AllMovie

Episode Six in producer Ken Burns' epic series chronicles the short and tragic period from 1874 through 1877, when the reality of a centralized federal power began to collide with the dream of a wild Western freedom. Regulators in Washington, possessed of formidable armies, cracked down harshly on the Lakota and Cheyenne in the Black Hills, the Nez Perce in modern-day Idaho and Oregon, and the Mormons in Utah -- all at a time when the country was celebrating 100 years of independence from British oppression. Specific topics include: Sitting Bull (Tatanka-Iyotanka) and his rallying of Native American forces, America's betrayal of the Fort Laramie Treaty, the daily life of an army soldier charged with patrolling and defending the West, the Battle of Little Bighorn, the execution of John D. Lee, and the forced exile of Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce.