All language subtitles for The West S01E07.eng

From their first move
across the Appalachians,

Americans pushed west
driven by their desire

for opportunity and land.

At every step, they must contend

with the original occupants,

spurring generations of
conflict with Native nations.

When gold is found
in Montana in 1862,

thousands of Americans
charged through land

claimed by the Lakota Sioux.

As their leader Red Cloud,

and a young warrior named
Crazy Horse fight back,

the Lakota will
take on the US Army,

and win a victory
that stuns the nation.

People live on myths,

and the myths that really stick
in the American experience

are the myths of the West.

The mountains were taller,
the deserts were harsher,

the snows were deeper.

The American West
conjures wonder,

possibility, opportunity.

The figure of
the mountain man.

Notorious outlaws.

The cowboy.

The discovery of
gold in California.

This train of wagons

trailing across the prairie.

Everybody has a reason
for wanting this land.

But most of that land,
was already occupied.

We have been residents
for more than 10,000 years.

But this is a clash
of two different ways

of seeing life itself.

Fighting for the future of
your homeland on the one side,

and fighting for the
destiny of the new republic

on the other side.

The history of the
West is a creation story.

It's the creation of what we
think of as modern America.

The West is a place
where anything is possible.

It is the essence of
the American dream.

The core of this is,

what are we to be as a nation?

The reckoning is coming.

The West is this
canvas on which

American dreams become
larger than life.

In the
summer of 1862,

the United States is
consumed by a civil war.

The conflict plunges
Washington into debt,

and with every bullet fired,

the federal government edges
closer to a financial crisis.

Then, a potential solution
arises in an unexpected place.

In 1862, when gold is
discovered in Montana,

it's great news for Lincoln
and for the entire Union.

Lincoln later said that
war is a terrible thing,

and this war is the
most terrible of all,

and the heavens
were hung in black.

But it was not simply
the cost in lives,

it was the cost in
sustaining the army.

California was already
contributing

its gold to the Union,

but now Montana could
contribute its gold as well.

It was a major
boost to the Union,

when that boost was
absolutely needed.

One of the most
important factors

in the whole history of the
West is gold discoveries.

Every time this happens,

white civilization
goes mad briefly.

Thousands and thousands

and thousands of
people rush for gold.

At the
time of the gold strike,

Montana is not yet a state.

To Americans, it's
unknown wilderness,

part of the vast, sparsely
settled Great Plains.

The Great Plains
has a forbidding image

in the minds of
American settlers,

in the middle decades
of the 19th century.

To American farmers,
the Great Plains,

and you see this on
many maps of the time,

is still part of the
Great American Desert.

And Americans look out
on this great grassland,

that's the middle of the
North American continent,

and they see, that's land
that can be left to Indians.

Forces
transforming the West elsewhere,

have largely bypassed this
part of the northern plains

and it's now dominated
by the Lakota Sioux,

who control over 740,000
square miles of land,

an area almost as
large as Mexico.

The Lakota originally
are from Western Minnesota,

and they're not that strong,
they're not that numerous.

But through the
acquiring of the horse

in the early 1700s,

they're going to move out
onto the Great Plains,

and they become very successful

in the harvesting of the bison.

Bison are
the primary food source

for the Plains Indians
like the Lakota,

and they use every
piece of them.

Bones as tools and weapons,
hides for clothing and shelter.

But all along the southern
edge of Lakota territory,

where thousands of migrants
follow the Oregon Trail west,

the bison population
is dropping rapidly.

These wagon trains
are chopping down trees,

they're muddying the water.

They're really destroying
the bison migration zones,

and permanently altering
the ecosystem for the worse.

In a
treaty signed in 1851,

the Lakota and other
Plains nations,

agree to let these
migrants pass freely.

In exchange they were guaranteed
permanent sovereignty,

over their lands by
the United States.

At Fort Laramie,

the federal government begins
a process of recognizing

Indigenous control
and authority across

vast portions of
the northern plains,

and recognizing the boundaries
of various Native nations.

But in 1863,
frontiersman John Bozeman

begins guiding miners
along a new route.

