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Red Cloud
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Red Cloud (Lakota: Makhpiya Luta), (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.
Cloud was born close to the forks of the Platte River by the location of the modern-day city of North Platte, Nebraska.
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Encyclopedia
Red Cloud (Lakota: Makhpiya Luta), (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'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 the bloodiest battle, called the Fetterman Massacre (or the Battle of the Hundred Slain), an entire detachment of 81 cavalry and infantrymen from Fort Phil Kearney were wiped out by the Lakota. The war ended 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 Iroquis 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. Red Cloud, along with other leaders, rejected a treaty ceding the territory; he was unsuccessful in finding a peaceful solution but he did not take part in the Lakota war of 1876-1877 led by T‘ašunka Witko (Crazy Horse) and Tatanka Iyotake (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.
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