On December 21, 1866 a force of eighty-one U.S. soldiers were entrapped and wiped out by over 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors in the bloodiest episode of what became known as "Red Cloud's War." The subtitle of the book is "The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend," and it graphically recounts a war that has been overshadowed by the Battle on the Little Bighorn in 1876. Red Cloud managed to organize a multi-tribal alliance and (briefly) achieve a strategic victory in forcing the U.S. to close the Bozeman Trail along the tribes' last hunting grounds on the Wyoming/Montana border. Other historic figures such as Crazy Horse, and Jim Bridger played roles in this conflict between two cultures that were completely alien to one another. To today's reader, it is difficult to sympathize with either side because of their level of cruelty. (The title refers to the Lakota Sioux name for the Black Hills of South Dakota.)
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