University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1996 REVIEW ESSAY:The Way West Written and directed by Ric Burns Martin Blythe University of Helsinki Mia Graeffe University of Helsinki Sanna Heinsalo University of Helsinki Ossi Heinänen University of Helsinki Ari Helo University of Helsinki See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Blythe, Martin; Graeffe, Mia; Heinsalo, Sanna; Heinänen, Ossi; Helo, Ari; Hirvinen, Kari; Kiviniemi, Piia; Ruus, Vello; Wright, John; and Wunder, John R., "REVIEW ESSAY:The Way West Written and directed by Ric Burns" (1996). Great Plains Quarterly. 1084. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1084 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Authors Martin Blythe, Mia Graeffe, Sanna Heinsalo, Ossi Heinänen, Ari Helo, Kari Hirvinen, Piia Kiviniemi, Vello Ruus, John Wright, and John R. Wunder This article is available at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ greatplainsquarterly/1084 REVIEW ESSAY The Way West: EpisodeI, Westward, the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, 1845-1864; Episode II, The Approach of Civilization, 1865-1869; Episode III, The War for the Black Hills, 1870-1876; Episode IV, Ghost Dance, 1877-1893. Written and directed by Ric Burns. Produced by Lisa Ades and Ric Burns. Introductory remarks by David McCollough. Production for The American Experience, Channel Four Television (Great Britain). Boston: WGBH Educational Foundation and Steeple­ chase Films, 1995.6 hours; 90 minutes per episode. $69.95. The Way West, scripted and directed by Americans and the losers are the American Ric Burns, is advertised as the story of United Indians. McCullough then mispronouces the States expansion into the American West from name of an important Plains nation, the 1845 to 1893. Burns sets the series' temporal Kiowas, perhaps symbolic of what is to follow. boundaries arbitrarily from a New York editor's The first episode establishes a disturbing first use of the term "manifest destiny" in 1845 scholarly laxness. For example, although quo­ to Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 address on tations punctuate the narrative, only intially the significance of the frontier and his an­ are they carefully documented with author and nouncement of its close. The documentary's date. Soon dates disappear. Eventually even episodes actually focus on the struggle for con­ the authors or sources are omitted as well. We trol of the Great Plains, pitting the U.S. Army hear about the 1845 New York newspaper edi­ against the Sioux nation and its allies. Largely torial on manifest destiny without any cogent forsaking the challenge of providing a sure analysis of its meaning; then Americans sud­ overview of who the Native peoples of the denly explode westward in 1846, the narrator Plains and the West were, or of what sorts of intoning, "The most troubling and transfor­ people took their land as settlers, the series mative period in American history had be­ instead offers descriptions-at times in pro­ gun." We see footage of a train that could not longed detail-of some of the classic battles possibly have been taken during the era the and massacres of Great Plains history. In short, documentary covers. We hear a Tecumseh it is Old Western History with a twist: the quote over images of Plains Indian tipis and addition of Indian perspectives to the story. buffalo. The script tells us that by 1843 the Introduced by David McCullough and nar­ Indian frontier-whatever that is-is crum­ rated by Russell Baker, The Way West is di­ bling. Weare told that by 1840 all eastern vided into four ninety-minute programs. The tribes had been subdued, annihilated, or re­ first, Westward, The Course of Empire Takes Its moved. By 1846 Mormons are in the West. Way, 1845-1864, borrowing its title from the The United States forces England to cede Emmanuel Leutze mural in the United States Oregon; the Mexican Cession occurs in half a Capitol, opens with McCullough establishing sentence. Neither the Lewis and Clark Expe­ the series' subject: the migration of Ameri­ dition nor even the Louisiana Purchase re­ cans from the East to the West during an era ceives any mention. An empire is sort of of "American triumph and a haunting Ameri­ "taking its way." can tragedy." It is "an epic story about the Ric Burns interjects experts' observations bright promise and dark sorrow of the Ameri­ throughout the narration, some-such as can dream." The cliched expression of this those of Robert Utley, Alvin Josephy, Jr., duality is repeated frequently in the phrase, Michael Her Many Horses, and Charlotte "how the West was won and lost." There are Black Elk-to rich effect. Charlotte Black Elk winners and losers. The winners are the white notes the fundamental differences between 287 