Red Cloud was about sixteen when he became a leader among the other boys, signalizing himself in skirmishes and battles with the Crows, Pawnees, and other hereditary enemies of the Sioux. The various winter-counts tell us that many severe engagements occurred between the Crows and the Sioux, and it is doubtless true that he charged and yelled, scalped and tortured just as energetically as his companions. Mr. C. W. Allen, who is well acquainted with Red Cloud, prepared a manuscript some years ago, before the chief’s memory failed. Because the chief presents his version of Plains history, the work is unique and merits publication. Heretofore we have had only the white man’s narratives. Between 1840 and 1849 there were but few attacks against Whites on the Plains, and most of these occurred to the south, in Texas, or along the old Santa Fe trail. It was not until and during 1849 that extensive emigration set in towards California. As the wagon-trains increased, the hunting of the Indians was seriously interfered with. Expeditions, not only of United States troops but of adventurers, buffalo hunters, and miners, penetrated to various parts of the great West. Among these travelers were men who regarded an Indian no higher than a dog, and fired upon peaceful parties of hunting Indians without the slightest provocation. Wagon-trains were often in charge of men from the East who knew nothing whatever of Indians or their habits, and becoming insanely frightened at the approach of either friendly or hostile red men, opened fire without the slightest thought of consequences. It is therefore not surprising that all the Plains Indians soon assumed a hostile attitude toward any being with a white skin.