Ray Mears, "How the wild west was won."

PrimitiveEnergy

PrimitiveEnergy

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Has anyone seen Ray Mear's show series, "How the wild west was won with Ray Mears?' He is in the USA.

Episode 1, Mountains. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PMuetP0MUw
Episode 2, Great Plains. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zIORQnKq5I
Episode 3, Deserts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sOB0oII_Hg

Mountains.
"As Ray travels through each landscape he discovers how their awe-inspiring geography, extreme weather, wild animals and ecology presented both great opportunities and great challenges for the native Indians, mountain men, fur traders, wagon trains and gold miners of the Wild West.

Ray begins his westward journey in the Appalachians where he explores how their timbered slopes fuelled the lumber industry and provided the fuel and building material for the emerging nation. Native Appalachian Barbara Woodall and lumberjack Joe Currie share their family history with him, and he gets to grips with the rare 'hellbender' salamander.

Further west, in the high jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, Ray goes mule trekking with modern-day mountain man Stu Sorenson and he has close encounters with beaver, elk and black bear.

Finally, in the desert mountains of the Sierra Nevada, he explores the tragic story of the Donner Party wagon train whose members allegedly turned to cannibalism to survive. His journey ends as he pans for gold with modern day gold prospector John Gurney, and explores the boom and bust story of ghost town, Bodie."
 
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i like how he comes at it from a nearly totally foreign perspective. And he gets so excited about the simple things, which I admit are the things that fascinate me as well. That and he doesn't want to polish up history, just tell the truth. So many docos end up either going over old ground, or the interviewer is so jaded they don't think to ask deep questions.
 
I finally watched it. I agree that his perspective was different and a bit refreshing because of that. And the scenery was good. The storyline was pretty thin of necessity for time constraints. American History is, for it's brief duration, rather complicated, especially for someone to understand, explain and illustrate in the confines of a one hour overview. Thanks for posting the link.
 
Happy to help out my fellow BF members. Here is a link to episode 2, Great Plains.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zIORQnKq5I


"Ray Mears explores how 500,000 square miles of flat, treeless grassland was the setting for some of the Wild West's most dramatic stories of Plains Indians, wagon trains, homesteaders and cattle drives.

Ray joins the Blackfeet Indian Nation as they demonstrate bareback riding skills before a ritual buffalo hunt and sacrifice, and learns how their ancestors were dependent upon the buffalo for their survival. He follows in the wagon ruts of the early pioneers along the Oregon Trail and hitches a ride on a prairie schooner with wagon master Kim Merchant. He discovers the stories of the early homesteaders who lived in sod-houses and farmed the wild grassland around them.

At a cattle auction in Dodge City he explores the story of the railways, cow-towns and the buffalo massacre. His journey across the Great Plains ends at Moore Ranch where he joins a long-horn cattle drive and learns about the life and myth of one of the Wild West's most iconic figures, the cowboy."
 
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gosh I love how BBC does their production...so much more educational yaknow.
 
I've also missed Ray Mears more than I thought. So much drama right now on TV, and he does such a great job of integrating thoughtful inquisitiveness with a great focus on education, yet still makes it interesting.
 
I agree, not enough story telling and too much "you won't believe what we find!"
I liked in this one how he doesn't try to romanticize what the tribes are doing. Its obvious that they are trying keep old skills alive and not quite succeeding. But he lets that pass, and dives right in. He focuses on what they've held on to or re-discovered or adapted, and just rolls with it. Loved the part where they try to gross him out, and he's just right in it. He just lets the story happen around him, instead of trying to direct every moment.
 
Ray Mears is definitely one of the good guys. ''The unknown Pioneer'' episode felt kind of personal as I have been to many of those locations. My wife and I actually lived on a Dene reserve while on a teaching contract. But it feels that the region and people were a bit over romanticised. My wife is Cree and historically the Cree\Dene had animosities to the point of killing each other on sight. But then the Dene would kill the Inuit (Eskimo) on sight also. The short version is that the Cree got European firearms first and pushed the Dene further north. Anyway, the animosity is still there to this day, and Caucasians aren't viewed in any better light. To be honest the Dene have always been seen as trouble and ''bottom of the barrel'' by other native groups in this region. Regardless of or partially because of their Denecentric world view. Doing a quick film shoot were people are on their best behaviour and colouring their own historical perspective is one thing, living long term in a community is another. I met some individually kind and wonderful Dene folk up there, but I am being honest with what I said above......Canadians are generally self aware that we are the bland country in North America, more or less analogous to Norwegians ? in Europe. But the irony is that all of North America has a rich historical heritage, we just don't promote it. Were I lived on the North Saskatchewan river, we have many, many fur trade posts. Reading the historical accounts from the men living there reveals native attacks were women, men, children were slaughtered, traders killing a bear by hand only to die a week later etc. And conversely, I read historic accounts of traders using rum heavily because it was an inexpensive trade good, which had obviously negative long term effects on the Indigenous population around here. It all happened up here also.
 
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