Bull takes his grandson Antoine to the mountains and discovers their sacred river has been stopped by a dam.

Overcome with rage at the dam built on sacred lands, Bull shoots at it but causes no damage.

Henry Jim, Bull's long-estranged brother, arrives at camp and proposes reconciling by recovering the tribe's lost Feather Boy medicine bundle.

Henry Jim visits government agent Toby Rafferty at the Little Elk Agency and asks for help retrieving the medicine bundle.

Pock Face climbs above the dam, takes aim, and shoots Jimmie Cooke, the dam's caretaker, killing him.

Reverend Welles refuses to help Rafferty retrieve the bundle and reveals he sent it to museum director Adam Pell in New York.

Marshal Grant raids Bull's camp, finds a brass cartridge shell near the dam, and detains Bull and his men.

Rafferty, Doc Edwards, and The Boy visit the dying Henry Jim at his ranch to discuss the medicine bundle.

Adam Pell and his sister Geneva Cooke reunite in Elk City, and Pell expresses that he feels responsible for the trouble at the dam.

Pock Face publicly confesses to killing Jimmie Cooke, and Pell resolves to return the medicine bundle to make amends.

After Henry Jim's funeral, tribe members approach Rafferty for farming help for the first time in years.

Pell searches his New York museum and discovers the Feather Boy bundle has been destroyed by pests in a storage room.

While touring the reservation, Pell reveals the bundle's destruction to Rafferty and Edwards and shows them the gold figurine he chose as a replacement.

At the agency meeting, Pell confesses to Bull's men that the medicine bundle was destroyed and that he designed the dam.

Enraged by the bundle's destruction, Bull shoots and kills Pell and Rafferty, and The Boy then shoots Bull dead.

Bull, chief of the Little Elk tribe, discovers that white settlers have built a dam on the tribe's sacred lands, and his long-estranged brother Henry Jim returns seeking reconciliation through the recovery of their lost Feather Boy medicine bundle. A young tribal member named Pock Face kills the dam's caretaker, triggering a government investigation that leads to Bull and his men being detained at the agency. Rafferty, the agency agent, uncovers that the bundle was sent to museum director Adam Pell, who arrives with the dead caretaker's family and accepts personal responsibility for the situation. After Henry Jim dies, Pell promises to return the medicine bundle, only to discover it has been completely destroyed in his museum's storage. Pell reveals this loss at a climactic meeting with Bull, along with his own role in designing the dam. Overwhelmed by compounded betrayal, Bull kills both Pell and Rafferty before being shot by The Boy, ending all hope for reconciliation.

The key events driving the Little Elk tribe toward tragedy.

Two Sleeps warns the gathered camp that an important visitor is coming and that the message concerns more than the water problem.

Rafferty discusses Henry Jim's request with Doc Edwards, who urges him to take the medicine bundle matter seriously.

Henry Jim rides through the valley visiting relatives and urging them to set aside their own disputes.

Henry Jim has a vision on the road and his companions begin singing continuously, believing the singing keeps him alive.

Henry Jim's companions reach the Little Elk Agency but Marshal Grant turns them away, warning that the tribe is in serious trouble.

The women of Bull's camp find a hidden whiskey bottle in Pock Face's wife's tepee and drink it before Veronica scolds them.

Pock Face returns to Bull's camp and tells Bull that he shot and killed the man at the dam.

The Boy overhears a heated argument between Grant and Rafferty and then reassures anxious tribe members waiting outside the agency.

Thomas and Geneva Cooke arrive by train in Elk City to retrieve their son Jimmie's body.

After delivering the women to safety, Antoine recalls the brutal treatment he endured during his years at the residential school.

Marshal Grant presents a recovered rifle and a torn blanket fragment as evidence linking Bull's camp to the murder.

After Henry Jim's death, Bull's separated group returns to their original camp and reunites with Marie Louise, who stayed behind.

