Red Cloud worked his way up to chief of the entire Oglala Sioux nation, spending most of his mid-life combating the westward movement of the white man. He won battles in the 1860's defending the Powder River country, and continued when the U.S. government chose to open a road along the Bozeman Trail northwest of Cheyenne to central Rosebud County, MT. Red Cloud joined the attack on Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming, with scholars not agreeing as to whether he was solely responsible for the massacre. He fought to a standoff at Wagon Box Fight on August 2, 1867 and later forced the burning and disbanding of forts along the Bozeman Trail. He later was removed as head of the Oglala for threatening a government agent.