Vanished Worlds, Enduring People

Alexander Gardner. Photographs of Red Cloud and Principal Chiefs of Dacotah Indians. Washington: Gibson Bros., [1872]. [view Red Cloud] | [view Big Foot] | [view White Hawk] | [view Lone Wolf] | [view Ear of Corn]

Red Cloud (ca. 1821-1909) was a powerful leader of the Lakota. Incensed by the number of settlers crossing Indian territory, he coordinated successful military and diplomatic initiatives against forts that the U. S. Army was constructing to protect the Bozeman Trail. A reluctant military complied, and the resulting Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 established the Great Sioux Reservation. While in Washington in May 1872 to speak with President Grant, Red Cloud and his delegation were photographed by Alexander Gardner, the famous Civil War photographer.