Spanning the years 1877-1887, the seventh installment of the magnificent PBS series The West takes its title, "The Geography of Hope," from a quote by historian Stewart Udall, referring to the exuberant anticipation that drew some 4.5 million settlers westward during this 10-year period. It was also the time of the most radical change for the Native Americans, who were expected to conform overnight to the surging rush of European homesteaders. Something had to give--the native people paid the price, losing their birthright. Likewise, Chinese, Mexicans, and Mormons were reduced to a faint echo of their former presence. In contrast, liberated blacks, under the urging of ex-slave "Pap" Singleton, sought to create an independent community in Kansas. This episode also continues the saga of Lakota chief Sitting Bull, now relegated to the Standing Rock reservation in the Dakotas. Parallel to Sitting Bull"s decline is the rise of North Dakota rancher and future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, whose lonesome romance with the West was intensified by the deaths of his wife and mother on the same day in 1884. Around the same time, the group called "Friends of the Indian" enforced the federal goal of Indian containment, turning tribal youth away from their heritage. But the dominant European settlers would suffer as well, notably when the deadly winter of 1886-87 would bring an end to the raucous era of open-range ranching. Before long, the romantic West would be best remembered in the crowd-pleasing panorama of the Wild West Show, which the legendary William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody presented around the world for three decades beginning in 1883, as the "real" West was transformed into an idealized memory. --Jeff Shannon