Loved by the buffalo had traveled across the nations,
but had not yet found the prophet
who could make false the terrible vision of the white man's wheel.
He sought the signs that would lead him to his people's salvation...
but found only traces of those who had come before and vanished into the darkness.
Let the ribbons of the union pacific railroad
Omaha, Nebraska Territory December 1, 1863
unfurl from this immortal point
until they reach the shores of the mighty pacific!
I have in my hand a telegram just received from washington...
Which I shall read to you.
It says,
"when this great task shall have been done,"
"disunion shall be rendered forever after impossible."
"There will be no fulcrum for the lever of treason to rest upon."
Thomas, jackson, stop shirkin' and set that wheel on the bench.
They say it's gonna take 10 years to finish the line.
I'd sure like to ride it one day.
One train from atlantic to pacific?
Whoo-hoo!Ha ha!
Maybe they'll finish it, maybe they won'T.
If there's money to be made, I fully intend to see our family gets its share.
I want to see 20 wheels on that wall by sundown.
Come on, pop, you're talkin' like the railroad's already here.
Listen to me.
We have to make ready.
Haven't I taught you anything, boy?
Pardon me, sir.
My name is clara wheeler.
My father's name was samson wheeler.
You can't turn out an orphan, daniel.
The poor thing has no one.
I'll send her back east where she belongs.
And where will she find safety in the middle of a war?
We've heard nothing from wheelerton these many months.
There are places in st.Jo,
across the river, where she can be with her own kind.
It is our christian duty to care for that child.
We're the only people that she has left.
Woman, she's not even samson's natural child.
Just a foundling he took in...
as was his wont.
We owe her nothing.
What?
Ma's right.
Excuse me.
We just can't turn our backs on someone lookin' for our help.
Not after what she's been though.
Think if it was one of us.
Charity always costs those that give it.
So you'd bear that burden upon yourself, I take it?
Be responsible for her?
Yeah.I will.
And you will answer for her, for good or ill?
That's right.
Very well, then.
Robert, why does she get to sleep in my bed?
Well, because clara's our guest, lilly.
We're all gonna have to learn to make sacrifices.
Really, the floor is fine.
There's comfort in just having a roof over my head.
Mother says you can wear some of her things until she can make you some new ones.
Please tell her not to bother.
I know how to work a sewing machine.
All right.
What you got there?
Did you do these?
I used to have time for frivolities.
I thought the world was a pretty place, but it's not.
Well...let me know if you need anything.
I'll just...I'll be in my room.
-Thank you. -Yes
Mother, take off!
I'll tell you when it's over.
God be with you.
-Go on.Git!
Come on!
Aah!
Oh, my god!
Aah!
Clara! Clara!It's ok!You're ok¡­¡­
You're ok.
Ohh!
What's wrong with her?
You're ok.
You stay here.
Outside Sacramento, California March, 1864
As governor of the state of california,
I am proud to welcome you to this glorious celebration of our american industry.
We of the central pacific railroad have come far these last few months.
Further, I might add, than our competitors on the union pacific.
Bravo.
The great race has now begun.
We may now look forward to the day
when the pacific will be bound to the atlantic with bands of iron
that shall consolidate and strengthen our ties of nationality
and advance with giant strides the prosperity of our nation.
Hear, hear!
Can you imagine that?
We can have breakfast in san francisco,
supper in carson city, all the way to the mississippi in just 3 days.
It is truly remarkable.
It's all changing so fast.
The wheels of progress, my dear,
the wheels of progress.
It is our destiny to smash it asunder!
Shoot, 1, 2, 3.
[Speaking lakota language]
What are you saying, my dear?
Oh...something my mother said to me before we were married.
Her world always seemed so different than mine.
I'd like to see it sometime.
I don't see any reason why we shouldn't see some of it sometime.
Ethan...
hmm?
-Do you mean it? -Absolutely.
That's what we've always said we'd do.
We could catch the next stage to denver.
Really?
You're brilliant, you know that?
And exquisitely beautiful.
You're truly one of the most wonderful women I've ever known.
And there've been so many, my love.
Oh! -Ethan! I love you, too. -Mmm.
My daughter margaret and her husband ethan were not alone in their wandering.
My son abe joined the ranks of jobless men (Central Pacific Railhead Sierra Navadas)
who threw their lot in with the central pacific
in its 1,000-mile journey east from sacramento.
