Legends of the Old West - RED CLOUD'S WAR Ep. 5 | "Endgame"

Episode Date: March 3, 2019

The army is shocked by Fetterman's Fight. The following spring, Red Cloud resumes his attacks and politicians in the east are stunned by his ability to keep a multi-tribal coalition in place for two fighting seasons in a row. They see no end to the bloodshed, so they finally agree to Red Cloud’s demands. A Native American army forces the United States to sue for peace for the first and only time in its history. Join Black Barrel+ for early access and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. It was Christmas night, and an officer's ball was in full swing in the ballroom at Fort Laramie. The party was a grand spectacle of a bygone era, even on the high plains in the dead of winter. The ballroom was cozy and warm, and glowed with lamplight. The men were dressed in their sharpest uniforms and their wives displayed their finest dresses. They danced and talked and laughed while another snowstorm raged outside.

The officers were about to select their partners for the next dance when the ballroom doors flew open with a crash. A soldier stumbled inside, clutching a man who could barely stand up. The band fell silent. The women gasped. Officers stared in shock. The soldier shouted for Lieutenant Colonel Palmer, the commander of Fort Laramie. Palmer rushed to

the two men. The soldier held the civilian up. The man's legs couldn't support him any longer. The civilian was wrapped in layers of clothing and furs. He was half dead, snowblind, and his vocal cords were nearly frozen. He could only croak out a painful whisper. He said he had come from Fort Phil Kearney. He handed written messages to the colonel. The blood drained from Palmer's face as he read them. Colonel Henry Carrington's command had been all but wiped out by Red Cloud's warriors. They desperately needed help.

The letter said the attack had happened four days ago. Palmer looked at the messenger. This man had ridden 236 miles in four days through blizzard after blizzard. Palmer sent men rushing to the telegraph to spread news of the attack. As they ran through the fort, they passed the man's horse, dead on the parade ground. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform

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business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash realm. From Black Barrel Media, this is Season 4 of the Legends of the Old West podcast. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is the final episode of a five-part series on Red Cloud's war. Previously, Red Cloud launched the most successful attack on the U.S. Army by Native forces. It was a powerful blow, but it didn't win the war. Fort Phil Kearney had been crippled, but not destroyed. Now, Red Cloud is content to let the rest of the winter pass in peace,

but then he resumes his offensive in the spring. The U.S. government fears there is no end in sight and finally agrees to a deal. The U.S. gives Red Cloud everything he wants, for a little while. And now, here's Episode 5, Endgame. Captain Ten Ike's rescue party finally arrived at the battlefield around Lodge Trail Ridge and High Backbone at 1245 p.m. on December 21st. Instead of taking the most direct route to the site, he had led his men to

a hill 200 yards to the east. The longer route cost them 15 to 20 minutes, which Carrington would note soon enough. As they crested the hill, they looked down on the valley below and witnessed a sight never seen by the eyes of white men who would live to tell the story. The valley was a hive of thousands of warriors. Some were pulling arrows out of the ground to be used later. Some were loading their dead onto makeshift sleds. About a half a mile away, Some were loading their dead onto makeshift sleds. About a half a mile away, another group was clustered on a rock pile. But there were no soldiers.

When the warriors spotted the relief column, they shouted and jeered and thrust their weapons into the sky, screaming at the soldiers to come down and fight. When the soldiers didn't move, the warriors retreated out of the valley and out of sight. And now the soldiers could see what they couldn't see before. Dead bodies. And the parts of dead bodies.

The captain led his men slowly down the slope of Lodge Trail Ridge and into the Pino Creek Valley. Scraps of paper fluttered past them on the breeze, bits of maps and letters and pages of journals. The ground began to turn red with blood. Dead ponies and American horses littered the ground as the soldiers moved toward the epicenter of the fight. They dismounted and began to search the tall grass and the clumps of trees for the bodies of Fetterman's company. The scene was too gruesome to pass in even the most grisly horror movie today. The bodies of the soldiers had been butchered so badly, very few of them could be identified. The men of the rescue party were sickened to learn that the slimy wetness under their feet was not water or grease. One of the few bodies they could recognize was Captain Fred Brown,

who had died on top of the rock pile near Captain Fetterman. Brown was the only man killed by a gunshot. He was bald, but he had been scalped anyway. The men began the grim work of loading bodies into wagons. The mules that pulled the wagons brayed and bucked at the overwhelming stench of blood in the air. Their recovery process was long and slow, and the wait seemed to last forever. Captain Ten Ike had sent a messenger back to Colonel Carrington when the rescue column had arrived at the hill. The messenger reported an enormous war party, but had no details about Fetterman's troops.