Branching northwest from the
Oregon Trail at Fort Laramie,

it shortens the journey to the
new gold fields by six weeks,

and cuts right through the
Lakota's most prized land.

The pristine Powder River Basin.

By the 1860s this region

has become the last best
place for the Lakota.

Not only does it have
massive herds of bison,

but it also has rivers,

and it was a place
that the Lakota

were coming from all
directions to live.

The Bozeman Trail

transects some of the most
valuable hunting territory

that the Lakota had,

and when you create
a trail like this,

it's really going to
disturb the bison,

and it's going to
make them leave.

And so, conflict arises

between Americans seeking gold,

and the Lakota who
had been told in 1851

by the US government,

that this land was
theirs forever,

and all of a sudden it's
not forever anymore.

The Lakota
decide to make a stand,

among them is a war chief from
the Ogallala band, Red Cloud.

Red Cloud says,
we're gonna fight

to protect this homeland.

Red Cloud is recognized

as one of the great
leaders of the Lakota.

He's one of the great
leaders in American history.

Red Cloud was
orphaned as a young man,

when his father died
from alcoholism.

He was raised by his uncles,

and driven to be the best
man he possibly could

for the Lakota.

He's going to rise
to military success

through attacks on
American settler trains,

in which he
distinguishes himself

as a fighter at
a very young age.

Over
the next two years,

Red Cloud launches raids
along the Bozeman Trail,

sparking widespread fear
amongst Montana-bound travelers.

And with Union troops engaged
fighting the Civil War,

he's almost unopposed.

Infrastructural forms
of the federal government,

basically don't exist,

in many places across western
North America after secession.

That's how limited the
federal government is,

at the time of the Civil War.

But
that begins to change

with the South's
surrender in 1865.

At this exact moment,

the United States starts
to turn its eyes westward,

and think about incorporating
these vast spaces

into what is the United States.

And, the defining
struggle for that,

is that it belongs to Native
peoples who live there.

By 1866,

some 2,000 miners have
already made their way

along the Bozeman
Trail to Montana.

And despite Red Cloud's
raids, more are on the way.

To protect them,
General Ulysses S. Grant

assigns a Union war hero,

to head the army west
of the Mississippi.

William Tecumseh Sherman.

From the outset, Sherman
is short on soldiers.

At the end of the war,

The last thing that
people want to do,

is support large armies either
financially or otherwise.

They're also very much focused

on the reconstruction
of the South,

that also included the
occupation of the South

by US Army forces.

And so, there was
less political support

for maintaining a large army,

and sending it out

to engage in
warfare, in the West.

From a
peak of over a million,

the US Army has been reduced
to around 38,000 men,

with most deployed to the South.

Even so, Sherman decides
to construct three forts,

at key points along the
500-mile Bozeman Trail.

He assigns the task to
a Civil War officer

with a talent for engineering
and no combat experience,

Colonel Henry Carrington.

He was great at recruiting,

he was great at administration.

What he never did during the
Civil War, was fire a gun.

American fighting forces
come out of the Civil War

with a sense of superiority.

They are a modern army,
they have mechanized weapons,

and so the assumption is,

that it should be
relatively easy

to dispatch a bunch
of wild Indians.

In June of 1866,

Carrington makes his way
west along the Platte River

with 225 wagons and an
entourage of soldiers

and civilians.

One of the things
that is very different

about this occupation
by the US military,

is the military is bringing
their families along with them,

women and children.

And what Lakota leaders at
the time realize is that,

they're coming to stay.

Plains Indians understand,

now is the moment we either
turn this thing around,

or our ship is going down.

Red Cloud draws a line,

and basically says,
we're gonna fight.

Seeking
to secure safe passage

for gold miners and settlers
headed to Montana territory,

Colonel Henry Carrington
plans to build three forts

along a key stretch
of the Bozeman Trail.

Fort Reno, Fort C.F. Smith,

and at the foot of
the Bighorn Mountains,

his regional headquarters,
Fort Phil Kearny.

Colonel Carrington is
sent to the Bozeman Trail

to establish these forts,

despite his lack of
military experience.

