The American West (2016) s01e05 Episode Script

Narrator: Previously on "The American West" In the decade since the Civil War, America has been desperate to settle the West.
But the effort has been met with conflict - at nearly every turn.
- Who's the cashier? Narrator: Outlaws like Jesse James have terrorized railroads and banks across the Midwest leading to one of the largest manhunts in American history.
But Jesse James gets away and goes into hiding for two years.
In the Great Plains, the United States military looks to defeat the armies of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and secure the gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
But after they're defeated at the Battle of Little Bighorn, the U.
S.
government sees the extermination of the buffalo as a way of starving the Lakota nation into submission.
(theme song playing) Narrator: After their victory at Little Bighorn (bowstring snaps) Lakota warriors led by Crazy Horse continue to fight for their land.
Hold the line! (speaking Lakota language) Narrator: But despite winning small battles against the U.
S.
Army, the struggles for the Indians are only getting worse.
General William Tecumseh Sherman's strategy of exterminating the buffalo is working as more and more Indians face starvation.
Lakota leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are running out of options.
Narrator: After years of leading the Lakota people together, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse part ways.
Sitting Bull leads 5,000 Indians north to Canada while Crazy Horse stays behind with fewer than 1,000 warriors, determined to remain on their rightful land.
The Native Americans pressed on despite the violence and the decimation of their tribes and their culture.
They were persistent in wanting to maintain their beliefs, and they pressed on because they had courage.
Narrator: With the Indian population depleted, the U.
S.
government moves full force into the Black Hills, allowing them to take the land and the gold discovered there three years earlier.
By 1880, the area is yielding over $7 million in gold and silver annually, over $170 million in today's dollars.
David Eisenbach: This is just this moment of extreme opportunity to just go out there and strike it rich.
And a lot of men and women were able to do that.
And people who are not seeing the opportunities that they saw in prior generations see the West as that great promised land.
Narrator: As gold pours into the economy, the U.
S.
is the first country to pull itself out of the global depression.
And over the next decade, more than 12 million immigrants arrive in the United States, looking to take full advantage of the country's prosperity.
But the population boom brings a problem millions of new mouths to feed.
The solution is found in the West.
The wide-open spaces provide the perfect spot for a new American industry cattle.
H.
W.
Brands: There were lots of cattle in Texas on the border of Mexico for a long time.
But it wasn't until the railroads that they could be moved out to the plains and shipped from there to hungry people in the East.
(mooing) Narrator: Cattle that would sell for ten dollars a head in Texas are worth forty dollars a head on the East Coast.
This booming industry breeds a new sort of businessman the cattle baron.
Cattle barons buy up huge tracts of grazing land stretching from Kansas to California.
Kiefer Sutherland: Those land grabs presented unbelievable opportunities.
We're talking about sometimes millions of acres, of these farms, and thousands and thousands of head of cattle.
Narrator: But with so much product spread across such a vast, unguarded area, herds belonging to cattle barons are becoming a major target for outlaws.
And in the territory of New Mexico, one cattle rustler will become one of the most notorious men in the West.
He's born Henry McCarty but the world will come to know him as Billy the Kid.
His story begins 2,000 miles to the east.
Paul Hutton: Billy the Kid came from Hell's Kitchen in New York, and there's a beautiful sort of irony to the idea of a kid from the slums of New York becoming this icon of the Wild West.
Narrator: Billy never knew his father.
In the early 1870s, he and his mother move to New Mexico.
But within a year of arriving, she dies and Billy is all alone in an unknown land.
(patrons chattering) Narrator: For years he wanders without direction.
What'll you have? Whiskey.
Leave the bottle.
Burt Reynolds: There were all kinds of cowboys.
There were ones that were loud and drunk and a pain, and then there's the quiet ones who didn't say anything.
Always sat in the corner.
Those are the ones you had to watch out for.
Narrator: To get by, Billy turns to the one thing he can do best.
Hutton: Billy the Kid was superb with a gun.
He used every spare dollar he had to buy ammunition for practice.
He understood very early on that the gun was his ticket to success.
And he's not shy about using it.
Narrator: Armed with his trusted weapon, Billy starts stealing cattle from wealthy ranchers and selling them one county over.
John McCain: Self-reliance is one of the more salient features of the Old West because it was tough.
And in those kinds of environment, the tough are the ones that survive.
