Red Cloud: the greatest warrior chief of the American West

Abstract

In the bestselling tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, this is the untold story of Red Cloud, the great Sioux chief who witnessed the opening of the West, and the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war. At the peak of their chief's powers, the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the United States. But unlike Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, or Geronimo, the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, his incredible story can finally be told. Born in 1821 in what is now Nebraska, Red Cloud grew up an orphan who overcame myriad social disadvantages to advance in Sioux culture. Through fearless raids against neighbouring tribes, like the Crow and Pawnee, he acquired a reputation as the best leader of his fellow warriors, catapulting him into the Sioux elite - and preparing him for the epic struggle his nation would face with an expanding United States, leading to a conflict whose massacres presaged the Little Bighorn and ensured Red Cloud's place in the pantheon of Native American legends. A story as big as the West, with portraits of General William Tecumseh Sherman, explorer John Bozeman, mountain man Jim Bridger, Red Cloud protege Crazy Horse, and many others, Red Cloud is a gripping story from the Old West and the birth of America