Red Cloud

And the follow-up question, if there was any danger of an Indian War, he stated, not just now.

Far as I can tell, just based off what information I've been able to find, between the end of Red Cloud's war all the way up to the Battle of Little Bighorn, damn near all of the fighting between the Lakota and white people happened when the white people were pushing into Lakota territory.

Army woodcutters, survey crews, prospectors, stuff like that.

Were there exceptions? Yes.

A couple of horse-stealing raids down in Nebraska, a couple of killings over at the Red Cloud Agency in 1874, but nothing even remotely like what you're describing.

This was not a situation where the Lakota were just riding around raiding settlements and slaughtering homesteaders.

Not in the 1870s.

The Lakota did attack survey crews in the early 1870s, which was in violation of the treaty.

End of Part 1 Part 2 Custer's Last Battle of Custer Battlefield by Robert M. Utley This Liberbox recording is in the public domain.

Section 2A Road to Little Bighorn Recipe for Disaster rode to the little bighorn the indians who wiped out custer were teton sioux and northern cheyennes seven separate tribes made up the teton sioux unkpapa blackfoot oglala brulee tuketl sansark and miniconjou once they had lived around the headwaters of the mississippi river but pressed by chippewas armed with muskets obtained from white traders they retreated in the late eighteenth century westward to the missouri river and beyond in turn they pushed aside weaker tribes and finally overspread the plains cut by the valleys of the yellowstone river and its major tributaries the powder tongue and big horn the cheyennes followed a similar course but migrated to the southwest and made their homes along the upper platte river here they gradually split into two divisions the southern cheyennes generally lived on the high plains between the platte and arkansas rivers the northern cheyennes drifted northward to the country the sioux now claimed this land so bounteous in buffalo and other resources that supported the plains indian's way of life belonged to the crow tribe the sioux swept aside the crows thus touching off generations of conflict between the two peoples in this warfare the northern cheyennes allied themselves with the sioux then another tide rolled westward this one of white people like the crows before them the tetons were confronted with a powerful threat to their territory and freedom they felt the first tremors in the early eighteen sixties when gold discoveries in the mountains of idaho and western montana set off a rush to the new bonanzas gold seekers went up the missouri river on steamboats or set out in wagon trains overland to the mountains the indians resisted soldiers marched against them brig general alfred sully led an army of two thousand to the yellowstone in eighteen sixty four and major general patrick e connor threw three strong columns into the powder river country in eighteen sixty five sully won a victory at kildare mountain but connor's army almost disintegrated when his supply system broke down recipe for disaster the end of the civil war in eighteen sixty five gave new momentum to the westward movement of white americans workmen pushed the rails of the union pacific up the platte river valley to meet and join in eighteen sixty nine with the central pacific beyond the rocky mountains the northern pacific built from st paul minnesota aiming for dakota territory and ultimately the pacific northwest steamers continued to ply the missouri carrying passengers and freight to fort benton the head of navigation for the land journey to the gold mines along the railroad and steamboat routes the little post-war regular army built forts and stationed troops to guard travelers and settlers for the tetons and their northern cheyenne allies the most serious menace loomed in the south beginning in eighteen sixty six emigrants increasingly looked to the bozeman trail as the best route to the montana mines angling northwestward from the north platte river this route crossed the powder tongue and big horn rivers struck the yellowstone on its upper reaches and continued to virginia city and other mining camps piercing the sioux buffalo ranges as it did the trail infuriated the indians especially when soldiers came to protect it three guardian forts reno phil kearney and c f smith planted the army in the midst of the sioux country the tribes fought back cutting off travel on the trail and bottling up the troops in their rude forts the sioux had many fine leaders that year of eighteen sixty six but increasingly they gave allegiance to one who was not even a chief red cloud skilled in war and politics red cloud mobilized the teton tribes against the hated forts a mystical young warrior named crazy horse also rose to prominence he played a critical role in the conflict by leading a decoy party that enticed eighty-one soldiers and civilians out of fort phil kearny squarely into an ambush all perished the annihilation of captain william j fetterman and his command on december twenty one eighteen sixty six stunned the nation and prompted demands for vengeance even so red cloud won the war despite setbacks at the wagon box and hayfield fights in august eighteen sixty seven the indians effectively disrupted travel on the bozeman trail the government decided that the forts would have to be abandoned for the army it was a humiliating retreat but for the gold seekers it made little difference the rapid construction of the union pacific railroad made the montana mines more accessible by other routes the government formalized its surrender in the fort laramie treaty of eighteen sixty eight maddeningly red cloud refused to sign until the soldiers had actually pulled out of the forts after which his warriors promptly rode in and laid them waste even then the ogalalla leader tarried to hunt buffalo before finally journeying down to fort laramie almost six months after he had been expected