Loved by the Buffalo had travelled 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 will be rendered forever after impossible.
There will be no fulcrum
for the lever of treason to rest upon."
Thomas, Jackson, stop shirking and set that wheel on the bench.
It's gonna take ten years to finish the line. I'd sure like to ride it one day,
one train from Atlantic to Pacific.
Maybe they'll finish it, maybe they won't.
There's money to be made, and I intend to see our family gets its share.
I want to see 20 wheels on that wall by sundown.
Come on, Pop, you're talking 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 can't turn our backs
on someone looking for our help. Not after what she's been through.
Think if it was one of us.
Charity always costs those who give it.
So you'd bear that burden upon yourself, I take it? Be responsible for her?
- I will. - Then 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?
Clara is our guest, Lilly. We're 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 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 be in my room. - Thank you.
Get going! I'll come for you when it's over.
Go on! Git! Go on!
Papa, no!
Clara, Clara. Clara, Clara!
It's OK. You're OK. You're OK.
What's wrong with her?
You're OK. You're safe here.
As governor of California,
OUTSIDE SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA MARCH, 1864
I am proud to welcome you to this 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.
Can you imagine, Margaret?
We can have breakfast in San Francisco, supper in Carson City,
all the way to the Mississippi in just three 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!
Two, one, finally.
You have gone to the city
and it has taken from you the ways of our people.
What are you saying, my darling?
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, do you mean it?
Absolutely. It's what we've always said we'd do.
We could catch the next stage to Denver.
Really?
You are brilliant, you know that?
And exquisitely beautiful.
Truly one of the most wonderful women I've ever known.
And there have been so many, my love.
Ethan! I love you too.
My daughter Margaret and her husband Ethan were not alone in their wandering.
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILHEAD SIERRA NEVADAS
Abe joined the jobless men who threw their lot in
with the Central Pacific on its thousand 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 looked at the offering you've brought me.
Now we're trying to keep the grade level. This won't do.
You'll have to clean it up.
That's your job.
Fight!
Get him!
Damned 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 they were gentlemen.
They're as near brutes as they get.
Most of these micks will head 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
How'd this happen?
- Good God. - What happened?
- How'd this happen? - That's not right.
Look ye upon this outrage to all civilised 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 Fighting Parson.
Whupped greycoats at Glorieta Pass,
and he's gonna give these redskins a hiding!
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!
And there will be no order as long as a single savage
is allowed to occupy one sacred inch of our precious soil.
Now, there is hope.
Governor Evans has authorised me to muster a new regiment
- for our self-defence. - Yeah.
Now,
who of you...
...will join me in this righteous enterprise?
Grisly business, that.
Why must you insist on making a record of it?
It's what we do.
Sorry. I just wasn't thinking.
Hell of a price to pay for some mangy cows.
Well, they say old man Hungate
was out looking for strays when they butchered him.
Yes. Thank you. If you could keep quiet.
Beggin'your pardon, ma'am.
You just leave everything to Colonel Chivington.
When he wants to get something done, you bet it gets did.
Indians!
Driver! What in blazes?
No! No, don't kill him!
No!
Don't kill him!
You are Lakota?
Yes.
This man is my husband.
I am Wookis-ehe-ne of the Cheyenne.
The white man calls me Roman Nose.
This man is my husband.
He has great power.
You lie.
You lie!
No. He has taught me to copy faces.
If you let us live I will show you.
- Ethan! - I love you.
Take them to Black Kettle.
I don't understand. What are they doing?
I think they are taking us to their camp.
I won't let anything happen to us.
BLACK KETTLE'S CAMP, SAND CREEK, COLORADO
They are treating us as honoured guests, not captives.
Yes. 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.
- Camera. - Camera.
Camera.
The white man's words, they have no...
...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.
Walking on the white man's road as you have done,
it is difficult.
The spirit... does not know where to rest.
Sometimes I...
I feel a hole in my heart.
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 left scattered.
They will keep coming.
They are building a railroad.
It will carry them from one ocean to another.
Have them over there.
If you could just... There.
That's perfect.
It's all right.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Your raids must stop.
We have made a promise of peace.
I did not sign the soldiers' paper.
You will only do harm to your own people.
The Dog Soldiers will never tear at the ground like farmers.
That is not man's work.
She says...
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
Assembly!
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 SEPTEMBER 28, 1864
- Dirty Indians! - Boy, stop that!
We have been travelling
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 Col. 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.
War among the whites is nearly through.
The Great Father will have nothing 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.
By their rebellion, they seek to help
the greycoat 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 received this medal,
I have been proud
to call all white men brothers.
Whatever peace you make
must be with the soldiers, not with me.
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 Fort Lyon will see to all your needs.
What is he saying?
Does he understand that we are for peace?
Please, everybody, look this way.
That's no captive. She's one of them.
Black Kettle, it is an honour for me to present to you
- the flag of the United States. - Everyone, very still.
With all due respect, gentlemen,
the 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.