By the time it was finished,
the railroad would profoundly impact my children's lives.
Put your backs into it!
Come back here, chief.
The name's abe.
One of the lost tribes of israel, are we?
Well, my old testament friend,
have you had a look at the offering you just brought me?
We're trying to keep the grade level.
This won't do it.
You'll have to clean it up.
That's your job.
Fight!
Hit him!
Damn gandy dancers!
That'll cost you sons of whores a day's wages!
That goes for all of you! Now, move it!
Mr. Strobridge, get over here!
You men, get back to work!
I will not tolerate mistreatment of these men!
You can't speak to them as though you were speakin' to gentlemen, mr. Crocker.
They're as near as brutes as they can get.
Now, most of these micks will be off to the
gold fields as soon as they can earn a grubstake.
We started with 5,000 men.
Now?
I got less than 600.
Well, there seems to be a surplus of chinese in san francisco.
They're said to be very reliable workers.
I will not boss chinese! Damn it!
Denver, Colorado Territory September, 1864
Good God.
What happened?
How did this happen?
This is not right.
You got that right.
Look ye upon this outrage to all civilized people!
The hungate family...
cruelly murdered on their own land...
land only 25 miles to the east of our fair city.
Sacrificial lambs slaughtered by the godless cheyenne dog soldiers...
their bodies cast like joseph's into a well.
Who's this speaker?
Colonel chivington, the fightin' parson.
Whooped the greycoats at glorieta pass,
and he's gonna give these redskins a hidin'!
Brothers and sisters of colorado.
Our territory sits poised just on the cusp of statehood.
But there can be no statehood without order.
Hear, hear.
Yeah. Yeah.
And there will be no order
as long as a single savage is allowed
to occupy one sacred inch of our precious soil!
All right.
Now, there is hope.
Governor evans has authorized me
to muster a new regime for our self-defense.
Yeah!Yeah!
Now...
who of you...
will join me in this righteous enterprise?
Hyah!
Grisly business, that.
Why must you insist on making record of it?
You know that's what we do.
I'm sorry.
I was just thinking...
helluva price to pay for some mangy cows.
They say old man hungate was out lookin' for strays when they butchered him.
Yes, thank you kindly.
I'd--if you could keep quiet?
Beggin' your pardon, ma'am.
You just leave everything to colonel chivington.
When he wants to get somethin' done,
you bet it gits did.
Indians!
Driver!
What in blazes?
Aah!
Let go!
Leave her!
No! Don't kill him!
[Speaking lakota language]
I love you.
[Speaking lakota language]
what's happen? What are they doing to us?
I think they're taking us to their camp.
I won't let anything happen to us.
Balck Kettle's Camp, Sand Creek, Colorado
They are treating us as honored guests, not captives.
Guess they admire you here.
You're one of them.
No.
I've spent most of my life denying my mother's blood.
It's all right.
Take these.
It's all right.
I'll be here.
Tell me about this magic box.
We call it a camera.
Cam-camera.
Cam-ra.
Camera.
The white man's words, they have no, um...
um..music in them.
You speak them very well.
So many white man come.
They fill our land with their noises.
I do not like their language.
Their words...
they have no meaning.
Walkin' under white man's road, as you have done, it is difficult.
The, um, spirit...
does not know where to rest.
Sometimes I...
I feel a hole in my heart.
Ah, the white men are like locusts.
They fly so thick that the whole sky looks like a snowstorm,
and we are like small buffalo herds who have scattered.
They will keep coming.
They're building a railroad.
It will carry them from one ocean to another.
That one over there.
If you could just, um...
It's all right.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Speaking native language]
She says, uh...
I am not so ugly in your magic box.
When the white father told those of us
who wished peace to come to this place, we came.
But there is nothing here for us.
Without the buffalo,
our boys cannot become men.
They seek war to prove themselves.
In denver...
we saw a family.
They had been horribly butchered.
Some said it was your people.
This is a lie.
There are bad white men,
and there are bad indians.
Bad men on both sides, they have brought about this trouble.
But I am determined to end this fighting.
You will help me.
You understand the white man's thoughts.
Yet in these shadows...
I see your true heart.
Take my message of peace to the tall chief in the fort.
Fort Lyon, Colorado
Major.
You'd better come take a look at this.
My god.
Black kettle asks for a council.
I bear witness to his fair treatment.
Denver, Colorado Septemper 28, 1864
Come on, boy, drop back.
