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Red Cloud Cemetery resides in Pine Ridge, Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota. Also known as Holy Rosary Cemetery, the burying ground was associated with Jesuit's Holy Rosary Mission. The Red Cloud Indian School was established by the Mission in 1888.
Most of the interments in Red Cloud Cemetery are of indigenous peoples. They were congregants of the Holy Rosary Mission, attendees of the Red Cloud Boarding School and their descendants, and people of the earth. The earliest burial is from 1896. The cemetery is still active.
Famous Folks
- Bloody Knife- was an American Indian Scout, later named as chief of the scouts. He was Hunkpapa (Sioux) and Arikara. He became friends with Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Neesirahpát (Arikara name) was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
- Baptiste Eugene Pourier -was a Frenchman who began as a trader with the Indians. Known as 'Big Bat', he later became a guide, scout and interpreter. Pourier was a friend to Red Cloud.
- Chief Red Cloud - Maȟpíya Lúta was a head chief of the Oglala Lakota, who frustrated white encroachment into Indian Territory. In his later years, Red Cloud was regarded as a sell out to the whites by fellow leaders. He had signed a peace treaty with Washington D.C. and settled down as a reservation chief.