如果历史老人能够站到我们面前的话，我们一定会看到他长着一张这个世界上最冷酷无情的脸。当你在为某次历史事件中逝去的生命 而叹息，为旧文明被新文明取代中的血流成河而落泪时，他会不悲不喜的告诉你，这就是规律。你仰面问他，为什么弱者信奉的神灵不庇护他们？他告诉你，孩子，你以为你在看《阿凡达》呢？

规律与尊严孰轻孰重

最初面对白人的入侵，酋长“卧牛”是一个坚定的反抗者，是部落的精神领袖，带领着族人打了一次次胜仗，当然，这种反抗只是苟延残喘。不得已，他带队逃到了加拿大。可那始终是寄人篱下，时刻会因为族人的一些越界行为而遭到驱逐。同时，恶劣的生存 环境也威胁着族人的生存。当不断有小孩死去，当充饥的食物变成了水煮老鼠时，越来越多的族人选择回到美国，接受白人的游戏规则。最后他也回到美国，成为最后一位放下枪的印第安人。

以往骑马打猎的地方已经成了一个小镇，他的儿子在镇上当上了警察。儿子看到了父亲忧郁的眼神，于是骑上马说，我们真幸运， 这里的行政长官允许我们在猎场打猎。说完打马进入用围栏围起来的猎场，那块猎场比学校的操场小。伴随着依稀熟悉的唿哨声， 儿子射杀了一匹马，他回头向父亲挥舞着手里的枪，高声尖叫着，似乎在安慰父亲，我们往日的荣光还在。父亲的眼神更忧郁了， 他看着自己的儿子，就像看到刚才那只被他射杀的在猎场里无处可逃的马。最后，他选择了重拾尊严，尊严的死去。死了，他还是 那个叫做“卧牛”的酋长。

片尾字幕

Charles Eastman devoted the rest of his life to the advocacy of Sioux rights,and to writing and lecturing about his American Indian childhood and culture. 查尔斯.伊斯特曼后来一直为苏族人的权利作宣传，并通过写文章，演讲等方式宣传美国印第安文化和他的亲身经历。

Elaine Goodale Eastman left teaching to raise their children and to edit her husband’s books and lectures. 伊莲.古黛尔.伊斯特曼辞职回家照顾孩子，帮助丈夫编校书籍和演讲稿。

They had five daughters and one son together.They named their son Ohiyesa. 他们有五个女儿，一个儿子，儿子叫奥哈伊萨。

RED CLOUD continued to devote his life to his people’s welfare,and fought every government attenmpt to violate the agreements he had signed. “赤云”继续致力于维护族人的权利，与每届试图违反协议的政府作斗争。

More than a century after his murder,SITTING BULL remains the iconic symbol of American Indian resistance. 虽然“卧牛”被谋杀已有一个多世纪，他仍然是美国印第安人反抗白人的符号。

HENRY DAWES,author of “The Dawes Allotment Act”,served in the Senate until 1893.Within decades of the act’s passage,some 90 million acres of American Indian lands were taken and sold to whites. “道斯土地分配条例”的制订人亨利•道斯担任参议院直至 1893 年。在法案生效的几十年里，超过九千万英亩原属印第安人的土地被国家收走，卖给白人。

In 1980,the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the 1876 seizure of the Black Hills violated treaties signed with the Sioux. 1895 年，美国最高法院判决 1876 年夺取黑山的行为违反了与苏族签订的协议。

In the majority opinion,Justice Blackmun wrote,“A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never,in all probability,be found in our history." 大法官布雷克蒙写道：“回顾我国政府历史上众多不光彩的交易，没有一次比这更无耻，更恶劣”。这也代表了大众的意见。

But the Court refused to restore the land to the Sioux,and ordered that compensation be paid instead. 但法院驳回了归还苏族土地的请求，改判赔偿相应损失。

That award,now worth more than $600 million,remains unclaimed. 这笔现值约六亿美元的赔款仍未支付。

To date,the Sioux will not agree to surrender their claim to the Black Hills,a place they feel is sacred. 苏族人至今没有放弃对他们的圣地，黑山所有权的争取。

剧情简介

维基百科

The plot, which is based on events covered by several chapters of Brown’s book as well as other sources, revolves around four main characters: Charles Eastman né Ohiyesa (Adam Beach), a young, mixed-race Sioux doctor educated at Dartmouth and Boston University, who is held up as proof of the success of assimilation; Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg), the Sioux chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, their dignity and their sacred land, the gold-laden Black Hills of the Dakotas; Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn), an architect of government policy for allotment of Indian lands to individual households to force adoption of subsistence farming; and Red Cloud, whose decision to make peace with the American government and go to a reservation disturbed Sitting Bull.
While Eastman and his future wife Elaine Goodale (Paquin), a reformer from New England and Superintendent of Indian Schools in the Dakotas, work to improve life for Indians on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Ulysses Grant (Thompson) for more humane treatment of the Indians. He opposes the adversarial stance of General William Tecumseh Sherman (Feore). The Dawes Commission (held from 1893 to 1914) develops a proposal to break up the Great Sioux Reservation to allow for American demands for land while preserving enough land for the Sioux to live on. The Commission’s plan is held up by Sitting Bull’s opposition. He has risen to leadership among the Sioux as one of the last chiefs to fight for their independence. Dawes, in turn, urges Eastman to help him convince the recalcitrant tribal leaders. After witnessing conditions on the Sioux reservation, Eastman refuses.
The prophet Wovoka (Studi) raised Western Indian hopes with his spiritual movement based on a revival of religious practice and the ritual Ghost Dance; it was a messianic movement that promised an end of their suffering under the white man. The assassination of Sitting Bull and the massacre of nearly 200 Indian men, women and children by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890 ended such hopes.
Henry L. Dawes’ wanted to increase the cultural assimilation of Native Americans into American society by his Dawes Act (1887) and his later efforts as head of the Dawes Commission. During the 47 years of implementing the Act, Native Americans lost about 90 million acres (360,000 km²) of treaty land, or about two-thirds of their 1887 land base. About 90,000 Indians were made landless. The Implementation of the Dawes Act disrupted Native American tribes’ communal life, culture, and unity.