Go, go, go!
Well, jake...
what do you make of it?
It's an indian sacred place...
like a church.
The hell you say.
You may tell your readers, gentlemen,
that this expedition has thus far exceeded my most sanguine expectations.
We have discovered a rich and beautiful country.
Abundant game, fertile land.
In short, all the bounties necessary for the establishment of civilization.
The laramie treaty of '68 made this indian land, general custer,
part of the great sioux reservation.
Now, the sioux, they may not take too kindly to trespassers.
I shall recommend the extinguishment of indian
title at the earliest moment practicable for military purposes.
If congress should support the settlement of the black hills, gentlemen,
rest assured, the army will do its duty.
Whoo!
Gold!
Gold! Gold!
Jake, come on!
Pay dirt, boys.
Gold! Gold! Gold!
Officially, the army brass had sent custer into the black hills
to map out the site of a new fort
to protect the northern railroad,
and though the gold he'd found didn't amount to more than a 50 cent diggin',
it wasn't long before the newspapers
proclaimed the place "the el dorado of america."
Everyday, new immigrants came in hope of striking their fortune.
Like so many before them,
most brought only their dreams and the clothes on their backs.
Some would make a new life for themselves.
Others would find only heartbreak.
With the people came the towns and the camps, hundreds of 'em.
For every man who got rich on gold,
another 10 made a killing on the miners.
Nobody seemed to care that the land wasn't theirs to claim.
Some men of business, like robert wheeler,
found themselves in the right place at the right timE.
The opportunities seemed downright endless.
One at a time, gentlemen, one at a time.
Please don't shove.
There's enough to go around.
How do you get to the black hills?
Freedom trial.
$10.00'll get you a ride in my wagon.
-$10.00? -Yes, sir.
It cost me half that by train from chicago.
Well, sir, you can wait until they build a railroad to the black hills,
or you can hand over $10.00 and hop on.
Yeah? All right.
Who needs pans?
There ya go.
I trade with the sioux at the agency.
They know me as a friend.
They'll give us safe passage.
Whoa, whoa.
What about them?
They friends of yours, too?
Those aren't indians.
Bushwhackers!
Red cloud had won for his people,
the protected place in the sacred lands.
Now the country promised forever
to the lakota was being overrun with white men.
For hot bloods like red lance
and his brother voices that carry.
The time for fighting was drawing near.
"Gentlemen may cry peace! Peace!"
"But there is no peace."
"The war has actually begun."
All right,
now do you see this exclamation point that mr. Patrick henry put there after "begun"?
A little stronger next time, hans, but very good.
Mr. Kurtz?
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet "
as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, almighty god!"
Very good!
Very good.
I think that's enough for today.
And you all need to be gettin' home, so, I will see you next sunday.
Oh, children...
your gifts are so sweet, but entirely unnecessary.
Now, please, just git and go.
Git.
Shoo.
You put in paper like so,
touch the keys, and presto!
Out comes the letter with all the quality of newspaper print.
Behold.
With this device
and a little manual prestidigitation,
the tedious labor of business correspondence may be cut in half.
Most ingenious.
May I put the lady proprietress down for an order?
-I'll take one! -Yes, sir.
Ohh.
Pickin's were good out there, clara.
Better than I expected.
Ran out of supplies before I ran out of miners.
I figure it'll require a trip to omaha,
maybe kansas city to restock.
I won't have you goin' back into those hills!
I couldn't sleep for the worry,
not knowin' whether you were alive or out moulderin' on the plains somewhere.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
I didn't mean to cause you grief, clara.
It's just...
I have ambitions for both of us.
One day, you'll have a proper gold band,
not some old saddle ring.
Iron is stronger.than gold.
I wouldn't trade this ring for the world.
It was made for a simple purpose,
just like the man who gave it to me.
What's wrong?
Somethin' happened.
What happened?
I killed 2 men.
I looked down the barrel of my sharps...
and I thought I'd never see you again...
So I shot.
Even though I didn't have to.
So much for purpose, I suppose.
