Loved by the buffalo could not change growling bear's vision.
Now he sought to understand it.
New prophets came with new visions.
Loved by the buffalo listened in hope.
Messiah. Messiah.
My children...
brothers from all the nations...
you listen now.
I have been to the white man's heaven.
I have seen the white man's god.
And he say to me, one day a great spirit will come,
bring back the buffalo,
and all dead indians will come back and live again.
When this day comes, there will be no more sickness.
All indians will be strong like young men.
Be young again.
White people cannot hurt indians then.
Do not tell the white people this.
Follow my words.
Go back to your people.
Tell them to love one another.
Do not fight.
Do not steal.
Do not lie.
God showed me a dance
a dance to take to my people.
Go home.
Make this dance.
All indians dancing.
Good times will come.
10 years had passed since robert and clara had left pennsylvania.
Robert had seen the land's promise turn bitter,
but he was determined to carry on the best way he knew how.
Yeah, the burial scaffolds are outlawed now.
Lot of things have changed since they split up the reservation last year.
Now you've got pockets of white settlers all over.
I imagined it so differently.
10 years is a long time, george.
Whoa! Hup!
Stand aside, please.
You give something.
These rations are property of the U.S. Government.
I'm just the man who delivers them.
Government have no stomach.
You're going to have to get your rations from agent royer.
Royer.
I'm sorry for your plight,
but there's nothing I can do.
Now please stand aside.
When your children cry for food,
you will do nothing?
Do you people want your rations or not?
Pay attention.
Next.
No distribution till the line is straight.
Can't you people understand what straight means?
Next.
What's the news, wheeler?
Well, you're the reporters.
You tell me.
Looks like he's got nothing for us...
as usual.
Well, I'm sorry to disappoint your readers.
You'd think with all the hauling you do
between here and standing rock you'd see at least one young buck on the warpath.
You know, you boys could stand to get out of the agency for a spell.
Why don't you talk to george?
He just arrived here on the overnight out of new york city.
I'm sure he'd be happy to share his impressions.
Next.
Royer around?
You know he never shows his face on issue day.
Next.
Only coffee, flour, and blanket this month.
No meat?
No meat, no sugar. Flour, coffee, blanket.
Next.
Want bacon.
Children very sick. Need food.
Bacon is meat.
Next.
Ingrates.
You holding back on us here, wheeler?
Why I want to talk to royer.
A little business matter.
Next.
No long hair.
No more than one wife.
No heathenish ways.
No old religion.
No drinking.
No language but english.
If you can accept these things,
then step over there and pick up your uniforms.
Indian police are doing well.
Well, can't blame 'em for wanting something better, I suppose.
Things took a bad turn back in '88.
Crops failed two years running.
And the indians weren't the only ones who suffered.
We were damn near wiped out.
But clara, the boy, and me, we saw ourselves through.
She can't wait to see you.
"To see a world in a grain of sand, "
and heaven in a wild flower, "
hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. "
Isn't that a wonderful thought?
To see a world in a grain of sand.
How many times do we look without seeing?
Poetry teaches us to see things in a different way.
There's no reason to be afraid of it.
Who wants to try?
Read among yourselves. Quietly.
Quite a dapper eastern gentleman you've become.
Yeah. It's good to see you, miss clara.
Don't be so formal.
It's just plain clara now.
Yes, ma'am.
I believe I'll let you two get reacquainted.
I've got some business with royer.
Come meet my pupils.
Class, I want you to meet george voices that carry.
George was a student of mine a long time ago.
He used to live here in pine ridge.
Now he's come back, I hope to teach.
No, not to teach.
To learn.
I have lived among the white men for many years,
but I am still lakota...
like you,
and there is much to learn from our people.
Congress sets the policy, mr. Wheeler.
I'm merely charged with carrying out its intent.
The beef allotment to this agency has been reduced by one million pounds.
Washington takes its census numbers quite seriously.
Well, it seems pretty damn short-sighted, if you ask me.
And what about this bill of lading?
Couldn't bring myself to refuse 'em.
They were starving.
I'll pay for the lost goods in full.
