Red Cloud's War participant Lakota people
The Powder River country encompasses the numerous rivers (the Bighorn, Rosebud, Tongue and Powder) that flow northeastward from the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone. The Cheyenne had been the first tribe in this area, followed by bands of Lakota.  As more of the northern plains became occupied by white settlement, this region became the last unspoiled hunting ground of the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho and 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 was the basis for Red Cloud's War against the United States on exactly the same soil a decade later. The United States vs. the Lakota was a conflict between "... two expanding empires, with the most dramatic battles occurring on lands only recently taken by the Sioux from other tribes".In 1865, Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge ordered the Powder River Expedition against the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho.  Three columns of soldiers numbering 2,675 men, commanded by Patrick E. Connor, moved into the Powder River country.  The expedition failed to defeat the Indians in any decisive battles, although it destroyed an Arapaho village at the Battle of the Tongue River. The expedition was a failure in most respects as Lakota Indian resistance to white emigrants traveling the Bozeman Trail became more determined than ever.After the Powder River Expedition, the U.S. attempted to negotiate safe passage for settlers through Indian territory. In autumn 1865, it negotiated several treaties with Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho leaders. The treaties provided monetary compensation to the Indians in exchange for their agreement to withdraw from the overland routes, established and to be established, in the Powder River country. However, the signatories to these treaties were "Laramie loafers"—Indians who lived near Fort Laramie and lived off handouts. For a treaty to be effective, the Indians who had fought Connor, especially Red Cloud, had to be engaged.  No white man could be found to undertake a dangerous mission to find Red Cloud and bring him to Fort Laramie for negotiations, so several of the "loafers" took the task. On March 12, 1866, Red Cloud and his Oglala rode into Fort Laramie. Red Cloud committed to remain peacefully at the Fort until such time as the U.S.'s chief negotiator, E. B. Taylor, arrived with presents for the assembled Indians.Crows such as Wolf Bow tried to push the whites to take action against the Indian intruders: "Put the Sioux Indians in their own country, and keep them from troubling us. Don't stop fighting them". When possible, the Crow warned the troops of imminent attacks from hostile Indians and they joined soldiers in fending off attempts to capture horses. The strikes and attacks on the soldiers by the Lakota "... appeared to be a great Sioux war to protect their land. And it was - but the Sioux had only recently conquered this land from other tribes and now defending the territory both from other tribes and from the advance of white settlers".
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