And he is told by
General Sherman,

oh, it's going to be a
leisurely frontier assignment.

In this, you should bring
your wife and children out.

He builds an amazing fort.

It's 17 acres, a
huge amount of land,

all surrounded by an enormous
wall of ponderosa pine.

And what's enclosed
inside of this large wall,

is really a town.

It is a veritable community,

and it's built in a really
short amount of time.

For Red Cloud,

the arrival of the US
military is an act of war.

Knowing he can't fight alone,

he does something extraordinary.

So, what Red Cloud does is,

he's meeting with
other tribal leaders.

He's urging them to
combine their forces,

to deal with this
new threat to them,

which is the US Army coming
into the Powder River Valley,

at an unprecedented
level of force.

Red Cloud
finds his strongest allies

among bands of the
Arapaho and the Cheyenne.

Two years earlier,

they survived a brutal massacre

at the hands of the US Army,
at Sand Creek in Colorado.

The Sand Creek
massacre is probably

the seminal event on
the northern plains

during this period.

In 1864, Colonel
Chivington leads his troops

against the Arapaho
and Cheyenne,

and kills about 140
women and children

in this camp, led
by two peace chiefs,

who had consistently
tried to establish

peaceful relationships
with the United States.

Their bodies are mutilated,

and they are shown off in
Denver at the Opera House.

The hatred

that this instills within
the northern Cheyenne people,

is hard to calculate.

Red
Cloud brings together

an unprecedented coalition
of Plains warriors,

including fighters from the
Lakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne.

Red Cloud even
reaches out to the Crow,

which were known as the
historic enemy of the Lakota.

It's a bridge too
far for the Crow,

but it shows you
how creative he was

in thinking about this coalition

that was needed to fight
against the US Army.

Even with a
2,000-strong force behind him,

Red Cloud bides his time
and gets to know his enemy.

Luckily, the
inexperienced Carrington

has chosen to build Fort
Phil Kearny on open prairie.

From higher ground,
Red Cloud and his men,

can see over the walls.

The place Colonel
Carrington chooses

is several miles away from
the nearest wood supply,

and that means he's
gonna have to send

wood cutting expeditions
several miles away,

every day.

As the fall
brings cooler weather,

wood becomes even more vital,

forcing Carrington's men

to venture five miles from
the safety of the fort

to the nearest forest.

Waiting for them there,

is one of Red Cloud's
fiercest fighters,

a young warrior
named Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse remains

the most mysterious Plains
Indian warrior of all time.

He had a vision
as a young man,

that he could not be killed
in battle by his enemies,

and he's already
famous for fighting

with that sort of abandon.

Crazy Horse is probably
about 22 years old.

He embodied the character
of a much older

and experienced battle leader.

And so, when Red Cloud sees
this within Crazy Horse,

Red Cloud is going to give
him a real leadership role

in this fight.

Surrounded by
an endless sea of grass,

soldiers inside the fort live
out each day under siege,

knowing that beyond the walls,

an invisible enemy lies in wait.

Red Cloud takes a very
calculated approach

to figuring his enemy out.

He doesn't mount big attacks,

he mounts instead, dozens of
these guerilla-style attacks.

For Carrington,

most of his soldiers
were newly recruited.

They were immigrants,

who this was the next best
job that they could get.

And so, when they see
these wagons coming back

with the dead,

who have been mutilated,

this is a very shocking and
frightening thing for them.

For these soldiers,

who were sitting there
watching these gold miners

stream by towards the
Montana gold fields,

those gold fields had an
extremely powerful lure.

Almost a man a day, by
late fall, is deserting.

By the
end of September,

Red Cloud and his
allies have carried out

dozens of deadly raids

around Fort Phil Kearny.

Colonel Henry Carrington

has already buried
eight of his men.

Carrington is
writing lots of letters

to his commanding
officers saying,

I need more men, I need more
horses, I need better guns.

I think Carrington's tone
grows increasingly agitated,

and insistent over the
course of the fall,

as these attacks
build and build.

He's trying to put
on the appearance of control,

while at the same time,
fearing for his very life.

