Richard Iron Cloud

Richard Iron Cloud

Richard Iron CloudIn 2003 Richard Iron Cloud made headlines by swimming from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco.

Richard Iron Cloud was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (South Dakota) in 1956 to Philip and Victoria (Eagle Heart) Iron Cloud.  A descendant of American Horse, Bull Bear, Thunder Bull, Big Elk, Bad Wound, Knife Chief, Fools Crow, Iron Cloud and Joseph Bissonette, he lives in Porcupine, SD, and is employed with the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Sweet Grass Project, a suicide prevention initiative.  An adjunct Professor at Oglala Lakota College, he has taught Speech Communication, Genocide and Colonization, Lakota Tiospaye, Foundations of Lakota Leadership and Participative Action Research and was elected to their Board of Trustees (2004).   Having served on the Porcupine School Board and the Oglala Sioux Housing Board of Commisioners, he is one of the founders of the Oglala Lakota CASA Program, a program advocating for children’s rights, and is currently the Board Chair of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center.

He attended Porcupine, Our Lady of Lourdes Mission, Wounded Knee, and Little Wound Elementary Schools and graduated from Red Cloud High School (1975); he received his BA in Human Services (1995) from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, his Masters in Lakota Leadership and Management (2003) from Oglala Lakota College, and was honored with the prestigious Lloyd Eagle Bull Jr. Award.  In 2004, he received an Emerging Leaders Fellowship in Public Health from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Married for 27 years, he and Arlene Iron Cloud have three sons (Arlo, Philip, Dakota), one daughter (Maya), and four grandchildren.  He has been sober and drug free for 25 years due to his strong Lakota belief in Tunkashila (Creator/God) and traditional Lakota ways.