evacuated and burned. Until these conditions
were met, Red Cloud made clear his intention
to remain at war, regardless of the conse-
quences. Furthermore, while he agreed in
principle to relocating his people to a reserva-
tion, it would need to be located at their an-
cestral grounds in Nebraska and no other
place. To underscore his determination, Red
Cloud boycotted the peace talks and did not
sign until all conditions had been met in ad-
vance. The U.S. government, faced with a
costly and potentially unwinnable guerrilla
war, submitted to Red Cloud’s terms at Fort
Laramie in November 1868. Considering the
disparity of forces involved, it was a stunning
triumph. He is the only Native American to
win a war as well as dictate a peace to the
United States.
True to his word, Red Cloud settled his
band of Oglala Sioux on the Red Cloud Agency
in Nebraska and maintained peaceful relations
with the whites. This became increasingly
hard to maintain in view of white violations of
the treaty. He subsequently visited Washing-
ton, D.C. in 1870 to present his case to Presi-
dent Ulysses S. Grant and his commissioner of
Indian affairs, Ely S. Parker. “Washington took
our lands and promised to feed and support
us,” he declared. “Now I, who used to control
5,000 warriors, must tell Washington when I
am hungry. I must beg for that which I own.”
Red Cloud also visited New York City, where
he aroused white sympathy by delivering a
blistering speech denouncing white attempts
to defraud the Indians. However, his prestige
among the Oglala declined. In 1874, an army
column under Col. George A. Custer entered
the sacred Black Hills region to facilitate gold
prospecting by whites. Red Cloud advocated
peace, but his words were unheeded by
young, restless warriors like Crazy Horse,
Gall, and Sitting Bull.
War finally erupted in 1876, and although
Custer was defeated at Little Bighorn, the
Black Hills War ended with the defeat of the
Indians. Red Cloud managed to keep his band
out of the fighting and may have had a hand in
the arrest and murder of Crazy Horse. How-
ever, the government accused him of secretly
aiding the rebels and relocated him to the
Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota in 1878.
By 1881, a jealous Indian agent, Trant V.
McGilllycuddy, arranged to have him deposed
as chief, further diminishing his reputation
among the Oglala Sioux. Nonetheless, Red
Cloud was adamant in his stance against war,
and in 1890 he opposed violence surrounding
the Ghost Dance Uprising, which culminated
in the massacre at Wounded Knee and the
murder of Sitting Bull. In his later years, Red
Cloud was in declining health, nearly blind,
and wielded little influence over reservation
affairs. He was baptized a Roman Catholic
shortly before dying at Pine Ridge on Decem-
ber 10, 1909. Red Cloud’s decline closely par-
alleled that of his nation and highlighted the
difficulties of Native Americans trying to pre-
serve their traditional ways of life.Bibliography
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The Hundred in the Hands: Brave Eagle’s Account
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don: Macmillan, 1972; Keenan, Jerry. The Wagon Box
Fight: An Episode of Red Cloud’s War. Con-
shohocken, PA: Savas, 2000; Larson, Robert W. Red
Cloud: Warrior-Statesman of the Lakota Sioux.
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Haven: Yale University Press, 1963.REDCLOUD