By 1883, the commercial hunters had completed the destruction of the northern herd.

The practical effect was devastating.

The Lakota communities that had resisted American encroachment partly to protect their access to the bison were suddenly without the bison.

The rations promised in the 1868 treaty — always inadequate, often dishonestly distributed, subject to political manipulation — were now the primary food source for communities that had maintained themselves in abundance for generations.

The destruction of the bison removed the material foundation that Red Cloud’s victory had been designed to protect.

Whatever the treaty’s formal provisions, the practical sovereignty they were supposed to enable depended on the continued existence of the bison herds.