Red Cloud's War

• Paved the way for the tougher policy and stance against the Plains Indians in the 1870s and 1880s
• 1862


  Gold discovered in Montana

  Prospectors began to use a short cut off of the Oregon Trail known as the Bozeman Trail
• Bozeman Trail broke the terms of Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851
• 1866


  Government called a council to discuss the conflict

  Just before the council began, Red Cloud discovered that an army was already being made against him
• Many bands followed Red Cloud in a 2 year fight

  Involved nearly 3000 Plains Indian warriors, fighting around 700 US Soldiers
• December 1866


  Plains Indians set up an ambush and Captain Fetterman and his 80 cavalry troops fell for this tactic, he and all his men were killed in what became known as Fetterman's Trap
• Lakota Sioux surrounded Fort Phil Kearny, one of the forts on the Bozeman Trail

  Troops could not leave the fort
• Red Cloud's success led to the closure of the Bozeman Trail