Red Cloud and other leaders who had signed the 1868 treaty were brought to Washington to discuss the situation, but the conditions being offered were unacceptable to the Lakota as a whole, and the negotiations produced nothing.

The U.S. government then shifted to a harder line.

In late 1875 and early 1876, it issued an ultimatum to Lakota bands living in the unceded Powder River Country — the territory that the 1868 treaty had explicitly set aside for their use — ordering them to return to the Great Sioux Reservation by January 31, 1876.

Those who didn’t comply would be treated as hostile.

The deadline was essentially impossible to meet given the timing, the distances involved, and the midwinter conditions.