Red Cloud

Red Cloud
Born	Maȟpíya Lúta 1822? near North Platte, Nebraska
Died	December 10, 1909
Known for	Red Cloud's War

Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta), (1822 – December 10, 1909) was a war leader of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). One of the most capable Native American opponents the United States Army ever faced, he led a successful conflict in 1866–1868 known as Red Cloud's War over control of the Powder River Country in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana. Later, he led his people in reservation life.

Early life

Red Cloud was born close to the forks of the Platte River by the location of the modern-day city of North Platte, Nebraska. His mother was an Oglala and his father was a Brulé. Red Cloud was partly raised by his maternal uncle, Chief Smoke. At a young age, he fought against neighboring Pawnee and Crow, gaining much military experience.

Red Cloud

Standing:Red Bear, Young Man Afraid of his Horse, Good Voice, Ring Thunder, Iron Crow, White Tail, Young Spotted Tail. Seated: Yellow Bear, Jack Red Cloud, Big Road, Little Wound, Black Crow

Red Cloud's War

Red Cloud's War was a series of conflicts fought in the Wyoming and Montana territories between the Lakota Sioux and the United States Army between 1866 and 1867. In December 1866, the bloodiest battle of the war, called the Fetterman Massacre (or the Battle of the Hundred Slain), took place ^[1]. Captain William J. Fetterman was sent with two civilians and 79 cavalry and infantry-men to chase away a small Indian war party that had attacked nearby. Captain Frederick Brown accompanied Fetterman; the two were confident in their troops and anxious to go to battle with the Indians. They disobeyed orders to stay behind the Lodge Trail Ridge and instead continued to pursue a small band of warriors led by an Indian on an injured horse. It was the wily Crazy Horse, who was only pretending to be a vulnerable target. He tricked Captain Fetterman and his troops into following him into an ambush of over 2,000 Arapaho, Sioux, and Cheyenne. Red Cloud's warriors suffered only 14 casualties, while slaughtering the entire detachment of 81 from Fort Phil Kearny.

Following this battle, a peace commission toured the plains in 1867 and was able to determine that most of the Indian violence had in fact been provoked by the whites. This discovery led to the ending of the war in 1868, in a victory by the Lakota as the US signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie and agreed to withdraw completely from Lakota territory.

The Treaty of 1868

Uneasy relations between the expanding United States and the natives continued. In 1870, Red Cloud visited Washington D.C., and met with Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely S. Parker (an Iroquois Native American and U.S. Army General) and President Ulysses Grant. In 1871, the Red Cloud Agency was established on the Platte River, downstream from Fort Laramie. As outlined in the Treaty of 1868, the agency staff were responsible for issuing rations to the Lakota weekly as well as providing the annually distributed supply of goods. In the fall of 1873, the agency was removed to the upper White River in northwestern Nebraska.

The Great Sioux War of 1876-77

Red Cloud settled at the agency with his band by the fall of 1873. He soon became embroiled in a controversy with the new Indian agent, Dr. John J. Saville.

In 1874, General George Armstrong Custer led a reconnaissance mission into Sioux territory that reported gold in the Black Hills, an area held sacred by the local Indians. Formerly, the Army tried to keep miners out but did not succeed; the threat of violence grew. In May of 1875, Sioux delegations headed by Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and Lone Horn traveled to Washington, D.C. in a last-ditch attempt to persuade President Grant to honor existing treaties and stem the flow of miners into their lands. The Indians met on various occasions with Grant, Secretary of the Interior Delano, and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Smith, who finally informed them on May 27th that Congress was ready to resolve the matter by giving the tribes $25,000 for their land and resettling them into Indian Territory. The delegates refused to sign such a treaty, with Spotted Tail responding to the proposition by saying: “When I was here before, the President gave me my country, and I put my stake down in a good place, and there I want to stay . . . You speak of another country, but it is not my country; it does not concern me, and I want nothing to do with it. I was not born there . . . If it is such a good country, you ought to send the white men now in our country there and let us alone.”^[2]

Although Red Cloud was unsuccessful in finding a peaceful solution, he did not take part in the Lakota war of 1876-1877 led by Tȟašúŋke Witkó (Crazy Horse) and Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull).

In the fall of 1877 the Red Cloud Agency was removed to the Missouri River and the following year was removed to the forks of the White River where it was renamed the Pine Ridge Reservation.

His last days

Red Cloud continued fighting for his people, even after being forced onto the reservation. In 1889 he opposed a treaty to sell more of the Sioux land; his steadfastness and that of Sitting Bull required the government agents to obtain the necessary signatures through subterfuges such as obtaining the signatures of children. He negotiated strongly with Indian Agents such as Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, and opposed the Dawes Act.

Red Cloud became an important leader of the Lakota as they transitioned from the freedom of the plains to the confinement of the reservation system. He outlived the other major Sioux leaders of the Indian wars and died in 1909 at the age of 87 on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where he is buried.^[3][4][5]

Red Cloud was selected for induction into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 2000.

References

External links

• PBS on Red Cloud
• Red Cloud at Find a Grave
• Red Cloud - bronze sculpture

{