[citation needed] His father was Pig Redbird Smith, who was given his surname by European Americans, after they noted that he worked as a blacksmith.

When Redbird Smith was ten, his "father dedicated him to the services and cause of the Cherokee people in accordance with ancient customs and usages.

Any lands remaining after such allotment were to be declared "surplus", and the United States government would put them up for sale, including to non-natives.

Redbird Smith led a political resistance movement to the Dawes Allotment Act and sought to return to traditional Cherokee religious nationalism and values.

We are endowed with intelligence, we are industrious, we are loyal and we are spiritual but we are overlooking the Cherokee mission on earth, for no man nor race is endowed with these qualifications without a designed purpose... Our pride in our ancestral heritage is our great incentive for handing something worthwhile to our posterity.

"[7] Redbird Smith married Lucy Fields, born in Braggs, Indian Territory in 1852.

[10] He served as chief of the Nighthawk Keetoowahs until his death and was succeeded for a short period by Levi Gritts.