Your charity only exacerbates a difficult situation, mr. Wheeler.
You may want to have a look at this.
My colleague at standing rock, mr. Mclaughlin,
informs me that rumors of an indian messiah are spreading like wildfire.
He reassures me it is only a minor annoyance,
but I have my doubts.
Well, no telling where desperate people will find hope.
I can only do so much, mr. Wheeler.
More than that I am not allowed.
These people are suspicious of any changes.
Your predecessor colonel gallagher was a hard man, but fair.
They'd come to respect him.
Be that as it may, the new administration has selected me to see to its affairs.
Well, maybe when you've been here a little longer-
- as you say.
Is there anything else you wish to discuss?
No.
No, I figure we're through.
I'll say good day then.
Let's go, people.
Keep it moving.
I'm looking for red lance,
son of white crow,
grandson of running fox.
Little brother, look at you.
Did they drink your blood, turn you into a wasichu?
The wasichu did not defeat us.
It was the wind and the snow of our grandmother's land that was our enemy.
And our father and grandfather?
I'm sorry, brother, truly.
Sitting bull was the last to give up his rifle and horse.
The long knives, they promised us land,
but they lied.
They made us prisoners.
All of you?
Two years the soldiers watched over our tipis,
and then long hair came and took us.
Buffalo bill.
He said he would pay us to be indians.
He showed us how to make faces and shake our tomahawks around.
I've come to stay, brother.
This is good.
Red cloud could stop this nonsense with a word,
but the old codger says it's nothing to do with him.
As I understand the dogma, sir,
it shares many of our own christian principles.
A harmless version of their outlawed sun dance.
Looks more like a war dance to me.
And you, mr. Wheeler, do you consider this demonstration harmless?
Well, this ought to be interesting, boys.
I don't see any call for that.
I'll thank you to stay out of government business, mr. Wheeler.
This obscene display will cease immediately!
This prayer.
White people pray, go heaven.
We go heaven, too.
You will stop dancing and disperse!
Get outta my way.
Take this down, mr. Duffy.
Make it fast, Lang.
To the editor, new york herald.
Uh, "the long-awaited violence here finally exploded today-
" "exploded. " I like that.
"When a band of armed hostiles confronted the government's agent.
"Against impossible odds, "
agent royer acquitted himself without bloodshed "
and brought a well-deserved end "to the...
pagan spectacle known as the ghost dance.
"It is common knowledge in these parts "
that the sioux never dance this...
foul dance except for one purpose:
And that is war
You must be jedediah.
You're... you're him.
I reckon I am.
Welcome.
When a man gets to a certain age,
he wants to be close to those folks that mean something to him.
What family we have left is...
they're still in these parts.
But it has all changed so much.
Makes you wonder what it's gonna be like 100 years from now.
Bigger and faster.
Better, I suppose.
Don't know about better.
Sir...
do I look anything like jedediah smith?
There's only one jedediah smith, son.
But...
let's have a look-see here.
Well, if you-
- you put on a few pounds and a few score years, and...
rounded it off with a beard, I'd say...
nope.
Nothing like him.
I often dream of margaret light shines.
And you've had no word of her?
No.
Not a day goes by that I don't wish I could see my children again.
Is she's on the reservation, robert will find her.
You can count on it.
Closer together now, fellas.
That's it.
All you bucks, give me a-
- a ferocious look.
" That's good.
All right now.
Uh... sergeant,
take the rifle off the chief and-
- and hold it up.
A little higher.
There it is!
Hold still now.
"Intrepid pine ridge police sergeants "
old coyote and yellow earring "
apprehend renegade hostiles on the warpath with custer's own rifles.
" Yeah, that's good.
1...
2...
3!
Huh?
That was perfect.
Drink up, gentlemen.
Thank you so much.
They are gonna eat this up in new york.
You got permission for that?
I got permission.
Ask royer.
You might have seen her yourself.
I don't keep track of faces.
You let the fire go out.
Didn't notice.
What good are all these white man's books
if you don't know when you're cold?
It's not that cold.
You, uh...
read all these books?
There's much to learn from them.
What good is this knowledge?
