The Lakota Leader Who Forced The U.S. Army To Abandon Its Forts — And Won A War Most Americans Never Learned About

Some leaders did sign agreements that allowed the trail and the forts.

The specific legal status of those agreements — whether they represented the Lakota people’s consent to the trail, given that Red Cloud and the bands most directly associated with the Powder River Country had explicitly not agreed — was immediately contested.

The U.S. government proceeded as if the agreements signed at the 1866 council were sufficient authorization.

Red Cloud proceeded as if they were not.

The war settled the question in Red Cloud’s favor.