Legends of the Old West - RED CLOUD'S WAR 0 | Introduction

Episode Date: January 27, 2019

Red Cloud was the most feared and respected war chief on the northern plains in the 1860s. He watched the Lakota way of life crumble as the American nation expanded west. He built an unprecedented Native coalition. In 1865, he began to fight back. In 1866, he declared war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Lego Fortnite. Lego Fortnite is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of Lego play and

Fortnite created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play Lego Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. 2,000 members of the northern tribes of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho were camped

outside Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming. The summer sun scorched the plains, and the temperature had raced up to 100 degrees. the plains and the temperature had raced up to 100 degrees. On that day in June 1866, the headmen of each tribe, as well as their warriors and braves, gathered on the parade ground to hear the words of the man they would soon call Little White Chief. He was Colonel Henry Carrington, a small, gaunt man who had used political connections to wrangle an officer's commission during the Civil War, but who had never set foot on a battlefield. He was a recruiter, an administrator, not a fighter. He had asked for this appointment on the western frontier to change that reputation.

Now he strode forward on the parade ground, ready to launch treaty talks that he hoped would end years of bloodshed before he led his infantry north to complete his mission. The commander of Fort Laramie assured Carrington that this would be easy. Most of the representatives here were ready to sign. There were a few holdouts, of course. Men with names like Young Man Afraid of His Horses, and Spotted Tail, and Red Cloud, but they were the minority. Before Carrington began to speak, the head men became agitated. They knew the real reason he was here. This small, sickly colonel, who had no experience fighting anyone anywhere,

had been handed the task of opening a trail to the west that had already been closed twice by Lakota warriors. He had been ordered to build a series of forts to protect white travelers, and he was supposed to do all of this in the heart of the country that belonged to the most feared and respected war chief on the northern plains, Red Cloud. As the head men murmured and shifted in their seats, Carrington's translator said it would be wise to let them speak first. They rose one by one and denounced the treaty talks. They listed decades of grievances against the whites and treaties that had already been broken many times over. And then Red Cloud stood and delivered his warning. The Oglala war chief said,

The Great Father sends presents and wants a new road, but the white chief already goes to steal the road before the Indian says yes or no. I will talk with you no more. I will go now, and I will fight you. As long as I live, I will fight you for the last hunting grounds. After the meeting, the commander of Fort Laramie assured Carrington that Red Cloud was just throwing a tantrum. The Indians always did this, he said. Red Cloud would come back, asking for presents, as the chiefs always did.

He could not have been more wrong. Red Cloud had issued a declaration of war, and he meant every word of it. From Black Barrel Media, Season 4 of the Legends of the Old West podcast will be the story of Red Cloud's war, the one and only time a Native American army forced the United States government to sue for peace. Our five-part series begins February 3rd, 2019. We'll see you then. Shop with Rakuten and you'll get it. What's it? It's the best deal.

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