Yale University Press Honors Henry Roe Cloud with Book Series

We were pleased to learn that our colleagues at Yale University Press are launching a new Native American studies series named for Henry Roe Cloud, the first Native American graduate from Yale College. Those wishing to know more about this fascinating man should read The Yale Indian: The Education of Henry Roe Cloud by Joel Pfister. Though an obscure figure now, Cloud (c. 1884–1950) was a well-known Progressive Era activist. He helped launch the Society of American Indians, graduated from Auburn seminary, founded a preparatory school for Indians, and served as the first Indian superintendent of the Haskell Institute (forerunner of Haskell Indian Nations University). He also worked under John Collier at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where he was a catalyst for the Indian New Deal. Pfister argues that Roe Cloud's white-collar activism was entwined with the Progressive Era formation of an Indian professional and managerial class, a Native "talented tenth," whose members strategically used their contingent entry into arenas of white social, intellectual, and political power on behalf of Indians without such access. His Yale training provided a cross-cultural education in class-structured emotions and individuality.