopsis

The westward expansion of the United States, a six-hour chronicle spanning from the Gold Rush of 1848 to the final echoes of the Indian Wars at Wounded Knee in 1893, details the settlement, subjugation, exploitation, and ultimate incorporation of the West into the American empire. The Lakota, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Ponca, Apache, Nez Perce, and Ute peoples resisted, only to witness the systematic dismantling of their world, their traditions eroded, their very existence threatened.