Inspired by Dee Brown's bestseller, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee begins powerfully with the Sioux triumph over General Custer at Little Big Horn. The action centers on the struggles of three characters: Charles Eastman (Adam Beach), a young, Dartmouth-educated Sioux doctor; Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg), the proud Lakota 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 Black Hills of the Dakotas; and Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn), one of the men responsible for the government policy on Indian affairs. While Eastman and schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin) work to improve life for the Sioux on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Grant for kinder Indian treatment.