(fire crackling) (hoofbeats approaching) (whickers) Cowboy: Where are ya headed? Into Lincoln.
I'm just rounding up some strays.
Those cattle you have belong to John Tunstall.
Well, then John Tunstall can come and take them back himself.
(gun clicks) Be in your best interest to let me get on my way.
That's not how this works.
Doesn't look like you have much of a choice.
(gun clicks) Narrator: Young cattle thief Billy the Kid has just been captured by a local rancher he tried to steal from.
Most men shoot cattle rustlers on the spot.
(gun clicks) You still haven't told me who you're workin' for.
I don't work for anyone.
(gun clicks) Son, in Lincoln County, everybody works for somebody.
Yeah well not me.
You strike me as a man used to gettin' what he wants.
You got that right.
Only thing about that is (gun clicks) so am I.
Easy.
Easy.
You got a lot of men.
You got room for one more? When Billy the Kid came to Lincoln, he needed a job.
John Tunstall happened to need cowboys.
Cowboys who could use guns, and so Billy became one of his employees.
Narrator: After roaming the West for years, Billy the Kid has finally found a place to belong working for an ambitious rancher and businessman in New Mexico named John Tunstall.
Mark Lee Gardner: John Henry Tunstall has come to the West to make a fortune.
And he settles on Lincoln County, where he can make a lot of money.
Narrator: Looking to make it big in the booming cattle industry, Tunstall has bought a ranch outside of Lincoln, New Mexico, and in just two short years has become one of the most successful cattle barons in the territory.
But with his success, he's upset some very powerful men.
Chamberlain: Lincoln was the wildest of the Wild West.
The law was almost nonexistent, and the people who controlled it were generally corrupt.
Narrator: The established power in Lincoln County was a group of wealthy land owners and cattle barons known simply as "the House.
" "The House" controls everything from cattle prices, land holdings and government positions.
Even the law is on their payroll.
Gardner: The House controlled Lincoln County, and they were prominent.
In fact, a lot of people that lived in Lincoln really looked at them as oppressors.
And John Henry Tunstall arrives to kind of horn in on the monopoly that the House has had for a long time.
Narrator: Tensions quickly rise between Tunstall and the House, but the rancher is not one to back down.
Looking to build up his small army, Tunstall sees potential in young Billy.
Gardner: In Lincoln County, everyone was forced to make a choice either you supported the House or you supported John Henry Tunstall.
There was no in between.
So, once Billy accepted that job with John Henry Tunstall, he was gonna be Tunstall's man.
Narrator: Over the next few months, the young outlaw becomes Tunstall's most trusted gunslinger.
And for the first time, it feels like this orphan of the West has a home.
Tunstall was a mentor to Billy the Kid.
Billy really liked Tunstall because he treated him fairly, he paid him well, and he was probably the first man in his life Billy looked up to and respected and treated him like Billy wanted to be treated.
Put your plate over here, Billy.
Thanks.
I'm starved.
It doesn't get any better than this, son.
Good to have you on board.
Thank you.
Gardner: If you think about it, Billy had been scraping by.
He was looked at by most people as riffraff.
But John Henry Tunstall it's kind of shocking, but he offers this hoodlum he offers him a job.
For a young man of Billy's age, that was incredible, that was life-changing.
So he becomes a loyal, devoted employee and friend of John Henry Tunstall.
Narrator: While Billy the Kid is now a part of the burgeoning cattle industry that's fueling America's growth several hundred miles to tth, one man is doing everything he can to hold off western expansion.
(warriors whooping) Narrator: Since parting ways with Sitting Bull, Lakota warrior Crazy Horse has tried to protecople from the flood of settlers.
But after months of watching Crazy Horse is running out of options and is forced to do something he swore he would never do.
Easy, boys.
Narrator: On May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse, the man that led his people to victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn, surrenders, marking the end of 17 years of resistance.
Larry Pourier: When Crazy Horse surrenders, I really believe everyone knew that was the end.
But the realit if he didn't do that, most of us wouldn't be here.
We would've died fighting instead of going to the reservation.
Narrator: But while the move onto a reservation may have saved his people from starving Crazy Horse is beginning to realize that it's doing something far worse.
Pourier: When they put us on the reservations, reay kinda took the spirit out of a lot of people.
