Plot Synopsis

Based on the book by Dee Brown. Charles Eastman, nee Ohiyesa, a young, Dartmouth-educated, Sioux doctor who, with the help of a patrician school teacher, work to improve life for the Sioux on the reservation and is held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation. He implores Senator Henry Dawes to lobby President Grant for more humane treatment of his people as General Sherman presses for war especially against Sitting Bull, the proud Lakota chief who refuses to submit to government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, their dignity and their sacred Dakota land. Hope rises for the Sioux in the form of the prophet Wovoka and the Ghost Dance-- a messianic movement that promises an end of their suffering under the white man. This hope is all but obliterated after the killing of Sitting Bull and the massacre of hundreds of Lakota men, women and children by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek on Dec. 29, 1890.