America: Promised Land

About 1/10 of the Union army

was composed of German-born soldiers.

- Some units give their orders in German.

- Immigration hasn't just transformed America.

Immigration is America.

In the history of mankind,

no society has received more immigrants

than the United States.

male narrator: America is a tapestry.

Every dot is one of us.

Using the latest population data and archive records,

this is who we are.

Each cluster of color, an ancestral group.

If you're German-American,

these blue areas are where you're most likely living,

the largest group in the nation.

Just one part of a giant puzzle

that includes Cubans, shown in yellow;

Italians, this cluster of pink.

Here are the Scandinavians,

and here the Chinese, shown in green.

What made 1/3 of the population of Norway

move to the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest?

How did this small cluster of Mennonites from Russia

transform Kansas?

Why did the invention of the stamp

help send over 2 million Irish to these cities?

How did new railroads

impact the African-Americans' Great Migration north

to these red areas?

If you're living in the U.S. right now,

you're about to find out

why you are where you are.

narrator: Harmen van den Bogaert,

a Dutch migrant

from the settlement of New Amsterdam...

narrator: On a mission to save the fur trade.

- Young, energetic, smart, courageous,

not afraid of what's beyond the horizon.

If you have a very, very difficult job out there,

you turn to people like Harmen van den Bogaert.

narrator: If you're Dutch-American,

your ancestry could reach back four centuries...

narrator: Where you helped secure the future

of America's biggest city.

- Three men going off into the wilderness have essentially

the fate of the colony on their shoulders,

and without van den Bogaert, you could say

New York City would not have happened.

narrator: 22 years old,

hungry for success.

He's typical of America's earliest immigrants.

- Most of the migrants to America at this time

were young men in their twenties,

because young men are desperate for social improvement,

and they're stupid.

They're naive enough to think

that nothing bad can happen to them.

In order to have the courage

to leave one's homeland,

to venture across the seas

into a foreign and unknown place,

those individuals are already highly motivated.

narrator: Ships' manifests and archive records show Bogaert

is one of some 5,000 early Dutch migrants.

Alongside him come the ancestors of Humphrey Bogart

and Franklin Roosevelt.

Most land in New Amsterdam,

the future New York City.

- The Dutch founded the colony around the beaver trade.

Europe is in the midst of a mini ice age.

It's cold there.

narrator: Temperatures are up to three degrees colder than today.

Fur prices spiral.

A beaver fur hat costs $500 in today's money.

In Europe, they're nearly extinct,

but America has a huge beaver population.

- The French and the Dutch in particular

were very interested in trading with the Indians for beavers.

narrator: But the Native Iroquois Confederacy

has cut off the fur supply...

And Bogaert has been sent to find out why.

narrator: Almost four centuries later,

his descendant, a U.S. Army colonel,

retraces his steps.

I am Colonel Adrian Bogart,

and I am descended from Harmen van den Bogaert.

From my time in the army,

what Van Den Bogaert does?

We would never do.

Our patrol planning is very intensive.

We make sure that the routes are secure.

Bogaert has done none of this preparation.

Risk assessment: high.

narrator: The last Dutch expedition into this territory

was attacked and killed.

Rumors say their captain was roasted...

eaten.

Standing between Bogaert and his goal:

the Mohawk River.

- This is very dangerous, extremely hazardous.

You can see how fast the river is now.

It's treacherous.

Is he taking a chance? A big chance.

But he's got to go.

- The first thing that happens is...

This gasp.

It's not hypothermia.

It's cold shock.

He's got about 10 minutes

before he loses all manual function.

He makes it.

One major step towards his ultimate goal

of getting to strike the deal with the Oneida Indians.

narrator: The Oneida are one of five Iroquois nations

in the future upstate New York.

DNA evidence shows that Native Americans

are descended from Siberian nomads

who entered North America at least 15,000 years ago.

On first European contact,

they number approximately 12 million people,

some 2,000 nations spread across the continent.

Now, an eternal migrant battle

for land, for status

is about to begin.

- In telling the history of immigration

to the United States,

one can't neglect to talk about

the conflict that existed

between established groups

and new immigrants that were coming in

on a constant basis over time.

This is part of the fundamental history

of immigration in American society.

narrator: 100 miles from safety...

Bogaert comes face-to-face with the Iroquois chieftains.

- You don't know if you can trust them.

You don't know if it's safe or not,

but this is the moment of truth.

narrator: At last, Bogaert discovers

why fur supplies have stopped.

They're trading with the French.

One of the Oneida chiefs

puts his hand onto Bogaert's heart

and feels his heartbeat.

If it's a fast heartbeat, it's over.

If it's a slow, normal heartbeat,

then they can talk to him.

It's normal.

Let's do business.

narrator: Bogaert seals a new trade deal,

and the Dutch colony booms.

- That is the beginning of this thriving culture

that centuries later would become very familiar

as New York City.

narrator: Today, 4 1/2 million Americans