Series1923
8.32022
Series
Watch People of the West Online
No video is available for People of the West - S1E1 yet. Check back soon.
Returning Series
Synopsis
People of the West is a ten-part premium documentary series that reclaims the history of California through Indigenous perspectives. Blending oral histories, tribal archives, expert insight, and cinematic recreations, the series spans from creation stories and pre-contact life through colonization, state-sponsored violence, resistance, and cultural survival. Each episode centers Native voices and lived experience, reframing well-known events—from the mission system and Gold Rush to Alcatraz and modern sovereignty movements—through those who endured them. Visually ambitious and emotionally grounded, the series pairs sweeping landscapes with intimate storytelling to reveal California as it has always been: Native land. Designed to live both on screen and in classrooms, People of the West offers a corrective to dominant narratives while highlighting the resilience, continuity, and contemporary presence of Native nations shaping the state today.
Episodes
Season 1
PreviousNext
1. First ContactNow viewing1hOn Kumeyaay/Ipai land in 1542, a teenager’s coming-of-age ceremony collides with the arrival of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. Guided by elders, the village meets the strangers in cautious diplomacy—until Spain’s Requerimiento reveals conquest masked as faith. A dispute over fishing rights ignites tension, and the encounter takes a turn that will echo for generations. Framed by a present-day classroom challenge, the pilot blends oral histories, expert insight, and cinematic dramatization to reclaim first contact from an Indigenous perspective.
2. Spanish Missions1hThe brutal reality of California’s mission system unfolds through the story of Aha’ya and Atsia of the Ohlone. Families are torn apart as forced baptisms, disease, starvation, and systemic abuse define life under Junípero Serra and the soldiers. Expert voices reveal how the missions operated as engines of colonization, using whippings, sexual violence, and forced labor to control Native people. Yet amid devastation, acts of resistance and survival endure, culminating in uprisings that challenged Spanish domination.
3. Gold Rush1h 1mCalifornia’s mid-1800s transformation is marked by conquest, massacres, and betrayal. Fremont slaughters the Wintu as Su-su-met and Wa’da’s tender love story is suddenly torn apart. The Temecula Massacre unfolds, pitting Native nations against each other under the shadow of the Mexican-American War. In the Sierra foothills, Miwok and Nisenan families are devastated by the Gold Rush through enslavement, famine, and dispossession. While myths later celebrate opportunity and cowboy codes, the reality is genocide and exclusion. Yet Native voices endure, affirming survival, memory, and responsibility to the Earth.
4. Genocide59mCalifornia’s statehood unleashes a campaign of genocide and slavery against Native peoples. Militias carry out massacres with government funding, while laws legalize the buying and selling of Native children. When Native families defend their homes, the violence is overwhelming and merciless. Through the story of T’tc~tsa, a Wailaki girl sold into sexual bondage, the human cost of conquest is laid bare. Yet survival itself becomes resistance, as Native voices endure beyond frontier myths to expose America’s true foundation.
5. Reservations59mChief Tenaya leads the Ahwahneechee in a desperate stand to defend Yosemite from James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion. Raids on trading posts spark all-out war, and federal treaty commissioners move to strip Native nations of their homelands, forcing them onto barren reservations. In the struggle between survival and surrender, Tenaya resists through strategy and defiance. Rather than a story of pioneers taming wilderness, this chapter reveals Native determination to protect home and homeland against relentless conquest.
6. Boarding Schools1h 2mWhen a young Paiute boy cuts his hair in anger, his grandmother relives her own trauma as a survivor of the Sherman Indian Boarding School. In flashback, teenage Kaiba and her cousin Wahiti are torn from their families and forced into a system built to erase their culture. Hair is shorn, names are changed, and language forbidden as Richard Pratt’s doctrine—“Kill the Indian, save the man”—takes hold across California. Through Kaiba’s defiance and remembrance, a legacy of survival endures, revealing how assimilation tried—and failed—to silence Native identity.
7. The American Dream1h 4mA Chumash family uprooted by federal Termination policy moves from reservation life to 1950s Los Angeles, chasing the promise of the “American Dream.” War veteran Robert struggles to reconcile pride in his service with the shame instilled by assimilation, while his wife Deb clings to culture through language and ceremony. Their son Teddy becomes caught between worlds as Hollywood stereotypes and government programs work to erase Native identity. Through loss and defiance, the family wrestles with what it means to belong in a country still trying to erase them.
8. Red Power1h 10mIn the ashes of San Francisco’s American Indian Center, a new generation rises. Mohawk activist Richard Oakes and student leader LaNada Means rally Native voices from across the nation to reclaim Alcatraz Island—transforming a former prison into a symbol of freedom. As the “Indians of All Tribes” occupation captures the world’s attention, unity and defiance collide with loss and sacrifice. Through courage and conviction, they ignite the Red Power Movement and declare to America—and the world—that Native people are still here, and always will be.
9. Gaming1h 4mWhen armed deputies raid a small card room on the Cabazon Reservation, young Brenda Soulliere finds herself at the center of a fight that will redefine Native sovereignty. Led by Chairman Art Welmas and attorney Glenn Feldman, the tribe challenges California’s right to regulate gaming on Indian land. As the case ascends to the Supreme Court, generations of injustice collide with courage and conviction—sparking the modern Indian gaming era and proving that sovereignty is not granted, but exercised.
10. The Next Generation57mFrom the Channel Islands to the Coachella Valley, California’s Native nations reclaim their role as caretakers of land and sea. Chumash divers restore kelp forests in the new Chumash Heritage Marine Sanctuary, while Yurok firefighters revive traditional burning to heal the earth. As repatriation efforts bring ancestors home and a new generation builds sustainable futures, voices once silenced rise to lead the state’s environmental rebirth—proving that California’s future depends on remembering its first stewards.
Cast
Top Billed Cast
No cast is listed for People of the West.
Availability
Where To Watch Legally
No legal streaming, rental or purchase options for People of the West were reported for this region.
Recommended
More Like This
- Series
SeriesZorro
7.61957
SeriesInto the West
8.02005
Series1883
8.32021
SeriesLittle House on the Prairie
8.01974
SeriesRawhide
7.21959
SeriesLittle House on the Prairie
6.72026
SeriesWhen Calls the Heart
8.32014
SeriesCheyenne
6.21955
SeriesWagon Train
6.61957
SeriesThe High Chaparral
6.81967
SeriesHow the West Was Won
7.01977
SeriesThe Big Valley
6.21965
SeriesLongmire
7.72012
SeriesTexas Rising
6.42015
SeriesThe Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
7.01954
SeriesThe Young Riders
7.41989
SeriesHave Gun, Will Travel
7.31957
SeriesRocket Power
7.71999
SeriesThe Virginian
6.51962
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Is People of the West available to watch online?
Vidbox does not currently have a legal streaming, rental or purchase option on record for People of the West in this region.
How many seasons does People of the West have?
People of the West has 1 season and 10 episodes.
Is People of the West still running?
Yes, People of the West is an ongoing series.