It will be very hard
for our government to keep the whites out of the hills.
To try to do so
will give your people and my government great trouble.
Because the whites
who may wish to go into these hills are very numerous.
I want our great father to send us meat
and flour and coffee.
And sugar and tea and bacon
and corn and beans and tobacco.
I want this for all the people and for the children
and 7 times their children.
Firm offer is $400,000 a year
for the mineral rights.
Now if you should wish to sell the black hills outright,
the price will be $6 million payable in 15 annual installments.
I will go to the white father
in washington and smoke pipe with him.
You have heard his words,
which cannot be altered even to the scratch of a pen.
Die hard this
just shy of a hundred.
Been a while.
Buffalo harder to find than a job.
Southern herd's almost gone.
What are you asking?
$3.00 per. You buyin'?
I can offer you a dollar per hide,
and I consider that more than fair.
I consider that to be robbery with a smile under a high top hat, hillman.
Last time the price was $6.00.
The rage for buffalo bedspreads and other accoutrements back east has ended.
Most definitively.
Leave the buffalo to their extinction, sir.
They've served their purpose.
On the train from new york to hillsgate,
I saw the future-- bones.
Bones?
Buffalo bones.
The detritus of sporting men lured by a $3.00 rail
pass and the promise of game there for the taking.
Carcasses left to rot create a mighty stench.
But in that smell,
an enterprising man may detect the odor of money.
Bones can be ground to make fertilizer and fine china,
and that's only the beginning.
Why, a man can earn himself 8, 9,
perhaps as much as $10 a ton.
Damn it!
I broke away from my father
so that we could have a life together,
and I mean to make it a good one.
I know, but your dreams are not your own.
They're your father'S.
Clara,
all the money we made on the miners
we lost on the hides.
I wouldn't be gone long.
You're gone often enough.
Give me a reason to stay.
You spend all your time
wet-nursing those squareheads.
Robert.
You know it makes me sick to my stomach
to see--to see it sometimes, to see you teaching
those damn kids
when you're too afraid to have another child of your own!
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean it.
Yes, you did.
Come on. Hyah!
I can't afford to feed them I've already got,
and now the government sends me more.
-Sign here to accept custody. -Yeah.
Since the time of washita,
margaret light shines remained a prisoner of the long knives,
who herded their captives from camp to camp like so many cattle.
She became mother to the many children left orphaned by war.
They were her blessings,
and she promised to never leave them unprotected.
Ain't buying any more hides.
Not buying?
Not selling 'em.
Watch it.
Go on.
I commend you, sir.
Captain pratt, tenth cavalry.
Robert wheeler.
Allow me to say, mr. Wheeler,
that you are the exception that proves the rule.
And what rule is that, captain?
I find the majority of traders to be unprincipled, unscrupulous rogues.
A pack of veritable scoundrels,
if you don't mind my saying so.
That's a fine sentiment
coming from a man who makes widows and orphans his stock and trade.
Call me a rogue?
Perhaps we both are, mr. Wheeler.
We've denied these people fraternity.
We've driven them from their ancestral homes.
It just costs the people of our government
hundreds of millions of dollars
and led to the present shameful impasse.
Just can't stop progress, captain.
What is progress but what men do?
Most men do what they will,
others what they deem to be right.
Where do you stand, mr. Wheeler?
Well, to be honest with you, sir, sometimes I'm not so sure.
Now that is a promising beginning to a man's education.
Good day, mr. Wheeler.
This is the best I can do for you.
Rations are the first of every month.
No.We will not beg.
You suit yourself.
But you be damn sure you and these other squaws stay put.
Orders went out
that any indian that's not on agency land by january 31 will be considered hostile.
Are you savvy?
We will not make trouble for you.
Well, you already have.
this is our home now
Sitting bull sensed the spirits of the long knives
who had been sent to capture him and his people
and force them to live like white men.
He sought a vision to prepare himself for the great struggle.
