Premieres Tuesdays, May 6 - 27, 2025 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV / PBS app + Encore Mondays, May 12 - June 2, 2025 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV
THE REAL WILD WEST is a four-part series revealing the unknown history of America's Wild West. Beyond gunslingers and lawmen, we meet the diverse pioneers who shaped the country, including Black and Hispanic cowboys, female homesteaders, immigrants, and tribal leaders.
- Dom, The American Songster
- Wild West Trivia
- The Last Chief Comanche
- Apache Stronghold
- Black Labor Native Land
EPISODE GUIDE:
Episode 1 "Into the Wild" - Young historians, guides and descendants tell the untold stories of the Wild West, including the rich and overlooked history of the Native Americans who were there long before the “west was won,” the Lewis and Clark expedition guided by 16-year-old Sacagawea, and the trickle of frontiersmen that becomes a flood of settlers seeking furs, gold, a free homestead, and a new start in a new land.
Episode 2 "Wars for the West" - Manifest Destiny. The U.S. provokes a war with Mexico, taking California and much of the Southwest. The United States is forged in wars and now stretches coast to coast. The next great flashpoint isn’t about land, but slavery, with abolitionists fighting to stop its spread to the new territories, leading to the Civil War.
Once over, the full power of the U.S. military turns to the western frontier where newly freed Black cowboys and buffalo soldiers find purpose in the West. Meanwhile, the U.S. government violently forces Native American tribes onto reservations.
Episode 3 "Boom and Bust" - The new West is a land of unprecedented opportunity. In less than a century, millions of prospectors rush to gold fields. Boomtowns appear overnight and a transcontinental railroad, built through mountains of solid granite, allows travelers to cross the country in only seven days. It is a century of ambition, greed, fame, and fortune as well as economic engines and technological marvels that change the country and the world.
Episode 4 "Mayhem and Myth" - The Wild West is born out of the desperation following the Civil War. Outlaws rampage and rob while lawmen become legends. It’s a time drenched in boozin’, gamblin’ and womanizing. Although the mountain man, outlaw, lawman, Native American, and cowboy seem like eternal archetypes, the famed Wild West looked a lot different than what we see in movies.
The man responsible? Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show create the myths of the West, and Hollywood begins turning facts into fiction.
Credits: Curiosity Stream Inc. Distributed by American Public Television