Colonel Carrington did
not have the resources

from the army that
he was promised,

and there were moments in time

where Carrington had
less than 10 officers,

less than 20 serviceable horses.

And on top of this,

there were women and children
at this fort as well.

How are they gonna protect them?

How are they gonna
keep them safe?

America in 1866

is still rebuilding in the wake
of a devastating civil war,

and Andrew Johnson is one
year into his presidency,

having taking office after
Lincoln's assassination.

This former slave owner

must now oversee the
reconstruction of the South.

In the aftermath
of the Civil War,

on the one hand,

you have a diminishment
of federal authority

in many portions of
the American West.

The other hand you
have the growing,

mining extractive economies,

occurring across western Montana

that are bringing
thousands of migrants

through Indian homeland.

With the army
focused on rebuilding the South,

and protecting freed slaves,

Western forces run short
on troops and supplies.

But at the besieged
Fort Phil Kearny,

Carrington's desperate call
for help is finally answered.

In September 1866, he
welcomes fresh soldiers,

more horses, and a
new second in command,

Captain William J. Fetterman.

Fetterman is a genuine hero

of the Civil War.

He's cited for bravery.

He's with Sherman during
the March to the Sea,

so he's kind of everywhere
during the Civil War,

and has this really
remarkable military record.

Captain Fetterman,
when he arrives,

receives a hero's welcome from
many of the younger officers.

And a little clique
forms around him,

which kind of leads
to some division

between himself and
Colonel Carrington.

Colonel Carrington is cautious.

He's a small human being
who's never seen combat,

whereas Captain Fetterman is
aggressive, brave, strong,

epitome of the cavalry officer.

And so, this contrast,

really leads to
a certain division

within the officer corps

at Fort Phil Kearny.

Among the soldiers

arriving with Fetterman,

is a hotheaded officer,
eager for action.

Lieutenant George W. Grummond

had some discipline problems,

drinking, carousing,
fighting, that kind of thing.

He was court martialed several
times during the Civil War,

and had a reputation
of being very rash,

and jumping ahead of command

when he was supposed
to be following orders.

But he does not
have experience.

None of these men had experience

in fighting against
Native Americans.

Remember, these are a
bunch of Civil War veterans

and their expectation of war

is lining up in front of
each other on battlefields,

and they're just kind of
hammering away at each other.

In the past,

when the military is facing
Native peoples in the East,

they're dealing with peoples
who are largely sedentary.

Suddenly, when
you move out West,

you're dealing with peoples
who are semi-nomadic.

They're always on the move.

The Lakota Light Cavalry

was probably the finest
in the world at this time.

These men could do
anything on horseback.

They had been in combat since
they were in their mid-teens,

and they had been
trained for combat

since they were young children.

Their knowledge
of the landscape,

where the hills are,
where the valleys are,

unparalleled.

So, they really have
every advantage

against any kind of
incomer to their territory.

After he arrives,

Captain Fetterman
sets about drilling

his ragtag collection
of soldiers.

They're now eager to bring
the fight to their enemy,

so too are commanders
in St. Louis,

who order Carrington
to attack the Lakota

in their winter camps.

But Carrington gets a report
that confirms his fears.

An old scout tells Carrington

that there are
villages and villages

of Northern Arapaho,
Northern Cheyenne,

and Lakota bands just
north of where they are,

1,000 to 1,500 teepees,

and it says a lot about
Red Cloud at that time,

being able to
assemble such a large,

and pretty diverse
group of bands.

Outnumbered
by Red Cloud's forces,

Carrington calls off the attack.

Instead, he hunkers down,

using his troops only to protect
the teams of woodcutters,

who still must venture
miles to gather fuel.

After months of skirmishing

and picking off
individuals here and there,

Red Cloud decides

he's going to attack not just
the woodcutters themselves,

but when the relief
force comes out,

they're going to engage
with them as well,

and try and draw them apart.

On December 6th,
Red Cloud gets his chance.

The signal comes

that the wagon train that is
out trying to get the wood

is under attack.

At the
first sign of the enemy,

Lieutenant Grummond and a
handful of other soldiers

break formation,

and gallop after a group of
Lakota led by Crazy Horse.