- Riders coming in! - The gate!
Major!
See that these men are fed and given a place to rest.
We march on the hostiles at Sand Creek tonight.
But I've heard of no new provocations, sir.
Don't you know the Cheyenne nation is guilty
of robbery, arson, murder, rape and fiendish torture?
Not sparing women and children.
I feel it is right to use any means under God's heaven
- to end these outrages. - Including murder, colonel?
- First Sergeant Ode! - Sir!
Post a ring of pickets around the perimeter of this post.
Any man trying to leave will be shot. Understood?
Yes, sir!
Damn any man in sympathy with the Indian.
Well, 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 you for the kindness you have shown us.
You go in peace, my granddaughter.
May one day your heart will be full again.
Thank you.
SAND CREEK VILLAGE NOVEMBER 29, 1864
Off with your overcoats, men.
You'll fight better without'em.
Remember the Hungates.
You look back on the plains of the Platte,
where your mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters were slain,
- their blood saturating the sands. - Yeah!
Take no prisoners.
Kill 'em all. Scalp'em all.
That's right. Every last one!
Soldiers.
Margaret! Listen to me.
Take this and fasten it to the top of the flag as quickly as you can.
The soldiers will see!
Wait!
Stop! Stop!
Stop!
Soldiers! Hurry!
Nothing lives long except the earth and the mountains...
Remember the Hungates!
No! No! No!
No, don't shoot. No, don't shoot.
Ethan!
Ethan! Ethan!
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
Two rails every 30 seconds, one on each side.
Four rails to the minute.
Three strokes per spike, ten spikes per rail.
Four hundred rails to the mile.
It's 1,800 miles to San Francisco.
Twenty-one million times they got to swing those hammers.
Listen to that sound.
That's money. Money.
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. Get my meaning?
Sure doesn't look like much.
Not now.
There's gonna be thousands of boomers coming to the North Platte from Omaha.
Men with nothing to do once winter sets in.
Right here. Right here is where we're going
to 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 is to see to business here.
You and Lilly, you look after Ma.
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.
Two staves.
Supposed to be three.
Father is Father. He is who he is.
There's no use trying to change him.
Family's family. You know what it's like...
They were taken from me.
Out here we can make our own way in life.
Robert, some of us haven't got a choice.
We've all of us got a choice.
First Wheelers came out here, it was all wild country.
Grandpa's cousin Jacob? He was the first to come out.
You should hear our stories about him.
They tamed so much of it.
I figure the railroad will tame what's left.
There isn't going to be much of a West once it's finished.
I guess I just want to see it before it goes. That's all.
Let me see it with you.
You're all I have left.
You are my only family.
Father's gonna have himself a proper fit.
- Then you'll help me? - I... can't make promises.
I'm going to take two mallets.
Dog Star had once believed the white men would some day 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 hot wind.
Many passed through the sacred ground,
where the hoop of the world bent to the four directions,
seeking the yellow stone that made them crazy.
Dog Star had heard how the Long Knives
repaid Black Kettle's promise of peace.
He feared that a similar fate awaited his people.
Some 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.
Whose voice was first sounded on this land?
Ours.
I did not ask for or want
what happened to this land.
I have a small piece of land left
and I don't want the white man to make an Iron Road through it.
As long as I live
I'm going to keep this land.
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 it straight, lads.
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. Movie. Movie. Quickie. Quickie.
Come on, lads. 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 never had a Celestial before.
Might like to try me one.
Abe Wheeler.
Chow-Ping.
What bad luck brings you here, Chow-Ping?
Before here, Gam San. Gold Mountain.
Fan gway steal claim.
Gold not for Chinese, he say.
"Fan gway"?
White ghost. Demon.
Fan gway stand, talk, tell us what to do.
Call us "coolies." Chinese like Indian.
Fan gway hit, steal, cheat.
Come on, lads. Break your backs. Keep 'em straight.
Incline's 75 degrees. That face is straight up.
We got to clear a shelf three 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?
Well, I'll be.
There's one thing the Chinese know something about, it's gunpowder.
Ready!
Chow-Ping!
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 joined 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.
I have tested the Long Knives.
It is easy to trick them.
Their officers are easily angered.
It makes them stupid.
If we attack them,
the soldiers will protect the supply train.
We will wait for them
on the other side of the ridge.
From each clan...
...two young men will be chosen...
and they will bring the Long Knives
into this ravine.
I want to be one of them.
My son, Red Lance, wants to count his first coup.
Crazy Horse will lead you all.
When I was thirteen years old
I took my first horse.
Tomorrow you too will become a man.
I will take many scalps.
This is no boy's game.
If you want to kill white men...
...you must think like them.
You must not hurry.
You must be patient.
Captain! The supply train is being fired upon.
Quickly!
Support the supply train, Captain Fetterman.
Relieve it and report back.
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. Come on!
Godspeed, captain.
Company, halt!
That's Lodge Trail Ridge, Captain Fetterman.
What's he doing?
Please.
