Article 16 was the provision most directly relevant to Red Cloud’s War: it designated “the country north of the North Platte River and east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains” — essentially the Powder River Country — as “unceded Indian territory,” from which American citizens were explicitly excluded.

No American could settle in or pass through this territory without the consent of the Indians.

Article 17 prohibited the construction of additional military posts or civilian settlements in the unceded territory.

These provisions were what Red Cloud had waited to verify before signing.

They represented, in formal legal language, exactly what the resistance had been fighting for: the exclusion of Americans from the Powder River Country, the closure of the trail, and the recognition that the territory was Lakota.

The treaty also included provisions for the reservation system — annuities, agents, schools, farming assistance — that reflected the assimilation agenda of American Indian policy.