You have many questions, red lance,
but you have no desire to hear my answers.
And you do not wish to learn.
I've told you.
The ghost dance is only superstition.
Spirits can't help our people.
Only we can do that for ourselves.
You do not have ears.
You will not listen.
Cotton will not stop a lead bullet no matter what kicking bear says.
To say "believe" or "do not believe,"
this is the white man's way.
This pernicious item, gentlemen, is known as a ghost shirt.
Among its many powers, it is alleged to stop bullets.
So let us not deny further that trouble is imminent.
Every one of these hostiles is prepared to use violence.
I've been among them before.
Question is: What are you going to do about it?
We can do nothing until the interior department
and the war department provide explicit instructions.
Until then, we must all wait
and be on our guard at the first sign of outbreak.
If you just leave it alone,
and likely as not,
the whole craze will just die out on its own.
Mr. Mclaughlin at standing rock
believes that as long as a single malcontent
like sitting bull remains at large, that we cannot be secure.
And I concur.
If you lock up the ringleaders-
- then you're gonna have a real problem on your hands...
not just in your imagination.
Is this a ghost shirt?
Ghost shirt, savvy?
Ghost shirt.
What will you take for it?
You... and me.
We make trade.
Trade.
That's right.
You want my camera.
What's a squaw know about taking pictures.
I'll tell you what.
I'll give you...
two american dollars.
No can do.
It's not for sale.
Hey, another camera's easy to come by.
Where in the hell else are you gonna find another ghost shirt?
Lady, you got yourself a deal.
How about that?
That's nice. Real nice.
And bulletproof.
Better not try it.
Needs mending.
We best see to it.
Look at that.
I'll be doggoned.
I'm gonna go back to the barn
and get some extra wire and tools and whatnot,
and we'll... we'll fix her.
They busted in.
Won't they just bust out again?
No, I don't think so.
Well, why not?
Maybe because this is the land they remember.
Father.
It makes my heart glad to see you with these children.
You are a good mother to them.
As you were to me.
My wandering must have caused you great worry and pain.
Forgive me.
You were always our family's seeker.
But the road you have chosen has not been easy.
There were so many times
when I thought it was impossible to go on.
But I remembered your strength,
how you carried on even after we thought father had died.
That was the greatest gift you gave to me.
You helped me to endure.
To live.
When you're ready, you look through here,
then you press this button.
I'm happy you still take pictures.
I didn'T...
after sand creek.
But it is all different now.
"When in disgrace "
with fortune in men's eyes,
"I all alone be weep my outcast state, "
and trouble deaf heaven "with my bootless cries,
desiring this man's art, and that man's scope.
What do you say now, mr. Wheeler?
Do you still think this craze,
as you call it, is dying out?
Well, I have put up with quite enough of this lunacy,
and I intend to do something about it.
Duffy, take this down.
To the commissioner of indian affairs in washington,
wild indians are dancing, and cannot be induced to stop.
The ghost dance has now assumed such proportions,
both in the number, and the spirit of the adherents,
that it is entirely beyond the control of the agent and the police force,
who are openly defied by the dancers.
The employees and the government property of this agency
has no protection,
and we are at the mercy of these dancers.
We need protection, and we need it now.
This agent suggests sending a body of troops sufficient
to arrest the leaders therein,
and imprison them, and disarm the balance of the reservation.
Nothing short of a thousand troops,
backed by the proper artillery,
will stop the proliferation of this diabolical dance.
God bless ya, boys!
weapons up!
About face!
March!
Colonel forsyth, we are friends of the agent.
We are friends of the soldiers.
The great father's friends are my friends, too.
I want not any trouble for my people.
We have no guns to fight with.
We have nothing to eat.
We are too poor to do anything.
You're not too poor to dance your ghost dance.
Many say I have been to this dance.
That is not right.
My eyes are sore.
They do not see very well.
But, when they better, I go and see.
We do not ask you to see it, we ask you to stop it.
When winter comes, dancing stops.
There will be no problems.
Many of your people have taken to the badlands.
If they do not return,
we'll have no choice but to consider them hostile.
They think the soldiers have come to kill us.
