The post-Civil War Congress was acutely conscious of government expenditure, and the Bozeman Trail conflict was expensive.

The Peace Commission’s reports framed the alternative to treaty as an indefinitely expensive military campaign against an opponent that had proven capable of sustaining resistance indefinitely.

This framing was effective in producing support for treaty negotiations.

The specific form of the 1868 treaty — with its provision for the unceded territory that Red Cloud had specifically demanded — reflects the bargaining power that the resistance campaign had created.

The Americans needed Red Cloud’s signature to legitimate the treaty as a settlement of the conflict.