Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee intertwines the perspectives of three characters: Charles Eastman (Beach), n￿hiyesa, a young, Dartmouth-educated, Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation; Sitting Bull (Schellenberg), the proud Lakota chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, their dignity and their sacred land - the gold-laden Black Hills of the Dakotas; and Senator Henry Dawes (Quinn), who was one of the architects of the government policy on Indian affairs. While Eastman and patrician schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Paquin) work to improve life for the Indians on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Grant (Thompson) for more humane treatment, opposing the bellicose stance of General William Tecumseh Sherman (Feore). Hope rises for the Indians in the form of the prophet Wovoka (Studi) and the Ghost Dance - a messianic movement that promises an end of their suffering under the white man. This hope is obliterated after the assassination of Sitting Bull and the massacre of hundreds of Indian men, women and children by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek on Dec. 29, 1890.

Originally began development in 1995 as a two-part miniseries for ABC.

Sitting Bull:
You must take them out of our lands.


Col. Nelson Miles:
What precisely are your lands?


Sitting Bull:
These are the where my people lived before you whites first came.


Col. Nelson Miles:
I don't understand. We whites were not your first enemies. Why don't you demand back the land in Minnesota where the Chippewa and others forced you from years before?


Sitting Bull:
The Black Hills are a sacred given to my people by Wakan Tanka.


Col. Nelson Miles:
How very convenient to cloak your claims in spiritualism. And what would you say to the Mormons and others who believe that their God has given to them Indian lands in the West?


Sitting Bull:
I would say they should listen to Wakan Tanka.


Col. Nelson Miles:
No matter what your legends say, you didn't sprout from the plains like the spring grasses. And you didn't coalesce out of the ether. You came out of the Minnesota woodlands armed to the teeth and set upon your fellow man. You massacred the Kiowa, the Omaha, the Ponca, the Oto and the Pawnee without mercy. And yet you claim the Black Hills as a private preserve bequeathed to you by the Great Spirit.


Sitting Bull:
And who gave us the guns and powder to kill our enemies? And who traded weapons to the Chippewa and others who drove us from our home?


Col. Nelson Miles:
Chief Sitting Bull, the proposition that you were a peaceable people before the appearance of the white man is the most fanciful legend of all. You were killing each other for hundreds of moons before the first white stepped foot on this continent. You conquered those tribes, lusting for their game and their lands, just as we have now conquered you for no less noble a cause.


Sitting Bull:
This is your story of my people!


Col. Nelson Miles:
This is the truth, not legend. Crazy Horse has surrendered... with his entire band. And by his surrender, he says to you and your people that you are defeated. And by ceding the Black Hills to us, so say Red Cloud and the other chiefs, who demand that you end this war and take your place on the reservation.


Sitting Bull:
Red Cloud is no longer a chief. He is a woman you have mounted and had your way with. Do not speak to me of Red Cloud!

Anachronisms: Shaun Johnston as Col. Nelson Miles is shown at the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty of April 29, 1868 wearing a Civil War Medal and an Indian Wars Medal. The first Civil War Campaign Medal was issued on May 26, 1909. The blue and gray ribbon shown in the film was not in use until August 12, 1913. The first Indian Wars Medal was issued July 15, 1908. The ribbon shown in the film with two dark bands was not in use until 1917.

Written by Gabe Desrosiers
Performed by Chevez Ezaneh