The Rise of the Lakota | Part 1 | Ancient to Recent | Episode 67

The Lakota are on the rise.

For generations, the Sioux had possessed one enormous advantage: numbers. But numbers alone were not enough.

The Lakota lacked the horses and firearms necessary to turn their strength into military power. Caught between rival European empires and powerful Indigenous nations, their expansion had repeatedly been checked.

Now, everything is about to change.

In this first episode of our new series, we trace the transformation of the Lakota as they encounter two technologies that will reshape the Great Plains: the gun and the horse.

We travel back to the seventeenth century, exploring the Lakota's encounters with French traders, the Iroquois, Cree, Ojibwa and other Indigenous nations competing for control of the continent.

As France and Britain battle for North America, both seek Indigenous allies.

The Sioux need guns.

The Europeans need warriors.

But the Indigenous nations have their own ambitions, rivalries and political calculations.

Then comes the horse.

Reintroduced to North America by the Spanish, it begins spreading across the interior. For the Lakota, it will be revolutionary.

Mobility, firepower and access to the vast buffalo herds of the Great Plains begin transforming Lakota society.

But the Lakota are not entering an empty wilderness. They face the Crow, Pawnee, Cree, Assiniboine, Mandan, Arikara and many other powerful peoples.

Smallpox devastates the peoples of the Missouri River, shattering societies that had long acted as a barrier to Lakota expansion.

As the old balance of power collapses, the Lakota move west.

The Black Hills become increasingly important. The Missouri becomes a highway rather than a boundary.

And the Lakota begin combining the things they need most: mobility, firepower, numbers and the buffalo.

Meanwhile, Britain defeats France and emerges as the dominant European power in North America.

Then, as Britain and its American colonies go to war, another great power begins to emerge.

In 1776, as the American colonists declare independence, the Lakota are establishing their dominance across the Black Hills.

Two peoples are declaring themselves to the world.

Two nations whose futures will become inseparably intertwined.

And the collision between them is only beginning.

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