He promised a scarlet blanket of his own blood to wakan tanka.
listen to this:
"General george armstrong custer,
"dressed in a dashing suit of buckskin, "
is prominent everywhere,
"taking in everything connected with his command with the keen,"
incisive manner for which he is so well known."
Ha ha!Yeah, well, ain't every command's got its own
pet newspaper man tagging along.
I want you, reno, and benteen to follow their trail up the rosebud.
Gibbon and I will march up the yellowstone
to a blocking position here at the mouth of the little bighorn.
Now don't be greedy, custer.
There's indians enough for all of us.
Wait for us.
No, I don't think I will.
Answer me something.
If you think custer's so infernal bad,
why do you ride with him?
It's better to know a devil and confound his purpose
than to just leave him be.
The vision of sitting bull
inspired many warriors to leave the reservation.
They pledged themselves to the death to defend the sacred paha sapa.
Sitting bull moved the people
to the banks of the river called "the greasy grass,"
where the game was plentiful.
There the warriors readied themselves.
They waited for the day the sky would rain long knives.
What did you see, mr. Wheeler?
Horses.
Horses?
More than i could count, sir.
Looked like a brown wave across the hills,
just on the other side of little bighorn.
We will strike the village immediately.
Sir, with all due respect,
I think it best that we wait for our reinforcements to arrive.
I will not risk the chance of our quarry escaping.
Major reno will lead his men across the river
will all due haste to flush out the hostiles.
I will lead 5 companies north to cut off the indians' retreat.
Yes, sir.
If I go to other side,
I go as crow, not white man.
Deliver this to captain benteen in our left flank.
He is to join the attack after we have engaged and routed the enemy.
Yes, sir.
What are they doing?
Bad omens.
They see death.
You've done your work.You found the sioux.
If you're so afraid of them, go now.
Leave the fighting to us.
Looks like us reno boys get the honors today, jake.
Major's offering 30 days furlough to the man who takes the first scalp.
I want you to take this.
If anything happens, you make sure it gets delivered to my folks.
Sure thing, jake.
Hey, jake.
Least we ain't ridin' with ol' hard ass custer.
Good luck to you.
You, too.
That day, there would be many battles.
First came the man renO.
Indians, they had told him,
would run at the fearful sight of his horse hooves.
But these indians did not run.
The scouts had spoken to the long hair,custer,
but he had no ears.
He was certain of his great victory.
He led his men toward those
he knew would be escaping the battle,
but met only warriors.
The hunter was about to become the hunted.
The fighting on the ridge,
lasted no longer than a hungry man takes to eat his meal.
The vision of sitting bull had come to pass.
The long knives, have fallen into his village.
The people did not heed sitting
bull's warnings to leave the soldiers' possessions untouched.
Sitting bull knew these matters weighed heavily with wakan tanka.
While many celebrated,
others sang death songs.
Congress and the army better do something,
and damn quick, too!
Kill every one of them bloodthirsty heathens, I say!
This town's been sitting on a powder keg better part of a year.
Only a matter of time before it finally exploded.
Storekeep!
You give me a gun and all the ammo you got!
We're closed, sir,
out of respect for the dead.
It's horrible to think of children coming into such a world.
What happened to the baby wasn't your fault.
You're a good mother, clara.
Yes.
Only...
don't shut me out.
The baby was-
he was my son, too.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
so am I.
I salute you, sir.
You're a hero.
Thank you, sir.
Let me give you some food.
Thank you kindly.
Sir, here you are.
Here you go.Good job.
-For you. -Thank you, ma'am.
God bless you.
This town got a postmaster?
That'd be me.
You're first civilization we've seen since-
what can I do for you, trooper?
I, uh...
promised a friend his folks would get this.
I'll see to it.
He was a good man.
He always spoke well of his family.
Please take this.
Thank you kindly, ma'am.
Dearest mother and father,
I'm off on a fool's mission and cannot be certain of the outcome.
There's not time for me to write all the things I wish to tell you.
Many a time have I thought to abandon my charge
here rather than submit to the willfulness of others
who have been placed above me.