All he could tell Carrington was that there were thousands of warriors, and Fetterman was nowhere to be seen. They feared the whole company was gone. Carrington sent the messenger back to the battlefield with a note that chastised Ten Eyck for taking the longer route to the scene that cost him valuable time. He told the captain to find Fetterman, link up with the woodcutters, and get everybody back to the fort immediately. As the messenger raced back toward the battlefield on one of Carrington's personal horses,

since there were no others available, Carrington braced for an attack on the fort. He ordered all the civilians into the fort and put every man who could hold a gun on guard duty. But the attack never happened, and the rest of the afternoon passed in agonizing silence. At dusk, the rescue party trundled back into the fort with 50 bodies piled into wagons. That meant there were still another 30 bodies out there somewhere. Carrington called for volunteers to carry the news to Fort Laramie. A man named John Phillips accepted the call. He was cleverly named Portuguese because he was of Portuguese descent. He had been the mining partner of Isaac Fisher, who was still missing along with restaurant owner James Wheatley and the rest of Lieutenant Grumman's cavalry.

Phillips was wracked with guilt. He had been out collecting water when the attack happened, or else he would have ridden with Fisher and Wheatley. Now they were missing, and based on the condition of the bodies that had been brought back, they had almost surely died in terrible ways. Phillips felt a desperation to help in any way he could. Carrington scratched out two messages and handed them to Phillips. One was for General Cook in Omaha. The other was for General Grant in Washington. But they both had the same substance.

There had been a devastating attack. Fifty infantry were dead. Thirty cavalry were missing and feared dead. He would defend Fort Phil Kearney to the last man, but he could not retaliate without reinforcements. Carrington recruited two more men to head for the nearest telegraph at Horseshoe Station 196 miles away. But that line was often down, so all three were supposed to go to Fort Laramie anyway. Around midnight, the temperature dropped to 18 degrees below zero. A snowstorm gathered in the distance. John Phillips wrapped himself in layers of buffalo coats and leggings.

He pulled on knee-high boots lined with fur. He pushed a beaver hat down on his head and slipped his hands into sheepskin mittens. Carrington escorted Phillips to the front gate. The first flakes of snow began to fall. Carrington shook Phillips' hand and said, May God help you. Then Phillips trotted through the gate and disappeared into the night. At Red Cloud's camp on the Tongue River,

there were three days of mourning for the warriors who had died in the attack that was being called the Battle of the Hundred in the Hands, which took its name from the holy man's prophecy. On the fourth day after the battle, the celebration began. Victory dances lasted long into the night. Special honors were given to great warriors. Yellow Eagle was honored for leading the attack on the woodcutters. American Horse and Young Man Afraid of His Horses were honored for their attack on Captain Fetterman's infantry. And Crazy Horse was honored for his fearlessness in leading the Americans into the trap.

Crazy Horse was now firmly in the spotlight. From this point forward, he was no longer just an outstanding warrior. He was being groomed for leadership. The highest honor was reserved for Red Cloud. It was his strategy that led to victory. It was his leadership that held together this unprecedented coalition. Red Cloud accepted the compliments, but he was reticent. The attack had been nearly flawless, but he hadn't accomplished his goals. They hadn't killed all the soldiers, and they hadn't burned the forts to the ground. The Bluecoats would surely send more men. Red Cloud now told the masses that they should move west to the base of the Bighorn Mountains instead of east to the Black Hills. They would rest and recover for the remainder of the winter,

and then next spring, they would crush Fort C.F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearney. Hopefully that would force the army to leave the area forever. Around noon on December 22nd, the day after the battle, Colonel Carrington rode out to the site of the attack. He had to see it for himself. He took 83 soldiers and civilians with him, the best of what was left. Captain James Powell stayed behind to protect the fort. They had expected an attack at dawn, but it hadn't happened. Before Carrington left the fort, he gave a private order to Powell. If a war party attacks, put all the women and children in the ammunition warehouse. Hold out as long as you can.

