The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1898-01-13
OLD RED CLOUD DYING.
Famous Sioux Chief Ending His DAYS
in Captivity

>au, York Ian. ia special from
pine Ridge Agency says: Old Red
CIoud is on his way TO the happy
hunting grounds. Once he was the
most bloodthirsty, treacherous brave
~ the Sioux tribe. Today shrivelled'
aged red gnome.. with heart as tuh
of hatred for the whites as ever II was
in the davs of his murders. he is dying
in a shack on the Ogallalla reservation
Ne is the last of the band OF great
Sioux leaders which included Slttlns
RuT Old Man Afraid-of- His Horses
and Spotted Tail. He was the least OF
these. As cowardly as he was CRAFTY,
he excelled them all in plotting ms
chief but when plots ripened INTO war
he left his associates to bear the labors
of war while he courted their enemies
under an assumed friendship.
Perhaps his most astrocious deco was
the Fort Mckinney massacre, IN Whlch
over a score of United states soldlers
were led into ambush and slaughtered
That was when he was vigorous
voung buck. Before this tragedy "Old
Red" was a common marauder tull OF
deyilment, and ii is probable that ne
took many scalp from the wagon
trains then on their way TO Utah and
the land of gold beyond the Rockies.
But for the last thirty years Red cloud
has led a comparatively peaceful HE
While his crafty counsel was often
sought by his tribesmen. and his rank
among them was that of leader, the
Government did not clothe him with the
dignity of chieftain, but reckoned MIN
only as Red Cloud, powerful enough
without a title and yet too dangerous
to be its posseSSor.
When the old Sioux and Cheyennes
rebelIed in 1876. Red Cloud did not go on
the varpath. but his heart was with
The hostiles who were crimsoning the
grass along the Little Big Horn with
the blood of the Seventies troopers.
Because of his apparent friendship the
Government built for him two-story
frame house near the Pine Ridge
Agency buildings. His hatred of the
whites had been intensified by the
theft of his ponies. and when nag
pole was erected in front of his house
and a United States. flag was run up
to its peak Red Cloud cut the halyardS
and tore the flag into stripes as soon
as it fell fiuttering to the ground. rms
staff still stands in front of the house,
but no one has since trleu 10 Hodl the
emblem from it,
Red Cloud was a vain, pompous old
fellow who took advantage always of
weak agent to run" the agency ana
demonstrate his contempt for law. The
only agent whom he ever respected was
DIR. McGillicuddy. whom. because of
his deep, horse voice, Red Cloud nam
ed .'Thunder-in- His Neck McGIlli-
cuddy is a slightly built man, but full
of courage. One day, when Red Cloud
had made himself particularly often
sive in the agents office, DR.. McGlil1-
cuddy pulled his noble Roman nose.
smote him hip and thigh and kicked
him out of the door. Red Cloud fell
SPRAYING in the grass with less con-
ceit in himself and more respect for a
white man than he had ever felt. From
that day he and the agent were friends,
Red Cloud was a very old man when
the Sioux war of 1890 filled the West
with alarm Those who were in that
campaign well remember him as bent
and tottering. wrapped in a long, faded
purple overcoat and baggy trousers,
the legs of which fell upon pair of
poorly decorated moccasins. His face,
deeply creased with age and woefuRy
shrunken, was made doubly repulsive
by a huge pair of blue goggles, which
he wore because of his failing sight.
Red Cloud wore neither paint nor
feathers. He looked like the veriest
"coffee-cooler' of the agency-a cesci-
Gated. in-smelling savage, who seemed
ready to be crunched by the hand of
death any time. That was over seven
years ago. Counties, towns and horses
bear his name. but the savage himself
will soon be no more.
Red Cloud took no part in the last
Sioux war. but it is said that he sane
toned the ghost dance ana covertly
aided the hostiles until their cause was
doomed to defeat.