Killing of Alights on the Cloud

Alights on the Cloud was in the leading party of warriors in an attack on a hunting camp of Pawnee foes in what is now Kansas.

He is known for riding into battle in an unusual sort of metal armor hidden under his war shirt, which stopped the arrows of the Pawnee.

Alights on the Cloud developed a reputation of being safe from all harm, until one of the Pawnee (Shield Chief) took out an old, sacred bow and arrow and managed to shoot him in the eye.

The killing of Alights on the Cloud was a serious loss to the Cheyenne, and one of the factors leading to the war with the Pawnee the next summer, which was one of only six such all-out campaigns during the 19th century.

Some of the Kiowa people who fought alongside the Cheyenne recorded the killing of Alights on the Cloud in their winter count.

Many small iron scales, the size of a half-dollar, protected the wearer of this seemingly otherwise regular leather shirt against arrows and maybe even bullets.

[1]: 74  Alights on the Cloud bore it covered by a scarlet blanket during an open fight with some well-armed Delaware Indians in 1844 and turned the battle into victory.

[1]: 92 To avenge the killing of Alights on the Cloud and the other warriors, the Cheyenne carried their Sacred Arrows against the Pawnee the next year.