But if all hope is lost, blow up the warehouse. Let no one be taken alive. When Carrington reached the battlefield, he looked down at the carnage that Captain Ten Eyck had seen the day before, except now it was frozen. The temperature hovered around zero, and the remaining bodies were locked in grotesque contortions. The recovery team eventually found Lieutenant Grummond

and the men who had ridden with him into the fake village. Grummond had been decapitated, in addition to the usual mutilations. James Wheatley and Isaac Fisher were found with a cluster of four or five soldiers. The ground around them was covered with spent cartridges from their Henry rifles. The soldiers who collected their bodies counted 65 bloodstains in the snow in a large circle around the dead men. The little group hadn't survived, but it hadn't gone out alone either. Carrington and his men collected the remains of the rest of the fallen soldiers and transported them back to the fort. Three days later, on Christmas Day, Carrington sent

a grave-digging detail out to the cemetery near Pilot Knob to dig a trench for the caskets of the dead. But a blizzard had struck on Christmas Eve, and it was impossible to break ground. A blizzard had struck on Christmas Eve, and it was impossible to break ground. On the 26th, the burial was finally accomplished. Now, the survivors at Fort Phil Kearney could do nothing but wait. They had no idea which would arrive first, a war party or reinforcements. On Christmas morning, John Portuguese Phillips stumbled into the telegraph office at Horseshoe Station, 196 miles from Fortville, Kearney. For three days he had ridden by night and hid during the day. Somewhere on the trail, he had joined with the other two men dispatched by Carrington.

on the trail, he had joined with the other two men dispatched by Carrington. They had been pounded by a relentless series of blizzards. They were frozen, starving, and barely alive, and their horses were worse. The three men collapsed near the fireplace while the telegraph operator tapped out Carrington's messages. But the operator warned the riders that there was no way to guarantee the messages would get through. He hadn't received anything that day, and he feared the lines were down. John Phillips began to put his protective covers back on. He intended to ride to Fort Laramie that very day. The other two men begged him not to go.

They had narrowly survived the trip to this point. The other two men begged him not to go. They had narrowly survived the trip to this point. Fort Laramie was another 40 miles in deep snow and there was a storm pounding the prairie outside right now. Phillips didn't care. He wrapped himself up, mounted his horse, and started south toward Fort Laramie. The storm finished around noon, but now the landscape was so dazzlingly white, Phillips became snowblind. At sunset, another storm slammed into him.

Sometime after dark, his horse spotted lights in the distance. Lights of the officers' quarters at Fort Laramie. The horse trudged toward the light. Fort Laramie. The horse trudged toward the light. A sentry standing guard on a night that was 25 degrees below zero questioned the sight before him. A lone horse walked toward the gate with a rider slumped over its neck. The guard rushed down to the gate. He ran out to the rider and caught John Phillips as he toppled off his horse. Phillips couldn't walk. He could barely see or speak, but he whispered that he needed to meet the commander. The guard dragged Phillips to the ballroom, where a Christmas party was in progress.

They burst through the doors and stunned the crowd into silence. Phillips handed Carrington's letters to the fort's commander, Colonel Palmer. Palmer ordered the messages to be transmitted word for word to General Cook and General Grant, and the world slowly learned of the event that would later be called Fetterman's Fight, or Fetterman's Massacre. Shop with Rakuten and you'll get it. What's it? It's the best deal. The highest cash back. The most savings on your shopping.

So join Rakuten and start getting cash back at Sephora, Old Navy, Expedia, and other stores you love. You can even stack sales on top of cash back. Just start your shopping with Rakuten to save money at over 750 stores. Join for free at Rakuten.ca or get the Rakuten app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N. The first reinforcements arrived at Fort Phil Kearney on December 27th. 25 soldiers from Reno Station had pushed through the snow to reach the fort. The frightened inhabitants still waited for an attack that Red Cloud didn't intend to make.

News of the battle burned through Army channels like wildfire. General William Tecumseh Sherman said the Sioux must be exterminated. General Cook sent word to Carrington that he was officially relieved of command. In January 1867, Henry Carrington rode out of the fort he had built on the high plains and began the long trip to Fort McPherson in Nebraska. With he and his family rode young Frances Grummond, the wife of Lieutenant Washington Grummond. She was now eight months pregnant, and her husband's decapitated body rode in the wagon behind her.

