What united these different nations was not a single political authority — Red Cloud did not command the Northern Cheyenne or the Arapaho warriors in any formal hierarchical sense — but a shared interest in keeping the Bozeman Trail closed and a recognition that the presence of American military forts in the region was a threat to all of their ways of life.

The coordination of attacks across this coalition — the ability to mount operations at multiple points along the trail, to keep multiple forts under simultaneous pressure, to sustain the campaign through the winter and resume it in the spring — reflects a level of political cooperation among allied nations that is itself remarkable.

The coalition held together for two years of sustained resistance despite the inherent difficulties of coordinating among peoples with distinct languages, political structures, and specific interests.

The Role of Women and Non-Combatants in the Resistance