Into the West

Growling Bear (Gordon Tootoosis), an elderly Lakota medicine man, has an apocalyptic vision that the buffalo his people rely upon will soon vanish from the prairie. His vision is controversial and his apprentice, Soaring Eagle (Gerald Auger), convinces most of the people to disregard Growling Bear's dark vision. A young boy named White Feather (Simon Baker III) seeks out the now discredited Growling Bear to learn more about his vision. Before he dies, Growling Bear gives White Feather a necklace symbolizing the Lakota medicine wheel. (This necklace is passed on through various character through the miniseries.)

During a buffalo jump hunt, many people from White Feather's village are killed during the stampede, but White Feather is miraculously spared when the spirit of deceased Growling Bear appears to him. The tribe renames him Loved by the Buffalo and begin to regard him as a holy man. This causes Soaring Eagle to become jealous and he does everything he can to undermine Loved by the Buffalo.

Loved by the Buffalo's sister, Thunder Heart Woman (Tonantzin Carmelo), is married off to a white trapper and his brothers Dog Star (Michael Spears) and Running Fox (Zahn McClarnon) begin families, but Loved by the Buffalo realizes that his destiny lies on a different path. Loved by the Buffalo gives Thunder Heart Woman the wooden medicine wheel necklace as a parting gift.

At about the same time, a young wheelwright named Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle) is growing discontented with his settled life in the fictional Wheelerton, Virginia, where he and his brothers work as wheelwrights for his grandfather, a veteran of the Battle of Yorktown. When a mountain man named James Fletcher (Will Patton) passes through and tells him of the wonders of the western frontier, Jacob decides to leave his family and head west. He convinces his brother Nathan (Alan Tudyk) to come west with him, but another brother Jethro (Skeet Ulrich), cannot bring himself to leave his home and stays behind.

Once the brothers reach St. Louis, Missouri, they meet up with Fletcher, who rebuffs them. Dejected, Nathan goes into a saloon to drink and gamble, winning a deed to a land claim in the Mexican province of Tejas. Nathan tries to convince Jacob to come with him to Tejas, but Jacob has become determined to become a mountain man. The brothers part company and Jacob heads toward the Rocky Mountains.

Jacob catches up with Fletcher and trapping party captain Jedediah Smith (Josh Brolin) who once again rebuffs him. Jacob convinces them to take him in and he eventually becomes a trusted member of the party. He accompanies Smith's party to California where they are arrested and expelled by the Mexican authorities. On the way back, they are attacked by a group of Mohave, who had been hospitable on the party's first visit; many, including Fletcher, are killed, but Smith and Jacob escape.

Thunder Heart Woman's trapper husband is killed by the Crows, her infant daughter is captured, and she is sold into slavery. Later, Jacob sees her being auctioned off at a trapper rendezvous and buys her in order to set her free. He soon agrees to return her to her people. She gives him the wooden medicine wheel necklace as a token of her gratitude. When they return to the tribe, Jacob marries Thunder Heart Woman and begins to live as part of the Lakota tribe.

A Lakota man trades for a horsecart, much to the dismay of Loved by the Buffalo, who sees white goods as a corruption of Lakota culture. When Loved by the Buffalo sees Jacob repairing the wheel, he is reminded of a vision he had during a Sun Dance in which a wooden wheel smashes a stone wheel. Loved by the Buffalo takes Jacob to a sacred hilltop where a stone medicine wheel has been erected. Loved by the Buffalo begins to realize that the wooden wheel symbolizes the wagon wheels of the whites and that the stone wheel is the medicine wheel of the Lakota culture.