Colonel Henry Wessels replaced Carrington at Fort Phil Kearney, and he brought badly needed supplies, including fresh horses and cattle, which ended up being prime targets for Red Cloud's warriors. As promised, Red Cloud and his forces moved back to the Tongue River in the spring and immediately resumed their harassment of the fort and all those around it. The small fights in June were vicious. around it. The small fights in June were vicious. The livestock vanished. The attacks escalated in July, and Colonel Wessels began to understand the situation of his predecessor. He had to send full companies of soldiers to protect the woodcutters at Piney Island. At the end of the month, Red Cloud thought the time was right for another major attack. He convened a war council

and drew up a strategy. They would perform a one-two punch against Fort C.F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearney. On the morning of August 1st, 1867, the Cheyenne, led by Dull Knife and Two Moons, attacked a group of soldiers and civilians who were cutting hay two miles outside Fort C.F. Smith. Two troopers and a civilian died in the initial assault. Then the Americans formed a loose corral and withstood wave after wave of attack. A rescue party from the fort finally reached them at sunset, and the Cheyennes slipped away into the hills. The next day, Red Cloud and a thousand warriors rode down on Fort Phil Kearney. On the morning of the 2nd, a woodcutting train and its armed escort left Piney Island with full wagons to travel to the fort.

At the same time, the next shift left the fort with empty wagons to go out to the wood camp. One of the men who rode out of the fort that morning was John Portuguese Phillips, who had survived his incredible trip to Fort Laramie and returned to Fort Phil Kearney. Two veteran officers of Carrington's command escorted the wagons, Two veteran officers of Carrington's command escorted the wagons, Captain Powell and Captain Ten Eyck. At around 9 a.m., the two wagon trains were about to pass each other three miles from the fort. Then someone spotted warriors watching them on a hill. Those warriors were actually Red Cloud and another war chief.

Moments later, 1,000 screaming Braves roared over the hills. They hit the slower of the two wagon trains first, the one leaving the wood camp that was laden with lumber. The warriors burned all the wagons. Then they turned their attention to the wagon train that had left the fort. Captain Powell formed the wagons in a defensive circle and prepared for the assault he knew would come. The warriors charged the outnumbered soldiers in full force. They were prepared to accept heavy losses because they thought they only had to absorb one volley of gunfire from old Civil War muskets. Then they could fight on their own terms, hand to hand. But they were shocked when the soldiers kept firing. The troops now had Springfield-Allen

breechloaders, and they held off waves of attacks for more than five hours before Red Cloud's forces finally withdrew. The assault had killed several soldiers and destroyed a shipment of lumber, but again, it fell short of Red Cloud's goal. Both forts still stood. Both forts still had soldiers in them. It didn't feel like a win for Red Cloud in the moment, but he would soon find out that he had caused far more psychological damage than physical damage, and that would win him the game. damage than physical damage, and that would win him the game. When word of the attacks reached the politicians in the East, they were beside themselves. Red Cloud had done something, yet again, that had never been done before. He had held together a multi-tribal coalition for two fighting seasons in a row. They showed no signs of slowing down, let alone stopping. One army commander said it would take 20,000 soldiers to stop Red Cloud. That was a third of the United States Army.

The government was not prepared to commit those numbers to a fight in the West, so it needed a treaty. In October 1867, the first treaty talks commenced. Representatives from both sides met at Fort Phil Kearney, but Red Cloud proved himself a master strategist again. He would not attend in person until the time was right. His men conveyed one basic message. There would be no peace until the Bozeman Trail was permanently closed and the outposts of Reno Station, Fort Phil Kearney, and Fort C.F. Smith were abandoned. There was no movement in the peace process during the winter of 1867 and the early spring of 1868, but treaty talks resumed in April.

A peace commission arrived at Fort Laramie, and Red Cloud's men had the same message as before. Leave. Close the Bozeman Trail, abandon the forts, and leave. Again, Red Cloud did not attend the treaty talks. He sent emissaries to deliver his ultimatum. And for the first time in history, it worked. One month later, in May 1868, Major General Christopher Auger relayed the government's response. 1868, Major General Christopher Auger relayed the government's response. The Bozeman Trail would be closed to travelers, and the outposts of Reno Station, Fort Phil Kearney, and Fort C.F. Smith

would be abandoned. Red Cloud had won. He had forced the United States to sign a peace treaty on his own terms, and the U.S. conceded to all his demands. But Red Cloud was not a fool. He had seen every previous treaty broken in short order. He wanted proof before he would actually sign the deal. That summer, he received the proof. Soldiers began moving equipment out of Fort C.F. Smith, the northernmost outpost on the plains. The contents were sold to a Montana freight company. At Fort Phil Kearney, Colonel Wessels and his men began dismantling everything they could take with them as they prepared to leave.

