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

He died at Pine Ridge in December 1909, having outlived most of the leaders — on both sides — of the war he had helped win.

Why This Story Is Overshadowed

The question of why Red Cloud’s extraordinary achievement remains unknown to most Americans is not difficult to answer, though the answer is not comfortable.

The stories that Americans are taught about the Indian Wars of the nineteenth century tend to follow a specific narrative arc: overwhelming odds are overcome by American military courage and determination; the final result is the expansion of American civilization and the integration of the continent into a unified nation.

In this narrative, Indian resistance is a plot element — the obstacle that makes the eventual triumph meaningful — rather than a story in its own right.