We have been traveling under a cloud.
The skies...
have been dark ever since the war came.
We want to take good tidings home to our people.
I want...
all the chiefs of the soldiers to understand that we are for peace.
That we may not be mistaken by them for the enemy.
Governor evans and colonel chivington have heard your words.
The governor and the father of all white men in this territory will now speak to you.
We cannot live together on this land.
The war among the whites is nearly through.
The great father will have nothin' to do with his soldiers
except send them out after the indians.
Your people must make their peace with us.
I have done my best...
to keep my young men quiet,
but they do not always listen.
Well, by their rebellion,
they seek to help the great co-traitors who make war on us.
No.
We do not fight the white man's war.
All cheyenne...
have ears open.
White antelope proud to see all white chiefs of this country.
Since I go washington and receives this medal...
I have been proud to call all white men brothers.
Whatever peace you make must be with the soldiers, not with me.
We see now.
I am not a great war chief.
But in this country...
all the soldiers are under my command.
My rule of fighting,
whether it's the greycoats from the south or the indians,
is to fight them until they lay down all their arms
and submit to military authority.
When you are ready to do that, then major wynkoop...
major wynkoop...
at ft. Lyon will see to all your needs.
[Speaking native language]
Please, everybody, look this way.
That's no captive. She's one of them.
Black kettle, it is an honor for me to present to you
the flag of the united states.
Everyone, very still.
With all due respect, gentlemen...
cheyenne don't want a war.
I believe their pledges to be sincere.
And what will I do with the third colorado volunteers if we make peace?
The third was raised primarily to kill indians.
Then they must kill indians.
The tall chief said as long as this flag flies above our camp,
no soldiers will harm us.
Margaret light shines had lifted the people's spirits
with the magic of the white man's shadow box.
Now black kettle called on the young men
who remained behind to search for the buffalo.
All right, men...the gates!
Major.
See that these men are fed and given a place to rest.
We march on the hostiles at sand creek tonight.
I've heard of no new provocation, sir.
Don't you know the cheyenne nation
is guilty of robbery, arson, murder, rape, and fiendish torture?
Not even sparing women and children?
I feel it is right and honorable to use any
means under god's heaven to end these outrages.
Including murder, colonel?
Where's sergeant owens?
Sir!
Post a ring of pickets around the perimeter of this post!
Any man tryin' to leave will be shot on sight!
Is that understood?
Yes, sir!
Damn any man in sympathy with the indian.
When will you leave?
Tomorrow.
You have brought us much happiness.
But it's good you should return to your people.
Many white people will see the cheyenne as they really are.
They will understand that your spirits are peaceful.
I will keep this one.
For my wife.
Of course.
This is good medicine.
My husband and i can never repay your the kindness you have shown us.
You go in peace, my granddaughter.
And may one day...
your heart will be full again.
Thank you.
Sand Creek Village November 29, 1864
Off with your overcoats, men.
Oh, you'll fight better without 'em.
Remember the hungates?
Yeah! Yeah!
You look back on the plains of the platte
where your mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters have been slain,
their blood saturating the sands!
Take no prisoners.
Kill 'em all.
Scalp 'em all.
That's right!
Every last one!
Come on.
Soldiers.
Margaret! Margaret!
Listen. Listen. Take this.
Fasten it to the top of the flag.
As quickly as you can!
The soldiers will see!
Hey!
Stop!
[Speaking native language]
Remember the hungates!
No!....
Do not shoot! Do not shoot!
Ethan!
No!
When you return to your people, tell them.
Tell them a great shame fills my heart.
You are my people now.
Now, you see how these savages treat their prisoners, major?
Damn you to hell, colonel.
You wanted war? Now you're gonna have it.
North Platte 300 miles west of Omaha October, 1866
2 rails every 30 seconds, one on each side.
4 rails to the minute.
3 strokes per spike, 10 spikes per rail.
400 rails to the mile.
It's 1,800 miles to san francisco.
21 million times you got to swing those hammers.
Listen to that sound.
That's money.
Money.
You know,
it won't be long before this enterprise gets beyond the reach of any town.
And men deprived of their diversions are inclined to get restless.
So if they can't come to town,
why, then the town will just have to come to them.
You get my meaning?
Yes, sir.It sure don't look like much.
Not now.
There's gonna be thousands of boomers comin' up here to north platte from omaha...
men with nothin' to do once winter sets in.
