The West: Season 1
Episode Guide
Season 1 Progress Shield
The People (1500-1806)
Sep 15, 1996
The West begins as the whole world to the people who live there. It becomes a New World when Europeans arrive, a world shaken by incompatible visions. And almost three centuries la
Empire Upon The Trails (1806-1848)
Sep 16, 1996
Americans head west along many pathways -- following the fur trade into the mountains, fighting for self-determination in Texas, seeking religious freedom in Utah or a better life
The Speck Of The Future (1848-1856)
Sep 17, 1996
The Gold Rush brings the whole world to the West, as 49ers from Asia, South America and the eastern states scramble for “a share of the rocks,” littering the hills with mining town
Death Runs Riot (1856-1868)
Sep 18, 1996
Civil war comes early to the West. In “Bleeding Kansas,” abolitionists battle for free soil. In Utah, federal troops march against Mormon polygamy. And along the Rio Grande, oppres
The Grandest Enterprise Under God (1868-1874)
Sep 19, 1996
A triumph of the human spirit, the transcontinental railroad opens a new era in the West, carrying homesteaders onto the prairies, bringing cowboys up the cattle trail from Texas,
Fight No More Forever (1874-1877)
Sep 20, 1996
The federal government tightens its grip on the West, but three bold spirits remain defiant -- Sitting Bull, who prophesies his people's greatest victory but cannot prevent their u
The Geography Of Hope (1877-1887)
Sep 21, 1996
Newcomers arrive by the millions, bringing a new spirit of conformity to the West. Indian children are taught to forsake their heritage, Mormons are told to abandon a tenet of thei
Ghost Dance (1887 -1914)
Sep 22, 1996
As settlers race to claim tribal lands, Native Americans take up the Ghost Dance, trusting in its power to restore a lost way of life until their hopes are crushed at Wounded Knee.
One Sky Above Us (1887-1914)
Sep 23, 1996
Los Angeles steals its water supply, millions of Mexicans migrate north, and Hollywood begins to shape the West and the nation's image of it.