"Readers will appreciate this complex look at Chief Red Cloud, who under duress, unimaginable trauma, and starvation made a difficult choice." -School Library Journal (starred review) Red Cloud (1822-1909) was a great warrior and chief of the Lakota. Told from his perspective,Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrenderdescribes the events that brought him to prominence as a leader of his people and how he came to surrender them to the wasichus (White Man), ending their way of life on the Great Plains. From the intrusion of white settlers into Lakota territory, to the treaties signed with the U.S. government, and to the many subsequent battles,Red Cloudexplains how the Lakota became the only nation to win a war against the U.S. Army on American soil. However, unlike fellow warriors Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, Red Cloud eventually came to accept the inevitable advance of white civilization. He submitted to change and moved his followers onto a reservation. The story concludes with Red Cloud's trip to the East Coast, where he visited New York City and met President Ulysses S. Grant. Award-winning author and member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe S. D. Nelson reinterprets the nineteenth-century Lakota ledger-art style to give authenticity to the story as he brings to light one of the most controversial members of the Lakota tribe, Red Cloud. Backmatter includes a timeline. "An impressive amount of information movingly and handsomely conveyed." -Kirkus Reviews (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." -Booklist (starred review)

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.

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.