They were all excited
about their first opportunity

to actually go on the offense,

and so, these officers
basically took off on their own.

And this is when soldiers
are actually attacked.

Grummond
soon discovers,

he's not only surrounded,

but he's forgotten his gun.

He manages to fight his
way out with only a saber,

but two other officers
are shot dead,

and their bodies mutilated.

One is found impaled
on a tree stump,

the other with his
head cut in half.

Red Cloud loses 10 men, but
gains a valuable insight.

The Lakota realize

that the United States military

can't resist a
retreating Native force,

because of that
mentality of superiority,

the perfect example of just
underestimating your opponent.

By the
winter of 1866,

a Native coalition led by
Lakota warrior Red Cloud,

is harassing Fort Phil
Kearny almost daily.

The American commander,
Colonel Carrington,

is down to six officers,
overseeing 300 soldiers.

At Fort Phil
Kearny, by December,

more than a hundred people,

between soldiers and
travelers have been killed.

The bodies were
usually mutilated.

It created this sense of fear

among the soldiers
and travelers.

It also created a lot of
pressure on Carrington.

He's beginning to
receive other orders

that he should be
more aggressive.

His own officers are telling him

that he should be
more aggressive,

and so, he's trying
to juggle all of that.

Colonel Carrington will
not bravely go forth

and attack Native forces
as he was ordered.

Instead, he is going
to be ringed in,

in a siege by the Lakota.

He sleeps in his
uniform at night,

because he knows that
there's a force out there,

that may wipe him off the map.

After their successful
ambush of December 6th,

Red Cloud and his
allies begin to work

on an even bolder plan,

Red Cloud's already
created this coalition of

Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota,
about 2,000 warriors

hidden in these valleys, that
are about three miles away.

He wants to

shock and scare

the US Army

so significantly that they
will abandon this fort.

He decides to create something
completely unanticipated,

and to create this
enormous ambush.

The only problem,
is how do you get

a big group of US
soldiers out of the fort?

Over
the next two weeks,

Red Cloud's scouts study the
fort from the high ground,

using mirrors and smoke signals

to relay messages about
troop movements inside.

Red Cloud is probing,

and he's learning
about his enemy,

how his enemy will react
in different situations.

But as Red
Cloud gathers intel,

Carrington gives strict orders.

No US forces should venture
beyond Lodge Trail Ridge,

the elevated rise
between the fort

and the Bozeman
Trail to the north.

So, Lodge Trail Ridge

is inside of the
range of the cannons.

It's also the last thing

that the army can see from
the fort looking to the north.

Once you lose
sight of your forces,

you have lost command ability
for the field of battle.

And so, Carrington
is worried that

if any of his forces
go beyond this point,

he won't be able to
send assistance in time.

After
two weeks of waiting,

Red Cloud finally decides
it's time to strike.

On the morning of December
21st, there was a storm coming.

They had to get
another load of wood,

and pretty soon
pickets on Pilot Hill,

give a sign that says,

there are Indians
attacking the wood train.

Fetterman volunteers
to lead a relief force,

and Carrington reminds
him of his orders.

Carrington says,

whatever you do don't go
beyond the ridge line.

You mustn't go beyond the
ridge line, three times.

They can see
that these raiders

who are attacking the wood
train are pulling back.

and it plays into the
belief of the army,

that they're scaring them away.

At Fort Kearny,

Grummond comes running
up to Colonel Carrington

and Grummond says, allow
me to take out the cavalry,

the man who was
clearly so aggressive

and inflamed to get
out into battle.

And he did allow Grummond to
take about 25 cavalry men

out to accompany
the men on foot.

Crazy Horse pretends
his horse is lame,

and rides to the
top of the ridge.

He's trying to draw both
Fetterman and Grummond

to follow him

and Grummond immediately
begins pursuit.

At that point, Fetterman
faces this quandary,

do I let them go
off on their own,

or do I try and rejoin our
forces and keep them together?

Captain Fetterman
has no choice,

but to follow
behind and support him.

And so, all 81 of
these soldiers and men

end up in the valley,

on the other side of
Lodge Trail Ridge.

