Peter Coyote narrates the complex tale of the life of Seth Eastman, one of the most significant American artists of the 19th century. Even as he helped carry out the federal government's Indian removal policies, Eastman, a painter in the Hudson River School, documented the traditional cultures of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples on canvas in works that today make up an invaluable historical record. As a young lieutenant, he also had an affair with a Dakota woman; Dakota descendants bearing the name "Eastman" still live throughout the Midwest and Canada.