The American West Episode 1.05 Outlaw Rising

Billy the Kid uses his talents with a gun to get what he wants. Wyatt Earp fights for justice. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse make a big decision.

Crazy Horse and his men continue to resist the U.S. Army in the Plains, but the slaughter of the buffalo has brought many Indians to starvation. Sitting Bull knows that there is no future for his followers so he parts ways with Crazy Horse and leads 5,000 people north to Canada, while Crazy Horse stays behind with 1,000 warriors.

The decimated Indian population allows settlers looking for gold to take over the Black Hills. The gold allows the U.S. to recover from the economic depression and, in turn, attracts millions of immigrants. With new citizens to feed, the cattle industry takes off in the West.

In New Mexico, Billy the Kid, an orphan from Hell's Kitchen, N.Y., begins stealing cattle to survive. When he steals from a rancher named John Tunstall, the rancher's men abduct Billy. Impressed by Billy's skills, Tunstall hires him and the two become like family.

To the north, Crazy Horse continues to resist U.S. expansion, but a long winter forces him to lay down his arms and offer his enemy friendship. He surrenders to a reservation in Nebraska, where missionaries convert the Native Americans to Christianity.

With the spirit of his people breaking, Crazy Horse demands what he was promised in the treaty, a place for Native Americans to continue their way of life. But his demands are misinterpreted by the government and military as signs of a possible uprising.

When Crazy Horse goes to meet with reservation officials to clear his name, he finds a trap. Rather than be imprisoned, he fights back and, in the ensuing struggle, a U.S. sentry kills him with a bayonet.

In New Mexico, the cattle barons known as "the House" and their powerful sponsor, Thomas Catron, engineer the murder of Tunstall. Billy swears vengeance on those responsible for the death of his mentor, including local Sherriff William Brady.

Four hundred miles away in Kansas, tough guy Wyatt Earp earns a living laying railroad track, hunting buffalo and working as a bouncer. When the young brawler heads to the violent boomtown of Dodge City, he finds himself in the middle of a gunfight that breaks out over a gambling dispute. When the victor threatens the bar's patrons, Earp knocks him out cold.

It's not long before Earp is recruited as Deputy Marshall of Dodge City.