Red Cloud

"They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept but one: they promised to take our land... and they took it."

- Red Cloud on the United States

Red Cloud was one of the most important leaders of the Oglala Lakota. He led from 1868 to 1909. One of the most capable Native American opponents that the United States Army faced in its mission to subdue the western territories, he led a successful campaign in 1866–1868 known as Red Cloud's War over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war, the Fetterman Fight, was the worst military defeat suffered by the US on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.

Thanks to his efforts the Great Sioux Reservation was enstablished where he and his people could live savely, though tension continued to rise between the Native Americans and the ever expanding Unite States. Hostility grew between the Lakota and US when a recon team led by George Custer found gold in the reservation, causing many golddiggers and miners to flok to the region. In May 1875, Lakota delegations headed by Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and Lone Horn traveled to Washington in an attempt to persuade President Grant to honor existing treaties and stem the flow of miners into their lands. Grant told them on May 27 that Congress was ready to resolve the matter by paying the tribes $25,000 for their land and resettling them into Indian Territory, an offer they refused.

During the Lakota War that soon followed Red Cloud did not join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, instead choosing to remain neutral. He became an important leader of the Lakota as they transitioned from the freedom of the plains to the confinement of the reservation system and out lived all the other major Lakota leaders until his death in 1901.

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