This massive trap

that Red Cloud has set

is sprung.

Carrington is at the fort

and all of a sudden
they start to hear

gunshots over the hill.

They don't see anything,

but they know
something is going on.

From where Fort
Phil Kearny is,

it's impossible to see

any further than a
mile to the north.

This is what Red Cloud
used to his advantage.

It was easy to hide in
that hillside landscape.

Ya!

Once Fetterman
and his infantry

are sufficiently descended
into that valley,

he looks back at
Lodge Trail Ridge,

and sees that the tribes
have already closed

his escape to the fort.

The tribes close in
from all three sides.

Once they're in the middle
of the trap, it's over.

And all 81 men who rode out
a Fort Phil Kearny that day

are killed in that battle.

Everybody is
horribly desecrated.

Scalped, stomachs are cut open,

entrails are pulled out,
limbs are hacked off.

The mutilation of enemies
that you've killed in battle

for the Lakota,

it had very specific meanings
in a spiritual context.

Because once you
killed an enemy,

you'd kill their body here,

but that didn't necessarily mean

you'd killed them
in the next life.

So, maybe in order to do that,

you would take out their
eyes so they couldn't see,

or cut off their hands
so they couldn't fight.

But
one body is spared,

the bugler, who
used his instrument

as a weapon in a desperate
fight for his life.

And his bravery was
such that the Lakota,

decided that he deserved
not to be mutilated.

And so, he was honorably
laid on the ground

and a buffalo blanket
laid over the top of him.

The Lakota and
their allies lose 65 men.

One estimate puts the number
of arrows fired at 40,000,

1,000 for every
minute of the battle.

Back at the fork,
Carrington sends a rider,

John "Portuguee" Phillips,

into a gathering storm to
Fort Laramie, 250 miles south.

Before the day is up,

he makes one final order.

Colonel Carrington
is absolutely terrified

that the fort is going to
come under attack next.

Their best fighters are dead,
their best officers are dead.

He orders all the men
to emergency stations.

He orders the women and children

into the ammunition
storage area,

so that they can be blown
up rather than be captured.

This is the end.

The night
of Red Cloud's ambush,

a blizzard rolls across
the northern plains,

towards Fort Phil Kearny.

Red Cloud just delivered

what would turn out to be a
shocking blow to the US Army

and his goal was to deliver

a political signal to the US,

about the wisdom of
maintaining the Bozeman Trail.

The storm blankets
the Powder River country

in deep snow.

But on December 25th, 1866,

John "Portuguee"
Phillips emerges,

and enters Fort Laramie.

His journey almost 250 miles.

completed in four days
of sub-zero temperatures,

kills his horse on arrival.

And he walks into
a Christmas ball

being held at Fort Laramie,

with the news that there
has been a massive defeat

at Fort Phil Kearny and
Captain Fetterman is dead.

As reinforcements
race to Carrington's aid,

the War Department in
Washington gets a telegram.

It's the worst defeat
in US Army history

to that point in the West.

Never before had
a force that large

been destroyed to the man.

It was a shock to
the American psyche.

People just couldn't wrap
their minds around the fact

that Fetterman's troops had
been dispatched in this way.

The idea that
this pre-industrial,

quote "savages",

could defeat the
United States Army,

and not only defeat an
army of the United States,

but defeat it where the entire
regiment was eradicated,

really clashes with the idea

of the United States
emerging as this great power.

Three
weeks after the battle,

Carrington is relieved of duty.

Army commanders in
Washington open an inquiry.

Carrington, as
you can imagine,

receives enormous criticism,

and the biggest
thing that he does

as part of defending himself,

is to create someone else to
blame for what's happened,

and he settles on Fetterman.

Carrington pushes back with
this narrative that, you know,

Fetterman didn't obey orders.

And Fetterman has
been written about as a

glory hound with no respect,

became the basis for
all future historians

to write the narrative
of the Fetterman fight,

and it could not have
been more untrue.

One of the things that all
of that speculation and debate

about who's wrong
and who's to blame

ignores is the fact that
there was a remarkably

brilliant plan
executed by Red Cloud

that worked almost beyond
how they could have imagined.