I want you to know that I've always tried to act
according to the lessons of duty and honor
that have been your legacy to me.
I've traveled far
and seen too much,
but always I think of home.
You are both in my prayers.
I remain forever your loving son, jacob.
-Can I help you, ma'am? -yes
We're looking for the person who sent this.
Robert?
He was your son?
Yes.
I'm sorry.
The man who gave you the letter-
did he tell you anything?
Only that your son was a good man
and he loved his family.
Thank you.
I want to see the place where it happened.
The battlefield's 2 days by wagon, ma'am.
That's perilous country.
The army can't vouch yet for its security,
and there's no telling where your son might lie.
We'll pay you anything you ask.
Please?
Keep your money.
Do you have any children?
I had a son.
A beautiful boy.
William.
A fever took him.
Life is very fragile.
Most of the things I ever loved have been taken from me.
Do you love your husband?
With all my heart.
Then always hold that love close to you.
Let it sustain you.
Like this.
I heard tell of a jacob wheeler.
Well, there are wheelers scattered all over this country.
They say that this one...
took off with a mountain man.
Married an indian woman.
Grandfather used to tell me stories about him.
What kind of stories?
About how he rode with fremont to california.
Struck it rich.
Well, if a man lives long enough,
he gets to hear the stories
and the legends folks tell about him.
I reckon I've lived that long.
Maybe too long.
I need some tobacco.
Find my son,
wakan tanka.
Take his hand and lead him on his journey across the hanging roaD.
Let his spirit
and the spirits of all these young men
who died before their time
shine like the stars in the sky.
There may we mothers find them and say, "
there.
That is my son."
Many long knives came to avenge the death of the man called custer.
Because they could not find crazy horse and sitting bull,
their anger fell on those already on the reservations.
The great council in washington
declared all indians to be prisoners of war.
The lakota, they said,
had broken the promise of the treaty paper.
The most sacred of sacred lands, the paha sapa,
promised forever to the lakota people,
now belonged to the white man,
and he would never give it back.
Loved by the buffalo had begun to see the truth
of growling bear's vision, and it pained his heart.
He felt the loss of the power of wakan tanka
and knew that the time was soon coming
to return to his people without having found the answers he had sought for so long.
Mr. Wheeler.
Captain pratt.
You remember.
Well, not likely to forget our last encounter.
"Exception to the rule" I believe you called me.
Not only that, I see, but a man of many skills.
Nah, this just keeps breath and bone together.
I come from a family of wheelwrights.
Your business prospers?
Ice storm killed most of the cattle last year.
Destroyed most of the wheat.
Drought finished off the rest.
Farmers who bought goods on credit,
they had nothing left to sell or barter.
Nature can be a stern taskmaster.
The whole idea of a general store's becoming obsolete.
Man can find everything he needs nowadays
in montgomery ward or sears and roebuck catalogues.
Everything but purpose, mr. Wheeler.
I guess.
Well, can I offer you a brandy and cigar, captain,
or do you abstain from ardent spirits?
I should, but I do not.
Thank you, mr. Wheeler.
I had occasion to observe your classroom today, mrs. Wheeler.
Your way with children is commendable.
Well, thank you.
The parents bring so many of their old ways and prejudices.
If you don't help the children early on,
they'll never adjust to their new lives.
My view precisely.
Thank you.
You mentioned a proposition.
Yes.
Indeed.
It is a great mistake
to think that the indian is born an inevitable savage.
He is born a blank like the rest of us.
Left in the surroundings of savagery,
one naturally becomes a savage.
But transfer the savage-born infant
to the surroundings of civilization,
and he will grow to possess a civilized language and habit.
President hayes and the congress
have granted me the use of barracks in
carlisle, pennsylvania, for a model indian school
and authorized me to recruit 125 children
from here and the territories for its inaugural class.
Well, that's so far away.
Surely the reservation is a better place.
The reservation works to colonize the indian,
not individualize him.
If the indian is to be assimilated,
he must be gotten into the swim of american citizenship.
