Chiefs

Born in the Dakota Hills, Sitting Bull became a leader of Indian tribes during the Great Sioux Wars. Present day descendants help to tell his story. This program covers his life and the developments leading to the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The saga of Sitting Bull's life after the Battle of Little Big Horn continues. In Canada, Sitting Bull and Canadian Mountie John Walsh form a relationship, and the Canadians do not want to support the US tactics against the Indians, which includes wiping out the buffalo in order to cause starvation.

Through his memoirs, and the words of his descendants, this film tells the story of Black Hawk and of the brutal government response to the resistance of his tribal allies, which resulted in the forced relocation of Native Americans from their homes in the upper Mississippi to Oklahoma.

Pontiac, or Obwandiyag, the leader of the Algonquin Nations, and chief of the Odawa, fought against the British with the French. After the French were defeated in Canada in 1759, Pontiac struggled against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region.

Known as a peacemaker and defender of his people, Poundmaker surrendered after Canadian forces attacked his camp in 1885 in response to an uprising. His story is told through interviews with Poundmaker's descendants, reenactments and archival images.

For two days in August of 1885, Plains Cree leader Poundmaker sat shackled in a Regina courtroom, accused of participating in a rebellion against the Queen's Canadian government. Administrators in Canada's Indian Department, including the Superintendent, Sir John A. Macdonald, saw the Cree leader as an agitator and assumed that the Cree were in complete collusion with the rebellion.