How 1883 Killed Elsa Dutton and Closed the Duttons’ Journey to Paradise Valley

A wound that could not heal

The Lakota had found their settlement destroyed and their families killed. Mistaking the travelers for those responsible, their chief led the attack. Elsa’s death is shown in the first episode and fully developed in season one’s ninth episode, “Racing Clouds.”

The infection worsens as the group travels. Elsa reaches Fort Caspar, but the doctor there cannot help her; after learning who runs the fort, the travelers leave for Montana.

The journey to Paradise Valley

James and Margaret decide to settle wherever Elsa dies. An Indigenous man directs James to Paradise Valley, and Elsa rides there with her father to choose her grave.

Before her death, the man warns that his people will reclaim the land after the Duttons have held it for seven generations. James tells him they can have it back then. Elsa eventually dies from the infection, and the family’s arrival in Paradise Valley is tied to her loss.

History behind the tragedy

The story frames the attack within the history of westward expansion and the seizure of Indigenous lands. The article describes the Lakota as defending their people and territory after their families were murdered, while the caravan’s travelers were not responsible for that massacre.

A story with an ending

As the show’s narrator, Elsa seems at first to be the center of a continuing story. Instead, her fate completes the account of the Duttons’ journey and the cost attached to their new home.

Sheridan said, “As a storyteller, it feels close-ended,” according to Deadline. Producer David Glasser also agreed that the story had a definitive ending from the beginning.