He must feel the touch of it day after day
until he becomes saturated with the spirit of it.
Immerse the indian in the waters of civilization
and hold him there until he is thoroughly soaked.
In short, sirs, by being placed in good schools,
taught our language and industries and going out among our people,
your children can become useful americans.
You see yourselves the evidence
that this is now the white man's land,
and there's nothing left for you
and your children but to become a part of it all.
White man--smart.
He speak many promises.
More and more.
White man keep one.
He say he take our land.
Now he take our land.
And why was that land taken?
Because you can neither read nor write.
Because you are not educated.
These mountains, valleys, and streams have passed from you.
The people who take these mountains,
these valleys,
these streams-- they steal, they lie.
If you were all as smart as the white man,
you would've known that there was gold in the black hills
and led your people to dig it out.
You leave your affairs in the hands of the white man.
This is why you come to grief.
The white man will walk right over you
unless you get up and stand in front of him as his equal.
The way to do this is to get his education.
You see that I do not come with soldiers
to take your children from your very arms.
I believe there are wise men among you
who will themselves allow their fortunate sons and daughters
to partake in the white man's learning.
You believe that much in pratt's idea?
I believe in us.
I believe in what we can do together.
After all that's happened?
I want to stop dwelling in the past.
Everything I have that's precious is right here in this moment.
Fortitude, mrs. Wheeler.
Our task awaits.
Move 'em out!
I was telling yo I'll take that.
There.
You're gonna be all right.
Come on, boy.
Easy, child.
Don't make this more difficult.
Just scared.
Do you see these marks?
Each word is a white man's name.
You will choose one of these names for your own.
Begin, please.
Hirum.
Meredith.
Walter.
Carol.
George.
Abigail.
Come along, children.
Get your clothes.
Right this way.
Move.
For you.
Find a bed.
Keep moving.
Take these and put them on.
Move along.
Find a bed.
Get your clothes. Keep moving.
Move.
Move along.
Keep moving.
Go in that rooM.
Find a bed.
Get your clothes.
Go in that room.
Find a bed.
Stop that boy, mr. Wheeler!
Don't let him get away!
Come on now!
I got him!
This is to be expected of some of them.
An indian man only cuts his hair in times of great mourning.
But surely if it's their tradition-
- old habits must be unlearned.
The sooner the better.
Thank you, everyone.
Back to your duties.
Quickly now.
You, too, mr. Wheeler.
Mrs. Wheeler.
Is it right what we're doing?
It all made so much sense.
We have to give it more time, clara.
Captain pratt's a decent man.
He knows what he's doing.
compassionate to
The universe is made of circles.
No beginning and no end.
The cross touches the circle four times.
Yesterday, you were indians.
Today, you are americans.
Hereafter, you will not speak in your native tongue.
You will speak only english.
Our purpose here at the carlisle indian industrial school
is to make you ready to take a usefu place in the white man's world.
There are 4 directions, 4 virtues.
Remember, there is no shame in hard work.
In work, there is freedom.
Make the most of your time here.
You have no right to waste your own.
Still less, the time of others.
Each of us is born with one of thesE.
All of you must find the other three within you.
Dismissed.
My great grandfather
made and fixed wheels as he marched with washington.
George washington?
Potomac?
Cherry tree?
Uh, forget it.
Let me show you how a wheel's made.
- Hub. - Hub.
- Spokes. -Spokes.
All right?
- Wheel. - Wheel.
George, why don't you give it a try?
All right...
find "A."
Now "B."
Good.
Please, continue.
And "c?"
Go ahead, george, you were doing so well.
Outside.
Now you listen to me, young man-
unbutton your jacket.
Now!
He stole barbed wire from your shop and made these for other boys.
If we succeed, mr. Wheeler,
carlisle will be the model for dozens,
perhaps even hundreds of other indian schools
all over the country.
I believe that if we can turn george around,
we can turn around the most recalcitrant of them.
I agree.
I just wonder if a slower transition wouldn't be--
there is no time left for half measures.