They took away our pride, they took away our life, they took away our manhood because we couldn't hunt anymore.
A lot of people died, not from sicknesses and stuff, they died from broken spirits.
He trusts in me.
He speaks through me.
The Lord, the Savior.
Narrator: But the govent isn't cot just to tell the Indians where to live they're also determined to change their culture.
Andrew Isenberg: Large numbers of Christian missionaries were in fact sent out to reservations in the West to do the work of, as people in the 19th century saw it, "civilizing" these Native Americans.
Narrator: It's a policy known as "assimilation.
" Assimilation is just maybe it had good meaning, maybe the intentions were good.
But I think they wanted us to change to protect themselves.
They had a saying in the military "Kill the Indian and save the man.
" Which is, basically, to take his culture away and you'll be a better person.
They thought we were savages.
Narrator: After months on the reservation, Crazy Horse fears his people are on the verge of losing their identity.
I think putting Indians on reservations was a despicable part of history because it basically was attacking their soul.
Narrator: Now the proud Lakota warrior knows he needs to stand up for his people once again.
Translator: "My people are not happy here.
I am not happy here.
" "We do not want to live here on this reservation.
" "I want what I was promised, a reservation of our own, a place where we are free, even if we are not.
" Life on the reservation is not what you're accustomed to.
Give it time.
I think you'll become quite fond of it.
(translator speaking Lakota language) Narrator: Months after leading his people onto a reservation, Crazy Horse is growing restless.
But since pleading his case to U.
S.
authorities, the military now fears the Lakota warrior could incite an Indian uprising.
Karl Jacoby: The U.
S.
was incredibly scared about Crazy Horse.
There's rumors going around th Cra Horse wants to kill a visiting U.
S.
general.
And U.
S.
authorities are forever concerned about these rumors of Indian outbreaks.
Narrator: As fear of Crazy Horse's intention spreads, the Lakota warrior decides to meet with reservation agents to clear his name.
Jacoby: Crazy Horse thinks he's going to a meeting with some U.
S.
officials.
He doesn't realize the magnitude of what's about to happen.
Eisenbach: They start to put him into a jail cell.
Well, he sees "Wait a second.
This isn't what I came in here for.
" And he comes out with knives.
Agh-hh! Jacoby: Accounts here differ, but I think the most reliable interpretation is that the white U.
S.
sentry bayonets him, and he dies.
Crazy Horse is never killed in battle in that respect.
His vision is correct.
He's taken completely unawares when he's, um, surprised by the sentry.
Narrator: On September 5, 1877, Crazy Horse, a man who fought his entire life to protect his people and won battle after battle against the United States Army, is killed.
Crazy Horse's death is hard to talk about because it's just so fresh, even though it's been that many years.
His death I think we all died that day, really.
Jacoby: One of the things that's most fascinating about Crazy Horse and his legacy is simply the fact that of all the many native leaders across American history, he's one of the few people that most non-Indians have heard about.
I think he's seen today as a symbol of courageous resistance to the U.
S.
government and he is, in many respects.
And I think that's one of the reasons that makes him so powerful.
Narrator: With Crazy Horse gone, the Lakota people are in desperate need of leadership if they're going to save what's left of their culture.
Narrator: After years on his own, Billy the Kid has finally found his place in the West and a mentor in John Tunstall.
Tunstall's cattle business is quickly gaining momentum and cutting into the interests of his biggest competition a group of ruthless businessmen known as "the House.
" Chamberlain: The House had a monopoly on business, but then there was this newcomer who arrives in Lincoln with some money behind him and the desire to kind of take over and compete.
Narrator: The House has some very powerful allies, including one of the largest landowners in the United States, Thomas Catron.
Chamberlain: Thomas Catron was linked to the House because Catron had loaned the House a great deal of money.
Until the House repaid Catron, he had a stake in their well-being.
So it was in his interest that they do well so he could get repaid.
Narrator: Catron owns three million acres of territory, nearly equal in size to the state of Connecticut.
His landholdings include Lincoln County, and Catron doesn't take kindly to the new competitor impeding on his business.
This is for you.
It's a writ of attachment, authorizes you to seize all the property of John Tunstall and his business partners.
And what if he resists? I don't care about the means.
Just the results.
Understood.
(gunshots) Go check it out.
- You stay here.
- Yeah.
