Into the West (miniseries)

Into the West is a 2005 miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks which began as a six-week event on June 10, 2005 on Turner Network Television (TNT). Each of the six episodes is two hours in length (including commercials).

Episode 5 - Casualties of War

About five years have passed since the end of episode four, and begins in July 1874.

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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.

Related Topics:
Gold - Black Hills - Black Hills War - Indian War - Great Plains - Axis mundi - Treaty of Fort Laramie

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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.

Related Topics:
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - Russell Means - Treaty of Fort Laramie

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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).

Related Topics:
General store - Dakota Territory - Sharps Buffalo Rifle - Typewriter - Buffalo - Judge Reinhold - Richard Henry Pratt - Keith Carradine

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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.

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Voices That Carry runs away from the camp of Red Cloud to join his Father, White Crow, and Sitting Bull.

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In June 1876, Jacob Wheeler Jr. (Tyler Christopher) is a scout for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (Jonathan Scharfe) 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.

Related Topics:
1876 - Tyler Christopher - George Armstrong Custer - Battle of the Little Bighorn - Frederick Benteen - Marcus Reno

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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.

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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).

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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.

Related Topics:
1879 - Carlisle Indian Industrial School - Carlisle, Pennsylvania - Rutherford B. Hayes

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