How the West Was Lost — Season 1, Episode 6: Kill the Indian, Save the Man
Documentary • 45 min • 2 seasons, 13 episodes
Episode synopsis
This episode tells the story of the final battles for Indian land - the battle at Wounded Knee. Within a year of the Indian's triumph over General Custer at Little Big Horn, most of Custer's defeaters had surrendered to reservations. The white government continued to impose restrictions on the remaining Native Americans, giving them less hospitable land. Out of their need for spiritual uplifting, the Indians developed the Ghost Dance to ward off whites. The government banned the dance and murdered Sitting Bull. When the smoke cleared, Big Foot and 350 followers were also dead. The rest were taken to reservations where they remained, spirits broken.
About How the West Was Lost
The history of 19th-century America is the story of struggles between settlers moving west and Native Americans trying to hold on to their ancestral territories. The clash between lifestyles and land rights forged a new land and unified an American culture, but in the process a venerable way of life was destroyed. Follow the Cherokee, Dakota, Lakota, and Nez Perc as they fight to keep their homelands.