Red Cloud

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) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 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

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2017
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Nelson, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas, has written the compelling story of a world of conflict, told in the imagined voice of the great nineteenth-century Lakota warrior and chief Red Cloud, who recounts the history of his people. Presented in roughly chronological order, the story is highlighted by tales of treaties and battlesor massacres, depending on the combatant's point of viewreflecting the larger misunderstandings and injustices that colored the encounters of the Lakota and the white people who appeared on their land in ever-increasing numbers. Nevertheless, in the face of overwhelming odds, Red Cloud prevailed, winning what was called Red Cloud's War. The resulting peace treaty1868's Third Fort Laramie Treatycreated what was called the Great Sioux Reservation, land that included all of western present-day South Dakota, including the Black Hills. Sadly, the treaty would be subsequently violated when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. 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; they are accompanied by sepia photographs, and together give the book a hauntingly evocative period look. The result is an excellent volume for both independent reading and classroom use.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)