Pell returns to New York and discovers that his own policies contributed to the water rights crisis on the Little Elk Reservation.

During a winter gathering, Bull tells Antoine the origin story of Thunderbird, Feather Boy, and the medicine bundle.

Pell's secretary suggests using a rare gold Andean figurine, the Virgin of the Andes, as a substitute gift for the Little Elk tribe.

The elders of Bull's camp sense danger before Henry Jim even arrives, and the medicine bundle crisis unfolds alongside a murder investigation that strains every relationship within the Little Elk community. Henry Jim's companions are turned away from the agency by the marshal, while the women of Bull's camp struggle to maintain calm before Pock Face returns and confesses his crime to Bull. The Cooke family arrives to claim their son's body, and Marshal Grant presents flimsy evidence against the tribe while Antoine, newly returned from residential school, confronts the trauma the institution left behind. Hope slowly rebuilds in the aftermath of Henry Jim's funeral as the tribe begins cooperating with Rafferty, but Pell's return to New York leads him to uncover his own deep involvement in the reservation's water crisis. His search for a remedy leads only to the Virgin of the Andes figurine, a gold statue he believes can substitute for what his museum destroyed. These secondary events reveal how every character's choices, no matter how seemingly small, contributed to the catastrophe waiting at the agency.

Supporting moments that shape the unfolding tragedy.

While left to guard the camp, Antoine watches helplessly as Pock Face steals Bull's rifle and leaves for the dam.

After Pock Face returns from the dam, Bull warns him that his impulsive killing may bring ruin upon the entire camp.

The Boy visits Bull and the detained men in the schoolhouse basement, where they debate tribal versus white ideas of justice.

Bull instructs the detained men to deny involvement in the murder and asks The Boy to tell Rafferty they want to join Henry Jim.

The camp women depart with Antoine and the children, and their horse tracks inadvertently erase the evidence trail Grant was following.

After failing to find Bull at the agency, Antoine is directed by The Boy to ride to Henry Jim's ranch instead.

Henry Jim tells those gathered at his tepee why he left his Western-style house to spend his final days among his people.

Rafferty tells the dying Henry Jim that if he survives the night, Bull should come to the agency the next day to discuss the bundle.

Bull tells The Boy that he trusts him to speak between the tribe and the government, calling him like a son.

Two Sleeps returns from a solitary mountain journey in a weakened state but refuses to speak about what he witnessed.

The Boy delivers Pell's message to Bull's camp, and Two Sleeps covers his eyes and weeps at the news of a gift.

Pock Face's father Louis warns Bull's camp that he will kill someone if any authority tries to take his son away.

Bull's camp agrees to meet with Pell and sings the Feather Boy song together as they set out for the agency.

Two Sleeps reveals to Veronica that his mountain vision showed him the medicine bundle was destroyed, and he laments his long silence.

Two Sleeps and Veronica hear distant gunshots from the direction of the agency and proceed toward it together, singing the death song.

A chain of irreversible decisions sets the tragedy in motion, beginning with Pock Face's theft of Bull's rifle and the killing that follows at the dam, and continuing with Bull's tense confrontation of Pock Face about the consequences bearing down on the camp. Bull's detention leads to a standoff in which questions of justice, loyalty, and identity force every character to take a side, while the women's departure inadvertently destroys the marshal's evidence trail. Antoine's scarred return from residential school and Henry Jim's deathbed explanation of why he abandoned his Western house both reveal the deep human cost of colonial pressure. Bull's cautious decision to trust The Boy as a go-between offers a fragile glimpse of hope, but Two Sleeps returns from the mountains carrying a devastating secret he cannot bring himself to share. The message of Pell's return shakes the camp's resolve, and Louis's threat of violence signals the powder keg the final meeting will ignite. Two Sleeps's belated confession to Veronica and the death song they sing as they hear the gunshots confirm that the Little Elk world has irreversibly come apart.