(horse whinnies) What's the rush, boys? We heard a shot.
Did you, now? (gunshot) Don't do anything stupid, son.
This doesn't involve you.
I suggest you keep it that way.
Gardner: This competition, this feuding between businesses, entrepreneurial interests is one thing.
Like so many conflicts in the West, it becomes personal.
Hyah! Personal to the point where someone is murdered.
And that person is John Henry Tunstall.
He is murdered over a business dispute.
That's as personal as it gets.
Narrator: With Tunstall dead, Billy loses the only family he knows.
Hutton: Billy swears vengeance over Tunstall's grave and says he'll get every man who is a part of this.
Narrator: John Tunstall's death sets Billy on a path to find his killers.
And it will turn him from an unknown gunman into a legend of the West.
Narrator: As the country continues to expand, men like Billy the Kid are realizing just how lawless the frontier is.
But over 400 miles away from New Mexico, one man is about to bring order to the West.
(voices overlapping) (groans) Narrator: In the plains of Kansas where men take what they want and every day is a struggle for survival, no one is tougher than Wyatt Earp.
Isenberg: Wyatt Earp was a big guy, he was about six feet tall and he was very strong.
He was large by 19th century standards.
He used that size to be imposing.
Narrator: Wyatt Earp is one of thousands of Americans who have flooded the West in hopes of striking it rich.
Wyatt was bit by the incurable Western disease.
And that was the need to always find the next frontier.
The frontier might be mining, it might be real estate, but it was the search itself, the adventure itself.
That's what really drove Wyatt.
Narrator: To get by, he's done nearly every job on the frontier.
From laying tracks for the Union Pacific Railroad to hunting buffalo on the plains and even working as a bouncer at a brothel.
Wyatt's search for fortune has landed him in Dodge City, Kansas, a place like thousands of others popping up across the West called "boomtowns.
" To move cattle from wide-open plains to eastern cities, they must first be driven to railroad hubs that soon turn into bustling towns.
Kirschner: A boomtown explodes on the scene.
You had that barren landscape and then suddenly you would have a hotel with 50 rooms.
Narrator: Boomtowns are quickly populated by the men working the cattle drive, a group that will become synonymous with the West cowboys.
Hutton: You have a lot of young men that would get to those towns and they're all fueled on whiskey, carrying guns.
So you've got young men drinking heavily and armed.
And this is, indeed, one of the reasons the West was wild.
Narrator: Wyatt sees that in Dodge City the law is nonexistent and disputes are settled with violence.
In that day, you could shoot somebody dead in the street for looking at you the wrong way because there's no repercussion.
It's a different time the alues were different, life was different.
Narrator: After years of moving from one job in the West to another, Wyatt isn't satisfied.
Reynolds: It was a rough, tough life.
And a lot of them said, "I think I'll just turn in my chaps and do something else.
" And they'd either go back East or they'd turn bad.
Narrator: But Wyatt Earp feels he's destined for something more.
And it's in Dodge City that he demonstrates a skill that will mark his place in history.
Hunter: You cheated the wrong man.
That's my money.
The guy cheated.
The guy's a cheater, huh? Don't do it! Don't do it! Nobody move.
He pulled his gun, he pulled his gun.
Easy does it.
Nobody move! Don't move! Easy there.
- He's a cheat.
- Easy there.
- The guy cheated.
- Put the gun away.
- His gun, did you see it? - Everyone saw him reach for his gun.
Just hand it over.
- You have to give over your gun.
- Back off! Back off! - Take it easy.
- Back off! I'll shoot you! Come on.
Narrator: The town of Dodge is in desperate need of a lawman.
And Wyatt Earp is the perfect man for the job.
It isn't long before Wyatt Earp is recruited to be deputy marshal of Dodge City.
Kirschner: There was no particular training for a lawman.
They were just people for whom the work suited, and then there was a lot of on-the-job training.
But Wyatt brought a cool demeanor, a knowledge of people, and that presence that he had that worked on pretty much everybody.
That's not how things work in this town.
Harmon: It's all about intimidation.
Wyatt Earp didn't ask questions.
He'd smack you with the barrel of his gun.
"Pistol-whip," that comes from him.
Narrator: Wyatt Earp is quickly making a name for himself in Dodge City.
And it's in his role as a lawman that he will soon become one of the most famous figures of the West.