The film opens with the battle of Little Bighorn, where the Indians won a great victory against the Americans. The Indian boy Ohiyesa, who is the main character in the movie, has just received a feather for his contribution in the battle mentioned above, when his father comes to take him with him to the American community. He wants his son to get a Christian education, as he has, and therefore forces him to leave the Indian tribe. Ohiyesa’s teacher refused to address him by his Indian name and he therefore has to chance his name to Charles Eastman, and is forced to give up his Indian inheritance.
So after an offer is put on the table, where Americans offers to pay a certain amount of money for each piece land the Indians own, because they have found gold in mines on Indian territories and also wishes to lay railroad across the country and over to the Pacific Ocean. In the end, after being threatened on their life’s, some of the Indians, lead by the chief Red Clods, accept the offer and they are moved to reservations, where they are given minimum amounts of supplies, and the American tries to take from them their identity and dignity. A great number of the Indians die from diseases like smallpox, which the Americans has brought with them, and they receive no medical attention, except for the medication, which is available on rare occasions, and which they are give without any examination.