Synopsis
See summaries of each of the six episodes at Wikipedia under "Into the West (miniseries)." The following timeline is included in the miniseries at the beginning of each episode:
1824: Bureau of Indian Affairs becomes part of US War Dept.;
1826: Jedediah Smith leads men to California and then to Oregon;
1830: Fremont publishes results of exploring Oregon Trail;
1845: 1st battle of Mexican American War;
1848: Gold discovered in California;
1850: California enters the Union; clash between Indians and mining towns;
1851: Treaty of Ft. Laramie--peace on plains;
1853: Lakota chief Conquering Bear is killed; breaking of Laramie Treaty;
1857: President Buchanan sends troops to Utah; the Utah War was Mormon-related;
1860: Abe Lincoln elected President;
1861: Civil War begins;
1863: Lawrence, Kansas burned to the ground;
1864: Sand Creek Massacre;
1865: Robert E. Lee surrenders;
1865: Lincoln assassinated;
1866: US military adopts strategy to defeat Indians by exterminating buffaloes;
1866: Railroads build toward connecting Omaha and California;
1868: Second Ft. Laramie Treaty ends war along Bozeman Trail;
1874: Barbed wire patented;
1875: sitting Bull organizes greatest gathering of Indians on the North Plains to enforce the Laramie Treaty of '68, threatened by a Senate commission seeking access for miners in Black Hills;
1876: US government orders Lakota chiefs to report to their reservations or suffer the consequences; Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and others refuse;
1877: Congress repeals the '68 Laramie Treaty and takes back 40 million acres of Lakota land, including Black Hills;
1883: North Pacific RR connects NW states after 19 years of construction;
1886: Dawes Severalty Act defrauding Indians out of millions of acres;
1890: Sitting Bull killed after performing illegal ghost dance;
1890: 7th Cavalry massacre Lakota chief Big Foot and 350 at Wound Knee Creek;
1892: Settlers claim millions of acres confiscated from Crow and Cherokee lands;