Red Cloud
Red Cloud (1822–1909), Oglala Sioux leader.Born near the forks of the Platte River, Nebraska, Red Cloud became a leader (shirt‐wearer) in the “Bad Faces” military lodge for his exploits against enemy Pawnees, Utes, and Crows. Concerned about white encroachments, he launched “Red Cloud's War” in 1866–67 against the army's Bozeman Trail posts. During several engagements, especially the annihilation of William J. Fetterman's eighty‐man column outside Fort Phil Kearny, his followers proved a match for the bluecoats.
In the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), the government conceded to Red Cloud's demands that the Bozeman Trail forts be abandoned. Thereafter he adopted a more conciliatory stance, apparently convinced that his people stood little chance of winning a war against the United States. Made a “chief” by federal officials, he was in 1876 stripped of this position, only to regain government recognition the following...
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