I tried this as an audiobook, and couldn't tolerate the read-aloud footnotes. I've put it on my wishlist to try in print.
What I did gather, from the first several hours, is that this book is solidly de-romanticizing the Lakota warriors by presenting some gory details about how they treated their enemy (whites) including women and children.

"Nube Roja ha vuelto, ¡how!", Jacinto Antón, El País 25.22.2024: https://elpais.com/cultura/2015/11/24/actualidad/1448392669_989715.html

As a student of history, I have found that biographies, many times, are the best way to assess historical events. I am in the midst of reading a string of biographies, some of which are too scholarly for my taste while others read a little too simple. This book on the life of Sioux warrior Red Cloud probably suffers from having followed Rebel Yell, a biography on the life of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, which I found to be outstanding. While this book did not measure up to that biography, it was nevertheless a well written and educational piece of work.

I must confess that my knowledge of the mid-late 19th century Indian Wars on the American Plains was, and is extremely limited. In fact, while I am passingly familiar with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, the Battle of the Little Bighorn is about the extent of my knowledge. In fact, until reading this work, I had never heard of Red Cloud, who the author proclaims was the greatest Native American warrior of the 19th century. According to the author, his relative obscurity is explained by the fact that much of his prowess was achieved at the expense of other tribes in the area of the Black Hills.

This book outlines the early life of Red Cloud and his ascendance to the pinnacle of Sioux leadership, despite a number of handicaps. It follows him through the Civil War years and those immediately following, in which Red Cloud was successful in uniting the various Plains tribes (his most impressive feat) to wage war on the encroaching American settlers and United States army troops along the Bozeman trail. It culminates in the Fetterman massacre, in which Red Cloud virtually wiped out an Army regiment at Fort Phil Kearney in present day Wyoming.

The battle itself was not impressive in itself, as Red Cloud outnumbered the American soldiers fifty to one, but the leadership required to unite the competing tribes and the strategy employed led to a success that rocked the Army establishment and led to a temporary withdrawal from the area. Red Cloud knew that the long term prospects of his people were poor and soon thereafter ceded leadership of the Sioux warrior class to his understudy Crazy Horse.

As I said, this biography does not rise to the level of some I have read, but it served its purpose well, giving me a better understanding of how the Sioux nation was organized and describing well some of the initial clashes between the Sioux and the immediate post-Civil War American Army. ( )

Life and times of the Sioux chief Red Cloud ( )