I not believe this,
but they are afraid for their families.
You understand.
And the warriors with them?
What's to keep them from joining up with kicking bear, or the other renegades?
That is all I have to say about this question.
"The belligerent old scalp-taker "
harangued his listeners with a brazen speech
"in which imminent hostilities were threatened.
"The army can do nothing until the murdering redskins have broken out,
"and the young bucks have burned a dozen ranches,
and slaughtered a score of women and children-
- " general miles' orders are quite specific.
To offer protection, and maintain control and discipline.
So we're all just expected to sit here?
In the meantime,
you are directed not to force any issue that might result in an outbreak.
Discretion, mr. Royer.
If you and the other civilian authorities had demonstrated as much,
the seventh would not be here now to enforce order.
What's going on?
Word is sitting bull's headed this way to join the renegades in the badlands.
We'll be ready for him.
I caution you against any supply trips
through standing rock in the next few days, mr. Wheeler.
Why is that?
General miles has authorized sitting bull's arrest.
Wouldn't it be better to wait till ration day?
The fewer of his people around, less cause there'll be for a disagreement.
Sitting bull's actions require his immediate apprehension.
Well, could be just rumor.
Whatever the people of the press are telling you.
I provide you this information with regard to your own safety, mr. Wheeler.
What you wish to do with it is not my concern.
Take it.
I can'T.
You are false to your people if you do not wear the ghost shirt.
This way is the way to death, red lance.
Maybe we can find our own road.
Maybe we can find our own destiny again.
What are you doing?
You have too many wasichu ways.
You even think like a wasichu!
You play the savage for money, red lance!
Not me!
Indian police.
You are my prisoner.
You must go into the agency.
Coming through!
Keep moving!
Sitting bull is under arrest.
Do not take him!
keep moving
Come with us.
White hair mclaughlin only wants to talk with you.
Don't listen to these troublemakers.
move it to the right a little more.
Apart from a few minor skirmishes,
most of the fugitives have been persuaded to return peaceably.
Hunger can be a powerful inducement to surrender.
We've still got thousands holed up in the badlands,
and no telling how many of sitting bull's people racing to meet them.
Our principal concern is chief big foot.
Abandoned his camp on the cheyenne river several days ago.
Lieutenant colonel sumner intercepted him,
and demanded his immediate return.
Big foot promised to do so,
but during the night, he slipped away.
Where is he now?
We think he intends to join the rebels in a badland stronghold.
I await word from our scouting parties.
A very merry christmas indeed.
He's wanted for the murder of an indian policeman.
You don't know the circumstances.
Clara, the circumstances don't matter.
If they catch him, they'll shoot him.
Surely, you're exaggerating.
Have you seen what these so-called reporters are writing?
"The murderous redskins are now
whetting their knives
in anticipation of the moment when they begin their bloody work.
" Anybody with eyes in their head can see the agency's peaceful.
If george did kill somebody,
he did it with provocation.
We'll say a prayer for him.
He has the protection of tatanka.
That is enough.
I'm not who I once was, grandfather.
None of us are who we were.
It is enough that you have returned to your people.
I, uh...
I killed a man.
Not a wasichu.
Another lakota.
I saw a darkness inside of you.
Now I understand.
I've lost my center.
The world has lost its center.
You ready for your christmas present?
Huh?
Halt!
I won't parley with you.
It's either unconditional surrender or fight.
What is your answer?
No fight.
Where were you headed?
Pine ridge.
Make peace.
You lied to our troops once before.
Why should we believe you now?
No lie.
I'm glad to find you peaceable.
You and your people will follow us back to our camp.
We'll provide blankets, rations.
I'll, uh, have an ambulance sent forward.
You'll ride more comfortably.
I guess I'm sick today.
How far is the camp?
5 miles.
The creek called wounded knee.
You can't feed 400 hundred people on this
your job is to deliver the required rations to wounded knee, mr. Wheeler,
not to question the order.
I'm... I'm not questioning it.
I'm just saying.
Don't fail to bring back your keen eyewitness observations.
Why don't you climb aboard and see for yourself?
