Red Cloud's War

Red Cloud's War was a 1866–1868 conflict in which Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces fought U.S. troops and forts along the Bozeman Trail. It ended with U.S. abandonment of the trail and its forts under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Bozeman Trail: A route through present-day Wyoming and Montana that connected the Oregon Trail with Montana goldfields. Its passage through hunting grounds and treaty territory made it the conflict’s central point of dispute.
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851: An 1851 agreement between the United States and Plains nations that recognized territories and regulated travel and relations. Its territorial arrangements framed later disputes over U.S. routes through Native lands.
Crazy Horse: An Oglala Lakota war leader who fought U.S. forces in the northern Plains during the 1860s and 1870s. He was among the Native leaders associated with the campaigns against Bozeman Trail forts.
Great Sioux Reservation: A reservation established by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie for the Lakota and Dakota peoples. The treaty paired the reservation with U.S. withdrawal from the contested trail forts.
Fort Phil Kearny: A U.S. Army post established in 1866 along the Bozeman Trail in present-day Wyoming. Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces repeatedly attacked the fort and its supply routes.
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 (1861 ratification): A congressional ratification of the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty that altered its terms and limited its recognition of Native land claims. The U.S. relied on a modified treaty framework that did not settle Lakota objections to the trail.
Henry B. Carrington: A U.S. Army officer who commanded the construction and defense of Bozeman Trail forts in 1866. His command at Fort Phil Kearny placed him at the center of the war’s opening phase.
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868: An 1868 treaty between the United States and several Plains nations that recognized Lakota territory and required abandonment of Bozeman Trail forts. It formalized the outcome of the war and granted major Native demands.
Fetterman Fight: An 1866 battle near Fort Phil Kearny in which Native forces killed Captain William J. Fetterman and 80 U.S. soldiers. The U.S. Army’s severe defeat exposed the cost of holding isolated forts on the trail.
Powder River Country: A region of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana used by Plains peoples for hunting and travel. The Bozeman Trail crossed a vital Lakota and Cheyenne hunting region in the Powder River country.

Linked from 8 pages