Right here.
Right here is where we're gonna stake our own little claim.
Our own little empire.
Good work.
Omaha
Take me with you.
No womenfolk allowed.
It's just gonna be father, me, and jackson.
Thomas has to see to business here.
You and lilly, you look after mom.
I can work as hard as any of your brothers.
Harder, I expect.
Well, what is it, then?
You know father.
You're not like him.
You are decent.
2 stages.
Supposed to be 3.
Oh, well.
Father is father.
He is who he is.
There's no use trying to change him.
And there's family. You know what it's like.
They were taken from me.
Out here, we each make our own way in life.
Robert, some of us haven't got a choice!
We've always got a choice.
First wheelers came out here, it was all wild country.
Grandpa's cousin jacob, he's first to come out.
Sure heard stories about him.
They tamed so much of it,
I figure railroad will tame what's left.
Just isn't gonna be much of a west once it's finished.
I guess I just wanna see it before it goes, that's all.
Let me see it with you.
You're all I have left.
You're my only family.
Father's gonna have himself a proper fit.
Then you'll help me?
I can't make promises.
-I'm gonna take 2 melds. - Mm-hmm.
Dog star had once believed the white man would someday leave the land.
Black Hills, Dakota Territory
Now, with his grandson white bird and his son sleeping bear,
he saw them come like a prairie fire on a hot wind.
Many passed through the sacred ground with
the hope of the world bent to the 4 directions,
seeking the yellow stone that made them crazy.
Dog star had heard how the long knives repaid black cattle's promise of peace.
He feared that a similar fate awaited his people.
Sioux promised to fight until every white man
was driven from their sacred land.
The bravest of these leaders sent his messengers riding through the nation.
Dog star's brother running fox answered the call to battle,
and invited the great warrior to speak to their village.
His name was makhpiya luta, red cloud.
[Speaking lakota language]
Red cloud spoke.
and white crow, His son red lance,
and many young men were inspired to follow him to protect their land.
Sleeping bear and white bird also wished to fight,
but dog star had already lost one son to the white man,
and did not wish to sacrifice another.
Keep 'em straight, boss! Cape Horn, Northern California
Celestials.
Worse than savages, you are.
Half-made men.
What do you know about railroad construction?
They built the great wall of china, didn't they?
Come on, get moving!
Quickie! Quickie!
Come on!
Keep it straight!
You got a problem?
Men say you indian.
Yeah? What of it?
Never seen indian.
Very afraid you eat them.
Well,I've never had a celestial before.
Might like to try me one.
Abe wheeler.
Chow ping.
What bad luck brings you out here,chow ping?
Before here,gum shan,gold mountain.
Fan gway steal claim.
Gold not for chinese,he say.
why?
A white ghost.
Demon.
Fan gway stand,talk,
tell us what to do.
Call us coolies.
Chinese like indian.
Fan gway hit,
steal,shoot.
Come on,guys.
Keep 'em straight!
Incline 75 degrees!
That face is straight up.
We got a clear a shelf 3 miles long across that bastard of a rock.
Your plan to accomplish this,mr. Strobridge?
Damned if I know,sir.
One-eye bossy man think road not possible.
Use very bad language,but road possible.
How?
I'll be.
Now,if there's one thing the chinese know something about, it's gunpowder.
Ready?!
Gung-hoy!
Gung-hoy! Gung-hoy!.........
Help!
Chow ping!.....
Come on,help me!
Chow ping!
Good
Ft. Phil Kearny Wyoming Territory December 20, 1866
The white man's forts spread like a stain across the people's land.
White crow and red lance join the warriors of red cloud.
There they would fight to remove any mark of the white man.
This would be a different kind of war, fought like no other.
It would be a war of watching,of waiting.
[Speaking native language]
Captain,the supply train is being fired upon.
You are to support the supply train,captain fetterman.
Relieve it,and report back to me.
Under no circumstances are you to pursue
and engage the indians over lodge trail ridge.
Is that understood?
Yes,sir.
No pursuit beyond lodge trail ridge, colonel carrington,sir.
Godspeed,captain.
Whoa.
Hold up!
That's lodge trail ridge,captain fetterman.
What's he doing?
Hyah!
please
[Speaking native language]
Donner Summit, Sierra Nevadas 7000 feet above sea level February, 1867
We're never gonna break out of that rock.
We've been trying for a year.
Fan gway say
move mountain, but mountain don't want to move.
