The Great Native American Chiefs

Red Cloud (1822-1909)

Red Cloud was born in Nebraska in 1822, a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, and as tribal chief he led his people in several important victories over the U.S. Army. Red Cloud fiercely opposed the westward movement of the white settlers and in 1866, with Rain-in-the-Face, destroyed a detachment of troops under Captain William Fetterman in what was to be known as the "Fetterman Massacre." For a time Red Cloud nearly succeeded in halting all western migration into Indian lands, until he saw that continued resistance was useless and that the whites were too many to oppose. Red Cloud counseled peace to Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse during the troubles that led up to the Custer massacre in 1876. He was eventually removed as chief and forced to live on the Pine Ridge Reservation where, blind and ailing, he died in 1909.

Source: Famous Native American Leaders - Dover Press