Peter Blue Cloud had pen names of Coyote 2, Owl's Child, Turtle's Son, and Kaienwaktatsie.
His grandfather was a school teacher at Kahnawake, exposed to the art of storytelling through the plays of William Shakespeare and the tales of Haudenosaunee.
[2] Moving back to the Bay Area, he discovered the beat poetry and folk music scenes, and the social and political upheaval of the 1960s.
There he continued to develop his talents as a poet, sculptor, carver and painter, collaborated with other Native artists and writers, and participated in art exhibitions.
He was noted for combining Native American mythology with contemporary issues, most especially the character of Coyote, the trickster who figured prominently in his stories and poems.
In the city or country, Blue Cloud loved to walk, was a keen observer of events both natural and political, and incorporated them into his writings.
Blue Cloud returned to the East Coast to work for the national Native journal Akwesasne Notes (Mohawk territory, Akwesasne/New York) as a writer/editor first in 1975–1976, and again from 1983–1985.
His images are of quiet mountaintops and country trails that contrast with New York City's high steel construction and freeways.