What followed — the Black Hills discovery, the treaty violations, the Great Sioux War, the permanent reduction of Lakota sovereignty — reveals the limits of what even a military victory could achieve against an opponent with the resources and the long-term commitment of the United States.

The treaty gave the Lakota a few years of relative peace and the formal recognition of their rights.

It could not, by itself, protect those rights against a government that would choose to violate them when economic pressures made violation attractive.

Red Cloud understood this dynamic, at some level, from the beginning.

His insistence on verifying the abandonment of the forts before signing — his refusal to accept promises without evidence that they had already been fulfilled — reflects a clear-eyed reading of how American treaty commitments had worked in practice.

He knew that verification before signing was his strongest protection, and he exercised it.