Chief Red Cloud was among the most Prominent war leaders of the Oglala Lakota, a nation whose territory stretched across the Northern Plains.
In the 1860s he led the Lakota and their allies in Red Cloud's War, a campaign against U.S. forts along the Bozeman Trail. It ended with the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, one of the rare conflicts in which the United States agreed to its opponent's terms. His power lasted from 1865 until his death in 1909.
Behind him are the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana, land he knew intimately. Storm and rain cloud symbols gather in the sky behind him. In Lakota culture, rain carries spiritual power, renewing the land and all who live from it. This rain gathers over his homeland, and the sky itself bears his presence.