288 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY. FALL 1996 the origin beliefs of Plains Indians and Chris­ Colorado. The discussion of these bitter tians and between Indian and European un­ events is generally accurate, and the visuals derstandings of people's relationship to land. are impressive. Setting the stage for the next Countering her thoughtful explanation of dif­ episodes, Westward, the Course of Empire Takes fering world views, Burns gives us Ian Frazier, Its Way explains the impact the Homestead whose uninformed statements, including his Act and the Pacific Railroad Act would have notion that the Cheyennes during this era on the West, personalizing the story to in­ camped from Canada to the Rio Grande, mov­ clude three whites, army officers William T. ing to and fro depending upon the weather, Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George undermine the documentary's reliability. Armstrong Custer, and three Sioux leaders, Stephen Ambrose offers a variety of dubious Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse. comments, claiming for instance that Indians The second episode treats five years of Great had more freedom than had ever been known Plains history, laying the groundwork for the before in human history, and that neither ge­ battle of the Little Big Horn in Episode III. ography nor their own political institutions We see the building of the transcontinental exerted any restraints on Plains Indians. railroad, several Sioux-U.S. Army skirmishes, Why this disparity among the experts? The and a sampling of atrocities. One sequence white authorities are mostly free lance writ­ offers a pair of bizarre discussions. We witness ers, not experts in the history of the American first a gruesomely mutilated Englishman fight­ West or directly involved in current historio­ ing in the American army. The camera swings graphical debates in Western history. Only slowly over his nude body, revealing the cuts Utley and Josephy are recognized authorities to his arms, legs, and genitals, as well as his who have spent their professional lives in the missing scalp, the narrator meanwhile explain­ field of Western history, Utley primarily in ing how each slash was made and by whom. Western military history and Josephy in In­ Next we are served an amazing comparison of dian-United States relations. At the project's the railroad and buffalo, the narrator claiming inception, Burns consulted several Western that the railroad was to whites what the buf­ historians who read and criticized the script, falo was to Indians: a "condition oflife." While which was then revised and rewritten. The the railroad's practical and symbolic signifi­ consulted experts, however, make no appear­ cance for non-Indian Americans was certainl y ances and go unacknowledged. At the end of enormous, the buffalo was Plains Indians' sus­ this first episode and all the others in this tenance. That the railroad's completion would series about "conquest," only Patricia Nelson seal the Indians' fate is frequently stated, Limerick among Western historians is cred­ though thinly documented. The story of the ited with assistance, and even she, the articu­ destruction of the buffalo receives a much more late author of The Legacy of Conquest, makes thorough telling. no appearance on screen. The four native The Approach of Civiliation contains sev­ voices, Charlotte Black Elk, Michael Her eral examples of skewed history. While treat­ Many Horses, Mardell Plainfeather, and Marie ments of the social dimensions of westward Not Help Him, usually offer careful, personal­ migration and Plains Indian social life are slim ized observations on specific events and avoid or entirely absent, we are told that white rash generalizations. settlement on the Plains along the new rail­ Episode I, the story of American acquisi­ road brought vices. Banality shifts to hyper­ tion of western lands, concludes with sig­ bole as the narrator assures us there "was not nificant footage and commentary devoted to a virtuous woman west of Cheyenne." Novel­ explaining the Santee Sioux resistance in ist Thomas McGuane asserts that the rail­ Minnesota and the Sand Creek Massacre of road "housebroke" the West, "tamed" being Cheyennes and Arapahoes in southeastern too tame a word. REVIEW ESSAY 289 The episode achieves stature in its render­ cause, Frazier intuits, Crazy Horse always did ing and assessment of the actions of Red Cloud as he saw fit. Finally, Stephen Ambrose would on behalf of his Sioux nation. Important dis­ have us believe that Custer and Crazy Horse cussion about the Fort Laramie treaties and were actually very much alike: both were great the role of Red Cloud in Siouan-American riders, both loved to hunt, both loved the relationships is allowed to unfold with care, Plains.