[4] Her mother was a teacher and taught at the Institute, managed the finances, acted as matron, and advised on the school administration.

[7] Her parents were strong advocates of higher education and Cloud obtained an undergraduate degree from Vassar College in 1940.

[8][9] After teaching for two years, Cloud married a non-Native, Robert Carver North on August 14, 1943, in Walterboro, South Carolina.

[11] While he was away, North completed a master's degree in painting and fine arts under L. C. Mitchell at Ohio University in 1944 and then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[8] In May 1970, she returned home, but continued commuting to the island two days a week to teach art classes, until the government forced the remaining American Indians to abandon the occupation in June 1971.

[21] In the early 1970s, she began teaching at San Francisco State College[16] and completed a second master's degree at Stanford in 1972, in art education.

[2] Her painting style originally was realistic, but later works used symbolism, cubism, and impressionism to depict family as a part of the greater universe, blending in images of traditional Native elements.

[27][28] In 1996, she was inducted into the Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame of Stanford, for her service to the American Indian community and "society at large".