Some of the men were tearing down things they had helped build with their own hands two years earlier. The same process was underway at Reno Station, which Carrington and his men had helped rebuild before constructing Fort Phil Kearney. Wagon trains began rolling southeast toward Fort Laramie. In the final weeks of August, 1868, soldiers packed up the American flags from the forts and joined the wagon trains moving off the high plains. Their two-year odyssey in the Powder River country was done.

At dawn on the morning after the exodus, Red Cloud and his warriors triumphantly burned all three forts to the ground. He had finally accomplished his goal. And now, he played his final card. It was a minor card in the grand scheme of things, but it surely made him feel good nonetheless. He made the United States government wait. The army abandoned the forts at the end of August, right around the time the fall buffalo hunt was about to begin. in the forts at the end of August, right around the time the fall buffalo hunt was about to begin. Red Cloud made the U.S. wait until his tribe had completed the hunt before he signed the treaty. For two long months, the government waited anxiously for Red Cloud to anoint the deal.

On November 6, 1868, he rode into Fort Laramie as a conquering hero. The U.S. had closed the Bozeman Trail and abandoned the three forts, and ceded the most precious land of the western Lakota to Red Cloud. These were the hunting grounds of the Powder River and the Black Hills. Red Cloud's territory would be the southeastern portion of Montana, the northeastern portion of Wyoming, and the western half of South Dakota. He was 47 years old, and it was the happiest moment of his life. But predictably, it wouldn't last.

Sitting Bull remained militant. He sent a message saying he would have nothing to do with Red Cloud's treaty or any treaty with the U.S. He would continue to fight, and soon enough, warriors like Crazy Horse and American Horse joined his camp. As soon as the ink was dry on the treaty, As soon as the ink was dry on the treaty, General Sherman and General Phil Sheridan began scheming ways to undercut the agreement without technically breaking it. As always, the treaty was full of complicated phrases and vaguely worded articles that were open to interpretation. Sherman and Sheridan began to move the pieces around the chessboard to push the Lakota to live in specific places on their land. Red Cloud made a show of force by riding past Fort Laramie with a thousand warriors, but he stopped short of threatening another war.

This time, he and Spotted Tail took their grievances straight to the top. They visited Washington, D.C. in 1870. As you'd imagine, it was an eye-opening experience for the two war chiefs. They saw the full power of the United States as a nation and as a military opponent. During their tour of the Capitol, American politicians made sure to show them the headquarters of the Army and Navy, and in particular, the massive arsenal of weapons at their disposal. President Ulysses S. Grant held a grand reception for Red Cloud at the White House. The war chief was now famous, and he was the talk of the town. His contingent then traveled to New York City, where his fame continued to grow. Tengen then traveled to New York City, where his fame continued to grow.

Red Cloud surely enjoyed the adulation, but he also realized how small his victory had been. If the U.S. concentrated its full might against the Lakota, there was no way his warriors could prevail. And in the end, the U.S. didn't really have to. One major technological advancement did a lot of the work for it. Just seven months after Red Cloud signed a treaty that closed the Bozeman Trail, the Bozeman Trail became obsolete. The Transcontinental Railroad was completed south of the trail on May 10, 1869. Travelers could now take the Great Iron Horse all the way across the continent in a fraction of the time it took to use the old wagon trails. Fighting on the high plains still continued for several more years, but for the Lakota,

the beginning of the end was here. In 1872, Red Cloud moved to the first reservation on the plains. It was called the Red Cloud Agency, and it was in northwestern Nebraska, not far from where he was born. A year later, the financial panic of 1873 gripped the nation And the government was desperate for gold once again Pursuit of the ore had never dwindled on an individual basis Miners ignored every treaty and every tribal boundary in the country as they searched for the mineral But now it was even more valuable than usual The following year, it was found in the gulches of the Black Hills.

