Historian John D. McDermott said that the Colorado War was the last time the Northern and Southern Cheyennes and Arapahos and the Brulé Sioux were united to effectively resist the tide of white settlers and soldiers traveling through and settling on what had formerly been their lands. "Never again would the Sioux and their allies take the offensive as they did at Julesburg, Mud Springs, Rush Springs," and other battles of the Colorado War. Thereafter, the battles between Indians and whites "would become more reactive, rather than active, meant to defend a homeland rather than punish a perpetrator" as the Indian reaction to the Sand Creek massacre was intended to be.