Red Cloud, b. 1821 or 1822, d. 1909, Oglala Sioux chief, b. near the Platte River in present-day Nebraska. He led the Native American fight against the establishment of the Bozeman Trail (see Bozeman, John M.) in what became known as “Red Cloud's War” (1866–68). The Fetterman Massacre (see Fetterman, William Judd) in 1866 led to partial abandonment of the trail. Red Cloud's hostility led the government finally to abandon completely (1868) the trail and the forts built to protect it. After signing a treaty he lived in peace with the whites, although he was later charged with duplicity in encouraging hostile Native Americans. Deposed as chief in 1881, he lived thereafter on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
See The Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Ogalalas (1997), ed. by R. E. Paul; biography by B. Drury and T. Clavin (2013); J. C. Olson, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem (1965).
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