Red Thunder Cloud (May 30, 1919 – January 8, 1996), born Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West, also known as Carlos Westez, was a singer, dancer, storyteller, and field researcher.

[2] Anthropologist Frank Speck said he believed Red Thunder Cloud to be a genuine Catawba Indian and proceeded to provide him with training in field methods of recording notes for ethnological studies.

[2] West reinvented his identity at this point and lived the rest of his life as Red Thunder Cloud of the Catawba tribe.

He also collected data on the Montauk, Shinnecock, and Mashpee tribes for George Gustav Heye, founder of what became the National Museum of the American Indian.

When interviewed in 1957 by William C. Sturtevant, Chief Sam Blue and his daughter-in-law Lillian said they did not believe West was Native American.

"[2] In a letter dated October 25, 1958, West offered assistance to Sturtevant in making contact with Indian groups in the eastern United States, notably the Wampanoag.

West also stated that he spoke Spanish and Portuguese as well as Native American languages including "Cayuaga, Seneca, Mohawk, Narragansett, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Creek, Choctaw, Sioux [sic], and Winnebago".

West told Matthews his mother's name was “Singing Dove” and that her father was “Strong Eagle,” saying the latter was a graduate of Yale Law School and had died in 1941.

[6] At the time of his death, Leonor Pena, a close friend from Central Falls, Rhode Island, gave his name as Carlos Westez and included the alias Namos S. Hatiririe.

He concluded that "West's life as Red Thunder Cloud confronts us with basic questions of race and identity that are emblematic of our age."