The Wild West: Indians & Soldiers

Narrated by Jack Lemmon

The West's original inhabitants saw ominous shadows fall across their ancestral lands: shadows of towns, iron horses, telegraph poles.  The equestrian Great Plains tribes and the pueblo-builders of the Southwest became caught in winds of change.  Reacting to a trail of broken treaties and outright treachery, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Red Cloud and other legendary chiefs had no choice but to take a stand in defense of their people.

Soldiers were tough men in a tough life marked by brutal conditions, boredom and deadly running battles with skilled foes.  Their numbers: 25,000.  Their members: Yankees and Johnny Rebs, ex-slaves and immigrants.  Their duty: protect the well-being and property of settlers, ranchers, miners and more.  They were the U.S. Army, the indispensible vanguard of a government intent on uniting a young nation across an entire continent.