That's white man's logic.
Don't try to understand it.
You'll go crazy trying.
You have people back where you come from, chow ping?
Have wife in home village.
One day, I finish here.
Say to her, "you come now."
Give her silk dress.
We going to live in tai fau.
Tai fau?
San francisco, right?
You learn chinese real good.
I've been studying your phrase books.
Learned how to write a little of your alphabet.
You have village?
Americans don't belong to any one place.
Just when we get settled, we up and get restless for something different.
I rode the pony express till it played out.
Never as free as when I was on the back of a horse.
Nothing steady after that.
Why you stay now?
Never been part of something like this.
Something permanent.
Think maybe I'll see it through, just this once.
Maybe I'm just a crazy indian like they all say.
North Platte Nebraska Territory April, 1867
Once north platte had only been an empty prairie 300 miles from omaha.
Ambitious men like daniel wheeler had turned the wilderness into a boom town.
Carnivorous swarms followed the railroad workers every step of the way,
devouring their weekly pay faster than grasshoppers.
Jackson.
Jackson!
Comin', pa!
Sure is flush times.
Hell on wheels.
You should've seen this place before we civilized it.
I don't mind telling you, wheeler,
the union pacific finds the very presence of a sinkhole like this a noxious affront.
I'd like to see you try to stop it, casement.
You'd have a mutiny on your hands.
Might be wiser for you to start thinking of us as informal partners.
You appropriated railroad land
for illicit purposes and then sold it to other speculators at 5 times its value.
Don't bellyache to me if the union pacific
swells couldn't see the potential of their own right-of-way.
Do not presume to lecture me on what's good for the railroad.
No. That's for you.
You masters back east don't need any lessons.
Government bonds
16,000 a mile for flatlands graded and tracked.
32,000 a mile for foothills,
64,000 a mile for mountains.
Tell me, casement,
how many so-called mountains
has the union pacific climbed thus far?
Ha ha ha!
You, sir, are a rank opportunist.
Welcome to north platte, sir.
King of the plains emporium is the place for you.
Best tables and the best liquor.
They got the best looking women, too.
Here, let me get that for you, sir.
There you go.
Give us this day our daily strangers.
-Hey.
- I have your britches ready.
All right.
You'd never even know they were ripped.
5 cents, please.
Almost forgot.
Now those are getting pretty worn.
You ought to let me make you a new pair.
- Oh, yeah? You'd do that?
- Yeah.
I'd like that.
I'll have to measure you.
Step right up.
Ow!
Put your arms out like this.
Well, sure looks like you're prospering.
If I save up enough money,
I can get my own shop and I won't have to rent from your father anymore.
You deserve finer things, clara.
So do you.
Robert!
See ya.
You're needed at the shop.
Yes, sir.
Don't let me see you idling again.
Especially with that girl.
That girl has a name, father.
It's clara!
About time you got used to saying it!
Those miscreants will not trouble your establishment again.
What about my money, colonel?
Are you gonna make good these men's debts?
Good day, sir.
Soldiering in the west was a lonely, miserable affair.
Some men deserted outright and others fell into bad habits.
Before officers like george armstrong custer could tame any indians,
they first had to tame their own men.
My son, jacob jr.,
Didn't like what the army had become
but still thought his skills could be used to preserve peace on the frontier.
When custer took charge of the 7th cavalry,
jacob knew it wouldn't be long before his job went from scouting to killing.
I reckon that this...
Will help morale any.
His morale will improve when they'll be given indians to fight.
For that, gentlemen,
I have relied upon your good offices to no avail, it seems.
The funny thing about indians, colonel,
they ain't so easy to find when they don't want to be.
Let me offer you an alternative explanation, mr. Wheeler,
you, being half-breeds,
have not applied yourself to the work with the requisite enthusiasm.
The 7th cavalry has been charged with clearing these plains of savages
from the arkansas to the platte.
All depredations on lands being opened up by the railroad are to cease.
You will oblige me by performing your duties without further delay.
Have I made myself clear?
As day, colonel.
We're finished here. Dismissed.
Thank you, trooper. That'll be sufficient.
We're through.
Donovan, we're through!
They've bloody done it!
They've done it!
They built the great wall of china, didn't they?
Fantastic!
You should be proud of yourselves!
Let's see the union pacific try to beat us now!
We did that.
Eastward, men!
Eastward to victory!