To save the child, we must kill the indian,
fully and completely.
Very good.
Remember what you learned.
I cannot abide that man.
How can he be so right and so wrong at the same time?
Bite it.
bite it!
chiew.chiew!
Never speak indian again!
Never!
You get your spokes set, now attach your felloes, make your rim.
Where's george?
George?
"Lesson 24: The story teller.
"Peter parley was a great storyteller.
"This is known to all children who have read his bookS.
I thought they might be sick.
Are you sick, boy?
The younger boys were no doubt corrupted.
But george is a different matter.
With all due respect, captain,
don't you think you might be asking too much of these children?
Too much?
You demean them, mr. Wheeler.
We don't demand the germans, for instance,
become thoroughly american before we admit them to this country.
They arrive on our shores old and young,
and must become americans at once.
We don't feed our civilization to immigrants,
we feed immigrants to our civilization.
So let it be with the indian.
Give me the chance to bring george around.
I think I may have some currency with him.
Very well, mr. Wheeler.
I have come to the regrettable realization
that you no longer share my views on education,
but I'm willing to accede to your methods.
This once.
Captain pratt reminds me of my father.
He's an immovable wall.
I wonder that he may not be right in the end.
Will our child say that about you?
George.
You are welcome.
I know you can understand some of what I say...
and whatever you think,
captain pratt means well for your people.
No.
I'm a simple man...
but I know this:
Knowledge is power.
And if you don't study our ways,
how will your great grandchildren know the meaning of your holy wheel?
How will they know of your history?
Of your great victories?
We tell these things.
That's not enough, george.
See, because
what we call history is written by those who win the battles.
So you must make your voice heard.
You must preserve your culture.
You must write it down...
in english.
Not for pratt,
but for your children and their children...
why I do what you tell me?
White men say many things, mean nothing.
That is true of some white men...
and some indians, I expect.
You're a young man, george.
Believe me, I know the nature of a young man's dreams.
Don't stop dreaming.
But remember, when you wake up,
you're back in a white man's world.
You have dream?
I still got a few left.
Maybe it's not too late to make them happen.
And it is my considerable pleasure
on this signal occasion
to introduce our commencement theatrical,
colombia's roll call,
presented by the students of our own mrs. Clara wheeler.
A round of applause, please.
Are we the same voice, who, with trinkets and toys,
moccasins, blankets, and paint,
and a costume most quaint,
on the sixth of october,
the long journey over,
came to this friendly roof, six months ago?
Yes, we are the very same
who to these good barracks came,
where kindly friends a welcome gave us,
did all they could to teach and save us,
from idle habits and bad ways,
and carried us safely through the maze of reading,
writing, and of talking,
and even improved our walking.
Heralds of fame and history,
unroll your scroll of mystery,
then with your silver trumpets last,
unloose the shut gates of the past
and call colombia's heroes fourth,
proclaim them east, west, south, and north.
Then boomed the pinta's signal gun,
the first that ever broke,
the sleep of that new world,
the sound echoing to
forest depths profound, a continent awoke.
I see a train of exiles stand amid the desert desolate,
and the fathers of massachusetts land,
the daring pioneers of fate who braved the perils of sea and earth...
you've taken our rivers and mountains
and the plains where we loved to roam.
Banish us not to the mountains,
and the lonely wastes for home,
our clans that were strongest and bravest are broken
and powerless through you.
Let us join the great tribe of white men
as brothers to dare and to do.
And still the ways of peace we would follow,
sow the seed and the sheaves gather in.
Share your labor, your learning, your worship,
a life larger, better, to win,
then foeman no longer nor aliens,
but brothers indeed we will be.
And the sun find no citizens truer,
as he rolls to the uttermost sea.
You disappoint me, mr. Wheeler.
Comes from my trying to please people too much.
But a man's gotta stand for something,
or he doesn't count for much.
And what do you stand for, mr. Wheeler?
Do you even know yourself?
I do...now, sir.
It's time for me to go home...
where I can do some good...
my own way.