Fetterman's fight communicates

a level of Indigenous
capability

that few American policymakers
believe possible.

It's always seen as how
did the US military fail,

not how did the
Native Americans win?

As
the Fetterman fight

prompts outrage back East,

Red Cloud takes his war beyond
the Powder River country.

He targets the
most visible symbol

of American power in the West,

and a dire threat
to Lakota lands,

the Transcontinental Railroad.

One of the things that
Red Cloud is very aware of,

is that the railroad
has already come

into what's now
Kansas, Nebraska,

and through tribes like
the Southern Cheyenne.

He's aware of the impact
that that can have

on their whole
culture and economy.

On
August 7th, 1867,

Cheyenne and Lakota allies
attack a Union Pacific train

in Nebraska,

500 miles east of the
Powder River country.

This attack
underscores the fact

that Native tribes
remain formidable forces,

and that this idea

that modern machinery

is going to somehow facilitate

an easy end to Native
conflict, is a fantasy.

Many in Washington
believe it is simply easier

to diplomatically treat
with Native peoples

than to fight them,

especially after the
carnage and destruction

of five years of the Civil War.

With its
thousand-mile route

cutting through the
northern plains,

the railroad is
highly vulnerable

to Red Cloud's
hit-and-run attacks,

and the only way to keep
it safe, is to make peace.

Red Cloud comes
to the negotiations

with the United States in 1868
from a position of strength.

Red Cloud insists

that the Bozeman
Trail be abandoned.

The US Army, they
agree to all of that.

They abandon
the Bozeman Trail,

they abandon the forts.

In
the spring of 1868,

General Sherman
returns to Fort Laramie

with a peace commission,
appointed by President Johnson,

and offers the
Lakota a new treaty.

It closes the Bozeman trail
to miners and settlers,

and shutters the three
forts built by Carrington.

But for five months, Red Cloud
will withhold his signature,

until he sees the forts
burn to the ground.

It's one of the most
decisive victories

for Native peoples
in American history.

It makes Red Cloud
the most important

Northern Plains Native American,

and maybe the most visible
Native American in the country,

and it proves the level
of Lakota resistance.

The same treaty

creates the Great
Sioux Reservation,

giving the Lakota
exclusive control

over 48,000 square
miles of land,

an area five times the
size of Connecticut.

The Fort Laramie Treaty
of 1868 is unprecedented.

The federal government
is committing itself

to a new vision
of Indian affairs,

in which it recognizes
autonomy and jurisdiction

of Indian nations
across vast portions

of their former homelands.

The treaty proves

the power of the Lakota nation,

and Red Cloud becomes the
only Native leader in history

to win a war against the US.

After Red Cloud's War in 1868,

after the signing of
the Fort Laramie Treaty,

he promised never
to take up arms

against the United States again.

And as a man of his
word, he never did.

And so, he's often seen as
a peace chief after this,

and never gets his real due

as the military
genius that he was.

Red Cloud
remains true to his word,

but the disaster
at Fort Phil Kearny

prompts a shift in US policy
towards the Plains nations.

For some, any Indians
outside the reservation

will be considered
hostile, and at war.

It's after the Fetterman fight

that you have William
Tecumseh Sherman

using the term extermination,

to talk about dealing
with the Lakota,

and other so-called
troublesome tribes.

The Fetterman
fight is the moment

in which the power
of the Lakota Nation

is clearly communicated
to the federal government.

Very few Native nations

would ever obtain that level
of federal recognition

and supposed protection.

And sadly, very few Native
nations would ever suffer

such betrayals of those
commitments thereafter.

Today, Red Cloud is celebrated

as the leader who
outsmarted the US Army

as he fought to preserve
his people's way of life.

Eventually though the
treaty he won is broken.

The Lakota will continue to
fight the US without him,

most famously when
Sitting Bull defeats

General George Custer
at the Little Bighorn.

But in time their resistance
will be suppressed,

and the vast grasslands that
the Lakota once roamed freely

are now taken over

by cattle ranchers
sparking a new conflict,

over who gets control of
these last wide open spaces.