I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes His blessing, that we may go forth in peace and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this Earth. And that our Heavenly Father will look upon our children as His children, that all the tribes may be His children. And as we shake hands today upon this broad plain we may forever live in peace.
Red Cloud, Ogallala Sioux
For the record, Red Cloud, a great Lakota Sioux Chief, went to Washington twice to negotiate treaties with President Grant himself. Unlike any other Native headman, Red Cloud led his warriors to victory over the colonizers, the white men moving into and through the upper Great Plains. In "Red Cloud's War (1866-1868)," he set his warriors out to cut off supply routes rather than attack the cavalry's forts themselves. He was a brilliant tactician, a battlefield general really, and a very good one.
But after 1868, the termination of Red Cloud's War and the withdrawal of fortifications throughout the region, he became a statesman and worked only for peace.
In the history of the region, Red Cloud earned his honored place as both a warrior and a peace-maker.
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