Red Cloud’s War, also known by other names such as the Bozeman War and the Powder River War, stands as a significant armed conflict in the history of the American West. From 1866 to 1868, the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho tribes engaged in a fierce struggle against the United States government. The theatre of this war encompassed the territories of Wyoming and Montana, each a vast and rugged landscape that played a crucial role in shaping the strategies and outcomes of the conflict. The heart of the conflict lay in the control of the western Powder River Country, an area of present-day north-central Wyoming.
This region, a vast expanse of grassland rich in buffalo, had traditionally been the domain of the Crow Indian tribe. However, in the years leading up to the war, the Lakota had asserted their dominance, displacing the Crow and claiming the Powder River Country as their own. This shift in power dynamics set the stage for a complex and multifaceted conflict, one where the interests of various tribes and the ambitions of the expanding United States collided.
The Crow tribe, it’s important to note, held a treaty right to the disputed area, a right enshrined in the major agreement reached at Fort Laramie in 1851. This treaty, intended to establish peace and delineate tribal territories, became a focal point of contention as the events of Red Cloud’s War unfolded. All parties involved in the conflict, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and the United States, were signatories to that treaty, making its violation a central issue in the justification and condemnation of actions taken during the war.
The encroachment of European Americans into the region further exacerbated tensions. In 1863, the Bozeman Trail was blazed through the heart of the traditional territory of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota. This trail, the shortest and easiest route from Fort Laramie and the Oregon Trail to the Montana gold fields, quickly became a thoroughfare for miners, emigrant settlers, and others seeking their fortune in the West. From 1864 to 1866, an estimated 3,500 individuals traversed the trail, placing immense pressure on the already dwindling resources of the area and intensifying competition with the Native American tribes who depended on those resources for their survival.
The United States government, in a symbolic gesture, named the war after Red Cloud, a prominent Oglala Lakota chief who had forged alliances with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. The US Army, responding to attacks on civilian travelers, constructed forts along the Bozeman Trail, citing a treaty right to "establish roads, military and other posts." These forts, however, were all located within the territory designated to the Crow Indians in the 1851 treaty, further complicating the situation. The Crow, strategically, believed their interests were best served by cooperating with the US Army, hoping to maintain some semblance of control over their dwindling lands.
Red Cloud’s War itself was characterized by a series of constant, small-scale Indian raids and attacks on soldiers and civilians stationed at the three forts in the Powder River Country. These persistent attacks served to wear down the garrisons, disrupting supply lines and creating an atmosphere of constant anxiety and uncertainty. The largest and most devastating action of the war, the Fetterman Fight, resulted in the deaths of 81 US soldiers, marking the worst military defeat suffered by the US on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later. It’s critical to understand that, as some historians have pointed out, "The most dramatic battles between the army and the Dakota in the 1860s and 1870s were on lands those Indians had taken from other tribes since 1851."
The war concluded with the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, a treaty that, in effect, granted victory to the attacking Lakota and their allies. The treaty recognized their legal control of the western Powder River Country, a victory that, while significant, would prove to be short-lived. Only eight years later, the Great Sioux War of 1876 would erupt, leading to the US military’s displacement of the Lakota from the very land they had fought so hard to protect. The Crow, in turn, suffered a devastating blow, losing their hunting grounds in the Powder River region to their enemies. The treaty, in the eyes of many, constituted a betrayal of the Crow, who had willingly aided the army in holding the posts for two years.
The Powder River Country itself was a contested space long before the arrival of European Americans. As early as 1805, a Crow camp allowed French-Canadian fur trader Francois Antoine Larocque to follow it across parts of the Powder River area. According to Larocque, the Crow "inhabit the Eastern part of the Rocky Mountains at the head of the River aux Roches Jaunes [Yellowstone River] and its Branches [Bighorn River, Tongue River, Powder River and others] and Close to the head of the Missouri."
From the late 17th century, the Lakota had been gradually moving west into the Plains, expanding their territory and establishing control over the mid-Missouri River region by the early 19th century. This expansion often came at the expense of other tribes, leading to conflicts and territorial disputes. One particularly brutal example was the carnage committed by Cheyenne and Lakota warriors at a large Crow camp on the Tongue River in 1820, an event that solidified the long-standing enmity between the tribes. In 1843, United States explorer John Frémont recounted that Lakota had told him of their intentions to fight the Crow and seize their land, citing the Crow country’s superior bison range.
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 marked the first time the area in question was formally included in a treaty with the United States. This peace agreement sought to define territories for the various tribes, with the dual goals of establishing peace among them and protecting the interests of the growing number of US settlers. Representatives from numerous tribes of the Plains and mountainous West, including the Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Gros Ventre, Mandan, Arikara, Assiniboine, and others, signed the treaty.
However, the treaty did not eliminate intertribal warfare, which had long been a common feature of life on the Plains. Tribes continued to wage war against each other, seeking to gain social and economic advantages in the form of furs, slaves, horses, hunting grounds, and other resources. These conflicts often occurred independently of interactions with US forces and representatives.
As big game became scarcer in the mid-1850s, the Lakota began to expand their hunting grounds, disregarding the boundaries established by the 1851 treaty. They crossed the Powder River, the dividing line between Lakota and Crow territory, and launched their own program of expansion westward at the expense of other Native American tribes.
For the Crow, the plains near present-day Wyola, Montana, became a battleground for large-scale clashes with invading Sioux. By 1860, the Lakota and their allies had driven the Crow from their treaty-guaranteed hunting grounds on the west side of the Powder River.
The Lakota winter count by Ben Kindle, an Oglala, provides a glimpse into the ongoing conflict between the Crow and the Oglala during these decisive years. In five out of eight "winters" (years) from 1857 to 1864, Kindle refers to Oglala triumphs over the Crow or vice versa. The year 1857 is remembered for a battle in which "The Sioux killed ten Crow Indians." In an 1863 fight, "The Crow killed eight Oglala Sioux."
The discovery of gold in 1863 around Bannack, Montana, acted as a catalyst for white settlers to seek an economical route to the gold fields. While some emigrants traveled to Salt Lake City and then north to Montana, pioneer John Bozeman and John M Jacobs developed the Bozeman Trail, running north from Fort Laramie through the Powder River country east of the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone, then westward over what is now Bozeman Pass.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs acknowledged in 1867 that "It is apparent that the great northern routes of travel to and from Montana, both by land and water, lie through the country of the Crow Indians." However, the Lakotas "had gradually driven the Crows back upon the headwaters of the Yellowstone," and now they claimed "as a conquest almost the entire country traversed by what is called the Powder River route (Bozeman Trail)."
The Bozeman Trail cut directly through the Powder River hunting grounds of the Lakota or Western (Teton) Sioux. A second trail, the Bridger Trail, passed west of the Bighorns but was longer and therefore less favored. The stage was now set for the Red Cloud’s War.
The Powder River country, with its numerous rivers flowing northeastward from the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone, had long been a desirable hunting ground. The Cheyenne were the first tribe in this area, followed by bands of Lakota. As white settlement encroached upon more of the northern plains, this region became the last unspoiled hunting ground of the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho, as well as several of the seven bands of the Lakota.
The treaty-breaking annexation of the Crow’s Powder River area in the 1850s by the Lakotas formed the basis for Red Cloud’s War against the United States on exactly the same soil a decade later. The conflict can be seen as a clash between two expanding empires, with the most dramatic battles occurring on lands only recently taken by the Sioux from other tribes.