Staying mobile — moving camp frequently enough that the Army couldn’t locate and attack the main villages — was essential to the strategy.

A community that was caught in its main camp was vulnerable in ways that a community always on the move was not.

Managing that constant mobility while also maintaining the food production, the clothing preparation, the child-rearing, and the full range of community life was an extraordinary logistical achievement.

The warriors who rode against the Bozeman Trail forts returned to communities that were managing their own crisis.

They were not simply soldiers going home to a secure rear area.