The political situation in Washington by 1867 had shifted in ways that made the Bozeman Trail policy increasingly difficult to defend.

The initial decision to build the forts had been made with an optimism about what a small military presence could accomplish that the reality of the Powder River Country had quickly disproved.

The Army had expected that the presence of fortifications and soldiers would deter large-scale resistance.

It hadn’t.

The destruction of Fetterman’s command had made the situation undeniable.

Congress formed the Doolittle Commission, which investigated the condition of Indian affairs generally, and the Peace Commission, which was specifically tasked with finding a resolution to the conflicts on the plains.

These bodies represented a faction within American politics that argued for a different approach — not because of sympathy for Indigenous rights per se, but because the military approach was expensive and not working.