Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/142

136 and that they could not under any consideration consent to the opening of a highway through that region. While he was speaking, General Carrington, with a strong force of soldiers, arrived at the fort.

"Why do these soldiers come?" asked Red Cloud.

"They have come to build forts and open the Montana road," was the reply.

Red Cloud sprang from the platform, caught up his rifle and brandished it before the commission, and cried, "In this and the Great Spirit, I trust for the right." Calling his people to follow him, he left the commission sitting without an audience.

General Carrington was instructed to go out on the Montana road, to rebuild and garrison Fort Reno, and then to go on to the head waters of the Powder River, where he was to build a strong post. Immediately after leaving Fort Laramie on this mission Carrington was met by Red Cloud, who protested against his going into the country. Of course Carrington was a soldier under orders, and paid no attention to this protest. Red Cloud began a campaign of annoyance and attacks upon the soldiers, which rendered their mission very hazardous and exceedingly difficult.

Leaving a small garrison at Fort Reno, the main body went on to the foot of the Big Horn Mountains, where Fort Phil Kearney was built. There, throughout the season, while the soldiers were engaged in building Fort Kearney and supplying it with fuel, Red Cloud kept up the most tantalizing tactics, and it was soon unsafe for any white person to be outside of the stockade unless