Way West, The: Westward, The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way, 1845-1864 (1995) Rating: Starring: Russell Baker Director: Ric Burns Category: Documentary Studio: Shanachie Subtitles: Length: 90 mins Want to buy?           Narrated by Russel Baker Chronicles the colorful opening decades of frenzied expansion, from the 1840s up through the Civil War. Fewer than 20,000 white Americans lived west of the Mississippi River in 1845- when the pioneer movement and then the Gold Rush sent hundreds of thousands of Americans rushing west across the continent to California and Oregon. As key technological innovations like the telegraph brought the sprawling nation together, the conflict between Native Americans and Whites increased. The ever-quickening pace of expansion led to a series of bloody confrontations between Native Americans and whites, culminating in the Minnesota Uprising of 1862 and, two years later, the massacre at Sand Creek.