Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender

by S. D. Nelson

Overview

The award-winning author and illustrator of Black Elk’s Vision and Sitting Bull continues his picture-book biography series with Red Cloud, the story of one of the most controversial leaders in Native American history.

A leader among the Lakota during the 1860s, Chief Red Cloud deeply opposed white expansion into Native American territory. He rejected treaties from the U.S. government and instead united the warriors of the Lakota and nearby tribes, becoming the only Native American to win a war against the U.S. Army. Despite his military successes, Red Cloud recognized that continued conflict would only bring destruction to his people. He made the controversial decision to make an agreement with the U.S. government, and moved his people to a reservation. The effects of his decision—as well as the conflicts that arose from those who rejected the agreement and continued fighting against white expansion, such as Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull—shaped much of the history of Native American relations with the U.S. in years to come.

Featuring archival images and S. D. Nelson’s stunning illustrations, Red Cloud offers an authentic Native American perspective on one of the most pivotal eras of American history. S. D. Nelson has received praise and honor for his works. His book Sitting Bull received an American Indian Youth Literature Honor Award. Black Elk’s Vision made the prestigious Texas Bluebonnet Master List and The Star People earned a Western Spur award.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419723131
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	134,101
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD880L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

S. D. Nelson is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas. He is the award-winning author and illustrator of a number of books. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Editorial Reviews

"This book's vibrant art is inspired by historical Plains ledger art; the sketches, colored pencil and bright watercolor washes, stand out against the ledger lines...One of the strongest elements of the book is its focus on treaties as symbols of nation-to-nation relationships."

The Horn Book

**STARRED REVIEW**
"The story, at once inspiring and sad, is expanded and enriched by Nelson’s beautiful ink, watercolor, and colored-pencil illustrations executed in the nineteenth-century Lakota ledger-book style...The result is an excellent volume for both independent reading and classroom use."

Booklist

★ 05/01/2017
Gr 4–6—Chief Red Cloud (1822–1909) is known as an Oglala Lakota leader who acquiesced to the demands of United States and entered into a treaty despite opposition from other Lakota leaders. The treaty forever changed the lifestyle of the Lakota and forced them to relinquish their freedom, homelands, and indigenous ways of being to live on a reservation. The story is told in the first person from Chief Red Cloud's perspective. The text successfully explains what happened on both sides and why Red Cloud took a controversial stance in opposition to other leaders such as Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Nelson, author of numerous award-winning books, including Sitting Bull: Warrior and Defender of His People, has once again carefully researched, documented, and crafted a nuanced and valuable work of history. Though Red Cloud's story has been told many times before, students will not want to miss out on Nelson's take. The graphics are a combination of 19th-century Lakota ledger art and digitally enhanced sepia-toned period photos. VERDICT Readers will appreciate this complex look at Chief Red Cloud, who under duress, unimaginable trauma, and starvation made a difficult choice. A first purchase for school and public libraries.—Naomi Caldwell, Alabama State University, Montgomery

School Library Journal

★ 2017-03-29
The Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud saw the disintegration of resistance against the United States Cavalry on the Great Plains at the end of the 19th century. Nelson, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux, explores in the first-person voice of Red Cloud a pivotal series of events in the United States' relations with Native American nations. Nelson's ink, watercolor, and colored pencil drawings, done in the style of late-19th-century ledger art, accompany the compact, clear text. His lively illustrations tell the story while interspersed archival photographs offer small windows through the camera's eye. Red Cloud was both a gifted military strategist and a pragmatic leader. Nelson covers three treaties signed at Fort Laramie securing U.S. interests such as safe passage for white settlers and access to mineral rights. Red Cloud was a reluctant signatory only to the last, a short-lived treaty that established a vast, separate Sioux reservation. Nelson acknowledges the violent nature of war, describing both the Sand Creek Massacre, "bluecoats…brandishing the scalps, severed fingers, and other body parts of the slain innocents," and skirmishes during Red Cloud's campaign during which "with angry hearts we scalped [U.S. soldiers] and cut off their arms and legs." Well-organized backmatter provides a timeline, extensive sources, and notes along with an author's summary for older readers. An impressive amount of information movingly and handsomely conveyed. (Biography. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews