Red Cloud
Oglala Sioux
Topics covered in this document:
Introduction
Red Cloud (1822-1909) -- or as he was known in his native Lakota tongue,
Makhpiya-Luta -- was an Oglala warrior chief who spent much of his life
warring against the neighboring Pawnee and Crow.
Red Cloud was born near what is now North Platte, Nebraska. His father,
a Brulé, died when Red Cloud was just a youth. Red Cloud was then
raised by his maternal uncle, Chief Smoke, an Oglala.
In 1841, Red Cloud killed one of his uncle's rivals and caused a rift
among his band for the next 50 years.
Red Cloud gained enormous prominence among his people due to his
stunning leadership in the territorial skirmishes with the Pawnees,
Crows, Utes, and Shoshones. However, the legendary Red Cloud gained
the most fame in his war against the United States.
Bozeman Trail
Beginning in 1866, Red Cloud orchestrated the most successful war ever
fought against the U.S. Army by an Indian nation. Obsessessed by a passion
for gold, white miners built the Bozeman Trail through the heart of Lakota
territory. The Trail stretched from the Montana gold fields, across Wyoming,
to the South Platte River in Colorado ... and Army forts sprang up all
along the length of the Trail.
The steady stream of miners and settlers crossing Oglala territory
haunted Red Cloud. The expulsion of the Eastern Lakota from Minnesota
in 1862 and 1863 was still fresh in his mind. Fearing expulsion of his
own people if he allowed the constant influx of white settlers to
continue, Red Cloud organized a series of assaults on the forts.
In December of 1866, Red Cloud led a crushing defeat of Lt. Col. William
Fetterman and his 80 soldiers near Fort Kearny in Wyoming. Spurred on by
his success, Red Cloud and his men kept the Army on guard for the rest of
that winter.
Fort Laramie Treaty
So successful were Red Cloud's battles that the U.S. government signed
the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868. The treaty mandated that the U.S. abandon
its forts along the Bozeman Trail. It also guaranteed surrender of the
western half of South Dakota (including the Black Hills) and much of
Montana and Wyoming to the Lakota nation.
Of course, like nearly every other treaty between the U.S. and the
Native Americans, this one was worth less than the paper it was written
on. Greed for gold took over ... and the Whites couldn't allow the Lakota
to have all that Black Hills Gold to themselves. A lust for wealth once
again swayed public opinion ... and the Native Americans were the losers.
General Custer
If Red Cloud refused to hand over the gold, then the U.S. was prepared
to slaughter a proud people to get it. And the U.S. had just the right
kind of person to take back what was no longer legally theirs [theft
seems to be a sanctioned action when it benefits the U.S.].
In 1874, General George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into the
Black Hills to forcibly recover the land.
Custer's intrusion into Lakota lands sparked a fierce Plains War that
ultimately meant the end of independent Indian nations.
For reasons unknown to historians, Red Cloud backed off from the war
leaders, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, during the Lakota War
of 1876-77. Instead he chose to fight for the needs of his people in less
obvious or dramatic ways.
Bureau of Indian Affairs
In the 1800s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was a joke.
Corruption and Graft
The politicians in Washington DC claimed that the BIA was established
to coordinate the government's dealings with the Indian nations. In reality,
greed and corruption ran rampant ... where Indian agents often siphoned
off food and supplies for their own profit, leaving little for the starving
Reservation Indians.
Indian Agent McGillycuddy
Red Cloud attempted to deal with the corrupt Pine Ridge Indian Agent,
Valentine McGillycuddy, throughout the 1880s. The Agent was in charge of
the distribution of government food and supplies.
He also controlled the Tribal Police force.
Thinking only to line his own pockets at the expense of starving men,
women and children, McGillycuddy stocked his White trading post with most
of the provisions meant for the reservation ... and jailed any Indian
caught stealing to feed his family.
Perhaps it was Red Cloud's efforts to get through to Agent McGillycuddy
that kept Red Cloud out of most of the Indian wars of the time. Eventually,
Red Cloud succeeded in securing McGillycuddy's dismissal from the BIA.
Red Cloud's Political Acumen
This struggle also taught Red Cloud a valuable technique for dealing
with the U.S. government.
Pretending to be acculturated to the ways of the Whites, Red Cloud
gained the political sympathy of some of the Eastern reformers ...
especially Thomas A. Bland. However, once back on the Reservation,
Red Cloud returned to the ways of his people.
Red Cloud continued to fight to preserve the ways of his people and
the authority of the chiefs. He opposed the leasing of Lakota lands to
the Whites. He fought against the provisions of the Dawes Act of 1887,
which proposed the allotment of Reservations into individual tracts.
Ghost Dance
When the Ghost Dance revival spread throughout the Indian
nations, Red Cloud recognized the danger in participating. Unlike Sitting Bull and Big Foot, Red Cloud knew that the
government would see the Ghost Dance as a threat. For this reason,
Red Cloud escaped the Army's occupation unscathed. (See the biography
of Wovoka for further details about
the Ghost Dance.)
Red Cloud's Death
He died in 1909, a testimony to the variety of ways in which Native
Americans resisted the conquerers.
What Next?
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