Army to abandon the Bozeman Trail forts and sign the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 — a genuine Lakota military and diplomatic victory — Red Cloud had moved toward accommodation.

He visited Washington, met with American presidents, negotiated over reservation boundaries, and tried to extract the best possible terms for his people within the reality of American power.

Red Cloud’s accommodation was not capitulation.

He was fighting for Lakota rights through political means when military means had become untenable.

But his strategy was seen by many younger warriors and by leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse as insufficient — as a path that ultimately led to the loss of everything the Lakota valued.

The divide between the “agency” Lakota — those living on reservations and working with American authorities — and the “wild” or “hostile” Lakota — those who remained off reservations in the unceded territory — was not absolute.