Starving, sick and dying, a few hundred mostly frail Northern Cheyennes flee the hated Indian Territory reservation in a desperate bid to return to their Powder River homeland. Humiliated at his treatment, White Hawk, a proud Dog Soldier, joins the flight, ready for battle, to feel again that he is a warrior. After a long, perilous trek, but not yet home, many are captured and confined to am empty, bitter cold barracks at Fort Robinson. Soon, White Hawk leads his people on a last-ditch run for freedom into the snow and frigid cold. After fighting through the night, White Hawk knows he cannot survive. So he stakes himself out in the style of the Dog Soldiers, and begins to sing his death song.