Red Cloud’s Victory

Red Cloud’s Victory. . , By 1868 the Union Pacific Rail Road had been completed through southern Wyoming and northern Utah and a new shorter road ran north to the southwestern Montana gold fields. The Bozeman Trail became obsolete. The U.S. Government once again sought negotiations with the Lakota and Cheyenne, hoping for a solution to the fighting along the trail. Red Cloud refused to talk until the forts and the trail were abandoned, but others did negotiate and a treaty was settled upon. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 stipulated that in exchange for the military abandoning the forts along and the use of the Bozeman Trail, the Lakota would accept for their reservation the western half of South Dakota from the Missouri River to the Black Hills. The Powder River country was to remain unceded Indian land, open for hunting by all tribes. The United States Government signed this treaty as did several bands of Lakota, but it was not until the forts were actually abandoned that Red Cloud finally signed in October of 1868. For the Lakota and Cheyenne, even though greater conflicts lay in the years ahead, the Powder River Country had been saved.