to make his mark on the treaty the treaty of eighteen sixty eight laid the groundwork for endless trouble between the indians and the united states government the government's aim was to get the sioux together where they could be watched and controlled that meant setting aside a reservation and feeding them the treaty therefore established all of present south dakota west of the missouri river as the great sioux reservation in this sweep of plains the sioux would live while drawing rations and other provisions at agencies along the missouri river but the sioux had won the war and not all wished to become agency indians besides giving up the bozeman trail therefore the government agreed to an unceded territory free of whites stretching from the western boundary of the reservation to the summit of the big horn mountains here in the powder river basin long the heart of the sioux domain the indians could continue to follow the buffalo most of the tetons some fifteen thousand succumbed to the lure of free rations and went to the reservation even red cloud after exasperating government officials with shifting demands finally gave in but neither he nor his equally powerful rival spotted tail chief of the brules wanted an agency on the missouri the indian bureau at last agreed to locations far up the white river across the reservation boundary in nebraska and established red cloud and spotted tail agencies other agencies chief among them cheyenne river and grand river renamed standing rock in eighteen seventy five rose from the banks of the missouri river to the east not all the indians settled on the great sioux reservation a hard corps of holdouts from three thousand sioux and four hundred cheyennes stubbornly resisted all overtures from the government they wanted nothing to do with white people or agencies or rations they preferred the old life of the chase and so long as the buffalo ran in the unceded territory they remained free to do so as they pleased the indians in the unceded territory followed their own tribal chiefs and noted warriors the hunkpapas for example boasted black moon four horns gall crow king and rain-in-the-face the many conjus lame deer and hump the sans arc black eagle and spotted eagle the blackfoot sioux a jumping bear later known as john grass and the ogallalas the incomparable crazy horse since his success in luring captain fetterman into the fatal trap set by his people in eighteen sixty six crazy horse still the silent enigma of his early years had emerged as the most powerful of the non-treaty oglalas the northern cheyennes too closely allied to the sioux counted dynamic leaders among their own roving bands dull knife little wolf two moons dirty moccasins and lame white man above all the tribal leaders however towered a single chief of commanding influence sitting bull of the hunkpapas in early battles especially the fighting against general sully in eighteen sixty four sixty five he had made an outstanding record since then he had broadened his influence into spiritual and political realms rock-like dedication to traditional indian values and unwavering opposition to all relations with the white people ran deep in his make-up and fortified his dominance on his tribesmen at the agencies he heaped scorn you are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon some hardtack and a little sugar and coffee all the teton and cheyenne roamers while honoring immediate tribal allegiances looked beyond them to the forceful personality superior intellect and personal magnetism of sitting bull in the eyes of indians and whites alike the powder river bands came more and more to be identified as sitting bull's people these roving bands were a source of vast annoyance to the u s government for they offered haven to the discontented agency indians in fact many sioux and cheyennes shuttled back and forth between the powder river country and the reservation enjoying the best of both worlds the free old life of the chase in the summer and the security and rations of the agency in the winter on the reservation these people created endless turmoil for they were unmanageable a menace to agency officials and a disruptive influence on their brethren who remained there year round off the reservation to the west they did not always stay within the unceded territory sometimes war parties raided along the platte and among the montana settlements government authorities looked forward to the time when the unceded territory could be done away with none believed more ardently in the necessity of this move than the army's two senior officers general william tecumseh sherman and lieutenant general philip h sheridan sherman commanded the u s army and with seamed face grizzled red beard and caustic manner radiated absolute authority sheridan headquartered in chicago presided over the vast military division of the missouri which embraced the great plains from mexico to canada a short stocky combative irishman he too ruled with iron hand with ulysses s grant sherman and sheridan made up the trio of generals whom the nation credited with victory over the confederacy in the civil war now grant was president of the united states and his two lieutenants ran the army sherman who had helped to negotiate the treaty of eighteen sixty eight never thought of the unceded territory as sacrosanct i suppose we must concede the sioux the right to hunt from the black hills to the big horn mountains he wrote to sheridan in eighteen seventy but the ultimate title is regarded as surrendered in fact sherman and other treaty commissioners had expected the problem to solve itself as the buffalo disappeared the indians would be left with no choice except to go to the reservation but this did not happen at once and white pressure on the sioux hunting grounds intensified faster than the buffalo diminished The first direct pressure came from the Northern Pacific Railway, which reached the Missouri River in 1873 and pointed its line toward the Yellowstone Valley.

