The Way West: Part I
- Episode aired May 8, 1995
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
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A history of the western expansion and western Indian tribes...but mostly the Lakota.
Despite IMDb listing this series as having two parts, EACH of the two DVDs for the series are broken into two parts--making four overall. So, this review is specifically for parts one and two and my next review is for parts three and four.
The westward migration into the West begins. I was VERY surprised that only in the first 16 minutes, the film VERY briefly mentioned the Mormons settling in Utah, the Mexican War and new territories gained by it and the discovery of Gold in California. All this seemed like a butt-load of material and it was breezed through very quickly. Much of the episodes concerned the Plains tribes but what about all the other tribes between the Appalachians and the Plains or between the Plains and the Pacific? For the most part, the show was a long and wistful look at how the various tribes were subjugated or decimated by war and famine. There also is a bit of American history and how it impacted the tribes--particularly when the Civil War ended as well as when the transcontinental railroad was completed. And, there was a lot of discussion on how settlers and soldiers sucked--treating the tribes like they were subhuman. It's all quite sad but also incomplete. Worth seeing but it left me a bit flat as the native tribes numbered in the hundreds and I kept wondering how this expansion impacted on those other than the Lakota and Cheyenne.
The westward migration into the West begins. I was VERY surprised that only in the first 16 minutes, the film VERY briefly mentioned the Mormons settling in Utah, the Mexican War and new territories gained by it and the discovery of Gold in California. All this seemed like a butt-load of material and it was breezed through very quickly. Much of the episodes concerned the Plains tribes but what about all the other tribes between the Appalachians and the Plains or between the Plains and the Pacific? For the most part, the show was a long and wistful look at how the various tribes were subjugated or decimated by war and famine. There also is a bit of American history and how it impacted the tribes--particularly when the Civil War ended as well as when the transcontinental railroad was completed. And, there was a lot of discussion on how settlers and soldiers sucked--treating the tribes like they were subhuman. It's all quite sad but also incomplete. Worth seeing but it left me a bit flat as the native tribes numbered in the hundreds and I kept wondering how this expansion impacted on those other than the Lakota and Cheyenne.
helpful•10
- planktonrules
- Mar 24, 2012
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