Whites rushed into the most sacred land of the Lakota, heedless of treaties or traditions. The army made a nominal attempt to kick out the trespassers, but in the end, the gold won out, as it always did. Soon enough, one of the most infamous boom towns in American history sprang up in a gulch named for the fallen trees on its hillsides, Deadwood. As that raucous town came to life, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse fought the last major battle on the high plains. They wiped out the command of a flamboyant general named George Armstrong Custer, who suffered the same fate as Captain Fetterman in roughly the same area.

Two years later, in 1878, the Red Cloud Agency moved to South Dakota and was renamed the Pine Ridge Reservation. Red Cloud and Pretty Owl moved with it. They had nine children, and Red Cloud's lineage followed in his footsteps. They adopted the white man's ways. They lived in houses, wore shirts and pants, and attended schools. Red Cloud's eldest son, Jack Red Cloud, became headman of the Oglala. Jack's son, James, also became headman. head man of the Oglala. Jack's son James also became head man. James' son Oliver Red Cloud became chief, and he passed away just six years ago, on July 4, 2013.

As Red Cloud lobbied for better treatment of his people, Colonel Henry Carrington lobbied in defense of his actions at Fort Phil Kearney for the rest of his people, Colonel Henry Carrington lobbied in defense of his actions at Fort Phil Kearney for the rest of his life, and he had valuable help. Carrington's wife Margaret, who was beloved at the fort, steadfastly advocated for her husband. She published a book about her times on the plains in which she laid the blame for the massacre at the feet of Captain Fetterman. But she died of tuberculosis in 1870, just three years after leaving the outpost. Carrington ended up marrying Frances Grummond, the widow of Lieutenant Washington Grummond. Frances took up her new husband's cause and wrote a book about her experience at the fort.

Her memoir was published in 1910 and also supported Carrington's version of events during that fateful winter of 1866. Carrington spoke about the event as often as anyone would listen until he passed away October 26, 1912, at the age of 88. 1812, at the age of 88. Red Cloud also lived to be 88 years old.

After he returned from his tour of the East in 1870, he swore he would never fight again, and he never did. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse made overtures throughout the years, but Red Cloud turned them down. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse made overtures throughout the years, but Red Cloud turned them down. He outlived Crazy Horse by more than 30 years, and Sitting Bull by almost 20. He passed away December 10, 1909, as the last great war chief of the Lakota. Red Cloud once said, The white man made me a lot of promises, but they only kept one. They promised to take my land, and they took it.

Six years before he passed away, he gave his final public speech to his people. He was direct and to the point, as always. But he was also poetic. Here's the beginning of his speech, which seems a fitting end to his story. My sun is set. My day is done. Darkness is stealing over me. Before I lie down to rise no more, I will speak to my people. Hear me, my friends, for it is not time for me to tell you a lie. The Great Spirit made us, the Indians, and gave us this land we live in. He gave us the buffalo and the antelope and the deer for our food and clothing.

We moved our hunting grounds from the Minnesota to the Platte and from the Mississippi to the Great Mountains. No one put bounds on us. We were as free as the winds and like the eagle, heard no man's commands. To be continued... season five when we'll get back to the ongoing adventures of the Texas Rangers. I want to say a very big thank you to Curtis Grippy at STEM Studios in Phoenix, Arizona for his help with this series. Curtis is a great musician and engineer. He's also an audio wizard and a lifesaver. This season was

recorded at his studio. And thank you to Hunter Oldelk At the Plains Indian Museum At the Buffalo Bill Center of the West In Cody, Wyoming Native American cultures and traditions Are complex And I've done my best to summarize them As I understand them But I'm certainly not an expert So Hunter's help was invaluable

And as I always do at the end of a season I want to give you a couple book recommendations. There are many books about Lakota history and tradition, but here are two that are really central to this story. If you enjoyed this series, definitely grab these two. As always, there's far more detail in the books than I could ever put in the show. So here they are.

The Heart of Everything That Is, The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend, by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin. And The Autobiography of Red Cloud, War Leader of the Oglalas, edited by R. Eli Paul. Thanks again for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please give it a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. You can check out our website at blackbarrelmedia.com and follow us on social media. Our Facebook page is Legends of the Old West Podcast, and our handles on Twitter and Instagram are at Old West Podcast. We'll see you next season for more

stories of the Texas Rangers.