Medicine Lodge Creek October, 1867
Margaret light shines had followed black kettle's people in their wanderings.
She began to live the life of her mother before her.
When the long knife chief sherman,
came to speak words of friendship,
she listened, but she no longer trusted any white man.
It was white men who had killed her husband.
The iron horse is now crossing the lands between the arkansas and the platte.
But there's land south of the arkansas,
and before it's taken,
we'd like to set aside a part of it for your home.
On this home,
we'll build a house to hold the goods we'll send.
To this home,
we'll send a physician to live with you and heal your sick.
We'll send a farmer to teach your people to grow corn
and wheat and a mill to make for you meal and flour.
For all this, you'll receive an allowance of $20,000
each 12 moon to be spent by the white father on your behalf.
He says, "why do you come here?
Because red cloud has killed so many bluecoats?
"This is the time for fighting, not talking."
From this day forward,
all war between the parties to this agreement shall forever cease.
War will end in the total destruction
of the indian because his numbers are less.
We've prepared peace papers.
We ask that your chiefs and head men hold their council
and meet with us when the shadows are long to sign these papers.
Many wrongs have been done my people,
but I still live in hope.
I have not got 2 hearts.
North Platte
What am i paying you for?
Get to work!
Move your stuff!
I'm sending the girl back to omaha.
She belongs with your mother and sister.
I won't let you do that.
You won't let me?
You've been seduced by girlish blandishments.
It's not like that.
Yes, it is.
If you want to expend
some of that surplus of manly urges you've got,
-I suggest you do it in one of own establish -stop it!
I got a mind to teach that little slut
I said you shut your mouth!
No!
Stop!
Get off him.
I will let this pass...
for now.
Don't make me choose.
What are you looking at?
Sorry.
I didn't mean to startle you.
It's all right.
It was about me...
what happened before with your father, wasn't it?
It's not just the land that's changing, clara.
It's people.
Me.
No.
You are one of the better angels.
Ohh! Ha ha!
Better angels, huh?
The better angels of our nature.
That's what mr. Lincoln called them.
Whoa!
Oh, he's got a spot open.
That's mine.
How could a country so beautiful make men so cruel?
Ha ha ha!
So the towns came and went-
Cheyenne, Wyoming Territoy May, 1868 julesburg, sidney, potter, kimble, archer.
At every stop,
the empire that daniel wheeler sought for his family grew a little larger.
Then came cheyenne,
the magic city of the plains nearly halfway between omaha and the shores of california.
The wheelers had become men of substance,
but robert knew that something more important
had been lost along the tracks and he aimed to get it back.
Thank you.
Hello, robert.
Let me help you.
That's a pretty dress, clara.
It speaks of a real delicate sensibility.
Delicate?
Is that how you see me?
No.
I was just
all I meant to say was it's just nice to see
some refinement in a place such as this, that's all.
Thank you.
You did just what you said you would.
I'm proud of you.
Let me show you something.
Clara...
-these are- - vanities, I know.
No. No, not at all.
These are... great.
I never thought I'd take up drawing again.
When I was a girl, I had such ambitions.
I dreamed of owning a ladies' emporium
in a place like new york or san francisco.
I imagined myself
traveling to all the great capitals of europe and...
I had time to dream then, I suppose.
You should never stop dreaming, clara.
That was...
bold of me.
Not nearly bold enough, robert wheeler.
Humbolt Sink, Great Basin Nevada June, 1868
donovan!
A jackrabbit would need a canteen
and a haversack to get through this desert.
Makes me wish we were back in the mountains.
Damn it!
Put your backs into it!
Every mile we make the mother-lovin' union pacific makes 4!
Now you work as though heaven itself were before you and hell behind you!
This isn't a ladies' social, donovan!
Beggin' your pardon, mr. Strobridge.
You work these men any harder, you're not gonna have one left.
The heat, sir.
You get these cursed celestials digging!
If you don't get these chinese working, donovan,
you and the other walking bosses will have to take their place on the line.
I'm afraid I can't do that, sir.
What did you say?
Can't or won't?
No disrespect meant, sir.
But we're gonna finish this railroad together
or we're not gonna finish it!
Let them have their damn rest.
We resume work first light tomorrow morning.
Yes, sir!
Thought you said you didn't have any use for the chinese.
Got even less for bosses.
Ft. Phil Kearny Wyoming Territoy August, 1868
After 2 years of fighting,
the long knives abandoned their fort and signed a treaty
that gave the sacred lands back to the lakota.
