The West

History Series / 1 Season

A nine-part series chronicling the turbulent history of one of the most extraordinary landscapes on earth. Beginning when the land belonged only to Native Americans and ending in the 20th century, the film introduces unforgettable characters whose competing dreams transformed the land. It was a tragic, inspiring intersection where the best of us met the worst of us—and nothing was left unchanged.

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One Sky Above Us

S1996 E9 / 1h 2m / TV-PG

As the 20th century neared, Americans celebrated with the World Columbian Exposition, where they were told that the frontier had closed – symbolized by one state proudly displaying an entire heard of buffalo – stuffed. But in the real West, for every frontier story that ended, another one began.

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Ghost Dance

S1996 E8 / 58m 38s / TV-PG

As settlers race to claim tribal lands, Native Americans take up the Ghost Dance, trusting in its power to restore a lost way of life until their hopes are crushed at Wounded Knee. The new century marks a new era in the West, an age of aqueducts and smelters. But the West remains what it has always been, a world waiting for a dream.

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The Geography of Hope

S1996 E7 / 1h 24m / TV-PG

Newcomers arrive by the millions, bringing a new spirit of conformity to the West. Indian children are taught to forsake their heritage, Mormons are told to abandon a tenet of their faith, and new laws deny Chinese and Mexican Americans a place in society. Yet the legend of the “Wild West” lives on, thanks to the greatest showman of the age.

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Fight No More Forever

S1996 E6 / 1h 25m / TV-PG

The federal government tightens its grip on the West, but three bold spirits remain defiant -- Sitting Bull, who prophesies his people's greatest victory but cannot prevent their ultimate defeat; Brigham Young, who must sacrifice a spiritual son to save his church; and Chief Joseph, who triumphs in defeat as an indomitable voice of conscience for the West.

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The Grandest Enterprise Under God

S1996 E5 / 1h 24m / TV-PG

A triumph of the human spirit, the transcontinental railroad opens a new era in the West, carrying homesteaders onto the prairies, bringing cowboys up the cattle trail from Texas, helping give women the vote in Utah and sending buffalo hunters onto the plains, where they drive a symbol of the West -- and a way of life -- to the brink of extinction.

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Death Runs Riot

S1996 E4 / 1h 24m / TV-PG

Civil war comes early to the West. In “Bleeding Kansas,” abolitionists battle for free soil. In Utah, federal troops march against Mormon polygamy. And along the Rio Grande, oppressed Mexican Americans rebel. The war between North and South unleashes brute savagery in the West, and leaves behind an army prepared for total war against the native peoples of the plains.

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Speck of the Future

S1996 E3 / 1h 24m / TV-PG

The Gold Rush brings the whole world to the West, as 49ers from Asia, South America and the eastern states scramble for “a share of the rocks,” littering the hills with mining towns and creating the West’s first metropolis. But in the push to strike it rich, many are violently pushed aside.

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Empire Upon the Trails

S1996 E2 / 1h 24m / TV-PG

Americans head west along many pathways -- following the fur trade into the mountains, fighting for self-determination in Texas, seeking religious freedom in Utah or a better life along the Oregon Trail. But whatever direction they travel, they move closer with every step to a “Manifest Destiny” that will make the West their own.

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The People

S1996 E1 / 1h 22m / TV-PG

The West begins as the whole world to the people who live there. It becomes a New World when Europeans arrive, a world shaken by incompatible visions. And almost three centuries later, when Lewis and Clark venture west to find a Northwest Passage, this world becomes the testing-ground for a young nation's continent-spanning dream.

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