As he had with the Union Pacific, Sherman looked to this railroad as the Army's strongest ally.

That Northern Pacific Road is going to give you a great deal of trouble, he warned Sheridan in 1872.

During this time, Sitting Bull was hardly the only Lakota leader who fought the United States Army.

In 1866, another violent conflict emerged known as Red Cloud's War, which was led by Chief Red Cloud, leader of the Oglala Lakota people.

For two years, he fought the US Army for control of the Powder River Country region in Wyoming.

Strictly speaking, when a treaty had been signed, that land belonged to the Crow people.

It was a route that the government desperately wanted to control, so they tried building several new forts to gain a foothold in the area.

What made this conflict notable was that it ended in a victory for the Lakota.

For most of the war, Red Cloud and his allies, which included Sitting Bull, resorted to raids and other blitz attacks.

That being said, there were a few large scale battles such as the Fetterman Fight, which ended in decisive victories for the Lakota.

Five mountain men had been killed, and at least a dozen were seriously wounded.

The Battle of Pierre's Hole was the largest engagement between fur trappers and Native American warriors, and it would remain one of the largest battles in that region of the West for another 34 years until Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Red Cloud attacked a U.S. Army column about 200 miles away in northern Wyoming.

After surviving the Battle of Pierre's Hole, life did not get easier for the men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.

Jim Bridger and Tom Fitzpatrick rode north into Blackfoot country with 60 men, and for once, Blackfoot warriors were not the immediate problem.

Lame wolf out? That's bad in itself.

He's old Red Cloud's nephew and a brute at best.

Stabber's people there yet? he suddenly asked, whirling on his heel and gazing westward.

Can't make out even with my glasses.

The field telegraph had indeed been stretched, but it afforded more fun for the Sioux than aid to the outlying posts on the Powder and Little Horn, for it was down ten days out of twelve.

Plodder, lieutenant colonel of infantry commanding at Beecher, had been badly worried by the ugly demonstrations of the Indians for ten days past.

He was forever seeing in his mind's eye the hideous details of the massacre at Fort Phil Kearny, a few miles further on around the shoulder of the mountains, planned and carried out by Red Cloud with such dreadful success in sixty-seven.

Plodder had strong men at his back, whom even hordes of painted Sioux could never stampede, but they were few in number, and there were those ever-present, helpless, dependent women and children.

As my eyes rested on the frightful sight, I trembled in my saddle and grasped the air for support.

A blood-red cloud seemed to come between me and the outer world, and I realized that innocent victim's dying agonies.

The torture was too great to be endured.

A merciful insensibility interposed between me and madness.

Any door, the right support.

This was done without my having any knowledge of it until after the bill had passed both houses of Congress and become a law.

During my stay in Washington, Red Cloud and a delegation of chiefs and head warriors from the different tribes of the Dakota or Sioux Nation arrived.

They all recognized me as once having been with their people and seemed quite rejoiced at the meeting.

Then the Indian took matters into their own hands, carried on a guerrilla warfare against the immigrants, and harassed the forts until the army was forced to enter upon a campaign against them.

In 1868, another treaty was made, but the great chief Red Cloud would not sign it until he saw forts C.F. Smith and Phil Carney abandoned.

Here is probably the only instance in American history in which a single Indian chief was able to enforce his demands and make a great government back down.

At that time, it would have caused immense sums of money and many lives to conquer him, and it would have retarded the development of the West for many years.

No doubt he foresaw the inevitable results.

He had taken up the cause of the eastern Sioux in Minnesota and fought Sibley and Sully in 1862.

He had supported Red Cloud in his protests against the establishment of the Bozeman Trail and against the new forts, although thus far these aggressions had not affected him directly.

But when surveyors began work on the Northern Pacific, they entered his particular domain, and it was time for him to fight in its defense.

Lame Wolf out? That's bad in itself.

He's old Red Cloud's nephew and a brute at best.

Stabber's people there yet? he suddenly asked, whirling on his heel and gazing westward.

Can't make out even with my glasses.

The field telegraph had indeed been stretched, but it afforded more fun for the Sioux than aid to the outlying posts on the Powder and Little Horn, for it was down ten days out of twelve.

Plodder, Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry commanding at Beecher, had been badly worried by the ugly demonstrations of the Indians for ten days past.

He was forever seeing in his mind's eye the hideous details of the massacre at Fort Phil Kearny a few miles further on around the shoulder of the mountains, planned and carried out by Red Cloud with such dreadful success in sixty-seven.

Plodder had strong men at his back whom even hordes of painted Sioux could never stampede.