The series was first broadcast in the U.S. on Turner Network Television (TNT) on six Fridays starting on June 10, 2005. It was also shown in the UK on BBC2 and BBC HD from November 4, 2006, and in Canada on CBC Television. The miniseries begins in the 1820s and is told mainly through the third person narration of Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle) and Loved By the Buffalo (Joseph M. Marshall III) The plot follows the story of two families, one white American and one Native American, as their lives become mingled through momentous events of American expansion.