The question being put to the Lakota leaders was not whether this would happen but how they would respond.

Red Cloud’s response was to leave.

He stood before the council, made clear that he would fight any attempt to build the forts, and walked out.

He had no illusions about what this meant.

He knew the size of the U.S.

Army.

He knew what had happened to other nations that had tried to hold their land by force.

He knew that the odds were not in his favor in any simple military calculation.