Uh, thanks, wheeler, but, uh, I'm forced to remain in the thick of activity.
You style yourselves "war correspondents,"
but the only fighting you've seen is at the bar at the
hillsgate hotel where you lubricate your vivid imaginations.
Hyah!
Pine ridge, south dakota.
Sunday, december 28th.
The indian war here has collapsed.
Chief big foot's defeated hostiles rest fewer than 30 miles from this agency,
apprehended by the gallant men of the famed 7th cavalry.
The chief's surrender is all but certain to flush out those bands of renegades which
for too long have held this agency and its
surrounding settlements in a virtual state of siege.
All civilized people here await big foot's return
and give thanks in this time of peace that the indian troubles are
about to be brought to a close without further sacrifice of life.
Robert: Here you go.
This is for big foot.
Somethin' else to keep you warm.
Army regulation wool underwear.
This good medicine.
The best.
Here, take a pair for yourself.
Go on, take 'em.
He cannot hear.
They say some of sitting bull's people are here with you.
I'm lookin' for a friend of mine.
He's young, speaks english.
His name's voices that carry.
Voices that carry: I cannot go back with you.
I don't understand.
I thought it was possible to bridge the indian's world and the white man's world.
You are that bridge, george.
No.
When I was back east, people looked at me as an educated indian.
Something different.
A curiosity.
I see that now.
I lived among the white men, but I never belonged.
And you belong here?
I belong nowhere...
this is what I've learned.
This has been my real education.
I am grateful to you for everything you've done for me, my friend.
George.
Good-bye.
The colonel wants your men to fetch yourselves up to big foot's tent.
Parley.
You savvy?
Come on, get!
Parley!
Before taking your people to pine ridge,
we must ask that you surrender any arms in your possession.
Those with guns or rifles may now step forward
one by one and lay down their weapons.
Who else?
Surely this cannot be all of them.
No more guns.
Have I not put you in an ambulance and have my doctor look after you?
Did I not put you in a good tent with a stove to make you warm and comfortable?
Did I not feed your people?
Yet now, big foot repays my kindness with lying?
No more guns.
Very well.
Sergeant!
Sir.
You and your men search the village tipi by tipi.
Troop!
Detail!
Let me in.
Tell that man to sit down!
When circle finish, he sit down.
Where is the rest?
That's the lot of it, sir.
I was led to believe this band was better armed.
You.
Get up.
Damn it.
Can't you see?He's deaf!
Let go!
Nooo!
Fire!
What should we do, sir?!
Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation.
What is she saying?
She said they told her if she put on the dress
the bullets would not go through.
Why would anyone shoot women and children?
Robert!
Is he gonna be all right?
Looks like a bad shrapnel wound.
He'll pull through it, but I can't speak for the leg.
Here.
Keep that tight.
You're all to return to your homes immediately and stay there.
Until the situation at wounded knee and the badlands is fully resolved,
this agency is under martial law.
Anyone violating the curfew or found holding a meeting will be arrested on site.
Can you tell us what happened out there?
Well, reports from the field are still coming in, but
as best as I can ascertain, the indians fired first.
What the hell you think you're doin'?
Them's worth 2 bucks apiece.
Back off now, you hear me, chief?
Leave him alone!
Can't you see?He's a holy man performing a death rite!
That day, I saw growling bear's vision come to pass.
My heart was sad, but our people still live.
We live, and so we have hope.
Well, that's the story as is.
I know how to tell it.
Now somebody else might tell it a little differently.
You see, the only history a man knows for
certain is that small part he owns for himself.
You can't forget we're all part of the same wheel
the hubs and the spokes and the felloes.
You break one
and you break the wheel.
When you tell your stories,
you touch your grandmothers and grandfathers.
And all the ancestors who walk before them.
And when others ask you where you know these things,
tell them...
Loved by the buffalo was spared so I can tell you this story.
I want you to remember these stories, jedediah.
So when your time comes, you can pass 'em on.
Hmm?
It's important for people to know where they came from
and what others have been through.
I always told my children, I said,
"you are one part virginia and one part lakota.
Be proud of both.
Now this story belongs to you.