This documentary film covers a few hundred years of Indian (Native American) and American history, beginning with Francisco Vazques de Coronado and his expedition to the Great Plains, and includes some of the great battles such as Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Battle of Little Big Horn, and the Battle of Wounded Knee. It includes the Buffalo Cowboys too. Perhaps most interesting to me was the way various tribes became experts at riding and using the horse for warfare in the years after the Spanish brought some to the America's, which is actually late when it comes to the occupation of the continent. There is a lot of what looks like old film footage, but I was unable to tell how much of this black and white film was truly historical or how much had been filmed for movies. Covered are the heros of battles but ultimately the defeat of the Indians.
The film gave me a deeper understanding than I had of the progression from east to west, as well as an understanding that certain tribes had themselves moved from one place in the country to another, before the expansionists pushed them elsewhere.
As a genealogist I've learned more about history from researching around the time and place that ancestors lived. I've found documents that don't always agree with the official story, such as places where the big slave holder was a Native American, and I think the most important question when doing Native American research is WHAT TRIBE!
Today there is a lot of controversy over who is or isn't qualified to be part of a tribe.
