Red Cloud

Red Cloud, also known as Makhpyia-luta in sioux, lived between 1822 and 10 December 1909 and was a leader of the Oglala Sioux. He led the war against the United States from 1866 to 1868, also known as the Red Cloud War, to gain Powder River territory in northwest Wyoming and southern Montana.

He was born near the Platte River, near the present-day city of North Platte, Nebraska. His mother was a Sioux Oglala and his father was a brulé. He died very young. Red Cloud's mother-in-law, Chief Smoke, raised him in part. He fought against the nearby pawnee and sioux when he was young, which gave him an exceptional military experience.

The Red Cloud War, the most successful Native American war against the United States, began in 1866. The Bozeman route, which crossed the Lakota territory of Wyoming and Montana, was being built by the U.S. Army. Red Cloud had visions that the Lakots of Minnesota would be expelled in 1862 when settlers and miners began crossing Lakots' territory. Red Cloud attacked in 1863.

Red Blue achieved impressive victories. The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868 forced the U.S. government to do so. The United States pledged to abandon the fortresses of the Bozeman route and to acquire the lands of what is now the western half of South Dakota, as well as much of Montana and Wyoming.