Beginning with the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the story follows Sitting Bull as he faces flight to Canada, his imprisonment at the Pine Ridge agency, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the Ghost Dance, his death and ending with the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek.
EXT.—BIG FOOT’S CAMP—WOUNDED KNEE CREEK--SUNRISE
MID-TEEN GIRL’S VOICE OVER
It was the 29th day of the moon of popping trees…
Screen says, DECEMBER 29, 1890.
EXT.—BIG FOOT’S CAMP—LATE AFTERNOON
500 U.S. troops completely surround the camp. 100 of the troops line up by the Wounded Knee creek. Bugles are sounded, and the Lakota exit their tipis. The soldiers separate the men from the women. Colonel Forsyth, Major Whitside, and an interpreter, PHILIP P. WELLS, consult Big Foot.
FORSYTH
We ask the people to come for a talk.
106 of Bigfoot’s warriors, all covered by gray blankets, sit in a semi-circle in front of the center of camp. The 300 women, children and old men, also covered in gray blankets stand as a group off to the east next to a pole bearing a white flag, watching. All of the Lakota have anxious faces.
Big Foot is unable to walk. He is carried out of his tipi, and lain on the ground in front of it.
FORSYTH
After this talk, you will all be taken to Pine Ridge.
Soldiers and cooks hand out hardtack to the Indians.
FORSYTH
Bigfoot, you are ordered to surrender your guns.
BIG FOOT
My people have no arms.
FORSYTH
(to Wells)
Tell Big Foot he says the Indians have no arms, yet yesterday they were well armed when they surrendered. He is deceiving me. Tell him he need have no fear in giving up his arms, as I wish to treat him kindly.
BIG FOOT
We have no guns, except such as you have found. I collected all my guns at the Cheyenne River Agency and turned them in. They were all burned.
FORSYTH
I know that you have guns.
BIG FOOT
Just rifles for hunting. We don’t have them with us. They are in our tipis.
FORSYTH
Then tell your men to go back to their tipis and get those guns.
BIG FOOT
(to a warrior next to him)
Send back twenty men to get the guns from the tipis.
Major Whitside addresses the Lakota.
WHITSIDE
You men, place your weapons in the center!
The Lakota do not want to. After Big Foot gives away his rifle to a soldier, the others near him follow, holding their guns in front of them. The soldiers collect the rifles one at a time, and place them in the center. The 20 warriors return from the tipis, and place two guns in the growing pile.
FORSYTH
Two guns? Alright, Major, send a detachment of men to search the camp and find the rest of their weapons.
Whitside points, and three groups of ten troopers march into the camp. The soldiers march passed the seated warriors.
SOLDIER #1
(sneering)
When we get the arms away from them bucks we can do as we please with them.
The Lakota become even more nervous.
INT.—TIPI
Two soldiers enter the tipi. A woman stands defiantly, watching them. The men search through her things, ripping open bundles, but find nothing. As the soldiers turn to leave, one of the soldiers lifts the woman’s dress and grabs at her crotch.
SOLDIER #1
Suppose she’s got anything hidden up there?
The woman shouts angrily, and the second soldier laughs.
INT.—TIPI
Two soldiers enter the tipi. A woman and her two children huddle on their bed against the far wall. The soldiers begin knocking everything over, searching for guns.
SOLDIER #3
Where are they you dumb squaw?
The soldier grabs at the woman, throwing her off the bed. There is a very old rifle under it.
SOLDIER #4
Now, lookey here! Hey Jim, you think this old gun’s a relic of Little Big Horn?
EXT.—BIG FOOT’S CAMP—LATE AFTERNOON
The warriors are becoming angry listening to the cries of their women. They no longer hold their guns in front of them, but keep them on their laps, making the soldiers come to them individually, and take them.
The detachment of soldiers return with a dozen old-fashioned guns. The guns are in disrepair, many of them tied together with strings. The soldiers also carry axes, knives and tent stakes. The soldiers place them in the pile. A Lieutenant, JAMES MANN, addresses the Lakota.
LT. MANN
I want you all to stand in a rank before the officers. I want the same number of soldiers to stand in front of the Indians and take the cartridges out of their guns and cock them and aim at their foreheads and pull the triggers. After this you will be free.
JOSEPH HORN CLOUD
Now he sees that we have nothing in our hands, so he talks this way!
JIM HIGH HAWK
We are not children to be talked to like this!
PAUL HIGHBACK
Take courage! Take courage!
BIG FOOT
Yes, take courage. There are too many children and old people.
A medicine man, YELLOW BIRD, starts doing the Ghost Dance, blowing on a buffalo horn whistle.
YELLOW BIRD
Ha! Ha! I have lived long enough!
Yellow Bird picks up handfuls of dust and begins throwing them into the air, addressing the warriors.
YELLOW BIRD
Do not fear, but let your hearts be strong. Many soldiers are about us and have many bullets, but I am assured their bullets cannot penetrate us. The prairie is large, and their bullets will fly over the prairies and will not come toward us. If they do come toward us, they will float away like dust in the air.
WARRIORS
(loudly, in agreement)
How!
WHITSIDE
(to Wells)
Tell the Indians it is necessary they be searched one at a time.
The young warriors pay no attention to the interpreter, but six old men pass through the lines of soldiers and are searched. The old men have pistols and knives under their blankets, in their belts.
WHITSIDE
Check those Indians for knives and pistols, too!
Most of the assembled warriors have given up their rifles. There is a large pile of guns and knives in the center of the council. The warriors in the back are standing. They still have their knives and guns, as they have yet to be asked to surrender them. Two Sergeants come to a deaf man, BLACK COYOTE, who is sitting alone off to the side of the circle. A sergeant grabs at the muzzle of his rifle, but Black Coyote doesn’t want to give it up. The soldiers tear off his blanket, roughly twirling him around. Black Coyote raises the rifle above his head to keep it away from them. The three men struggle. The rifle is pointed upwards, towards the east.
BLACK COYOTE
Why are we giving up our guns? I need this to hunt!
PLENTY HORSES
(stepping forward, to soldiers)
Stop! Black Coyote is deaf, he doesn’t know why…
The heroic story of how a small group of people, few of them TB experts, found the cure for the greatest killer in human history. But the battle needed to be extended to all sufferers. Why have we failed to take the miracle to the developing world?
