Red Cloud Character Analysis

Red Cloud is a Lakota chief. In 1868, Red Cloud and chiefs from other Sioux tribes sign the Fort Laramie Treaty with the U.S. government that creates the Great Sioux Reservation and establishes the Black Hills as exempt from white settlement. However, less than 10 years later, miners enter the Hills illegally when gold is discovered there, and the treaty is eventually broken. Black Elk describes Red Cloud as a “great” chief, though he ultimately thinks that Red Cloud is too passive toward the Wasichus (white people), whom he stopped fighting after signing the Fort Laramie Treaty. Red Cloud and his band are known as “Hang-Around-the-Fort” people because they cooperate with the U.S. government and live on agencies instead of fighting to save their land and preserve their way of life. After the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, Red Cloud makes a speech to the Sioux warriors, persuading them to surrender to the U.S. government.