The Lakota Leader Who Forced The U.S. Army To Abandon Its Forts — And Won A War Most Americans Never Learned About

By 1867, the civilian traffic had effectively ceased.

The economic justification for the trail — providing access to the Montana goldfields — produced no actual access during the years the Army was bleeding to protect it.

The decision to abandon the forts was, in this light, straightforward arithmetic.

The trail was costing money and lives and producing nothing.

The treaty that closed the trail at least stopped the bleeding.

The Broader Significance: What It Means for American History

The story of Red Cloud’s War is not simply a local history of a specific conflict in a specific place.