His private life was exemplary. He was faithful to one wife
all his days, and was a devoted father to his children. He was
ambitious for his only son, known as Jack Red Cloud, and much
desired him to be a great warrior. He started him on the warpath
at the age of fifteen, not then realizing that the days of Indian
warfare were well-nigh at an end.

Among latter-day chiefs, Red Cloud was notable as a quiet man,
simple and direct in speech, courageous in action, an ardent lover
of his country, and possessed in a marked degree of the manly
qualities characteristic of the American Indian in his best days.



SPOTTED TAIL


Among the Sioux chiefs of the "transition period" only one was
shrewd enough to read coming events in their true light. It is
said of Spotted Tail that he was rather a slow-moving boy,
preferring in their various games and mimic battles to play the
role of councilor, to plan and assign to the others their parts in
the fray. This he did so cleverly that he soon became a leader
among his youthful contemporaries; and withal he was apt at mimicry
and impersonation, so that the other boys were accustomed to say of
him, "He has his grandfather's wit and the wisdom of his
grandmother!"

Spotted Tail was an orphan, reared by his grandparents, and at