Red Cloud was born in 1822.  Much of his early life was at war.  He was born near the forks of the Platte River.  He was one of the brothers and sisters out of the nine of them.  Their father was an able and respected warrior.  Red Cloud grew up the same way as the other Sioux children.

Red Cloud
     When he was almost six years old, his father gave him a spirited colt and said to him;

"My son, when you are able to sit quietly upon the back of this colt without saddle or bridle.  I shall be glad, for the boy who can win a wild creature and learn to use it will as a man be able to win and rule men."
     A little while after that he was able to lasso the colt. When the big boys drove all of the ponies to the water, he took his colt with the rest.  From that time he started to brake his ponies, and later on he started to do the same to his fathers ponies as well.  He may of got thrown off a lot, but he kept trying until he could ride without a lariat.
     By the age of nine he started to ride his fathers pony until the buffalo hunt. He was always successful in the hunt because all of his ponies were always broken in.  He is a very fine horsemen, he was able to swim across the Yellow Stone River and the Missouri River.
     By the age of twelve, he was the first to take part in the chase, and none of his arrows penetrated than a couple of inches.  When he was almost the sixteen years old, he had already been upon the warpath a couple of times.  He also learned games that made him very good fighter, but he was also a very good speaker.  That helped him to be a leader.  He was one of the Chiefs of the Oglala. 
     In 1841 he killed some of his uncles rivals.  And that divided the Oglala's for 50 years.  Every attack that he and his men had planned with a lot of care.  The brilliant leader, Crazy Horse was supposed to lead the attack.  His lieutenants were Hump, Sword, and Dull Knife.  Colonel John Chivington, 1864, led volunteers and killed Cheyennes at Sand Creek, Colorado.
     Red Cloud was known as a quiet man and he had a lot of courage;

"My countrymen, shall the glittering trinkles of this rich man, his deceitful drink that over comes the mind, shall these things tempt us to give up our homes, our hunting grounds, and the honorable teaching of our old men?  Shall we perreit herded like the cattle of the white man?"

     His next speech that has been remembered was made in 1866, just before the attack on Fort Phil Kearny;

"Here ye, Dakotas! When the Great Father at Washington sent us his chief solider to ask for a path through our hunting grounds, a way for his iron road to the mountains and the westerns sea, we were told that they wished merely to pass through our country, not to tarray among us, but to seek for gold in the far west,  Our dad chiefs thought to show their friendship and goodwill, when they allowed this dangerous snake in our Midst.  They promised to protect the way farmers.  Yet before the ashes of the Council fire are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us.  You have herd the sound of the white soldiers ax upon the Little Pinex.  His pleasance insult and threat.  It is an insult to the spirits of our ancestors.  Are we then to give up their sacred graces to be plowed for corn?  Dakotas, I am for war!"  

     In less than a week after his speech the Sioux advanced upon For Phil Kearny.

 
     In 1866, Red Cloud had fought his best war against the United States ever fought by a Indian Nation.  His warriors in 1866 attacked Fort Phil Kearny and killed William Fetterman and 80 men.  Even before 30 minutes was over almost 100 men died under Captain Fetterman.  In 1867 United States defeated successfully against Red Clouds men in the Wagon Box Fight near Fort Phil Kearny.  In 1868 the government of the United States had signed to the Fort Laramie.  When Red Cloud and his men just made the treaties with the government, they promised that he and his men could make a living out of the land. Also in 1868, he was the last to sign the treaty.  Troops were to leave the Lakota lands by the Powder River.

Red Cloud
     In 1870 Red Cloud went to Washington to negotiate for trading rights as Fort Laramie.  About four years later in 1874, Custer's peace did not last, it brought war.  In 1878 Red Clouds people went to Pine Ridge Agency on the White Clay River.  In the 1880's he had some trouble with Pine Ridge Indian Agent Valentine McGilcuddy over the government.  So the United States officials persuade the Sioux to eleven million acres of land to the non-Indian settlers in 1889. Then twenty years later Red Cloud died at Pine Ridge Agency. 
 

Michael Provencher

8th American History

Rossville Jr. High

Plains History Project

2004

Bibliography