Red Cloud was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1865 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western territories. He led the Lakota to defeat the United States during Red Cloud's War, establishing the Lakota as the only nation besides the British to defeat the United States on American soil. The largest action of the war was the 1866 Fetterman Fight, with 81 US soldiers killed; it was the worst military defeat suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later.
Red Cloud in 1880
Red Cloud
Original caption: “Red Cloud, in the Great Hall of the Cooper Institute, surrounded by the Indian delegation of braves and squaws [sic], addressing a New York audience on the wrongs done to his people”
Seated, L to R: Yellow Bear, Red Cloud, Big Road, Little Wound, Black Crow; Standing, L to R: Red Bear, They Fear Even His Horses, Good Voice, Ring Thunder, Iron Crow, White Tail, Young Spotted Tail, ca. 1860–1880
The Oglala are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the United States.
Sarah Eagle Heart (Oglala Lakota), Emmy-award winning producer, author, and activist
The Wake Singers, band of Oglala Lakota musicians
American Horse "The Younger"
Ola Mildred Rexroat, the only Native American pilot in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)