Negotiations between Red Cloud and other native leaders and the United States' representatives begin in June 1866.

On June 13, however, with the worst possible timing, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, commanding the 18th Infantry, arrives at Laramie with the two battalions of the regiment (approximately thirteen hundred men in sixteen companies) and construction supplies.

He has orders to establish forts in the Powder River country using the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry.

The 3rd Battalion is to garrison posts along the old Oregon Trail, now the Platte Road.

Carrington has chosen the 2nd Battalion because it contains two hundred and twenty veteran soldiers consolidated after the American Civil War.

When Carrington appears at the negotiations the following day, Red Cloud refuses to acknowledge him and accuses the U.S. of bad faith in the negotiations.

Red Cloud, Young Man Afraid Of His Horses, and others withdraw from the negotiations and depart Fort Laramie.

Negotiations continue with a reduced number of native leaders.

The US offers a substantial inducement for their cooperation: seventy thousand dollars per year for the Lakota and fifteen thousand dollars per year for the Cheyenne, although the natives may have been aware that promises in treaties for annuities are often not honored.

On June 29, Taylor reports to Washington that a treaty has been concluded and that a "most cordial feeling prevails" between white and Indian.

He says that only about three hundred warriors, led by Red Cloud, object to the treaty.