• 118
    watchers
  • 682
    plays
  • 468
    collected
  • 7
    lists

500 Nations: Season 1

Miniseries 1995
TV-PG

  • 1995-04-20T04:00:00Z on CBS
  • 45m
  • 8h (8 episodes)
  • United States
  • German, English
  • Documentary
500 Nations is an eight part documentary which explores the history of the indigenous peoples of North and Central America, from pre-Colombian times, through the period of European contact and colonization, to the end of the 19th century and the subjugation of the Plains Indians of North America. 500 Nations relies on historical texts, eyewitnesses accounts, pictorial sources and computer graphic reconstructions to explore the magnificent civilizations which flourished prior to contact with Western civilization, and to tell the dramatic and tragic story of the Native American nations' desperate attempts to retain their way of life against overwhelming odds.

8 episodes

Series Premiere

1995-04-20T04:00:00Z

1x01 The Ancestors: Early Cultures Of North America

Series Premiere

1x01 The Ancestors: Early Cultures Of North America

  • 1995-04-20T04:00:00Z1h

This volume takes a look at the massacre of the Sioux at Wounded Knee then flashes back to examine societies of Native Americans prior to the arrival of European settlers.

The rise and fall of the Aztec Empire is examined from their defeat of the Toltec regime to Cortez' ultimate conquest of the Aztecs and all of Mexico.

Columbus' arrival and the subsequent defeat of the Caribbean tribes are chronicled, along with De Soto's destruction of the Southeast tribes such as the Coosa and the Mobile nation.

An examination of the Native Americans of New England and their experiences with the British who settled at Jamestown and Plymouth. Includes background to the first Thanksgiving.

Hostilities between Native Americans and European settlers erupt across the eastern part of the continent as the colonists prepare for revolution. Pontiac's siege of Detroit and the splintering of the Iroqois Confederacy are examined.

After Tecumseh's Shawnee people side with the British in the War of 1812, President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, forcing all tribes to move into "Indian Territory," along the famed trail of tears.

The twin gold rushes in California and Colorado bring hordes of settlers into the Western Territories where such Native American leaders as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and the Kiowa chief Satanta organize futile resistance.

The Indian resistance of the late 19th-century is examined, including Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, the Apache leader Cochise and Geronimo, who surrenders and is imprisoned into the 20th-century. The government-mandated suppression of Native American culture culminates in the massacre at Wounded Knee, bringing the series full circle.

Loading...