The red cloud had done what no man,
white or indian, thought possible.
Young warriors took heart from this great victory.
Many who had gone to the reservations
began to return to their hunting grounds.
There they found the white men.
The circle of violence was renewed.
Punishment fell on those who did not seek war.
Black Kettle's Camp Washita River
See that, mr. Wheeler?
A presentiment of victory.
Heaven sent, colonel.
Fine work, scouts. I will send for you if I have need.
The garry owen, if you please, corporal.
Hyah!
Soldiers! Soldiers!
All around us!
See to the women.
Save as many as you can.
We're living in a nightmare.
We will meet again.
Colonel wants to see you.
Give me that coat.
Now!
Keep moving!
Go on!
Get back in line!
Margaret?
Git!
Fort Hays, Kansas 7th Cavalry Headquarters
That one doesn't look like such a bad sort,does she,armstrong?
Their women possess a fierceness not found in our more refined sex.
Those who have not been too degraded by being mere chattels
may yet learn some rudimentary manners.
And what's your name?
This one goes by margaret,ma'am.
Margaret.
That's a lovely name.
It's nice to have met you,margaret.
[Speaking lakota language]
Oh,that's the one.
You tell the lieutenant to mind his privates.
This one's a wildcat.
No! Take me back!
Stop fighting me! Ain't nothing gonna happen to you.
You're nothing but a murderer like the rest of them!
No! No!
Listen to me,listen to me.
shu shu... It's ok.
Listen to me.
I'm gonna march you through that gate.
There's a pony waiting at the corrals,ok?
You get on it.
You go ride clear of here,you understand me?
No,I won't!
No!
Aah! Take me back!
You don't belong with these people!
You don't belong with them!
These people-
- they're my sisters and my mothers,
my children,and my brothers!
I won't leave them!
You ain't talkin' sense,margaret.
How can I ever face ma and pa if I don't see you safe out of here?
You tell them...
their daughter margaret died at sand creek.
Lived to see the white man keep his promises on the washita.
You tell them that the hole in my heart...
is now filled with sorrow.
You tell them...
that I can never be who I was.
Tell them that I love them.
Will you do this for me, jacob?
Will you tell them these things, jacob?
The lines will meet at promontory summit.
Utah's mormon country.
But they say brother brigham appreciates the work of a gentile dollar.
When they drive that last spike, a real opportunity begins.
We'll have our pick of the spur lines and...
hauling contracts.
Yes.
I don't want any part of it.
I had hoped to bestow upon you our family's good fortune.
That is no more or less than my obligation
as it is yours to respect and serve our businesses here.
And I'll carry out my duties until the rails meet.
I owe you that.
Once it's finished, I'm striking out on my own.
You display no aptitude for enterprise, sir.
That girl has a better head for business than you'll ever have.
I underestimated her.
Clara, father. Can you say her name?
Clara.
She makes people nice things.
Taking advantage of their weakness doesn't seem much a business to me.
Different times call for different methods.
Oh, if that's progress,
I suppose I don't want much a part of it.
You better think hard on your future, boy.
You boys earned it.
Now fill it to the brim.
All right.
The union pacific.
Late as usual.
Promontory Point, Utah May 10, 1869
For my wayward son abe,
that may morning was a triumph like no other.
A ribbon of iron stretched 1,800 miles
from the mississippi to the pacific ocean.
When those final rails were laid,
america changed forever.
The final spike!
Preacher.
Some men fancied that they represented the future of that new america,
but it was men and women like robert
and clara who would come to embody its true spirit.
Their pluck and determination
would be sorely tested in the years that lay ahead.
We're right here today
Bless this majestic road and all those who ride upon it.
May they and their business prosper.
Now...
where we now stand...
but a few months since could be seen nothing but the path of the red man.
Now, a thousand wheels will bear on their axles the wealth of half the world,
drawn by the iron horse,
darkening the landscape with its smoky breath,
and startling the wild indian with its piercing scream!
We are a great people
and can accomplish great things!
You micks get down off that train!
Get the real railroad men up here!
All right, all right, time for a photograph!
All you micks, break up.
Get down from those rails, you chinese!
Come on!
At least we got this to show for it.
They can't ever take this away from us.
Good luck in tai fau.
You watch out for fan gway.
Can't escape 'em.
They're everywhere.
All still now!