You will not take his scalp.
This warrior fought bravely.
We will honour him.
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 got 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 go 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.
Nothin' steady after that.
Why you stay now?
Never been a part of something like this.
Something permanent.
I think maybe I'll see it through, just this once.
Or 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 boomtown.
Carnivorous swarms followed the railroad workers every step of the way,
devouring their weekly pay faster than grasshoppers.
Jackson!
- Jackson! - Coming, Pa!
- Sure is flush times. - Hell on wheels.
Should've seen the place before we civilised it.
I don't mind telling you, Wheeler,
that 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 sold it to other speculators at five 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.
Your 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?
You, sir, are a rank opportunist.
Welcome to North Platte, sir.
King of the Plains Emporium is the place. Best tables, best liquor.
The best-Iooking women too. Let me get that.
Here you go.
Give us this day our daily strangers.
- Hey. - I have your britches ready.
All right.
Gonna get that wheel fixed, son.
- You'd never know they were ripped. - Five cents, please.
Almost forgot.
Those are getting pretty worn. You ought to let me make you a new pair.
- You'd do that? - Yeah.
- Like that. - I'll have to measure you.
OK.
Step right up.
Raise your arms out like this.
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. Especially with that girl.
"That girl" has a name, Father.
It's Clara. About time you got used to saying it!
These miscreants will not trouble your establishment again.
What about my money, colonel?
Are you going to make good these men's debts?
Good day, sir.
You all come back now, Yankee!
Soldiering in the West was a lonely, miserable affair.
Some men deserted outright.
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 scoutin' to killin'.
I don't reckon this display
will help morale any.
The men's morale will improve when they've been given Indians to fight.
For that, gentlemen, I have relied upon your good offices,
to no avail, it seems.
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 7h 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 will be sufficient.
We're through.
Donovan! We're through!
They've done it! They've bloody done it!
It's not possible!
They built the Great Wall of China, didn't they?
You should be proud of yourselves.
Let's see the Union Pacific try to beat us now!
Step aside, ladies!
We did that.
Eastward, men! Eastward to victory!
We did it, boys!
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 is 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 will 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 have prepared peace papers.
We ask that your chiefs and head men hold their councils
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 two hearts.
NORTH PLATTE
I got it. Here, load this one.
What am I paying you for? Get to work!
Get to work! Move this 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 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,
do it in one of our establishments...
- Stop it! - I got women could teach that slut...
- I said shut your mouth! - Robert! Stop!
- Robert. Stop. Please. - 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".
Better angels, huh?
"Better angels of our nature."
That's what Mr Lincoln called them.
Got a spot over there!
That's mine!
How could a country so beautiful make men so cruel?
And so the towns came and went,
CHEYENNE, WYOMING TERRITORY MAY, 1868
Julesburg, Sidney, Potter, Kimball, Archer.
At every stop the empire 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? My, is that how you see me?
No! I was just...
Look, all I meant to say was
it's nice to see some refinement in a place such as this.
Thank you.
Well, 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 travelling
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, I know.
Not nearly bold enough, Robert Wheeler.
HUMBOLDT 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-Ioving Union Pacific makes four.
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. - What did you say?
- Can't or won't? - No disrespect meant, sir.
We're gonna finish this railroad together, or we're not gonna finish it!
Give the men a day of 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 TERRITORY AUGUST, 1868
After two years, the Long Knives abandoned their forts
and signed a treaty
that gave the sacred lands back to the Lakota.
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 more 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.
Soldiers!
- Soldiers! All around us! - See to the women.
Save as many as you can.
We're living in the nightmare. May we meet again.
Colonel wants to see you.
Give me that coat! Now!
Get moving!
Go on!
Margaret?
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 that 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.
I'm taking you away from here.
That's the one!
You tell the lieutenant to mind his privates.
This one's a wildcat.
No! Take me back!
Stop fighting! Ain't nothing gonna happen.
You're nothing but a murderer just like the rest of them!
Listen to me! Listen to me!
I'm gonna march you through that gate.
There's a pony waiting at the corral.
Get on it. You gonna ride clear of here.
- No! I won't! - No!
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 and my children.
And my brothers.
- I won't leave them. - You ain't talking 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.
Lyohmeahwe 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 that for me, Jacob?
You tell them these things, Jacob.
The lines will meet at Promontory Summit.
Utah's Mormon country.
But they say Brother Brigham appreciates the worth of a gentile dollar.
They drive that last spike, our real opportunities begin.
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 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.
- Clara. - Yeah.
She makes people nice things.
Taking advantage of their weakness doesn't seem much of a business to me.
Different times call for different methods.
That's progress. I suppose I don't want much part of it.
You'd better think hard on your future, boy.
You boys earned it. I'll fill it for you.
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 celebrate here today.
Bless this majestic road and all those who ride upon it.
- May they and their business prosper... - Amen!
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.
Let's get the real railroad men on here!
All right. Time for a photograph.
All you micks back 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.
Hold still now.