Red Cloud was a brilliant military strategist, who honed his skills against the tribes' traditional enemies-the Pawnees, Shoshones, Arikaras, and Crows-long before he fought to close the Bozeman Trail. 

Here, for the first time in print, is the story of Red Cloud's early years as he told it to a white friend in the 1890s.  This manuscript-which has rested ignored for decades at the Nebraska State Historical Society-brings us closer than the historical record ever has before to understanding the life of the Lakotas' greatest war leader until the rise of Crazy Horse.