The Autobiography of Red Cloud

Eli Paul retired recently as the head of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri. His public history career has spanned four decades with previous tenures at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, and the National World War I Museum in Kansas City. He earned his BA in Anthropology from the University of Missouri and his MA in Anthropology with a specialization in Museum Studies from George Washington University. He has published extensively on the subject of the Plains Indians, including books on the Wounded Knee massacre and Crazy Horse's people. In 2005 Paul received the Robert M. Utley Award from the Western History Association for his book Blue Water Creek and the First Sioux War, 1854–1856 (2004), as the best military history of the American West. His most recent books include: Sign Talker: Hugh Lenox Scott Remembers Indian Country (2016); All Because of a Mormon Cow: Historical Accounts of the Grattan Massacre, 1854–1855 (2018); and The Frontier Army: Episodes from Dakota and the West (2019).

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.