Red Cloud

Red Cloud was a prominent leader of the Oglala Lakota people from 1865 to 1909.

He was one of the most capable Native American opponents faced by the United States Army in the western territories. Red Cloud is historically significant because he led the Lakota to victory during Red Cloud's War. This conflict established the Lakota as the only nation to defeat the United States on American soil. While some people mistakenly thought he was the overall leader of all Sioux groups, the Lakota were actually a highly decentralized people. The Sioux consisted of the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota divisions. Within these groups, different bands operated independently, though leaders like Red Cloud earned great respect.

Red Cloud was born near the forks of the Platte River in what is now North Platte, Nebraska. His family connections linked two major Lakota divisions. His mother, Walks as She Thinks, was Oglala Lakota, and his father, Lone Man, was a Brulé Lakota leader. Because the Lakota followed a matrilineal system, children belonged to their mother's clan. This meant Red Cloud was mentored by his maternal uncle, Old Chief Smoke. Old Chief Smoke was the leader of the Bad Faces and brought Red Cloud into his household around 1825 after Red Cloud's parents died. As a young man, Red Cloud gained significant experience fighting neighboring Pawnee and Crow bands.

Red Cloud's War took place between 1866 and 1868 in the Wyoming and Montana Territories.

This series of conflicts involved the Northern Cheyenne, Lakota, and Arapaho bands fighting against the U.S. Army. The most significant action was the Fetterman Fight in December 1866. Captain William J. Fetterman led 79 cavalry and infantrymen, along with two civilians, to pursue a small Native American war party. Fetterman and Captain Frederick Brown disobeyed orders to stay behind the Lodge Trail Ridge. They followed a decoy band led by the warrior Crazy Horse into an ambush. More than 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors were waiting for them. The U.S. detachment lost all 81 men, while the Native American forces suffered only 14 casualties. This was the worst military defeat for the U.S. Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.

Following these battles, a U.S. peace commission toured the Plains in 1867. The commission found that Native Americans had been provoked by white encroachment and competition for resources. They recommended assigning specific territories to the Plains tribes to establish peace. This led to the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. Under this treaty, the United States agreed to abandon its forts and withdraw from Lakota territory. The treaty established the Great Sioux Reservation, which included lands west of the Missouri River in present-day Nebraska and parts of South Dakota. Red Cloud was the last to sign the treaty because he demanded that all forts in their territory be vacated first. All of his demands were met, and the treaty stated that the Black Hills and Big Horn were Indian countries for perpetual occupancy.

Relations between the United States and the Native Americans remained uneasy. In 1870, Red Cloud traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet President Ulysses S. Grant and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely S. Parker. By 1871, the government created the Red Cloud Agency on the Platte River to manage tribal affairs. However, the government aid provided to the Lakota was often inferior in quality or less than what was promised. In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer led a mission that discovered gold in the Black Hills.

Although the treaty protected the Black Hills, the discovery of gold led to a massive influx of miners. In 1875, Red Cloud and other leaders traveled to Washington to ask President Grant to honor the existing treaties. They were unsuccessful, and the government eventually proposed paying the tribes $25,000 to leave their land, a proposal the delegates refused.

Red Cloud eventually settled his band at the agency and transitioned to reservation life. He did not participate in the Great Sioux War of 1876, which was led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

Red Cloud's time on the reservation was marked by continued efforts to protect his people's rights. He opposed the Dawes Act of 1887, which aimed to break up communal tribal lands into individual plots for farming. He also fought against treaties intended to sell more Lakota land. During these times, the government sometimes used subterfuge, such as using children's signatures, to approve land sales. Red Cloud remained a strong negotiator with Indian Agents throughout his later years.

Red Cloud died on December 10, 1909, at the age of 87 on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

He outlived nearly all the other major Lakota leaders from the Indian Wars. His legacy is preserved through many honors and historical records. He was the most photographed Native American of the nineteenth century, with 128 known photographs. In 1888, he requested the establishment of a parochial school on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This institution, the Red Cloud Indian School, remains in use today and recently rebranded to its Lakota name, Maȟpíya Lúta. He is also honored in the Nebraska Hall of Fame and through a United States Postal Service stamp.